November 2, 2020 thought for today: He that corrects not youth, controls not age. French Proverb

I overdid it this morning. We had some grocery shopping to get out of the way and needed to do it today because we are out of one thing here and one thing there, not a lot but enough that some needed replaced now. Now that I am home and every thing is almost put up I am “weary” (love that word....seems so old fashioned but still very effective). 

On the way home from the store we stopped at McDonalds then a quick trip around the park to see if there were any flowers left after the freeze. The mums made it but they were about the only thing that did. 

Before we left this morning, I got a good bit done on the bulletin. The pastor for this week got the information to me late last night. I so appreciate getting the information ahead of time much more than getting it at almost the last minute. 

I was able to get the bulletin done just before lunch time. I will recheck it tomorrow before I send it to be proofread. 

In the photo club that I belong to that offers a new challenge each day throughout the year, many times a theme is used over again in following months.  This method of choosing subject matter offers a chance to use the same subject in different views or perspectives and so on. Yesterday’s title was “one colour”. We have used the “one colour” theme a few times over the years. This time my single color of the day was red. I was on my way to church, driving on a street I use every day....I caught sight of a privacy fence that I see every time I go down that street, almost every day. It is painted bright red. I was inches past when I realized that could be my shot for the day. There’s one color, so I backed up (there was no traffic on the street) and positioned the car in the alley beside the fence and made several images. Here’s one of them. 

I finally had to give in and put the heating blanket on the bed. It was cold this morning. It’s warming up pretty well though and is supposed to be near seventy degrees by the end of the week. 

The word for today is past.  One reason God created time was so that there would be a place to bury the failures of the past, James Long. However we pass Time, he passes still, Passing away whatever the pastime, And, whether we use him well or ill, Some day he gives us the slip for the last time, Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end, Seneca the Younger. The wise man looks back into the past, and does not grieve over what is far off, nor rejoice over what is near; for he knows that time is without end, Laozi.  Don't worry about people from your past there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future, Adam Lindsay Gordon.  If we tried To sink the past beneath our feet, be sure The future would not stand, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The past is always attractive because it is drained of fear, Thomas Carlyle. Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present, Edmond de Goncourt.  He who controls the past controls the future, Laozi.  Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee, Michel de Montaigne. If you are at peace, you are living in the present, Laozi. Waste not fresh tears over old griefs, Euripides.  

Today’s challenge is “flowers”. As I mentioned in a paragraph above we went by the park for some photo ideas. Besides the mums there were some tiny little flowers holding on for dear life. They looked like petunias....(like “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch”...(look the lyrics up)). I’ll have to admit I took some shots in the flower section of Kroger because I know flowers here in this season are far and few between. But decided to use the lonely little petunia(s). I think they were protected some from the cold by the taller and bushier plants around them. 

I thought this article might be a bit informative and besides it’s another story about animals. I love to learn all I can. This particular story is about a pesky friend who scurries about trying to maintain it’s God gifted existence. It supports a mask offering a bit of mystery. His given name is “raccoon”. I didn’t realize until I read this article that they are relatives of bears, albeit a small one weighing in at about 35 pounds. It can live in all habitats and do well in “citified landscapes”. They are “omnivores” which means they eat almost anything so they are drawn to trash cans and bird feeders. Another thing I learned, I didn’t have the inclination to study their habits in any of my past researches, so here’s new information for my intellect. Another point of interest, in the autumn racoons go on “food binges, packing on massive quantities of fat.” Because of this they can go almost all winter without eating (bear like?) although they do not hibernate, per se, just stay in their “home” for long periods during the coldest part of winter. When they do go out to feed during these timse they will visit maintained bird feeders. The person writing the article said that he put his bird feeder on a pole to skinny for the raccoon to climb. However, during the night a little time later the pole was toppled and the seed container, empty. In the spring a huge adult female with two of her “kits” came along. The mother climbed the pole and found a foothold in order to toss the seed to her children. The next step to preventing the thievery was removing the baffle (foot hold) and grease the pole with Vaseline. The article went on to say that effort worked for one night but the second night the thieves had rubbed off the Vaseline. Friends told the man he would never win. So his solution for the time being is to remove the feeder at night, put it in the garage and hope that the racoons don’t discover how to break in for dinner. 

We will have hot dogs and fried potatoes for dinner. 

Joy

 October 31, 2020 thought for the today: If the young only knew; if the old only could. French Proverb

This was one of the week ends the twins were here for a sleep over. They didn’t start asking for me to print them some clip art for coloring or cutting out until it was about time for them to go so we didn’t get that part done this week. One thing that we did get done was coloring hard-boiled eggs. The back story for the colored eggs is that a few years ago the day before Easter and before the girls knew what colored Easter eggs were all about my sister and I told them about coloring eggs and the meanings attached (one of those teaching moments). Then we hid them around the house. Now we have to do that any time the thought occurs to them. They have also found the fun of raking leaves into a pile and then jumping and rolling in them. Ahhhh, youth. 

Yesterday’s photo theme was titled “peeking”. Whenever I go out to move the flag or gather some of my blooming flowers Sweet Pea watches for and after me (Sugar isn’t tall enough to reach this pane of glass). As I was trying to determine what and where I would get this challenge image I remembered Sweet Pea’s face and eyes, how could I forget.  

I feel like I am being lazy today. I don’t have anything productive on the agenda besides running the message/hymns sheets to the church 

Sue and I got some running around done yesterday. She wanted to shop at the thrift store. That is not one of the places that I normally shop so I asked her to pick something up for me. I am crocheting hacky sack/stress/juggling balls for my five great grandchildren and the two twins (seven sets of five balls each). I tried and tired to think of something safe to stuff them with besides cotton batting, something a little more substantial. Something safe for the youngest of them. In one of my famous Google searches I found that one lady tore old clothing into strips to use for stuffing for soft craft items. So I started that. It works great, just enough “body” and just soft enough. I digress, I am running out of clothing that I want to tear up so I asked her to pick up the least expensive long skirt of heavy cloth. She did....a skirt (XXL), $2, cheaper than a bag of cotton filler/batting, and is made of denim. I have thirteen of the thirty-five balls done so that skirt came at the right time. 

My photo challenge for today is “a wonderful surprise”. Since the twins are here, I have a couple of models. I tried a shot of them playing in the leaves but the sun was in such a position that it caused a hazy almost foggy aura making it difficult for Photoshop and I to depict what I was going for. Finally while they were dying their eggs I caught some of their reactions. That project never seems to fail to bring a “surprised” look to their faces. 

While Sue was in the thrift store I stopped at JoAnn fabrics to find some yarn before I went back to pick her up. I forgot to list the colors that I am running out of so I will have to go back soon. 

The word today is pardon.  We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature, Voltaire.  Love truth, but pardon error, Voltaire.  As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely, Madame de Stael.  We pardon to the extent that we love, Francois de La Rochefoucauld. It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much, George Eliot. Cowards have done good and kind actions, but a coward never pardoned, Friedrich Schiller. We are certain that there is forgiveness, because there is a Gospel, and the very essence of the Gospel lies in the proclamation of the pardon of sin, Charles Spurgeon. We pardon infidelities, but we do not forget them, Madame de La Fayette. Where there is injury let me sow pardon, Francis of Assisi.  God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness, Henry Ward Beecher. If you excuse yourself in confession, you shut up sin within your soul, and shut out pardon, Saint Augustine. You will perceive by my preaching that I am growing old: it is the privilege of years, and I am sure you will pardon it from the purity of it's motives, Thomas Jefferson. Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy, Isidore of Seville.  We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy, Francois de La Rochefoucauld.  

This being the last day of the month it is time to generate and upload my monthly photo a day composite.  

Besides much history of this city being there, GreenLawn has a lot of stories to tell. It is interesting to go there and just walk around. Sometimes you may even see some deer who have chosen it as their home. This article is from the This Week newspaper. Many of the people buried at GreenLawn are pioneer settlers to Columbus or may have died here as they traveled through the city. Presently there is a new  “public memorial” that has placed at GreenLawn to mark the memory of people who were originally buried elsewhere but had to be moved due to construction and other city growth. The article put forth the thought that “Where we rest is a place of reflection.” In early October a bronze wolf statue was hoisted on top of a “32,000 pound granite boulder in the R Section”. GreenLawn was opened in 1849. When is was competed there were almost 900 graves that had been moved from “the North Graveyard” which is now the parking lot at the North Market and from the “original city cemetery in Franklinton.” As the article went on, I learned that in the late 1970's more graves were discovered at the North Market location and moved to GreenLawn. More bones were discovered in and after 2005. Most of these bodies were found without markers. Recently, there was a generous monetary gift that allowed the cemetery to make improvements to the grounds and offered a time to honor the “city’s ancestors buried there”. The wolf icon was chosen due to something seen in an early history book of Columbus....”early residents of Franklinton called downtown, and the east bank of the river, Wolf Ridge." Apparently Wolves lived there but the settlers drove them out because they were a nuisance. The bronze wolf statue measures 30% larger than a common gray wolf. A plaque is also mounted and reads “Departed Denizens”. Even though all the names are not known, their “stories are part of Columbus’ history”. 

This seems like it should be a chili day for dinner day so that it is with some fried potatoes on the side. 

Joy

 October 29, 2020 thought for today: In youth, one has tears without grief; in age, grief without tears. French Proverb

The printing went well again this morning. I was able to download the taped church services from the memory card to the archive files I created on the church computer, then delete them from the card to free up more memory. I also printed the new church directory. I wanted to test the cover and final format. I am not happy with the color in the cover so it is back to the drawing board but it shouldn’t take too long to fix it. 

I wanted to stop by White Castle but they are still closed from the fatal shooting that happened there a few days ago. 

The photo theme for October 28 was “soft”. I thought of a huge spray of whipped cream or a big fat feather-filled pillow. I had just swept up some of Sweet Pea’s hair that was so soft I had trouble getting it to the trash can without it blowing away from the swish of air from the furnace registers. So that turned out to be my choice for this subject. 

Sue needed to run some errands so once I got home we went out to get those done. The streets were wet from the rain that occurred most of the night and into our outing of obligations and errands.  Once back home I got started on the laundry.

The word is paradise.  However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not bad... it looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults, even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may have perhaps so, Henry David Thoreau. Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out, Jean Paul Richter. To lepers and to outcasts thou dost show - that passion is the paradise below, Charles Baudelaire.  He that does good for good's sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end, William Penn. Paradise is open to all kind hearts, Pierre-Jean de Beranger. The heart of man is, so to speak, the paradise of God, Alphonsus Liguori. A good conscience is paradise, Jacobus Arminius. The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly, Paul of the Cross. Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts, Voltaire. The Bible begins gloriously with Paradise, the symbol of youth, and ends with the everlasting kingdom, with the holy city. The history of every man should be a Bible, Novalis. Scripture brought me to the Gate of Paradise, and the mind stood in wonder as it entered, Ephrem the Syrian. Infancy is the perpetual Messiah, which comes into the arms of fallen men, and pleads with them to return to paradise, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

The photo theme for today is “dance”. I don’t have any idea where to find something suitable for it
today so I searched the archives and found some that will do. For some reason this theme brought a song theme and it’s words to my mind. The title is I Danced in the Morning (Dance, then, wherever you my be .....and I’ll lead you all in the dance said He). I found some shots I had taken at my great granddaughter’s dance recital a couple of years ago. She was much younger than the young ladies shown in this group of ballerinas in front of the heads of the many people in the audience. I used a filter on the finished piece. I was several rows from the stage and in low light conditions. I think the photo turned out well under those conditions. 

I like plants and thought this article may bring a little freshness into these waning days of late autumn. The title of this article is “ Shop Talk: Groovy Plants Ranch an Oasis of Houseplants, Cacti & Succulents”. This shop is located in Marengo, Ohio. It is said to be a one-stop-shop for all kinds of plants. They offer decorative ceramics to go along with the living plants. One of the owners has been operating the business his college days when he grew and sold cacti at flea markets. The business kept growing so that he built a green house. He and his wife bought the property where they are now located. They grow most of their stock and “source” those that are harder to find from other greenhouses. The article mentioned that they have a large selection of unusual succulents. They have three building on their property. The buildings are names “The School House”, for bulbs and seeds and other merchandise; “The Mercantile”, a greenhouse; and “The Jungle Hut”, a greenhouse for low-light plants and a “Rare Plant Vault”.  The staff are purported (since I haven’t personally had the pleasure of visiting (yet)) to be very knowledgeable about the products and love answering questions and troubleshooting. Later the owners hope to offer educational classes and craft events some with a glass of wine. The shop also offers online materials. In the summer they have fruits and vegetables, in the fall mums, gourds and pumpkins, in the winter poinsettias. Their on line address is GroovyPlantsRanch.com.

I will be making spaghetti for dinner, it’s my dad’s recipe, I have used it for years. 

Joy

 October 27, 2020 thought for today: Honesty makes you rich, but she works slowly. German Proverb

I seem to be sleeping a few minutes longer each day... wonder if that is one of the signs of the aging process....if it is ..... darn!

The photo theme for October 26 was “a spider web”. There are plenty of those around especially this time of year. So I went to the “back forty” (back yard) and looked around the crevasses in the fences and sure enough I found a few. Then checked in the basement around the hidden and not so often noticed pipes and spaced in the concrete. I didn't get each strand of the web as clear as I would have liked to but I did get the collection if goods that the spider caught.

I think I mentioned a while back in the blog that I lost a pair of glasses and am wearing an old out dated pair. So I decided to take a pair of old frames to my eye doctor to see if I could get my current prescription glass put in. I called yesterday and they said they could do it. So I took them out this morning. I should have them in a few days. 

On my way home I decided to stop at a Kroger store to see if they carried, apparently, a special tea my sister likes. We can’t seem to find it anywhere. It is Arizona Arnold Palmer Zero tea. It seemed readily available a while back but seems harder and harder to find. The first store where I stopped didn’t have it so I tried a second one a little more out of my way but not that much. They didn’t have it either. So I gave up and headed home. 

While I was at the doctor’s office I asked if they minded if I used my camera to take a couple of shots. The theme today is “collection”. I felt their selection of glasses. After the stops at Kroger I continued to look for a possible photo that would fit the theme, a trash collection truck....no luck. There didn’t seem to be one working today at least not in my vicinity. 

When I finally got home and checked my email I found that the information I need to finish the bulletin was here so I got that done. 

There was an explosion of blooms on my hibiscus bush this morning so I took some time to go collect them (all eleven flowers) to enjoy inside the house. I think it will soon be all bloomed out for the season. 

The word today is opposites. God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one, Rumi.   Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Isaac Newton. Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments, Plato.  While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one, Horace.  Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites, Plato. Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty, Jean de la Bruyere.  All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident, Arthur Schopenhauer.  In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition, William Ellery Channing. The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself, Aristotle.  The only way to meet affliction is to pass through it solemnly, slowly, with humility and faith, as the Israelites passed through the sea. Then its very ways of misery will divide, and become to us a wall, on the right side and on the left, until the gulf narrows before our eyes and we land safe on the opposite sore, Dinah Maria Murlock Craik. The proof of a well-trained mind is that it rejoices in which is good and grieves at the opposite, Marcus Tullius Cicero.   

The article looked like an interesting idea. The title was: Charcuterie businesses slice out their own niche during pandemic. I had never heard the term so I Googled it and found that it was a French term meaning a meat platter. There was a photo in the article that showed mostly breakfast sweets which puzzled me since the definition was meat.  I glanced further through the article and found this sentence: “Though charcuterie generally refers to a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meats and comes from a French word meaning “cooked flesh,” people are making breakfast charcuterie boards that include fruit, eggs, bacon and pancakes, or fall-themed ones that incorporate candy corn, nuts and pumpkin doughnuts to savor after seasonal meats and cheeses.” One of the lady’s mentioned in the first part of the article said that she had taken one of these plates to a small gathering this summer. She said her friends suggested she make them and sell them. She sold fifteen boards in a week. Since her business picked up she invested in a “restaurant-style refrigerator”. Apparently there are others who started businesses using charcuterie boards. One person interviewed said that it is a way to make extra money especially in this pandemic arena.  One of the ladies said that she can pay all the household bills out of the company. Some of the people shopping are “jazzing” up there stay-at-home evenings. Others was to send a unique gift or to folks hosting a party. In one sentence she said “.... even the “food truck option” at breweries certain nights of the week.” Items used to “build” this platters or “boards” can be vegan or sweets not including meats and cheese. One board she did for a baby shower was one with “s’more fixings”. According to the article more restaurants are offering them on their menus. Also mentioned in the article was that there are kits that can be purchased to build your own boards. The food can be pickled vegetable or plain and multiple types of cheeses. One lady while on vacation made n eight foot charcuterie spread. 

I am making a meatloaf for dinner and I have mashed potatoes and a delicious Au Jus gravy I made last night with baked cube stakes. 

Joy

 October 25, 2020 thought for the today: If you are an anvil, be patient; if you are a hammer, strike hard. German Proverb

I feel bad....I chose not to go to church today, personal reasons. I have a feeling I will feel the effects of it all day if not all week. I have come to find that I need the Sunday morning refresher to my daily living. It clears my mind and “gives me permission” to keep going with a smile and lessens or sweeps away some of the heaviest dismaying events of the past week, piled on those same feelings of the past few months of strife, sadness, and fear. I don’t always agree with the message of the day but the companionship of my peers and friends and the atmosphere of the church are part of worship. The organ music, even if we don’t sing along, following the words in the hymnal stimulate emotional and thought censors.

Yesterday the photo theme was “rocks”. I didn’t have to go far to find rock. We have a few spots in the back and front yard where small collections of rocks have seems to gather. Planning a rock garden may be on the horizon for next spring. 

We have a mouse in the house. Last night as I sat in my bed reading I saw him searching for food in the other room. We have been mouse-free for several months. He must have come in out of the “cold” and most likely plans to stay. I would rather not kill him so he’d better find his way out again....not very likely.

I still don’t have much planned for today, this being Sunday. I will enjoy looking out the window at nature and the sky as I gather knowledge from searches on the computer and favorable articles from the paper (online version).

The word for the day is opinion.  Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth, Marcus Aurelius.  Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes, Voltaire.  He who has no opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.  The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind, William Blake.    I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend, Thomas Jefferson. Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making, John Milton.  Public opinion in this country is everything, Abraham Lincoln, Opinion is the queen of the world, Blaise Pascal. Keep one thing in view forever- the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinion of men, it will assuredly conduct you to the throne of God, Horace Mann.  Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it, Thomas Jefferson. Opinions are made to be changed or how is truth to be got at? Lord Byron. Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so, Tacitus. Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance, Hippocrates. 

I had to make a quick trip for an errand so while I was out I kept an eye out for today’s photo challenge. I had given it some thought earlier but had a hard time trying to come up with where to look for “an arrow pointing up”. With Bob’s help I came up with a couple of things to look for and as I was driving I saw a few more. 

Here’s real courage and the will and wonder to get every drop and every moment of fun that life has to offer. The article is about a little boy who has Prader-Willi Syndrom, a very serious genetic disorder and how he is handling life. Some of the symptoms of the disease are low muscle tone, abnormal growth and intellectual disabilities and more. The doctors told his parents that he wouldn’t be able to walk alone. Then he started walking, next they said he would never run after he was running then said he would never jump. His mother showed the doctor a photo on her phone of the boy climbing on a climbing rock. The boy’s father introduced him to a skateboard to help his muscle tone and balance during the pandemic when his physical therapy was halted. Apparently the skateboarding has helped him in other ways too. It has helped socially as well as in the areas of reaction time and anticipating things. Because of the skateboarding exercise his running has improved. Other “obstacles” have come into his live. He developed cerebral palsy and is on the autism spectrum. His parents say something I have heard from other parents of children who have special differences in their lives. The parents say “...(he) has been the most rewarding thing in my entire life because it taught me to quit worrying about things I can’t control.” Ways of treating many less than everyday twists in human development way come about by an unexpected happening. When the physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy were interrupted for the boy, his parents accidentally found something that helped maybe in better ways. When these stopped for the boy his father found the skateboard as he was cleaning out the garage. There was a learning period and some nervousness on the part of the parents but all was beyond well. The father is planning a line of skate4boards that will benefit research. The boards will be imprinted with the words “Yes, I Will.”

Sundays have become taco night (or a reliable substitute) for take home for dinner. 

Joy 

 October 23, 2020 thought for the day: If you don't want to be deceived, you must have as many eyes as hairs on the head. German Proverb

It’s been an active day. I doubled up on the printing at church yesterday. I called the lady who helps with finishing the newsletter and asked her if she would mind coming in on Thursday instead of Friday as is our custom to help with the folding, sealing, labeling, stamping and mailing. She was happy to do it. The three printing projects for the day went well after I was able to figure out why the computer, monitors and copier went off, (it was a problem with one of the power strips) went out half way through the jobs. Her help let me clear today for a doctor’s appointment that I had forgotten. 

Yesterday’s photo theme was “running water”. After running water from my faucet, which I have a problem capturing in an image, my next thought was the fountain in the park down the street. I wasn’t satisfied with the preview in my camera monitor so I went on to shoot a “spring-like” feature at the end of the pond in the park. I don’t know what that “spring-like” object is or what it is for but I am guessing that it is some sort of aeration system. Whatever it is it is running water. 

Sue went along with me to the doctor. She needed to have some blood work done and the lab is in the same building as my doctor’s office. I got the flu shot out of the way and some of my own blood work done too. I had an informative chat with both the doctor and the lab technician about some of my own pandemic safety measures as well as why the “old” Mt. Carmel was moved. We are in agreement that it was desperately needed where it was in the first place.   

We both had grocery lists to tend to so we stopped at Kroger to get that task out of the way. On the way home from our adventures, I wanted to stop by White Castle for a light “brunch” and then into the affects of another kind of adventure. There had been a fatal shooting at the business earlier in the morning. So the whole White Castel lot was taped off. As we headed on down Broad Street we noticed that the bank across the street from White Castle had been taped off too. Then, still further, across the street from the corner of my street the filling station was also taped off. I found out later that the shooter had shot out windows at the bank and went further to try to rob and hide in the rest room at the filling station. 

Once home, I got back to work. I got part of the groceries put up before I watered the plants and finished loading the near full dish washer. Back at the computer, I got back into some other multitasking. I checked and answered emails, took a quick break from that to get back to the church messages ready for handing out. Also got one big bill paid and ordered some furnace filters. I still have about half of those to do and then back to putting the rest of the groceries up. Hopefully I will have those done before the twins get here for their overnight. 

The word today is open. You cannot open a book without learning something, Confucius. Youth comes but once in a lifetime, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Luck generally comes to those who look for it, and my notion is that it taps, once in a lifetime, at everybody's door, but if industry does not open it luck goes away, Charles Spurgeon. One day is worth a thousand tomorrows, Benjamin Franklin. Each day of my life I am sowing seeds that one day I will harvest, Gautama Buddha. One moment can change a day, One day can change a life and One life can change the world, Gautama Buddha. There's no use in comparing one's feelings between one day and the next; you must allow a reasonable interval, for the direction of change to show itself, Lewis Carroll.  Let us make education brave and preventive. Politics is an after work, a poor patching. We are always a little late... We shall one day learn to supercede politics by education... We must begin higher up, namely in Education, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written, Henry David Thoreau. 

The photo challenge today is “an empty table”.  Many years ago my aunt gave me a table that had been in her lake front home for as long as I knew the home. It is a gate-leg table. (Here is a definition of a gate leg table: A gate-leg table is a type of furniture first introduced in England in the 16th century. The table top has a fixed section and one or two hinged leaves, which, when not in use, fold down below the fixed section to hang vertically. As such, gate-leg tables are a subset of the type known as a drop-leaf. The hinged section, or flap, was supported on pivoted legs joined at the top and bottom by stretchers constituting a gate. Large flaps had two supports, which had the advantage of providing freer leg space in the center.) I think the photo shows the character the years have imparted to and on this eighty-plus year old table. 

I latched on to this article particularly due to something I heard in the campaign speech last night. FORMER Vise President Biden said Lincoln was a racist. That shocked me, another shock similar to the destruction of historical statues in this season of the apparent restructure of America. I don’t understand how he could have been after what he did for slavery and his efforts of trying to make a solution for both the slaves’ lives and “owners”’ lives to be safer and happier. These kinds of things repeatedly show me how the decisions of human beings in authority are made with and by things happening in their life and in the society around them at the time the decisions need to be made. Am I naïve?  This article is about the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, hopefully when I read it through there will be some salvage to the tatters being made of my humble belief in the history and greatness of the world’s United States. In Springfield, Illinois in the front of the museum is a sculpture of Lincoln “right down to Lincoln’s patent leather shoes”. The museum features many parts of Lincoln’s life “from childhood ....to that fatal night at Ford’s Theatre”.  The museum is sectioned into two parts, “the Journey” the early years and “the White House Years”, all from the one-room log cabin to the farewell speech. I’m sure those early years show a hardship that is not just the suffering of one part of society but of many if not all of us to one degree or another. The article went on to relate how there was impeccable attention to setting up the cabin right down to some trees. The article further mentioned that two 1800s tobacco barns were found in storage in Kentucky and Virginia and brought to the museum. There is a reproduction of the South Portico in the White House section. “There are 12 million books, documents and artefacts...the world’s largest collection.” It is “one of the most studied museums in the world”. I wonder if, because of a belief as earlier mentioned in the blog, very soon, this facility will be allowed, by some purported all knowing(?) authority, to be taken apart and destroyed as with the other historical artifacts that have recently been in this year of horror or deformed wonder. 

Wonderful pizza night tonight...

Joy

October 21, 2020 thought for today: If you fail to practice your art, it will soon disappear. German Proverb

This was one of those days where I couldn’t catch up, as a matter of fact I am still “running” (in my head) to catchup. 

I finished the newsletter this morning and was able to, almost, finish the message and hymn for the Saturday free meal. I got stuck on one of the clip arts for the hymn page and had to let it go until I got back from food pantry. 

One of yesterday’s photo themes was “graffiti”. I traveled around looking for some before pantry. I thought I had seen more than I could actually find. I found one where windows’ were pained on a building to look like real ones but didn’t know if that would be considered graffiti. I think it would have been according to the definition I found. (... form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorized marking of public space by an individual or group. Although the common image of graffiti is a stylistic symbol or phrase spray-painted on a wall by a member of a street gang, some graffiti is not gang-related. Graffiti can be understood as antisocial behavior performed in order to gain attention or as a form of thrill seeking, but it also can be understood as an expressive art form..... there are many different types and styles of graffiti; it is a rapidly developing art form.)

Yesterday I helped with pantry outside while it was misting off and on. Thank goodness it wasn’t a hard rain. It was like riding a bike I was able to get right back into being in sync. I went again today. It was a little warmer today. I’m glad to get back to it. 

While I was there, I got a text telling me that the minister had uploaded the information I need to finish the bulletin. So when I got home I started on that right away. When I got that finished I uploaded it and the bulletin to be proof read. Then I finished the message sheet that I started this morning. Next, addressed shut in envelopes and printed the labels for the newsletters.

The second photos of the day for yesterday was “one of the (five) senses” to describe the photo. Sugar was near me taking one of her many naps. So I wanted to get an up close shot of her eye to represent “close your eyes” (song title). 

The word today is open.   Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others, Francois de La Rochefoucauld . Honesty is always the best policy, George Washington. Never apologize for showing feeling. When you , do so, you apologize for the truth, Benjamin Disraeli. Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door, Emily Dickinson. Joy and openness come from our own contented heart, Gautama Buddha. Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds, Henry David Thoreau. If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance, Marcus Aurelius.  I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it, Thomas Paine. Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Henry David Thoreau.  To love another person is to see the face of God, Victor Hugo.  The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart, Benjamin Franklin   When you open your heart with a quiet mind love rushes in, Genevieve.  

Now I have to search my archives for a photo for today’s challenge. The theme is “a flock of birds”. As I was working the food pantry and on the way home I looked for birds....not one in sight, let alone a flock. So it truly will be the archives to the rescue. 

I like stories about places that are being renovated, something old brought back to something new. I don’t know much about a place in our city called the “Circus House”, located in Victorian Village,  but it sounds intriguing. This article is about the new owners of this structure renovating it. (I looked up a description before I read the article: The mansion was built in 1895 by Peter Sells, one of the founders of the Sells circus.) According to the new owners the house has been “severely damaged under previous ownership”. Here are some of the damages, electrical boxes ripped from walls, plumbing smashed, flooring pulled up, mirrors shattered, and so on. It went to describe how the 1895 banister had been pulled away from the spindles. Walls, arches gold paint have been tainted. The new owners suspect that it will cost as much to restore it as it did to purchase it in the first place, but they are looking forward to revitalizing it. One of the contractor who will be working on the house said that it is one of the “great houses in Columbus” and “it is a crime to see this place dark for so long...”. The original house was built with respect for design elements such as Gothic Revival, Mission Revival and French chateau in mind. The house has changed over the years with removal of certain parts. The new owners have gotten permission to make additional changes such as “extending the home’s distinctive gothic-arch....on the front porch”. The owners are asking electricians and plumbers to check wiring and water lines piece by piece. It was stated that “ it’s like ....putting Humpty Dumpty back together”. At different points in time the house was used as an alcoholic shelter and a day care center, probably not at the same time. The owners want it not only for a home but as an office and meeting place too. They are looking at the “construction ahead instead of the destruction behind”. One of the new owners'  philanthropic  endeavors is near and dear to my heart, work for the safety and protection of animals. They hope to make room for  having meetings for that interest as well as others in the new building. 

It will something out of the freezer for dinner. 

Joy