Tuesday tidbits

"practice makes proficient" - not perfect, not necessarily progress...
proficient* = competent or skilled in doing or using something

So make good choices about what and how you practice, whether with hand or brain or spirit, because repetition makes whatever you repeat more likely to happen again. Some of the things I have practiced over the years/decades have really made my life easier, like I am much better at soldering than I was when I started. Some of the things I have practiced over the years/decades have made my life much more difficult, like assuming danger all the time, which has limited my life in uncounted ways. We most often think of practice in terms of trying to learn new skills, but we are practicing continually in all the different spheres we exist in. I continue to attempt to notice what I am practicing, and to practice by choice and not by default. This is way harder than it sounds, and is in itself a type of practice...

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Every time I've ridden the train between Boston and points west, this curious structure has fascinated me, and this trip I managed a few decent photos...

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as seen from the train, and enlarged to show facade

The water visible in the photos is Farm Pond in Framingham, the terminal end of the Sudbury Aqueduct, which was built between 1875 and 1878, and was in use for over 100 years. The small building is not an unusual home site, as I had imagined, but rather a "gate house" that houses part of the machinery that controlled the flow of water.
Here is a photo from 1910, looking in the opposite direction, and the rail line is clearly visible in the background.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	earbud case	replace button patches	chicken house
2	Ursa pullover	pruned parking strip	chicken waterer
3	x	renewed raised planters	lots of yard waste
4	x	plant salad table	paper recycling
5	x	plant tomato starts	-
6	x	grapevine pruned	-
7	x	green onions planted	-
8	x	I-cord edging	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	-
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - the internet makes doing research eversomuch easier, as only those of us who grew up before will ever appreciate

*late 16th century: from Latin proficient- ‘advancing’, from the verb proficere, from pro- ‘on behalf of’ + facere ‘do, make’.