January 17, 2026 Virtue consists in action. Dutch Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

This first upload challenge was titled “a corner or my home”. This corner is where we have a toy box full of interesting “toy” for our younger visiting family. The painting on the wall is one my sister did a few years ago. 

The next upload is “open water during winter”. This is a view along the Olentangy River. 

The last upload in this series to “fire”. I don’t have a fire pit in the year so I had to use candles or the burner on my gas stove. 

Life today. The snow here in Columbus has pretty much dissipated at least for today. We are excepting some over night in the area. The sun is bright and encouraging. We are also getting the lowest temperature readings of the year coming in the next two or three days. 

Sue took me to pick up my curbside grocery pick up earlier. Then we stopped and both got a McDonalds fish sandwich. Then we had lunch together for a change as we “supped” (la te da .....smile) on our fish sandwiches. The groceries are put away. 

As I was putting things away I dropped a jar and it broke. It took some picking up with a paper towel. Then I used the swifter mop, then the electric broom sweeper. I hoped to get any glass slivers up so Bobbi wouldn’t either get them in her feet or try to eat them. 

The rest of the day is work on the newsletter, my bi-daily letter, and photos. 

The word today is prefer. Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Sir Francis Bacon. A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means. Sallust. To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. Robert Louis Stevenson. A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. Aristotle. Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living to lose what makes life worth having. Juvenal. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. Frederick Douglass.  Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgement. Seneca. Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and do not fear or wish for your last day. Marcus Valerius Martial. Which form of proverb do you prefer Better late than never, or Better never than late? Lewis Carroll. Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing. Moliere. In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature the oldest. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment. Samuel Johnson. There are as many preferences as there are men. Horace. The great way is not difficult if you don't cling to good or bad. Just let go of your preferences; and everything will become perfectly clear. Sengcan. It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and prefer things in measure to things in excess. Seneca the Elder. I prefer to be remembered for what I have done for others, not what others have done for me. Thomas Jefferson. 

Article summary. I thought this was an amusing story when I read it in the daily news a month ago. I am thinking this article will show more light on the subject and give pause for thought not only about the recent news article but in the life of an animal. It may give insight into that relationship to humans. They are not related to cats but this recent story put me in mind of a cats curiosity and playfulness. The title is Raccoons break into liquor stores, scale skyscrapers and pick locks – studying their clever brains can clarify human intelligence, too. Kelly Lambert, Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Richmond. At theconversation.com. It opened by mentioning the incident in December where a raccoon got into a liquor store, rummaged through the stock, upsetting some, eventually tasting a sample. The “sample” was enough to give him the incentive to lay on the bathroom floor where he passed out. The incident also went national on news stations. The author said she had worked in a area not far from where the inebriated racoon was found motionless on the bathroom floor. The work that she did at that time was studying the brains of raccoons. She mentioned that in these kinds of studies it has come to light that raccoons are intelligent, curious and good a problem solving. She went on to share that they have never been in the “scientific spotlight.” For many years mice and rats have been studied extensively. She went on to relate that “long before” those rodents were studied raccoons were the “leading candidate” model for scientists to study the problem solving and intelligence in the animal kingdom. In some cases the racoons out smarted the scientists. The author mentioned that they are too wild to be pets. On the other had too “endearing” to be seen just at pests. Though there is an interesting point being that President Calvin Coolidge took in a raccoon as a pet by saving it from being part of a meal. As time moved on they have been mentioned as “interacting” on playground equipment and breaking into classrooms. In her studies of the raccoon brain she has found that if the brain were the same size as a human brain they could have “roughly the same number of neurons as a human brain”. There is a biological “neural arrangement” found in their brain that may explain the problem solving and decision making. In the article it was mentioned that particular finding could offer “insights into the neural foundations of impulse control and distracted attention.” Another part of the raccoons’ body that was studied was the forepaw. The article related that it is “mapped” in the brain “in a similar manner as human hands”in the human. The author says that in understanding the intelligence of the raccoon it would be best studying them in their own environment rather than in cages as rats and mice. In ending the article the author mentioned something that a primatologist “introduced” saying that “it is a mistake to assume that animals cannot share emotional or cognitive capacities with humans”. The ending sentence was that in these kinds of studies it “may open new paths for understanding raccoon intelligence and, ultimately, the wonderfully complex human brain.”

We are having my three way diet pizza on a tortilla shell for dinner. 

Photos in my life today

My first upload in this section is “something soft”. This is the wearable blanket that was one of my Christmas gifts. It is very soft and incredibly warm, perfect for these cold winter days. 

Next is titled “boots”. These are my only pair of boots. They have not been warm often because there of the inexpensive line and don’t keep the rain and snow off the feet as should be their purpose. Bobbi thought they were worth a sniff. 

The last upload is one of the “my choice” verity and is one of my “partial” series. It may have appeared in some of my other photos. It is in a prominent place on the dining room table. It was another Christmas gift, a baking dish on our orange leaf place mat.

Joy

a bonus photo for today digitally generated image created from a photo of a daffodil in front of a peeling cement block wall