We’ll Stick With the Simpler Model (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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In her work as a realtor, mostly for friends, family, and people to whom she is referred by friends and family and who then become friends, Ms. G comes into a lot of small appliances, items of furniture, and various tchotchkes which the seller of the property do not want to take with them.

This results in her frequently asking me if i can use such-and-such item or other, as many of them are very happy to turn over to her not only the preparing of their home for sale and the putting it on the market, but also the distribution of such items, and we have ended up with many excellent things this way which have come in handy, a small dresser i still use, a file cabinet, fans, lamps, even a room A/C unit.

Yesterday it was an appliance which at first glance looks like just another microwave oven, but which could also function as a convection oven, air fryer, and which had separate buttons for baking potatoes, popping your popcorn, warming your pizza and defrosting your frozen foods -- in short, a wonder gadget.

If there is one thing i have found about such wonder gadgets, though, it's they seldom do everything well, and many of them do nothing well because they try to do too many things.

It had been sitting on her kitchen floor for at least a month forcing me to vacuum around it when she noticed it and said she needed to get rid of it and she meant now, as she said, "The person who was supposed to take it can't because her landlord has provided her with a microwave built in and he's not going to take that one out and reinstall this one and I need to rehome it, how is your microwave, does it do all those things and can you use this?"

Because of my belief about such wonder gadgets, however, i told her truthfully we have an almost new one and we will stick with it, as we also have a good working toaster/convection oven, and an air fryer, all of which have a place in our kitchen, and almost before i finished telling her, she had found a new home for it and we were loading it in the back of her car so she could get it to its new owner this weekend.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Function.     

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

Go ahead, have kids, they said.

It'll be fulfilling, they said.

But all that's in my head,

is I want to go back to bed!

I want some candy, they cry.

Don't wanna nap, they cry.

And I just let out a sigh,

and give it another try.

Read us a story, they plead.

We will sit still if you read.

To sit is what we all need,

and from all the angst we are freed.

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for running water in the house and if you wonder why, read yesterday’s post.     

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Today is:

Bad Hair Day -- birth anniversary of Don King

Birth of the White Buffalo -- Lakota Native American rituals honoring the birth of the White Buffalo in 1994, signaling the return of the White Buffalo Woman (manifestation of the Star Goddess Wohpe), who gave them the sacred peace pipe

Daffodil Day -- Australia (the Cancer Council's big fundraiser) 

Dial the Phone Day -- the first rotary dial phone patent was applied for by A. E. Keith, John Erickson, and Charles Erickson on this day in 1896

Feast of Asma -- Baha'i

Independence From USSR Day -- Estonia

Lemonade Day

Moon's Birthday -- Aztec Calendar (according to some websites, but i haven't confirmed it; if you want something to celebrate, this is as good as anything else)

National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

National Radio Day -- on the day WWJ(AM) radio first signed on in Detroit in 1920, one of the earliest news broadcast stations

Revolution Day -- Western Sahara

Revolution of the King and People -- Morocco

St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Day (Patron of bees and beekeepers, candle makers, wax refiners; Burgundy, France; Cistercians; Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge, England; Speyer Cathedral)

Stop and Smell Your Dog Day -- and, depending on the results, maybe even Give Your Dog a Bath Day

St. Stephen's Festival -- Budapest, Hungary (National Day for all of Hungary)

Thoth orders the healing of the Eye of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Virtual Worlds Day -- internet generated, as well it should be

World Mosquito Day -- commemorates the day Dr. Ronald Ross discovered the link between mosquitoes and malaria in 1897

Birthdays Today:

Amy Adams, 1975

Tara Dakides, 1975

Jan Allen, 1956

Theresa Saldana, 1955

Al Roker, 1954

Robert Plant, 1948

Connie Chung, 1946

Don King, 1931

Jim Reeves, 1924

Jacqueline Susann, 1921

Eero Saarinen, 1910

Edgar Albert Guest, 1881

H.P. Lovecraft, 1880

Eliel Saarinen, 1873

Benjamin Harrison, 1833

Bernardo O'Higgins, 1776

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"1812 Overture"(Tchaikovsky Op. 49), 1882

Today in History:

Hungary is established as a kingdom by Stephen I, 1000

The Dutch bring the first African slaves to the colony of Jamestown, VA, 1619

The Spanish establish the presidio that will be the town of Tuscon, Arizona, 1775

The Lewis and Clark "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis 1804

Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow, 1882

Rotary Dial telephone is patented, 1896

The Big Blowup, a huge fire in the Northwestern US, burns 3 million acres, 1910

Adolphe Pegoud makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1913

Stainless steel is first cast, 1913

WJM,8Mk, Detroit, becomes the first commercial radio station to start daily broadcasting, 1920

UK becomes the first to use radar, 1940

Plutonium's weight determined, 1942

Launch of Voyager 2, 1977

George and Joy Adamson, the Born Free conservationists, are gunned down by poachers, 1989

The Oslo Peace Accords are signed in Norway, 1993

The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec may not secede from Canada without federal government approval, 1998

As part of ongoing political reforms, the government of Myanmar announces it will end media censorship, 2012

Measles cases reach a record high in Europe with 41,000 infected in the first six months of 2018 and 37 deaths according to WHO, 2018

NASA confirms it is planning the Clipper Mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to take off in 2025 to explore the moon's oceans and find out if it can harbor life, 2019 

Misuzulu ka Zwelithini is crowned the new Zulu King at KwaKhangelamankengane Palace in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, 2022

In a referendum, Ecuador votes against drilling for oil in Yasuni National Park, a world biosphere reserve inhabited by indigenous groups in the Amazon, 2023

Handy Dandy (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Catsynth, Keith, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.   

This month, i am providing the prompts and they are being posted on my blog and by River.

mood

peanut

weakness

novel

ride

jump

and/or the following archaic or seldom used words

asunder (apart)

nary (none)

rantipole (behaving in a romping or rude manner)

Charlotte's colour of the month is Steel Blue.

Yesterday morning i was in the kitchen, in a happy MOOD, looking forward to #2 Son bringing our little PEANUT (Annie) over for me to watch while he and daughter-in-law work.

As i tidied the kitchen, i reached for the faucet, turned it on and got...nothing.

It made me JUMP, as i feared the worst, our water line had sprung a leak.

Running outdoors to see what was going on, i saw this from the front porch.

New fiber optic cables are being laid in our neighborhood.  For a few weeks now, they've been sending the people out to mark where everything is underground, gas lines, sewer lines, water lines, other cables, it's a regular jungle down there.

The WEAKNESS in the system is, the people who come out and mark it go by the maps, and sometimes things are not exactly where the map says they should be.

No one had gone all RANTIPOLE on us, doing it on purpose, but the backhoe had in fact run into and ripped our water line ASUNDER.

A nice gentleman in a salmon colored shirt told me he was very sorry, he was digging with the shovel to get to the place where he could use a water key to turn the water off.  I asked if we needed to call a plumber or the water company and he said neither, they are responsible for repairing anything they damage.  That was good news to me.

He also said one of the men was going to make a parts run in a few minutes and would also pick up what he needed to fix the water line, that we should have water within an hour or so.

I thanked him and went back in the house and as i reached the kitchen, all thoughts of doing dishes now placed on hold, the old words of the rhyme about the ocean came to me, "Water, water, everywhere, and NARY a drop to drink."  Only in this case, the only water was in my own water cup, the pitcher in the refrigerator, and the case of bottled water we keep in case of a storm and a boil water order.

My Sweetie came downstairs in a hurry and i told him what was up, and then Annie was dropped off.  Her first request was, "Wash hands water," which is her way of saying she wants to climb on the little stepladder and wash her hands and then play in the water.

I told her the water was "broken," and we went outside to see the equipment.

photo

A "pick-em-up truck," and quite a RIDE at that, had joined the queue in front of our house.  Annie would only let us get so close before she said, "Stop here!"  Eventually i could see a very nice gentleman in a Steel Blue shirt cutting the kind of pipe you use for water lines and using plumbing sealant on it, and i knew he was a past hand at this very thing.

Annie and i were out there when the first gentleman said, "Where's your nearest outdoor faucet?  We want to open it up before we turn the water on, so if there's any dirt in the line it flushes out before it can get to the pipes in the house."

I told him it was on the side of the house where they were, and next thing i knew i could hear water gushing from the side of the house, a welcome sound.

They let it run a few minutes, then we went in, turned on the kitchen sink, and were rewarded with the usual sound of water hitting bottom of a stainless steel basin.  Annie got to "wash hands water" and the dishes were done and things went on.

As a bonus, i got a Words for Wednesday story out of it, not a NOVEL, of course, but just an interesting Tuesday morning event to write about

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Today is:

Black Cow Root Beer Float Day -- the ice cream and root beer combination was supposedly first served on this date in 1893 by Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing, and he named it after the local Cow Mountain

Hanawa Bayashi -- Kazuno City, Japan (parades and music in the merchant's quarter, through tomorrow)

Hot & Spicy Food Day

Ibumin Earoeni Day -- Nauru (Day of the Tribes)

Jeshen -- Afghanistan (Independence Day)

Manuel Luis Quezon Day -- Quezon City, Philippines

National Aviation Day -- US

National Medical Dosimetrist's Day -- American Association of Medical Dosimetrists (medical radiation safety experts) 

Potato Day

Qi Xi -- China (Double Seventh or Chinese Valentine's Day, the 7th day of the 7th moon, the day all the magpies in the world form a bridge so the cowherd and the weaver can meet across the Milky Way, which separates them; it is also celebrated in Vietnam as Thất Tịch and is the inspiration for Japan's Tanabata Festival and Korea's Chilseok)

St. John Eudes' Day (Patron of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada)

St. Sebald's Day (a/k/a Sebaldus) (Patron of Bavaria, Germany; Nuremburg, Germany; against cold weather and freezing)

Vinalia Rustica -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Ripening Grapes)

World Humanitarian Day -- UN

World Photography Day

Birthdays Today:

Snuffleupagus (year unconfirmed)

Jennifer Morrison, 1979

Matthew Perry, 1969

LeAnn Womack, 1966

Kyra Sedgwick, 1965

Kevin Dillon, 1965

John Stamos, 1963

Adam Arkin, 1956

Cindy Nelson

Peter Gallagher, 1955

Mary Matlin, 1953

Jonathan Frakes, 1952

John Deacon, 1951

Gerald McRaney, 1948

Tipper Gore, 1948

Bill Clinton, 1946

Jack Canfield, 1944

Jill St. John, 1940

Diana Muldaur, 1938

Franklin Story Musgrave, 1935

Willie Shoemaker, 1931

Don Ho, 1930

Gene Roddenberry, 1921

Malcolm Forbes, 1919

Jimmy Rowles, 1918

Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915

Philo T. Farnsworth, 1906 (forgotten inventor of television)

Ogden Nash, 1902

Coco Chanel, 1883

George Bellows, 1882

Orville Wright, 1881

John Dryden, 1631

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Animal Clinic" and "Acrobat Ranch"(first Saturday morning children's programs, on ABC), 1950

Today in History:

The Roman Senate is compelled to elect Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, Consul, BC43

Augustus Caesar dies, 14

Crusaders defeat the Saracens in the Battle of Ascalon, 1099

Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith to assume the throne, 1561

Five people are executed for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., 1692

Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences, 1839

The New York Herald reports the discovery of gold in California, 1849

The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio, 1934

Hurricane Dianne kills 200 and does about $1 Billion in damage, 1955

Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, 1990

Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989

A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities, 2005

A team of divers discover the wreck of a Swedish warship, part of King Erik XIV's fleet, that sank in 1564 in the Baltic Sea, 2011

The monsoon rains finally ease up in Kerala State, India, where flooding has already claimed 350 lives and left 200,000+ in relief camps, 2018

Apple becomes the first US company to be valued at $2 trillion, just 2 years after it reached the value of $1 trillion, 2020

The drought in Europe uncovers river "hunger stones" which were set in rivers in warning of famine; the one in Děčín on the Elbe River, with an inscription dating from 1417, simply says "if you see me, then weep," 2022

Following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, Tomiko Itooka of Japan becomes the world's oldest person at age 116, 2024