I Don't Think It Will Weigh Your Car (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.

This week's words are:

plastic

remain

tooth

wisecrack

distant

enjoy

and/or the following phrases

head's up (an advance warning)

not all it's cracked up to be (failing to be as good as other people claim)

playing possum (pretending to be dead, or being deceitful)

Charlotte's colour of the month is Steel Blue.

If you decide to play along and write something, we're glad to have you.  Don't feel obligated to use all the words, or even any of them, the idea is simply to get the creative juices flowing and write.

For several years now, we've needed a repair for our front door.

For reasons which REMAIN a DISTANT memory, somehow the door frame was damaged during a hurricane (i've rather blocked it out, we were sheltering in place and hoping the roof wouldn't fly off), followed later by the boys and their friends horsing around trying to prevent one another from ingress and egress during a game.

Thus, we had to use a piece of PLASTIC wedged in the door to both keep it shut and signal to anyone coming in to use the key, as simply pushing on it by accident might have splintered it the rest of the way.  A large, heavy bag of cat litter behind it kept it shut in windy weather.

#2 Son gave me a Head's Up, he was planning to repair it while i watched Annie.  I told him to take my debit card and go buy the supplies, figuring he'd need to buy wood filler and nails and screws and 2x4s, but he told me he had what he needed left over from other projects.  Besides, he told me, the wood filler does for some things, but for a repair like this, it's Not All It's Cracked Up To Be, and might not hold up well.

He brought Annie over and went to the house to finish getting ready and get his tools and supplies, then came back, handed me Ben (in a shirt with Steel Blue stripes, no less), and said, "Watch these two and don't let her get too close, she likes to watch me work but I don't want to slip with a hammer and she ends up losing a TOOTH, or worse."

At this point, i could have made some WISECRACK about her being slow to grow teeth and quick to lose them, but didn't.  (For those who wonder what i mean, she didn't grow her first tooth until the day after her first birthday.)  I knew he was being serious, and the three of us either watched from a safe distance or stayed in another room.  

Annie did not ENJOY all the noise the electric saw made, although the hammering and other noises did not phase her at all.  At one point we did have to scour the house for long wood screws, but he was right, he had everything he needed already here somewhere.

With a couple of small hiccups which he solved, and only a few mock swear words when a nail didn't go in straight, he got it done.  In fact, he did it so fast i thought he was Playing Possum and couldn't believe it was totally finished.  It was.

We no longer have the big bag of cat litter by the door, or the plastic.  The only drawback is having to turn the knob to close the door as well as open it or it will catch and not shut, but this is a minor thing.  It's a job well done and we're thankful.

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Today is:

Aloha Day -- unofficial celebration of the annexation of Hawai'i by the US

Awa Odori Festival -- Tokushima, Japan (through the 15th; one of Japan's largest dance festivals, Awa-dance is said to be a "fool's dance", and the saying is "It's a fool who dances and a fool who watches, so if both are fools, you may as well dance!")

Crayfish Premiere -- Sweden (although they are now available year 'round, it used to be that crayfish could only be sold and served in restaurants the day after the season opens; the actual premiere date is often still celebrated with crayfish parties and lots of schnapps)

Festival for Hercules Invictus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (through tomorrow; based on an even older Greek celebration of Heracles at the same time of year)

Festival for Venus Vitrix -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Victorius Venus)

Grouse Day/Glorious Twelfth -- England; Scotland (opening of grouse hunting season)

Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday and National Mother's Day -- Thailand

International Youth Day -- UN

Julienne Fries Day

Lychnapsia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (celebration of the Birthday of Isis, instituted after the conquest of Egypt)

Middle Children's Day -- on some sites, listed as Aug. 14; either way, Middle Children deserve a special day!

National Toasted Almond Bar Day

Osirian Mysteries; Feast of the Lights of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate, but this is the date the Romans gave it, so who am i to quibble?)

PC Day -- no, not politically correct, personal computer; IBM introduced theirs this day in 1981

Put Peanuts in Your Coca Cola Day -- and no, i can't figure this one out, but they say don't shake it once you do it; if anyone else wants to experiment with why, let me know the results

Royal Queensland Show -- QLD, Australia

Solar Alignment with Teotihuacan, City of the Gods -- ancient when the Aztecs found its ruins, this city's ritual cave aligns with the setting sun today and April 29, also the rising and setting dates of the Pleiades

St. Gracilian's Day (Patron of Bassano Romano, Italy)

St. Murtagh's Day (Patron of Killaria, Ireland)

Vinyl Record Day -- celebrating the tremendous cultural influence of records, on the anniversary of the day in 1877 that Edison invented the phonograph

World Elephant Day 

Zaraday a/k/a Zarathud's Day -- Discordianism

Birthdays Today:

Casey Affleck, 1975

Pete Sampras, 1971

Peter Krause, 1964

Ann M. Martin, 1955

Pat Metheny, 1954

Sam J. Jones, 1954

Skip Caray, 1939

George Hamilton, 1939

William Goldman, 1931

George Soros, 1930

Alvis Edgar “Buck” Owens, 1929

John Derek, 1926

Michael Kidd, 1915

Jane Wyatt, 1912

Cantinflas, 1911

Joe Besser, 1907

Alfred Lunt, 1892

Cecil B. DeMille, 1881

Christopher "Christy" Mathewson, 1880

Edith Hamilton, 1867

Katharine Lee Bates, 1859

"Diamond Jim" Brady, 1856

Robert Mills, 1781

Thomas Bewick, 1753

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Wings(Film, only silent film to win the Oscar for Best Picture), 1927

Today in History:

The last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII Philopater, allegedly commits suicide by asp bite, BC30

A conjunction of Venus and Jupiter occurs which may have been what the Bible calls the Star of Bethlehem, 3

Crusaders win the Battle of Ascalon, 1099

Juan Ponce de Leon arrives in Puerto Rico, 1508

Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War, 1676

Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine, the first one to be practical for home use, 1851

Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, 1877

The last quagga, a subspecies of zebra once plentiful in South Africa, dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, 1883

Hawai'i is annexed by the US, 1898

William Somerset Maugham published "Of Human Bondage", 1915

Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge, 1943

The Soviet Union detonates its first thermonuclear weapon, 1953

Echo I, the first communications satellite, is launched, 1960

South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of its racist policies, 1964

The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, 1977

The IBM Personal Computer is released, 1981

Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1992

The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, 2000

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launches, 2005

Director of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, announces plans to release remaining Afghan War Diary documents from War in Afghanistan, 2010

President Obama's health insurance mandate from his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is struck down by the U.S. court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2011

The International Olympic Committee announces it will punish athletes who support Russian LGBT rights at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, 2013

NASA launches the Parker Space Probe, its first mission to the Sun and its outermost atmosphere, the corona, 2018

Scientists say they are close to an effective treatment for Ebola after a new drug trial has a 90% success rate in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2019

Bennu Asteroid, about the size of the Empire State Building, now has 1-in-1,750 chance of hitting Earth in 2182, according to data from NASA's OSIRIS-REX spacecraft, 2021

In the midst of the driest year since 1976, the UK officially declares 8 regions to be in a drought, 2023

The bones of Dennis Bell, a British polar researcher who died in Antarctica in 1959, are discovered in a melting glacier, 2025

I Get Mine There, Too, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Ms. D is 90 and lives by herself, still drives (not at night and only to places she knows) and zips around her house lickety split to do most things for herself.  She hires me only for the things she can do but doesn't always want to do.  

She'll have me get on the ladder and dust, not because she can't, but because she promised her daughter no ladders.  I also do most, but not all, of the vacuuming and mopping, and much of the bed sheet changing.  She can do it, and does some, but it lightens her load when i do it.

One thing Ms. D really wants to do is go on a cruise with all 3 of her children, the two living children-in-law, and as many of the grands/great-grands as can make it.  They have one scheduled for next March.  Meanwhile, she is talking about staying active and fit and able to not just go on the cruise but also enjoy it fully.

"I go to Costco and walk around," she told me one evening while Annie and i were there visiting.  Then she turned to face Annie and said, "Do you know about Costco?" with a smile.

Annie smiled back and i told Ms. D yes, her mama and dada have been to Costco with her many times, and with little Ben a couple of times since he came along.

They get diapers there, among other things, is what i told her.

Her response was, "You get diapers there?  So do I!"  And she smiled.  "Well, you know, not the same kind, just the pads."

We both laughed.  We've joked before about absorbent pads for those "little leaks" being the equivalent of a mommy diaper.

How about some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful day, everyone!

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Today is:

Alcatraz Day -- the first prisoners arrived this day in 1934

Carnival Tuesday -- Granada

Day of Honor for Oddudua -- Santeria religion (cognate of the Roman Catholic St. Clare of Assisi; credited with the creation of humans)

Defense Forces Day -- Zimbabwe

Dog Days end -- yes, supposedly, in this heat

Feast of St. Attracta -- Irish Catholic Saint (founded a hospice and convents, and supposedly slayed a dragon; Patron of Achonry, Ireland; Men of Lugna)

Fox Hill Day -- Nassau, Bahamas (final day of their Emancipation celebrations)

Independence Day -- Chad(1960)

Ingersoll Day

National Raspberry Bombe Day or Raspberry Tart Day -- whichever one you like best, or both, if that's the way you roll

Perseid Meteor Showers -- most years, peak visibility is tonight and especially tomorrow night; the Celts believed these meteors were due to games being played by Lugh, their sun god

Play in the Sand Day -- as per many internet sites; yeah, like at the beach, nothing like sand in your shorts, i get enough of that on vacation, thank you

Presidential Joke Day**

Son and Daughter Day -- the day to give your son(s) or daughter(s) the gift of time

St. Clare of Assisi's Day -- (Foundress of the Order of Poor Ladies [Poor Clares] Franciscan nuns; Patron of embroiderers, eyes, gilders/gold workers/goldsmiths, good weather, laundry workers, needle workers, telegraphs, telephones, and television writers; Assisi, Italy; Santa Clara Indian Pueblo; against eye disease)***; related observance

     Fiesta de Santa Clara -- Santa Clara Pueblo, NM, US (Native American celebration of St. Clare of Assisi, their Patron saint, with a corn dance and prayers for rain)

St. Philomela's Day (Patron of babies, children, desperate causes, forgotten causes, impossible causes, lost causes, orphans, poor people, priests, prisoners, sick people, students, test takers, toddlers, young people; against barrenness, bodily ills, infertility, mental illness, sickness, sterility)

Birthdays Today:

Will Friedle, 1976

Ashley Jensen, 1969

Viola Davis, 1965

Joe Jackson, 1955

Hulk Hogan, 1953

Stephen Wozniak, 1950

Marilyn vos Savant, 1946

Joanna Coles, 1944

Anna Massey, 1937

Arlene Dahl, 1928

Mike Douglas, 1925 (Note: he also died on this date in 2006)

Alex Haley, 1921

Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond, 1862

David Rice Atchison, 1807

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, 1667 (Last of the Medicis)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child(Film), 1989

"Die Harmonie der Welt /The Harmony of the World"(Opera), 1957

Today in History:

First day of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, used my the Maya and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, BC3114

Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation, BC2492

Battle of Artemisium, naval battle of the Greco-Persian War, fought at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae of the same war; Leonidas, King of Sparta, dies in the land battle, BC480*

Papandayan Java volcanic eruption kills 3,000, 1772

Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning the Great Upheaval, 1755

The world's first roller rink opens in Newport, RI, 1866

The first civilian prisoners arrive at Alcatraz, 1934

Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi, 1942

A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers, 1984

NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history, 2003

A new species of a giant carnivorous plant, Nepethes attenboroughii, is discovered in the central Phillipines highlands, 2009

Jamaican runner Usain Bolt wins his third gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012

Scientists officially declare a Greenland shark to be the world's oldest living vertebrate, at over 400 years old, 2015

Michael Phelps becomes the 3rd athlete and 1st swimmer to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event after winning the men’s 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio Olympics, 2016

Sicily records highest-ever temperature in Europe of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in city of Siracusa, 2021

During France's driest summer since 1961, the number of firefighters in south-east Boudreaux reaches 1,000 as they seek to contain a blaze which has already destroyed 7,400 hectares, 2022

*some historians give different dates

**because presidents have a sense of humor, too, as shown this day in 1984 when Reagan thought the microphone was off and joked about Russia being outlawed

***why tv? because when she became too ill to attend mass at the end of her life, a miraculous image of the service would display on the wall of her room