July 23, 2025 thought for today, Without experience one gains no wisdom. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “mirror”. I have had this challenge before so I was looking for a different mirror. This one is in our church. 

The next upload for yesterday was “macro”. As I was coming out of McDonalds I noticed this hibiscus and got this shot. 

The last upload for yesterday was “my choice” and is another of my “faceless portrait” series. 

Life today. Due to unforeseen circumstances the steps for the deck have been put on hold for a few days. So Sweet Pea is still trying to get use to them. She goes down but has doubts about coming up....she has to be coaxed with a leash and collar.

I have been putting in extra time on church projects for the past week and a half...I am beginning to see the light at the end. I finished the bulletin yesterday. Today I put the finishing touches on the newsletter. Then there were the couple of extra projects I need to do to complete the circle. That’s done. I am almost ready to leave for food pantry. 

The first photo upload for today is “in this moment”. This is another of the ones I shot as I was leaving McDonalds. At that moment I was seeing all of this section of poles and cable. 

The first day of pantry for this month was yesterday. We were packed and then some. To start the day both computers lost the internet connections. It’s a happening that causes a panic response when we have a room full of guests. It cleared itself up after a couple of re-boots, thankfully

....I’m back from pantry. We were much slower today. I noticed that we had one come back who we had been thinking of.

I just got note that there are some changes on the newsletter and bulletin. Why do people do this...very last minute. Paragraph two above needs adjusted. Apparently deadlines don’t apply to all. 

The next upload is another of the “my choice” and another of my series of “faceless portraits”. 

The word is endeavor.  I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau.  The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. Socrates. One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent. Epictetus.  The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue. Baruch Spinoza.  Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts. Thomas Paine.  Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them. Plutarch.  But because many endeavor to get knowledge rather than to live well, they are often deceived and reap little or no benefit from their labor. Thomas a Kempis.  To do common things perfectly is far better worth our endeavor than to do uncommon things respectably. Harriet Beecher Stowe.  Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  To endeavor to domineer over conscience, is to invade the citadel of heaven. Charles V.  Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best.  Robert Browning.  All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers. Henry David Thoreau. Not chance of birth or place has made us friends, Being oftentimes of different tongues and nations, But the endeavor for the selfsame ends, With the same hopes, and fears, and aspirations. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The last upload for today is “flip flops”. My granddaughter in law had taken hers off to rest her toes so I got this shot. 

Article: The cow carved from butter and on display at the Ohio State Fair for all the days the fair is open has been a special part of the fair for many years. Last year the cow was replaced with other butter sculptures. This year the cow is back. The title to the article is “hio State Fair butter cow unveiled: Here's what to know about this year's theme”. Using butter to create the varied and many sculptures shows that there are “nods to work underway to renovate the Dairy Products Building” which is only part of a plan for updates to the full fairground. In watching the carving going on will show a person in a hard hat for safety purposes. You would also see worker and the sculpture “positioned between various construction equipment, like cones, scaffolding and a jackhammer” all of the “art” supplies necessary to create these masterpieces. The scheduled update to the fair is “a multiyear renovation project for the Ohio Expo Center & State Fairgrounds”. As for the housing of the cow and other sculptures it requires a 36-foot-long refrigerated display case. The temperature outdoor is sometimes reaching 100 degrees while the “sculptors shiver in their jackets in the Dairy Products Building”. Along with the sculptures there are other thing to see in the same building such as “educational material that promotes the work of the more than 1,300 dairy farms in Ohio”. I didn’t realize how old the butter cow had been a part of the fair and learned there that it is an 122 year old tradition starting in the 1900s. This year there is one cow and one calf. In other years there have been themes to pay tribute to “elite athletes to Darth Vader”. The butter used for the “constructions” comes in 55 pound blocks donated from the Dairy Farmers of America. After the fair closes “the butter will be recycled into nonedible productions”.

I think chicken pot pie for dinner. 

Joy 

                            a cabin not quite in the woods