Please Be Understanding (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G, thanks to parents who smoked like chimneys all the time she was growing up and then later in life, helping with rescuing animals from an encroaching fire and suffering smoke inhalation, has both second-hand smoke induced COPD and asthma.

She is also highly allergic to dust, when it is in the air, that is.

Dust on an object is no problem at all, it's just when you try to disturb it in any way it causes her fits.

Thus she is pristine about me maintaining the carpets and hard floors with thorough vacuuming on a very regular basis, much needed because of Ms. Sassy Floofypants and her very long, black sheddy hair, and Mr. Gray with his long, gray sheddy hair getting all over the floors.

But her house is crammed with knickknacks and mementos, some of which are very pricey and a lot of which have much value, both money wise and sentimental, and they, along with the furniture, are usually very dusty as she and i only dust when she decides she can't stand it, masks up, and downs an allergy pill first, then everything is wiped with a damp cloth to keep as must dust out of the air as possible.

If you ever visit Ms. G, be sure to compliment her on the floors and ignore the dust, we are doing the best we can.

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

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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:    

My brother tried to bop me on the nose,

I ducked and managed to step on his toes,

It's so much fun when we have a tussle,

I have to laugh but he pulled a muscle!

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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 something which might sound odd to some.  My Sweetie has a couple of vintage guitar amplifiers which require old style vacuum tubes to run.  Over the course of 40 years he bought tubes for them when he could, and has quite a number of them, most of which he stores in old style military ammunition holders because they are metal and sturdy and very protective of these fragile and now almost impossible to find tubes.

Please note he only had some of them in two such holders.  The rest were not so protected until Ms. G yesterday asked me if i knew anyone who needed one or two, which she'd gotten heaven only knows how.  Of course, i know someone, and we are very thankful his collection is now fully contained in sturdy, protective bins.

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Today is Internet Cat Day!  We all know cats have rather taken over the internet, it's time to celebrate it.

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere the event badge.

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Today is:

Autistic Pride Day -- an Aspies for Freedom initiative; shifting the view from "disease" to "different"     

Constitution Day / National Day -- Seychelles

Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo -- Vernal, UT, US (one of the top rodeos in the country; through Saturday)

Eid el-Galaa -- Egypt (Evacuation Day; final withdrawal of British this date in 1956)

Foundation Day -- Benguet, Philippines

Going Forth of Neith Along the River -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of war and hunting; date approximate)

Go Fishing Day -- anniversary of the first American fly-casting tournament this day in 1861 in Utica, NY

International Picnic Day

International Sushi Day

Inti Raymi Festival -- Cusco, Peru (traditional Inca sun worship festival, through the 24th, which is the biggest and best day)

National Cherry Tart Day

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association used to sponsor this day to encourage you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices    

National Splurge Day    

Queen Mother's Birthday -- Cambodia (Ex-Queen Norodom Monineath)

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!   

St. Gregory of Fragalata's Day (Patron of Fragalata, Sicily)

St. Osanna Andreasi's Day (Patron of schoolgirls)

Veterinary Appreciation Day -- sometimes listed as Veterinarian Appreciation Day, and supposedly begun by Trupanion, celebrate your favorite vet and the whole team today    www.trupanion.com

Waterloo Day -- UK (no longer an official holiday, but still of historic importance)

Birthdays Today:

Eddie Cibrian, 1973

Nathan Morris, 1971

Richard Powers, 1957

Carol Kane, 1952

Isabella Rossellini, 1952

Roger Ebert, 1942

Paul McCartney, 1942

Lou Brock, 1939

John D. Rockefeller IV, 1937

Tom Wicker, 1926

Donald Keene, 1922

Red Adair, 1915

Sammy Cahn, 1913

Sylvia Field Porter, 1913

E.G. Marshall, 1910

Bud Collyer, 1908

James Kern "Kay" Kyser, 1905

Jeanette MacDonald, 1903

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova of Russia, 1901

George Herbert Leigh Mallory, 1886

Henry Clay Folger, Jr., 1857

E.W. Scripps, 1854

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Archipelago S"(Takemitsu orchestral work), 1993

"Der Freischütz/The Marksman"(Opera, Weber Op. 77, J. 277), 1821

Today in History:

Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China, 618

Five monks from Canterbury report seeing "two horns of light" on the shaded side of the moon, probably witnessing the meteor impact formation of the Giordano Bruno crater, 1178

The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature, 1264

French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay, 1429

Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island, 1767

The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1812

The Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for the second and last time, 1815

Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory, 1858

Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 (US) for attempting to vote in the prior year's US presidential election, 1873

Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families, 1900

Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly as a passenger in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, 1928

The "Finest Hour" speech is delivered by Winston Churchill, 1940

The Republic of Egypt is declared and the monarchy is abolished, 1953

Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane, 1959

The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California, 1981

Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, 1983

Kazakhstan launches its first satellite, KazSat, 2006

Sequoia, IMB's Blue Gene/Q system installed at the Department of Energy becomes the world's fastest supercomputer, 2012

New data reveals that over 280 previously unknown craters exist on the Moon, 2013

King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates to make way for his son, Felipe VI, 2014

Pope Francis blames human selfishness for global warming in his encyclical, named "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home", 2015

A rare magnitude-four earthquake causes a tsunami to hit Nuugaatsiaq in northwestern Greenland, 2017

A world record is set for the greatest duration of a single lightning flash, 17.1 seconds during a thunderstorm over Uruguay and Argentina, according to the World Meteorological Organization, 2020

According to the United Nations refugee agency, a record 1% of the world's population, or 82million people, are now considered "forcibly displaced," 2021

Antony Blinken is the first US Secretary of State in five years to met with senior China officials in Beijing, aiming to re-establish regular communications, 2023

Nvidia overtakes Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company, 2024

Tiny! (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 the words/prompts are supplied by Hilary Melton-Butcher and can be found right here at River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.livestock  

2.scheduled  

3.structure  

4.target  

5.folklore

and/or:

1.accessible 

2.lichen  

3.cheese  

4.cushion  

5.facts

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

Charlotte's colour of the month is Razzmatazz.

Standing at the CHEESE making table, she looked at the clock and realized she had probably SCHEDULED herself into a bit of a bind again.  

The STRUCTURE of her days seemed to get away from her.  Although she always tried to give herself a CUSHION of extra time, it seemed to be eaten up by the demands from tending LIVESTOCK, tending the kitchen garden, and making the specialty dairy items they shipped out.  After all, they had a production TARGET and needed to meet it to continue getting orders.

Farm life had never been easy in any generation, but she knew the FACTS and the reason she tried hard not to complain was because previous generations had it much harder.  Her grandmother had told her tales of her grandmother's generation finding ways to cook and eat certain types of LICHEN when times were hard and food was scarce.  Those stories weren't just FOLKLORE, either.

Neither were the stories from the days when there was no bridge across the branch of the river nearest them to take goods to the closest town.  It wasn't a big river, but during a spring flood could become big enough wagons couldn't ford it and town was not ACCESSIBLE for several weeks.

She continued working, trying to go at a little faster pace, as she thought of her grandmother, in the kitchen in her Razzmatazz pink apron, making supper for farm hands while managing to keep the grandchildren busy and making it all look so easy.

Grandmother, how did you do it? she asked herself, and with a smile, answered herself in her mind in her grandmother's voice, "Child, just don't let the grass grow under your feet."

I won't, she thought.

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Just a note:  Blogger doesn't seem to be updating my reading list, and I follow too many blogs to go try to hunt them all down each day to see if there is a new post.  I will try to get to all of them in turn, but if I don't show up for a day or two, kindly let me know in comments and I'll come visit.  Thanks.

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Today is:

Bake Your Own Bread Day -- it's really not that hard

Bunker Hill Day -- Suffolk County, MA, US (actual date)

Dia del Padre -- El Salvador; Guatemala (Father's Day)

Eat All of Your Vegetables Day / Fresh Veggies Day 

Hijra -- Islam (New Year, began last night at the first viewing of the new moon crescent)

Independence Day/National Day -- Iceland

International Violin Day -- Stravinsky's birth anniversary

King's Birthday -- Papua, New Guinea

National Apple Strudel Day

Okinawa Day -- Japan/US (remembrance of signing the treaty, in 1971, to return Okinawa to Japan)

Pirate Radio Day -- no actual pirate (i.e., unlicensed) radio stations will admit to declaring this a holiday, but what do you expect?

Soviet Occupation Day -- Latvia

St. Botulph of Ikanhoe's Day (Patron of agricultural and farm workers, sailors, travelers; Bossal, England; Boston, England; Boston, MA, US; Botesdale, England; Botolph Bridge, Huntingdonshire, England; Botolph's Bridge, Kent, England; Botolph, Sussex, England)

St. Herve's Day (Patron of the blind; against eye diseases and problems)

Vice President's Remembrance Day -- not officially, just a day to see how many vice presidents you remember

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- UN

Anniversaries Today

Orpheus marries the nymph Eurydice, Ancient Greek traditional date

Birthdays Today:

Mark Walker, 1999

Lee Ryan, 1983

Venus Williams, 1980

Will Forte, 1970

Dan Jansen, 1965

Greg Kinnear, 1963

Thomas Haden Church, 1960

Mark Linn-Baker, 1953

Joe Piscopo, 1951

Barry Manilow, 1946

Art Bell, 1945

Newt Gingrich, 1943

Gene De Paul, 1919

John Richard Hersey, 1914

Ralph Bellamy, 1904

Sammy Fain, 1902

M.C. Escher, 1898

Igor Stravinsky, 1882

William Hooper, 1742

John Wesley, 1703

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Oh! Calcutta!"(Revue), 1969

"Barney Google and Snuffy Smith"(Comic strip), 1919

Today in History:

Vlad III the Impaler (a/k/a Vlad Dracul or Count Dracula) attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia, 1462

Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, 1565

Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England, 1579

Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth; her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal, 1631

The Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775

In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands, 1839

1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory, 1876

The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor, 1885

The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT, 1901

 "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres, 1919

Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic, 1944

The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opens; it is still open today, 1958

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress, 1961

Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, 1972

With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct, 1987

The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth, 1991

Australian scientists report that they have "teleported" a laser beam, breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location, 2002

The first condemnation of discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people is issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011

The Incredibles 2 sets a box office record for an animated release, earning $180 million its opening weekend, 2018

Greece signs a historic deal with Macedonia ending years of dispute over its name; after this, it will be called North Macedonia, 2018

China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft with three astronauts arriving at its new space station Tiangong six and a half hours later, 2021