May 12, 2020 thought for the day: A man may die old at thirty and young at eighty. English Proverb

It seems to be a same ol’ same ol’. I wonder how many are feeling that kind of overwhelming “normal” day shift. This may give some of us the kind of feeling other people have when they are forced to adapt to life on a monotonous sort of routine such as this with no end in sight. What a downer kind of thinking on my part. ‘Nuf of that.

Here we go with the photo challenge for May 11. The theme was “working here”. The recycle pick up truck was going by at an opportune time so I got a few shots of their work.

This is one of those days I seem to be searching for somewhere to put my focus. The bulletin is done, well almost, just a couple of things I am waiting for.

It seems there must some people who still have over flowing schedules. At this point that seems more inviting than nothing on the horizon. But then it’s like the difference between a hot summer and a cold winter. As we go though one, we wish for the other. Of course all of this prattle of mine doesn’t include front liners of which I have one in my family, as a matter of fact there has been at least one, usually three or four at a time, for my whole life. This is a combination senior moment and moment seemingly on the edge of inanity (just kidding...I think). Forgive me....I am going to try to move on for today.

I thought about making some dinner rolls from scratch but it is getting a little late in the day for the two hours or so that it takes for the dough to rise before it is ready to bake. I should start that a little earlier in the day.

We had a young cousin stop by for a front porch visit last night. That was a welcomed respite. I am counting on being able to visit my great grand baby as soon as possible. I am missing all of those moments of growing that only come once in a life time. Thankfully his mom shares a short video of something new in his life a day or so. That is added to my memory bank and gives a thought of a sweet hug that’s waiting for both of us. I have two others, near by, that I would like to visit too. And yet two more that I am not sure when I will get to know them again.

On May 12 the photo theme is “snack”. I like so many different snacks so I decided to show a variety. It gave a nice show of line, shape, form, pattern and color.

The word today is fountain. That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles, Washington Irving. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig, Marcus Aurelius. Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain, Edwin Percy Whipple. There is a fountain inside you. Don't walk around with an empty bucket, Rumi. If we learn to love the earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive, Teresa of Avila. When the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It is like the fountain in the marketplace; whenever it is full it runs away in streams, and so soon as it ceases to overflow, you may be quite sure that it has ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart, Charles Spurgeon. Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness, Cardinal Richelieu. A mother's love! O holy, boundless thing! Fountain whose waters never cease to spring! Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington. A cultivated mind is one to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which has been taught, in any tolerable degree, to exercise its faculties, John Stuart Mill. When we talk of leaving our childhood behind us, we might as well say that the river flowing onward to the sea had left the fountain behind, Anna Brownell Jameson.  

Here is yet another way someone tried to beat the boredom of being isolated.  This article is about a young girl, 11 years old, who tried to get through the boredom. She made the template for a tic tac toe game to be attached to the inside of the family mail box. The article said everyone knows how important it is where you put the first X. So she took extra time with that part. She taped the newly made game in the mail box. She was playing tic tac toe with the mail carrier. She had put her first game in the mail box on April 30 with a note that said “O=you, X=me, she also left a pen. The first day the mail carrier didn’t realize it was for her. So she didn’t put a mark. On the next day the family was in the driveway and asked her to put her O. She says that now every day that stop brightens her day. The 11 year old won the first round. She taped it on the outside of the mail box for all to see and started the next one.

I am having left overs for dinner tonight, meat load and mashed potatoes.

Joy

May 10, 2020 thought of the day: Don't make use of another's mouth unless it has been lent to you. Belgian Proverb

It’s a typical Sunday and Mothers Day. I slept-in for a while even though Sweet Pea was trying to get me up so that I could let her out to chase the squirrels.

On May 9 the photo challenge was ‘I miss...’. I visited my stored photo archives and found the perfect photo to fit this title. It is my mom and dad in the beginning of their long and happy marriage. The photo is quite old so its content is not of contest quality but it fits the purpose and carries the memory.

There is not much else on the agenda today. However, I did tend to the dish washer, the thirsty plants watered a little, since they can’t go out to start their spring/summer “vacation” until the weather is more cooperative. I also managed some light straightening around the kitchen. I don’t put much of that kind of thing on my Sunday agenda. I like for it to be a "recharging” day.

I “broke” with my self-set schedule for grocery shopping yesterday. I needed to pick up some meds so I decided to go in at the regular open hours. It wasn’t too crowded. There were at least half a dozen store clerks doing the shopping for the curb side orders. It’s interesting to see how many people seem to be using that way of shopping now. I think it got a slow start in the beginning but seems to be picking up.

It sounds like Columbus is slowly opening different shops and stores. I hope the “curve” stays steady or, better still, goes down more and more each day. Hopefully we can enjoy a nice Spring and Summer.

The word today is fortunate.  Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate, Herodotus.  No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted, Aesop.  It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire, Robert Louis Stevenson.  I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions, Marcus Aurelius.  I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed! Jane Austen.  That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate? Alexandre Dumas.  Humanity is fortunate, because no man is unhappy except by his own fault, Seneca the Younger.  Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  To be always fortunate, and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature, Seneca the Younger.   It is not the young man who should be considered fortunate but the old man who has lived well, because the young man in his prime wanders much by chance, vacillating in his beliefs, while the old man has docked in the harbor, having safeguarded his true happiness, Epicurus. The unrighteous are never really fortunate. Euripides.

The photo theme for today is “self care”. I, like many, on this “forced” quarantine have time to “relax” so here is my version.

The article sounded refreshing about the great outdoors for this season and for a breather in the pandemic. The author of the article opened with one of Henry David Thoreau’s quotes: “By my intimacy with nature I find myself withdrawn from man.” The author went on to say he finds himself, in the pandemic, in the reverse, closer to nature than ever. He lives surrounded by a garden, woods and the sounds of the nearby creek. He says more people will be able to experience some of what he can see daily. There is a new online site being formed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, “Digital Discoveries” (odnr digital discovers), plans to collect nature information, ideas, activities and lessons for everyone with sections for kids, parents and teachers and put in digital format. There has been some delay getting to the site but should be fixed soon. Plans are to have printable activity books and guides to topics like nature crafts, animal behavior and other fun activities. There will be related links on the site. There will be some type of interaction on the site also. The article closes with “consider a trip, even if only digitally, into the great outdoors”.

This was one of the four or five days of the month that I have a second photo of the day assignments. The one from this club, that I also belong to, is “leading lines”.

I think we are going to order from York for Mothers Day.

Joy

May 8, 2020 thought for the day: A friend advises in his interest, not yours. Arabic Proverb

It is a rainy dreary day. The weather men have even suggested possible snow flurries. I have been biting at the bit to get the house plants outside. I had every intention of beginning the move this Sunday, Mother’s Day. That is the day they say it is typically safe in this part of the world to put plants outside. It looks like this year it is going to be a little later.

Yesterday’s photo challenge title was “a throwback”. I went way back in my archives to find a selfie taken before “selfies” were a “thing”. I was pregnant for my first child. (turned out to be a girl .... named Tami).

I have noticed that there seems to be a problem with my tiny solar powered bird bath fountain. I have it set up in a plastic bowl-like container. I think there is a leak. I filled it yesterday morning. When I checked the water level twenty minutes later, the water was half way down. I will try to line the container with a layer of plastic before considering a completely new one.

Sue needed some things from Walmart so I dropped her off earlier this morning. Since I didn’t need anything at the moment I came home to get some things done and wait for her to call when she was ready to come home. She wanted to spend some time shopping. She is very good about reading labels thoroughly.

The exterminator came yesterday to give me an estimate for removing the squirrels from my ceiling. It is going to take a huge chunk of my “stimulus” check. It has to be done. They could do much more damage that could end up costing more than the “exclusion” process. They will begin the process on Monday. Apparently it takes several days. After they catch what they think is all the “visitors” they will plug the holes.

The word today is forgiveness.  Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass, Confucius. We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature, Voltaire.  Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? Abraham Lincoln. To err is human; to forgive, divine, Alexander Pope. If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Good to forgive, Best to forget, Robert Browning. The more you know yourself, the more you forgive yourself, Confucius. This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well, Francis Bacon. Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again, Saint Augustine. The world is full of judgment-days, and into every assembly that a man enters, in every action he attempts, he is gauged and stamped, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The offender never pardons, George Herbert. Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace, Petrarch. To love is human, it is also human to forgive, Plautus. 

Because of the heavy overcast sky today I am going to have to go to the archives for today photo theme, “the sky”.....  this photo of all those fluffy white clouds was taken last year in the good ol’ summertime.

I always like stories about our Columbus zoo. I think this one will give us an idea of how the workers, and maybe the animals, are coping with the pandemic. Of course the zoo has been closed to the public during this quarantine but people have had to take care of the animals. Here are some of the experiences they are having as they keep the animals “safe, happy and healthy”. Normally as they feed the animals there are crowds watching and enjoying how the animals react to receiving food. Now the paths through the park are “eerily silent and empty”. Before the pandemic the zoo was expecting this to be a special year for the visitors. We have the nation’s only baby polar bear, born in 2019, and the two new cheetah cubs born through in-vitro fertilization. The zoo keepers are taking care of over 10,000 animals. Assignments have been chance to make things safer for the employees. They are divided into small teams and have staggered work shifts. There are a lot of conference calls and group chats to keep things running smoothly.

All the keepers wear masks and gloves for protection of the animals as well as the workers themselves. They are use to this in other years especially around the apes due to their susceptibilities to disease. There won’t be any interns during this season as is the custom for spring and summer normally.

At the “Shores” the tortoises are missing public interaction. Bubba, 73 and Sonny, 53 are the zoo’s oldest animals. They seem to enjoy getting their shells rubbed and having “conversation” with the car givers. Visitors to the zoo generally rub their shells so the keepers have to substitute for now. They love the attention but since it is not known how the coronavirus works experiences are limited to keep the animals safe.

At the “Heart of Africa” the complicated process of reintroducing the heat loving animals from the winter habitats to the pastures is done at this time of year. Too much exercise all at once could injure them. They fence off areas so that small spaces are introduced at a time and widened every few days. Since the staff is more limited now this can be a challenging process. The gazelles, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes and others have to be treated with care. The animals have to relearn noises and signals in case they have to be separated for one reason or another.

Food for the animals no longer comes from the zoo’s nutrition center, it has to be picked up from outside the building to reduce “interactions”. The zoo vets are checking the animals from a distance with photos and videos.  Even though things have changed for humans during this pandemic the animals need to have things kept as normal as possible.

The article mentioned the connection to the news of several cats at the Bronx Zoo being tested for the virus there was some extra thought. One of our tigers came from the Bronx zoo earlier this year. The keepers are taking a little “every precaution they can”.
Pizza again....

Joy

May 6, 2020 thought for the day: Be sure to have a controversial opinion, and men will talk about you. Arabic Proverb

It’s another stay at home day with not much on the agenda. I am trying to finish the bulletin but need just the last bit of information.

Sue’s TV was acting up so she wanted a TV repair person to come and fix it. We arranged for them to come. I have been a touch leery of having someone in during this time of isolation. But we did this morning. We took the recommended steps for protection, masks and washing down surfaces with bleach.

May 5th's  photo challenge was “a fave room”. I have several spaces in my home that I consider “fave” space. But the kitchen is the most used and is the “newest”. We had some remodeling about a year ago. 

I have another problem too. There is a squirrel trying to set up his home between the ceiling and roof of my bed room. I have tried calling a particular exterminator yesterday and today but there is no answer. I leave a message but they don’t call back. I don’t think they would have to come inside to take care of this problem, so I don’t think that is the reason they wouldn’t be returning my call. I finally reached the head office in Cincinnati and was able to make an appointment for tomorrow for an estimate.

The only accomplishment today is making the dogs treat. Of course I do it with their help. Especially Sugar’s. She loves to stay by my feet in case I need a clean up on the floor.


The word is foolish. Anger may be foolish and absurd, and one may be wrongly irritated, but a man never feels outraged unless in some respect he is fundamentally right, Victor Hugo. Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people, Michel de Montaigne. If we Christians would join the Wise Men, we must close our eyes to all that glitters before the world and look rather on the despised and foolish things, help the poor, comfort the despised, and aid the neighbor in his need, Martin Luther. Tears fell from my eyes - yes, weak and foolish as it now appears to me, I wept for my departed youth; and for that beauty of which the faithful mirror too plainly assured me, no remnant existed, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington.  It is foolish to fear that which you cannot avoid, Publilius Syrus. A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother, Solomon. Thus my learning is not my own; it belongs to the unlearned and is the debt I owe them My wisdom belongs to the foolish, my power to the oppressed. Thus my wealth belongs to the poor, my righteousness to the sinners, Martin Luther. Drinking alone holds no fun. Drink with friends or strangers! Be foolish, least you'll remember something meaningful, Alcuin  It is foolish to try to live on past experience. It is very dangerous, if not a fatal habit, to judge ourselves to be safe because of something that we felt or did twenty years ago, Charles Spurgeon. Childhood has it's own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Today’s photo theme is “I made this”. I could have used some baking projects or even my meal for the evening. But I chose to use the hobby or “art” that I am most involved in at the moment. I crochet for several reasons. Relaxation is one reason, the feeling of creativity another but the one most outstanding to me is I crochet for my great grand children. As I complete each stitch I think of the child I am doing the piece for. I know they can’t see me as I work or that they would have any concept of the time it takes to make the item. I somehow feel closer to them and hope that my love, thoughts of them and care for their happiness is conveyed mysteriously to them.

I thought a food article might be nice during the flood of news on the coronavirus. The title to today’s article is: Comfort food sees bump during pandemic. The pandemic has made a lot of people depend  more on comfort that food can bring as well as developing a stronger immune system. It seems, according to the article, that avocados are in. I personally haven’t tried to develop a taste for avocados, maybe I should give it some more thought. It also mentioned that frozen pizzas and instant noodles are selling out during this time of isolation. Avocados are going up in price and butter is falling (do to restaurants being closed). It was interesting to read about the possibility of these developing food trends may continue when the pandemic eases. They will see that there are “improvements in packaged foods”. People are cooking more at home now due to the fact it is almost necessary to follow that direction added to using picking up meals to bring home. Back to avocados, the article says that they are becoming at stay at home favorite. It seems all fresh produce has a “health-halo” over it. It is reported that vitamin C in citrus has increased the interest of customers. Orange juice has risen in interest from a fall back earlier due to the sugar content, now the vitamin C found in it has increased its value to the consumer.

The article went on to talk about what most folks realize at this point, we suffer an abundance of boredom and stress from the isolation of the pandemic. So when they are shopping they are looking for foods that release some of that stress and boredom. Packaged foods are popular. Snack foods are more on the shopping lists. Because of doing activities that bring munching to the thought surface. Farmers are being forced to dispose of any thing they can’t sell like milk and milk products. Even though restaurants are doing takeout orders they have had to cut down on what is on their menus and don’t use all the ingredients they would if they were completely open. So they don’t need as much from farmers. 

The article ended with the restating the facts that packaged food are more available and people will remember that from this time and experience.

Hamburgers and mac and cheese for dinner.

Joy

May 4, 2020 thought for the day: Lend money to someone who won't pay you back and he'll hate you. Chinese Proverb

Another Monday has rolled around. There are a few things on the agenda as there are for me on most Monday’s. I will be updating the church bulletin as the main thing I would like to get accomplished today. 

The photo challenge title for May 3 was “dreaming of...”. I think I mentioned before that subjects that assign a photo to a feeling are hard for me to process. I had spurts of thought through out the morning on what subject I could use. I have admired the tulips in my neighbor’s yard for a while I finally settled on that. I am dreaming of spring and many more flowers so this photo will do for the theme.

Sue had some errands to run. She is adjusting to one of the things that has been a difference in our choices. She likes afternoon outings when it comes to errands or visits. I prefer mornings, as early as possible. I have tried to bend to a compromise of later in the morning, more toward noon. Since her accident at Christmas time she isn’t able to drive for now. So I take her where she needs to go. In these trips we are learning some of the many ways businesses are adjusting the flow of their business to accommodate the changes in our lives, and theirs, right now. For instance, Sue’s bank is totally taken care of at the drive in windows now instead of a lobby entrance.

I have been wondering why I have not received my order for flower seeds that I ordered over two weeks ago. So I did some investigating through email responses to online orders and/or financial records of expenditures. I discovered that one of the biggest orders I thought I had sent didn’t go through. So I went to the online site for the nursery where I thought I had placed the order. Sure enough there was a catch. One of the seeds was out of stock and my order would not be completed until I removed it from my list. I took care of that problem. Then I got an email saying the order was being processed. One of the flower seeds I am most interested in seems to be a thorn in my side. I have been trying to get a Lenten rose plant started for what is now almost a year. The first one I got and planted was stepped on and killed by a worker on the outside of my house. The replacement I ordered and planted died. It tried to come back twice and both times the tiny little shoots that were there one day were gone the next. I think a squirrel must have had it for lunch....twice. The order for those seeds was at another garden center, not the one I mentioned above. I put in another order two weeks ago, it was charged to my account but I never received it. That one is a mystery. Does it sound like to you that maybe I am not supposed to have that plant?

The word for the day is flower. A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it, Dogen. The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest, Laozi.   Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower, Hans Christian Andersen. To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour, William Blake. Life is the flower for which love is the honey, Victor Hugo. Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth, Soren Kierkegaard. Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature, Gerard De Nerval. The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers, Matsuo Basho. Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning, Lydia M. Child.  Speech is the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought, Martin Farquhar Tupper. 

The photo theme for today is “neighborhood”. I am lucky to have a very comfortable neighborhood with the added essence that it is clean and pleasing to the eye so this photo is an easy one.

It’s interesting to see some of the aspects of our lives that are being affected by this pandemic. Just how many more aspects, as the one in today’s article, are being affected and how and to what point in out lives will take time to surface. This article speaks to the use of highways in this time of viruses. People seem to be driving faster due to the roads being mostly empty. A survey of transportation speeds and highway usage for last year from March 28 to April 19 in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati showed about the same figures for each city. This year speeds were amounting to ten or more miles per hour faster than last year. The article mentioned that on a section of I-71 some speeds even registered over 30 miles an hour faster that last year.  The person interviewed for this article said that he felt that there is probably speeding on the smaller roads too. He is hoping that the city will consider new policies like changing the street network to provide more space for cyclists and pedestrians.

I have some homemade spaghetti and meat balls in the freezer, that will be dinner tonight.

Joy

May 2, 2020 thought for the day: The best kind of closed door is the one you can leave unlocked. Chinese Proverb

I love Saturday’s, always have even as a kid all those many years ago, and always will.  This one was no exception. I slept until the sun, with a little help from Sweet Pea, woke me.

Yesterday’s theme title was “a view from a window”. I have three windows that I can view life through as I sit at the computer. I took shots through each of the three and chose this one after the post processing.

Sue wanted to make a trip to Kroger. She can’t quite make the early senior hour at Kroger with me yesterday. I told her I would take her and wait in the car. I‘m not comfortable around large numbers of people particularly in this time in history. Actually, the parking lot was not full at all and I had missed some items on my list yesterday so I went in to. Yesterday the two isles of freezer food were down and I had to skip two items so I picked those up. I dropped her off at the dollar store too. Then we headed for home.

After some catch up on my emails, I took a stroll around my “back forty”...what I call my tiny little “flower gardens” that rim parts of the house and yard. I am even more certain I have lost some of the plants I planted last year. I laid out what I thought was a plan for blooming flowers for every season. So that I would have at least a stem or two of fresh flowers in a vase in the dining room all year.

Bob went back to work yesterday. We weren’t sure that was supposed to be the time for this car lots opening but apparently it was. He worked the whole day and goes back on Monday. He needs some more face masks. I crochet one for him but I think one of that nature is not really appropriate for his work. I have asked Rebecca to make one for him. She mentioned the other day that she was making some.  She said she would send one to him.

There’s nothing going on today so I may work on a “lesson” I am trying to teach myself. I am trying to make an ink sketch using a photo as a base in Photoshop. There are quite a few steps in the “lesson” that I pulled off Google. So it  takes some dedicated time. I

f I don’t work on that I may try making a brownie with marshmallow fluff and chocolate chips.

The word today is folds. We can see well into the past; we can guess shrewdly into the future, but that which is rolled up and muffled in impenetrable folds is today, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Our life is two fold Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence Sleep hath its own world, And a wide realm of wild reality, Lord Byron.  Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle, Henri Frederic Amiel. The least deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold, Aristotle. Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false, Charles Caleb Colton. Affliction comes to us all ...not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plough enriches the field; to multiply our joy, as the seed, by planting, is multiplied a thousand-fold, Henry Ward Beecher. 

Today’s photo challenge was “a drink”. Sue and I stopped for a coke and a coffee on our way home from the errands. That presented my photo of the day.

I like when military come home after successful service to their country....I love animals and to see them happy with happy human beings. This article fits both. I know first hand what pets can do to the human psyche and complete and total wellness. A group in Delaware, Ohio rescue dogs and find home for them with veterans who need them. One of the persons mentioned in the article said he applied to several agencies that offer this service to former military persons. He never got a response. He came across the Delaware County-based Veteran Companion Animal Services in January. They responded. He is waiting to get a dog once it is ready for it’s new forever master. He suffers with mental and physical pains and feels the dog will help him better deal with his emotions. A veterinarian started the Veteran Companion Animal Services in 2015. Her plan was to connect ex-military folks with rescue dogs who need a home. She hopes that the “friendship, structure and purpose” the veterans need are here in life of the animal that will be pared with them. The dogs come from region shelters and rescue groups. The dogs need the companionship as much as the people they will be with.

One of the men interviewed for the article said when he got his Border Collie Australian Shepherd mix his depression and anxiety was “at bay” as he shared his daily walks and runs with “Bandit”. He said “he makes me happy”. There is a seven weeks training session in the spring and fall offered for the vet and their family at the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts.

It took the veterinarian who started the program three years to get the funding from grants and donations then recruit volunteers and set up the mission and procedures. The process takes months to visit the shelters for the animals then make the home visits ant interviews. This year she set up plans for the dogs to be placed with a foster person before they decide where to place them with just the “right” person and companion for life. The Veteran Companion Animal Services covers the costs of food, veterinary care, training and supplies for the first year. Of note to me was that a veteran of the US Marine Corps is the most recent recipient of a dog named Daisy. He is studying environmental policies at The Ohio State University. He said “...I think she can tell when you’re not in a good mood because she’ll come up and cuddle”.

It’s taco salad for dinner tonight.

Joy

April 30, 2020 thought for the day: The harvest of a whole year depends on what you sow in the springtime. Chinese Proverb

Another action  filled  (well, action filled for this old lady) Thursday has rolled around. I wasn’t able to leave as soon as I got up and got ready. I had to type in the information I got late yesterday afternoon at around dinner time. I have a habit of shutting down my computer for the day at dinner time.

The April 29 photo a day for the month of gratitude happens to be my steering wheel and it’s immediate surroundings. I have been thinking about transportation as one of my gratitudes for this month but just couldn’t come up with a way I wanted to depict it. Since there is only one more day this month and if I wanted to use the idea I’d better get to it. This is it.

The church was empty again as I printed the bulletin and the two additions. The pick up time on my favorite mail box has changed from 11:00am to 9:00am so I can’t get them in the mail as timely as I like, or quickly enough to get them to the congregation before Sunday. I took them to the next earliest pick up that I could find. I just hope it is early enough to get to the people in time. I could mail them on Wednesday but I don’t get all the information I need to be able to do that. I just have to do the best I can and hope for the time doesn't beat me.

I added a touch to the bulletin that I am able to get to the few of the congregants who have email. I have added Youtube files playing the hymns to the bulletin so that all the receivers will have to do is click on the blue web address file to pull it up. I have also attached the location of the written sermon for the same way to pull it up from the church web page.

Once home, I started the laundry and completed my sad attempt to clean my car by washing the windows on the inside of the car. It amazed me how my body responded in agony with the twists and reaches I had to make to get to all the corners and slants of the glass. It didn’t react that way fifty years ago and not at all in the years before that.

As I left the church I caught sight of my photo for the day. This is a light that seems to be forever on. I consider it to be a welcoming ray to the church. This is my April 30, last day of the month, last day of the month of gratitude photo.

Later in the day, I Googled and found the new photo a day calendar for May and added the daily themes to my online daily reminder popup notices.

The word today is folks. The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end, Harriet Beecher Stowe. It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues, Abraham Lincoln. The house is a fine house, when good folks are within, George Herbert. As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them, Henry Ward Beecher. Some folks never handle the truth without scratching it, Austin O'Malley.  It is easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient, George Eliot. As sore places meet most rubs, proud folks meet most affronts, Benjamin Franklin. Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us country folk, and we do not think any good will come of it. We have not dollars; merchants have; let them give them. Farmers will give corn; poets will sing; women will sew; laborers will lend a hand; the children will bring flowers, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The devil wipes his breech with poor folks' pride, Benjamin Franklin. It is remarkable with what Christian fortitude and resignation we can bear the suffering of other folks, Jonathan Swift. Some folks as they grow older grow wise but most folks simply grow , stubborner, Josh Billings. 

Here is another way people are making something good out of this horrible pandemic. There is an 85-year young man in our area who walks his neighborhood every day during this distancing period in our lives. He calls them his two or three mile “photographic and poetic walks”, he enjoys writing poems. He likes to exercise outside and see people. If he is walking at two o’clock he puts on his ear phones to her Gov. DeWine’s coronavirus press briefings. He stops at spots along the way that hold memories from his childhood. He uses his cell phone to take a photo of the spot and sends it along with a poem contained clues to his eighty six-year-old brother. The brother sends an answer in poetry-form back. This idea of a unique way passing time, enjoying his walks, and keeping in touch with a loved one came to him as he passed familiar places and experienced memories on one of his walks.

Its potato soup and salmon patties for dinner.

Being the last day of the month is also the day that I offer my composite of photos that I used each day this month.

Joy