November 20, 2025 a thought for today, Old friends and old ways ought not to be disdained. Danish Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge upload was “my choice” one from my series of “minimalist. These we peonies from my garden.  

The second upload was “colorful pattern”. This is the pattern on my sister’s easy
chair and foot stool. 

The last upload for today is “balloons”. The only images I had on hand in that I didn’t have any kind of balloons on had today was this on of the hot air balloon I took a few years ago at a show in Grove City. 

Life today. Yesterday I had my first doctor’s appointment with my new doctor, the last one moved on to an office closer to her home, but further from mine. So I stayed at the office I have been for several years. The new doctor is nice. I am eager to get to know her a little better. She suggested I get my flu shot so I did, not COVID, regular flu. She also wanted me to have a blood draw to track how things are going with those figures. She let me know I have “chronic Kidney disease”, probably due to high blood pressure and diabetes, which are both currently under control. There were some problems with the blood draw, the nurse had to draw from two needle inserts. I had some dozy black and blue marks. Most times they get the job done with no problems. When I left there I was ready to head to food pantry. It was another mixed day. Some problems with the computer and a notation that there were some I had made errors on the day before.

I like “productive” days and this has been one of those (so far). The “standard” Thursday printing went without incident, oh, with a couple of minor paper jams. I got the bulletin done using the pdf copy on the flash drive and the copier. I tried doing the same with the newsletter but it looks like I need a little practice with the set up on that one. As the bulletin was printing I started the boot up on the computer knowing it would take a while. I wanted it to be ready to do the newsletter in case I changed my mind printing it from the flash drive and copier, as it tuned out I did. While I was there there were a couple of phone calls to answer.  Dorothy and I will finish the newsletters tomorrow.

As usual on my way home I looked for some of the photos I need today. I shot several and “refined” my collection with some I set up at home.

I took care of the kitty needs, cleared the frig, loaded the dish washer, paid the bills, started the laundry and started binding the next of twenty five calendars I have made for Christmas. I wanted to give one to my doctor since I won’t see her until next May (I gave it to her yesterday). Then there is one for my hair dresser that I will see on Saturday. I also got the photos cataloged and put in the online portfolio page. They are ready for upload now. 

When Natalie came to give Bobbi her pedicure she brought a Christmas stocking from Gideon. We have found three tiny balls that she seems to like chasing around the house. Oh, and she found a small rubber ball in Sue room. She rolled it all the way down the steps and chases it around trading off with the others. Natalie also brought a kitten treat that comes in a tube like container. Wow, does Bobbi like that one. I will find some at the store for her. She has used up the ones Nat brought. 

It’s time to bring the cloths up for folding, then start the dish washer. Maybe then I can take a breather. 

The word today is misery.  Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice. Victor Cousin.  Resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery. Matthew Arnold,  The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery. Quintilian.  More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery. Thomas Traherne.  Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It is the mind that lives. William Cobbett.  It would be stupid tameness, and unaccountable folly, for whole nations to suffer one unreasonable, ambitious and cruel man, to wanton and riot in their misery. Jonathan Mayhew.  Pain and sorrow and misery have a right to our assistance: compassion puts us in mind of the debt, and that we owe it to ourselves as well as to the distressed. Joseph Butler.  Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of human life. Alexander Smith.  Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men. Victor Hugo.  Misery is the company of lawsuits. Francois Rabelais.  Misery is a match that never goes out. Thomas Huxley.  As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness or misery of the future man. Samuel Richardson.  Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day. Gifford Pinchot.  The final causes, then, of compassion are to prevent and to relieve misery. Joseph Butler.  Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. Marcus Tullius Cicero. Fire tries gold, misery tries brave men. Seneca the Younger.  

Article: It’s interesting to keep in touch with weather related happenings.  It helps us plan activities or prepare for predicted atmospheric occurrences for both beauty and awe but for health and safety reasons too. As well as developing possible major changes in our lives. The title is “Reduced air pollution is making clouds reflect less sunlight”. It began by telling how clouds not only “provide” rain they also reflect the sunlight “before it reaches the Earth’s surface”. The author and some colleagues did some research. In it they showed that in the efforts to improve air quality it has allowed “more sunlight to reach the ocean surface and causing sea surface temperatures to rise”. It goes on to mention that in this effort it has decreased “particulate pollution” that “has also reduced the cooling effect of clouds, accelerating climate warming”. In this action over decades clouds “reflectivity” has fallen by almost three percent per decade causing the findings to show that “sea surface temperatures rose about 0.4 C, intensifying marine heatwaves that have damaged ecosystems and fisheries”. They expected some of this to happen but there were other changes that occurred also. One of them “turned out to be aerosols”. These “aerosols” in reality “act as seeds for cloud droplets” which “reflect less sunlight and are more likely to rain out quickly, producing shorter-lived, darker clouds. This process weakens the cooling influence that low clouds have over marine areas”.  I did additional research and found that the aerosol product entering the question is  an  “anthropogenic aerosols (pollution particles) due to air quality regulations”. So the studies showed that “cleaner air benefits human health while also revealing the full force of greenhouse-gas warming”. As I read further in the article I found that “the main source of sulfate aerosols” has “fallen off”. Further reading showed that the “declining aerosols accounted for 69 per cent of the cloud reflectivity loss, while warming explained 31 per cent”. It went on to say that as the aerosol emissions keep falling this will “contribute to faster rates of warming for decades”. In summarizing the findings the author wrote that monitoring of the mentioned processes will reveal a “link between cleaner air, dimmer clouds and regional warming, and will continue to be essential for understanding future warming”. So in ending it is mentioned that the “only lasting way to cool the planet” is to “address” the cleaner air quality and “accelerating the reduction of greenhouse gases”. 

I didn’t have the Welsh rarebit I wanted the other day so I will make it tonight for dinner. 

Photos in my life today

The first one for today is “neon and bright”. As I was out and about and looking for neon lights I caught sight of this one just as I passed the entrance to this neighborhood restaurant.

Next challenge is one called “tic, tak, toe”. Out instruction was to make an image where the description for the photo would have one of those words in it.

The third upload for today is “my choice” and one more from my series of
“minimalist”. As I was getting out of the car I noticed this lonely little leaf that must have escaped its peers in the pile just yonder on my driveway. I reached in my pocket for my handy dandy Samsung phone camera. 

The last upload is “knife”. I decided to use a box cutter (utility) knife for this image. I decided to use a little back up to its name and use the bottom of a box as its background. 

Joy

my bonus photo today was a taken in my garden several years ago then I used an oil painting filter