July 17, 2025 a thought for today, To open a book brings profit. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was another of “my choice” and another of my “minimalist” series. This is one of my digital experiments with an original photo. I used Photoshop plug in filters and made adjustments until I got the shapes and colors I wanted to bring out of the original image. 

The next upload was “broken”. I remembered that I had a broken egg in the carton that I hadn’t removed yet. So it was all ready for my image for today. 

The last upload from yesterday was “peeking through”. I found this one in my archives. There was a time when I was younger and had first retired when I went up and down the alley looking for photos. This is one of them. 

Life today. I had another “hiccup” yesterday. I started work on the funeral bulletin. I first sent a sample of one we did a few years ago and asked the pastor if this is the format he wanted me to use. He said yes. Then he sent me the outline of information he wanted. I had the template open and spent an some time on it when I realized the information for this one was much less in typed content. Trying to fit it to a 14 x 17 three fold would leave a whole lot of white space. So I stopped and contacted the pastor. I told him it would be much better to reduce the size to a 11 x 14 two fold. He said ok. Back to the drawing board (computer) to start over. I got it done and upload before too late in the afternoon to get a feed back. Two spellings were noticed and fixed THEN  it was done for printing. 

I thought I was home free and ready to relax for the day. Then, a part on the back screen door broke. The spring concoction that regulates the close and open times had come apart from the door. I couldn’t get it off, now the spring “concoction” is so low that it catches on the bottom of the main door frame when I manually open and close it. I have to have someone who has any idea what to do with it come and help me out....Lowell, Tami or Andy. Until then, bend and stoop every time I need to let Sweet Pea out in the back. 

The first upload for today is “my country”.  I took  several different shots of things I think would work
 or this one. I settled on this one of one of my neighbor’s houses. 

The church was busy when I was there to print today. There was a food delivery for our food pantry with several volunteers helping to unload and shelves. Then there was a person checking out the organ for the funeral service we will have for this week. 

I left and made a couple of stops then got home to take a bit to a start on the newsletter and get back to this letter and some photos. Not to mention the laundry which I almost forgot to start. I will be late getting folded and put away. 

The next upload is another of “my choice” and yet another of my “minimalist” series. It is an ivy beginning to grow on the side of my garage. 

The word is else.  Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer.  A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. George Savile.  He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. Benjamin Franklin.  Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Marcus Aurelius.  For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. Saint Teresa of Avila..  How sweet it is to learn the Savior's love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Savior does not forsake us but still keeps us and holds us fast and clings to us and will not let us go! Charles Spurgeon.  The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. Galileo Galilei.  No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. Charles Dickens.  All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still. Thales.  Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else. Epictetus.  If you get simple beauty and naught else, you get about the best thing God invents. Robert Browning.  Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. Michel de Montaigne.

The last image for today is “something circular”. This is another structure in my neighborhood. I drove  round looking for round windows. I like this one from the series I shot. 

Article: This could be a field trip. The “house” in the article is full of all kinds of pencil sharpers. When I saw a photo of them I thought of my Aunt Margaret who collected all kinds of salt and pepper shakers, many looking like those of the pencil sharpeners. Many are shaped like washers and dryers or sewing machines miniatures all of them in that kind of  nature. It also started me thinking of life long collecors who’s collecting may seem like hoarding. But I realize there is a big difference. Collectors are very particular in what they are looking for and want to keep. Hoarders “collect” due to possible problems and are not so particular in their collecting. The title to this article is “The Quirkiest Museum In Ohio Is Tucked Away In Hocking Hills”. There was a man named Paul Johnson who “collected sharpeners as a hobby, eventually lining the walls of his backyard shed with them”. There are sharpeners shaped like “ a toilet, several versions of Big Ben, and one that looks suspiciously like a tiny fax machine”.  When he passed away his collection ended up at the Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center in 2011. In 2023 the collection “got a proper home” in this “quirkiest museum”. Apparently this museum has had people from all over come to see the sharpeners. It is said that international visitors have even stopped by. In 2022 the museum grew with a donation from another person who collected European sharpeners, some from the 1800s was donated to the museum.  After his passing his wife found this museum and knew it “was the right place” for his collection. Now there are over 5,000 pencil sharpeners. The article ended with “it’s weird. It’s free. And it’s exactly the kind of thing you remember”.... “have fun and embrace the weird!”

Salmon burgers for dinner tonight. 

Joy 

                  steps to an office building in German Village