September 10, 2023 a thought for today, Before you plan to improve the world, look around your own house three times. Chinese Proverb

The fist upload for September 9 was “made from wood.” I looked around for something that I wanted for this image. I finally decided on the table legs on this vintage gate-leg table. 

It’s been a long week, with lots of sympathy messages and expressions of compassion, love and support. I am so grateful for all who have shown us these thoughts. Working through the emotions are another level of experience. I missed church for the second Sunday in a row which saddens me because I also need the weekly renewal. But for now I need to be alone or with immediate family for this early time in the grieving process. Hopefully next week I can venture back to a closer to “normal” schedule. Bob was my constant companion for sixty-one-years. I have lost a child with the gentle soul who loved life and lost a huge part of my life. 

The second upload for yesterday was “still life.” I don’t think there is much of anything that is more of a still life than this poor smacked orange barrel. 

Today I am moving along step by step. It will be a quite and lonely day. I think I will tend to my houseplant garden....that will bring some solace and peace as well as a bit closer to my higher power. 

My first upload for today is “a man-made pattern”. I have a rug in the living room that is full of all kinds of patterns. I also have a foot stool covered in this pattern. I felt that is was much more suitable for this offering. 

A word for today is grace.  Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected, Jonathan Edwards.  You are so weak. Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore. You need more help than you know, Rumi.  A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation, Francis Bacon.  Beauty and grace command the world, Park Benjamin.  Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter, William Shakespeare. Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider. Saint Augustine of Hippo. Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind. Francois de la Rochefoucauld.   One of these days you who are now a babe in Christ shall be a father in the church. Hope for this great thing but hope for it as a gift of grace and not as the wages of work or as the product of your own energy, Charles H. Spurgeon.  Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace, Thomas Watson. Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity, William Hazlitt.  Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not, Henri Frederic Amiel.  The Divine Light is always in man, presenting itself to the senses and to the comprehension, but man rejects it, Giordano Bruno.  

A second upload for today is “what I am watching.” I was “watching” traffic go by
as I waiting in the drive through at McDonalds.

Another upload for this date was “back alley.” I know “back alleys” are a little on the messy side. So I found that the sky today added a more interesting part of the image. 

This article is by one of my favorite writers for the Columbus Dispatch. He has and shares an interesting outlook and common events in life. Here is one of them. In this article he is writing about things he is tired of. It is his “semiannual (unless I forget) list of trends, fads, crazes and troubling developments that I wish would go away.” The first listed is “shows about rich people behaving badly.” He claims he is “witness” to appalling billionaire behavior as in Trump, Musk, Snyder, Murdoch and other “moguls” and “heirs.” He prefers to “turn to fiction.” The next on his list is “clean windshields.” In his words, “back when the planet was healthy, you couldn’t drive from here to West Jefferson without amassing an impressive collection of smashed bugs on the windshield.” His feelings are that it is an ominous sign cars are arriving where ever it is they are going with many more “insect carnage” than in earlier times. He mentioned in the article that scientists have two ways of looking at this occurrence. One thought is that “bug splatters are down precipitously.” On the other side of the coin the bug splatter is not due to slanted windshields, more likely due to fewer insects “not a good sign for our ailing planet.” Number three on his list is “world record attempts.”Some of the attempts at the world records are “largest piñata, heaviest ball of cheese, loudest burp by a woman.” He went on to say on the subject “(Disclosure: In a long journalism career I have written about the World’s Largest Meatball, World’s Largest Irish Dance and World’s Largest Potluck, just to name a few.)” Another on his list is “the names of generations.” In this class of people are Baby Boomers, Millennial and GenZ. He says keeping track of when each names generation begins and ends is of real importance in clues to “identity and outlook.” Lastly he comments “I’m also tired of rising house prices, campaign war chests, destination weddings, bucket lists and those TikTok videos where people smash eggs on their kids’ foreheads.”

I’m not sure about dinner tonight but most likely hamburgers and fries. 

Joy

            open for business

 September 8, 2023 a thought for today, An aged steed confined to the stable still aspires after the glory of galloping a thousand miles. Chinese Proverb

One upload for yesterday was “from up high.” I decided to snap this one from the balcony at church when I was putting the bulletins out.

It seems there is always sad news lurking around a corner....one of those sad times came to my house today...my son, Bob, passed away very early this morning. He is free now of pain and sorrow. I will miss him beyond words. Communicating with you and keeping things as close to normal as possible seem to help me as I begin my walk into the mourning process. 

I had a small load of laundry to do so I got that started. I have a feeling there won’t be much else on my agenda today.

The weather seems to be on the same motion today. It is cloudy and not too inviting. 

The second upload for yesterday was from my archives. I like the shapes and textures of this old tree....and would like to hear its life story. 

The word today is goals. When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. Confucius.  A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder, Thomas Carlyle.  Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals, Aristotle. An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding, Robert Louis Stevenson. Begin, be bold and venture to be wise, Horace.  Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction, James Russell Lowell.   In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high, Henry David Thoreau. There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight, Johann von Goethe.  We must ask where we are and whither we are tending, Abraham Lincoln. The first step, my son, which we make in this world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days, Voltaire.  First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end, Aristotle. Whatever you can do, or dream you can ... begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.  One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going, Johann von Goethe.  If you aspire to the highest place it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, Cicero.

The first upload today is “heck yes.” Why not heck yes for the stamens of the day lily? 

Here is another of the questions kids ask.  An eleven-year-old from Kansas City asked, Why do animals have tails? The early part of the article stated that there is evidence that some “fossils of animals” dating as far back as hundreds of millions of years had tails, even some fishes with “fanlike tails.” As the fish “evolved” and came on dry land the tails changed. There are reasons for tails in “reptiles, insects, birds or mammals, tails serve a wide variety of purposes.” That purposes may be balance or communication. Dinosaurs’, and now kangaroos’, tails supply the need of balance. I read in the article that the kangaroo’s tail “also functions as a powerful third leg.” Cats, squirrels and some others use their tail to hang onto and move along branches and wires. On some of the animals the tail can “hold them up while they eat.” Some tails can be weapons, as the stingray. Rattlesnakes use their tail as a warning. I learned from this article that insects “use their tails to lay eggs or to sting and paralyze hosts or prey.” Some wild animals use the tail as a kind of fan to shoo off insects. The tails on cows and horses are communication. Birds tails are for balance and help to “steer and reduce drag.”  Male turkeys and peacocks “unfurl their colorful tail feathers to attract female mates.” Another interesting use is to “indicate rank” as wolves and other animals that live in packs. Dogs communicate in all sorts of ways with their tail.

The second upload for today is “my choice.” I had turned this original color image to black and white to show the shapes and patterns better.

Pizza

Joy

      contrast

 

Robert (Bob) William Rector, W8WRWR, a silent key. He was gentle soul only wanting to share his life’s experiences with anyone interested in listening. The uppermost importance in his life was family, always and forever. As his life went on he collected important and lasting friends, Ham Radio friends and the several friends he made working at Toyota West. He was baptized at Hoge Memorial Presbyterian Church where he later attended Sunday School, Bible School each summer, Youth Fellowship, and choir. When he started to school he was placed in special education classes where he remained through high school. In high school part of his classes were at a high school in Upper Arlington where he studied small engine repair. After graduation from West High School he began his working career. He was a cart attendant at Walmart, then moved on to several different security positions over a few years. He began working at Toyota West fifteen years ago and made strong friendships. One of his extracurricular activities as he grew was Judo practice at the YMCA and the tournaments. He also enjoyed his time in sideline assisting with the West High Football team. His pass time was Ham Radio equipment and people. He belonged to ham radio clubs and worked many areas of community events which used radio services. Some of those events were the Forth of July fireworks, the OSU football games, the Arnold Schwarzenegger events, numerous other downtown races for charities. He was with a group of the Ohio Ham Radio operators who went to New York at the 9/11 disaster and to one of the natural disasters in Florida. The biggest time of the year for him was the annual “Hamfest” in Dayton Ohio with Ham Radio operators all over the country. He adored each of the family pets and they took him as a partner. Preceded by his father, William F. Rector. He is survived by his mother, Joyce Rector, his sister Tami Lin (Andy) Beeler, his brother Lowell (Rebecca) Rector. Four nieces and nephews, Natalie (John) Anthony, John Beeler, Mickey (Kim) Rector, Matthew (Jessie) Rector and six great nieces and nephews, Serenity Anthony, Gideon Anthony, Alexa Rector, Drew Rector, William Rector, Benjamin Rector, Aunt Carolyn Karn and many other aunts and uncles. Family and friends are requested to gather on Tuesday, September 12, 2023 from 12-12:30 pm to form a procession at Advantage Funeral Home by Schoedinger Hilltop, 3030 W. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43204 prior to the graveside service in Sunset Cemetery at 1:00 pm to honor Bob. There will be a gathering of friends and family for remembrances and snacks following the service at Hoge Memorial Presbyterian Church, 2930 W. Broad Street from 2:00pm - 4:00pm.

 September 6, 2023 a thought for today, When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us. Arapaho Proverb

One of the uploads for yesterday was “my choice.” I like the difference in textures in this image. And the textures along with the flowers peeking through the wooden fence. 

I have the bulletin done. Somehow I didn’t receive the title to the sermon so I left that blank. I don’t think there will be too much of a problem with that though. I have to do things as time permits, its fitting my time with other folks time. 

The second upload for yesterday was “this is useful.” This baby monitor has another use...keeping an eye on an ill person that may be out of sight. 

The house is an “open” door situation right now with people coming to check on Bob. So I get started with one thing and put it on a back burner to focus on something different for a few minutes then back to the “back burner.” Things are changing quickly, more so than I
am accustomed to. I have a new set of lessons and experiences to grow with. It is taking some getting use to though.

A third upload for yesterday is “bubbles.” This is an image I generated a while back of my grandson making bubbles with the grandpa. 

The weather is gorgeous. I would, at another time, go out looking for photo opportunities. 

My first upload for today in “from down low.” I put the camera on a timer and placed it under the porch swing. 

The word today is forgive.  We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato.  He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. Thomas Fuller. It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. William Blake. Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive. Marcus Tullius Cicero. Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings. Jean de la Bruyere.  I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one. Henry Ward Beecher.  The more a man knows, the more he forgives. Catherine the Great. Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Laurence Sterne. Forgive, son; men are men; they needs must err. Euripides. I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice, Abraham Lincoln.

The second upload for today is “my choice”. I was sitting in the car this morning and caught sight of the delicate leaves on this coffee tree with the blue sky and white clouds in the background.  

Here’s a little bit of another of the historic houses in Columbus. It’s about the  'The House That Saved Ohio.' It was “second only to the new Statehouse as a grand example of Greek Revival architecture.” A man named Alfred Kelly was born in Connecticut in 1789. His family had been in American since the 1600s. They moved around a lot. One of the six sons moved west to a place called Cleaveland after a man named Moses Cleaveland. One of his brothers’ joined him. They made friends and one of them made mayor of Cleveland. In 1814 he moved to the capital of Ohio, then Chillicothe as a state representative. He traveled back and forth the Cleveland and Chillicothe. He married and had eleven children. They then decided to move to Columbus full time. They purchased 18 acres on East Broad Street, at that time, “way out in the country.” There was a “wetland” on the property that some called a swamp. He put down hundreds of feet of drainage tile and built a brick sewer to catch water that went to the springs that fed a creek that became Spring Street. Once the land was dried out he build a house of Ohio grey sandstone. It was 65 feet “on a side” and four stories tall. There was a steep parapet above columns. Ten columns in all, “each from a single stone,” one of the best examples of classical revival architecture in America.”  Many people called it “Kelley’s Folly.”Eventually in his occupation he became the “Father of Ohio’s Banking System and the Father of Ohio’s Canal System. Finances suffered a decline in the depression of 1837 and he “pledged his house as collateral to insure payment of the state’s debt. It came to be called “The House that Saved Ohio.” According to the article the family lived there until 1906. Then the house was “sold to the local Roman Catholic Diocese, which used it as the Cathedral School until 1963. Then new uses were proposed. The diocese offered the house to anyone who could move it.” Money was needed to move the house and it was brought down stone for stone which was stored in Wolfe Park. In 1966 the stones were moved to the Fairgrounds. In 1971 they were taken to the Hale Farm near Cleveland. There have been efforts to “save the house”. The original house was replaced by the Christopher Inn.

We are having either beer batter fish or a frozen chicken dinner meal tonight. 

Joy 

 September 4, 2023 a thought for today, Learning is better than house and land. Chinese Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “street”. This is “on the street where ‘I’ live”. It is a beautiful area of this side of town. It is quiet, neighbors are friendly and look out for each other. 

Some good things come with the not so good. In our journey with Bob we are learning painful and everlasting lessons. But along with that, yesterday we had a ray of sunshine. My daughter came home to see her brother. There were tears, of both kind, and hugs like a blanket of warmth. She and I have been at odds for a while. May a door have opened. 

I have the bulletin started. I had the back side done before I realized we have changed speakers for this week so that caused a little bit of a hitch in my over all motion to the finish. 

The second upload for yesterday was one I don’t really care for...a selfie. The title is “it’s me”. It is...with messy hair and all. 

Sue is visiting with the twins again today. School has started for them but, this being a holiday, they are home, a good time for a visit. 

Rebecca is here helping with keeping Bob quite and comfortable. We are in separate parts of the house so we are “doing our own things”. 

For some reason, the weather feels more fall-like to me today. The air is a little cooler, the sky and clouds just feel autumn-ish. The wind chimes are on the quiet side this morning....almost no breeze although enough to see the flag wave now and then. 

The first upload for today was “something beautiful”. This is from the archives and, I think, is beautiful.

A word for today is fame.  Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds, Socrates. Spring is a natural resurrection, an experience in immortality, Henry David Thoreau. Fame is the thirst of youth. Lord (George Gordon) Byron. Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow, Marcus Tullius  Cicero. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid, Francis Bacon. How vain, without the merit, is the name, Homer. Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Fame is something that must be won. Honor is something that must not be lost, Arthur Schopenhauer.  Riches: A dream in the night. Fame: A gull floating on water, Chinese Proverbs.  Even the best things are not equal to their fame, Henry David Thoreau. May the countryside and the gliding valley streams content me. Lost to fame, let me love river and woodland, Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro. Acquaintance lessens fame, Claudius. All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly, Michel de Montaigne.  I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one, Cato The Elder. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star, William Blake. What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely, Johann von Goethe. The desire for fame is the last weakness wise men put off, Tacitus. 

The second upload is one of the friends of my grandchildren when they played soft ball and is one of the “my choice” uploads.. 

This is another story along with others I have shared recently about the growth and renewal of one of the oldest parts of our city...Franklinton. There is a place in Franklinton called the Idea Foundry at 421 W. State St. This is their story. The article opened with a quote from Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” The Idea Foundry began it’s life fifteen years ago. In 2008 an idea occurred to its founder that since there were no dedicated spaces easy to find that offered things like 3D printers and a “bottleneck to taking an idea out of your head and holding it in your hand.” His idea was a “workshop with some tools and some talented people to be your workshop partners.” He played with his idea beginning in a small garage eventually moving to a 10,000 square foot space which eventually ran out of space to keep things growing. Someone heard of the project and suggested a 65,00 square foot building on State Street. People wanted to rent “studio space and start businesses there.” There was some fund-raising so that they could buy the space rather than rent knowing that Franklinton was a growing and on the edge of becoming a thriving community. There was some set backs along the way with the COVID pandemic but they kept going with the building and growing. They are trying to show and help people find their creative “passion.”  This business has come to “include artists, educators and other groups outside their original focus on tech innovation.” Not all the “tenants” keep a normal “business” schedule like Monday through Friday. Some may only use their space “12 times a month.” Some come for other events in the area and stop by for a “30 minute engrave-your-own-pint-glass class” rather than a three hour wood shop class, all while on a date or a beer in you hands.  A description of the Idea Foundry is: a place where anyone can explore their urge to make things. Working together, we marry ideas and talents, tools and resources, experience and opportunity into a shared community of making. A place where furniture and sculpture and jewelry and drones and motorcycles and 3D printers and chess boards and video games come to life in the hands of artists, artisans, techies and entrepreneurs.

I think I am going to make chili for dinner. 

Joy 

this is an older photo from my archives ..... still the “orange cone theory”

 September 2, 2023 a thought for today, Learning is better than house and land. Chinese Proverb

My fist upload for yesterday was “my choice” from my archives. These flowers still offered their beauty even on their way out. Their counter parts in the garden outside were showing the change of season too. 

I arranged to do the curbside pick up early today. Sue wanted to visit with the girls and wanted to get with them as early as possible. She stayed with Bob while I picked up the groceries. 

I like to stop at one of the fast food places when I leave the store. White Castle serves lunch, all items all the time. McDonalds doesn’t serve the “lunch” menu before 11:00 on the week end, I wanted a fish sandwich. So I stopped at White Castle. I got Bob a chocolate milk shake just in case he had some appetite back. I always get me an iced tea. The iced tea machine at White Castle has been “on the fritz” for over a week. So.....no iced tea for me. 

My second upload is “photo from the outside.” I tried getting an image of Sweet Pea looking out the door. I wasn’t counting on the other reflections. 

I am waiting for an extension cable that I ordered some time ago so I can rearrange some of my computer equipment to make a little more room. It was supposed to be here over a week ago.  They have moved the “ETA” to today. 

We are having perfect summer weather today. Actually we have had a pretty decent summer for the most part. 

We have arranged for hospice to be here today to visit with Bob. I am sensitive about the visit right now.

The first photo for today is “happiness is.” I caught this image and thought of how all the kids are happy when they visit this place. 

The word today is equality. The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. Aristotle. The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, and ordered their estate, Cecil Frances Alexander. All people are equal, it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes the difference, Voltaire. Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow, Ralph Waldo Emerson. An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects, Martin Luther.  I believe in the equality of man.  I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy, Thomas Paine. I hate to complain . . . No one is without difficulties whether in high or low life and every person know best where their own shoe pinches, Abigail Adams. The hole and the patch should be commensurate, Thomas Jefferson. You cannot have all chiefs; your gotta has Indians too, Proverbs.  

The second photo upload for today is “framed.” As I was waiting to pickup, my t this image of grocery carts in a “waiting area.” 

With the OSU football season starting I thought this was an apropos story. The title is a little strong, “Ohio and Michigan almost went to war, How rivalry dates back 220 years.” It starts out by saying that one of the most heated rivalries in college foot ball dates back to the 1800s when parts of the country now known as the Midwest was being carved up for statehood.” Apparently there was a “disagreement over Ohio’s northwest border with what was then the Michigan Territory that nearly started a war. The so-called “Toledo War.” Further in the article it stated that the dispute was over the 450 square miles of land, the Toledo strip, belonged to Ohio or to Michigan. Part of the land or “line” was held for shipping reasons and the Maumee River and part of the Maumee Bay. But due to technology of the times the “line” of “ownership” was the problem. As it turned out the “assumed dividing line turned out to be incorrect, as a fur trapper told delegates of the Ohio Constitutional Convention in 1802 that it didn’t include the river.” In 1803 it was stimulated that the state’s borders did include the Maumee River. Congress accepted this but the federal legislators “never acted on its boundary provision.” Settlers in Toledo with deeds to the property claimed that it was part of Monro County, Michigan because living in Michigan was less expense since tax benefits were better that Ohio offered. Michigan kept applying for statehood by was repeatedly denied due to refusing to give up the clain to the Toledo strip. In trying to settle things in 1845 the Ohio legislator and the Ohio Common Pleas Court attempted to validate the claim. There was a plan by militias to “prepare to take the Toledo strip by force.” Prior to that the Michigan “territorial governor” created law that Ohioans were not allowed to come into Toledo.” Michigan asked President Andrew Jackson to step in. He sent negotiators. It wasn’t resolved....and Jackson replaced the Michigan Territory governor. Decades later the “war” began it came to an end in 1836 with a compromise “that allowed Ohio to claim Toledo and the Maumee River and Maumee Bay. In exchange for giving up Toledo, Michigan was given what today is known as its Upper Peninsula.” At that time according to the article Michiganders believed they go the short end of the deal. However, later they found that the Upper Peninsula was rich in minerals and is now seen by “Michiganders as an outdoor oasis.” The article asks if the rivalry “harken back to the “Toledo War.”  Historians believe the rivalry between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines “is, in fact, linked to the Toledo War.” As an ending note in the article it was brought to attention that there was a time the University of Michigan was going to be located in Toledo rather than Ann Arbor and people invested in land planing on that event. 

Creamed chicken on biscuits for me and sausage gravy on biscuits for Bob. 

Joy

             seen better days

 August 31, 2023 a thought for today, Heavenly music is interpreted differently by everyone. Chinese Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “a before/after.” There is one of me at about four with a wide open mouth (kind of stuck)....and me now. 

It has been a busy day....most of them are these days. I re-arranged the printing time for the bulletin from 8:30 to later. Bob was going for his next chemo treatment so I wanted to be here when he left. That wasn’t until ten o’clock. I also had set up an appointment for Sweet Pea. So I asked Sue to  take her to the appointment (annual checkup and shots). Sue took her to the 9:15 appointment. 

After they had all started out on those appointments, I left for the church. I got the printing done after a couple of printer adjustments. Once they were printed and placed I left to mail the few bulletins out to members then I stopped at Kroger to pick up meds so I didn’t have to have someone else pick them up for me so I wouldn’t have to leave Bob without someone here. 

The second upload for yesterday was another of the “my choice” images. This one was taken of my hibiscus last years. Gorgeous, aren’t they?

I have been having trouble with my ipad charging so I thought I would have to ask Sue to take it for repair for me. I set it up to charge before I left just in case it would work. When I got home, it had a full charge. I don’t know what is going on, maybe the battery going bad. Then when I went to shoot today’s photo my camera wouldn’t come on. After that and when I got home, I plugged it in to charge also, finally after some urging it got a full charge. Maybe I over use some of my technology...smile. 

After all of that I got the laundry together and put it in the washer. With that started I swept up some of the kibbles Sweet Pea had left on the floor for us.....she picks out the part she likes and leaves the rest. 

The first upload for today is “this season.” This is the best way I could think to show summer in Ohio. 

The word today is environment. God has in fact written two books not just one. Of course we are all familiar with the first book he wrote namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation, Francis Bacon.  Every man is like the company he is wont to keep, Euripides.   The poetry of the earth is never dead, John Keats. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse, Sitting Bull.  It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, William Shakespeare. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man, Charles Darwin. True wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model, Seneca the Younger.  A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children, John James Audubon.  It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature, Henry David Thoreau. In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous, Aristotle. Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself, Chief Seattle.  Your descendants shall gather your fruits, Virgil.  In the environment, every victory is temporary, every defeat permanent, Thomas Jefferson.  

For the second upload today .... another of the “my choice”. These flowers were near the end of their “lives”, but I think still offer a hint of beauty. For their counter parts in the garden outside, the season was coming to an end. 

Another of our area communities is growing. There is a mixed development planned for the area around the Intel Site, 400 areas of land to be exact. The proposal is divided into “two subareas that sit directly across from the Intel site.” There would be apartments with retail and restaurants, and some multi family housing with senior housing included. There would be green space with two streams and a ravine artfully situated. Add to all this would be a data center, warehouse, and offices. This is the proposal stage some areas of the land would have to be annexed the rest is already in the Johnstown. There are apparently mock ups of the plan and slides and other presentations for a vote of “a range of local stakeholders, including the Johnstown-Monroe School District.” They are keeping in mind the “need to proactively plan for future development in order to preserve farmland and the historic character of existing towns and cities.”

I am thinking sloppy joes for dinner.

Joy 

                along an Ohio USA country road