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It's been a full week, so it's full of Thankful things!
Although it hasn't been quite so crazy as last week, there's a thankful right here.
Grandma did not fall when i was there Saturday, and Grandpa went out to a meeting but got back just as we needed to leave. We're thankful for both of these.
I received a text from Mr. J, Becca's father, asking me not to come until 8:30. It seems Ms. A's side of the family has 8 birthdays in the last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August, so they plan one huge party, and she was out well past her bedtime. I was thankful to get caught up on a few things around the house Sunday morning before going over there to bring her to church, and yes, Mr. Cal got his walk, he was thankful, too.
I was thankful we convinced Mr. Cal to stay in the shade since the walk was later in the morning than usual.
That evening, Annie and i were thankful for a good time visiting Ms. D, and of course as now seems to be the norm #2 Son, Daughter-in-Law and Little Ben came along to visit for a while, too. Ms. D seems to enjoy the company.
With no work early Monday mornings until September, i was thankful this past Monday morning to take care of a few things online which i'd been dreading having to do. There's still more, but it's a start.
I'm thankful Ms. S has a great sense of humor and when it's her Monday, we do laugh a lot.
Annie and i had a good Tuesday together and i was thankful the phone calls which kept interrupting our naptime did not actually wake her up (since we listen to music on my phone while she sleeps, i can't silence it).
I'm also thankful to get to hold little Ben at every opportunity.
On Tuesday, with much frustration and fretting and one screw which tried to go AWOL, #2 Son managed to get a new compressor into GusGus die Fledermaus (the Ford). We're very thankful #1 Son's wheels now come with A/C.
Also on Tuesday, i once again confirmed my decision to only be a volunteer with pet organizations, not get involved in decision making or "being somebody" in any capacity. There are four catio cages of cats/kittens up for adoption at a local pet store, and on Tuesdays i call to make sure there are some cats there (sometimes there aren't) and if there are, i go tend to them on Wednesday morning before going to Ms. G's place.
Imagine my surprise when i called this past Tuesday and the worker on the phone said, "I'm so glad you called, you have a cat here in obvious respiratory distress with open mouth panting and gasping."
Please note, it was after 7pm and they have the number to call if there's a problem with any of the cats. I was thankful to be able to call the lady in charge and let her take it from there, as if i were the one in charge, i'd have been running to a pet store right before close to get a cat and take it to the emergency vet, but instead the lady in charge did it.
Ms. G decided at the last minute Wednesday she was going to her retirement house in the country, "Just for tonight to drop off the boat and I'll drive back with the camper tomorrow." I'm thankful i was able to help her get ready to leave (all but the packing her clothes, which she did after i left), and thankful we are good enough friends she feels she can call me and ask me to stop by because she's going to be another day up there -- twice. I'm thankful both cats were behaving on Thursday and Friday when i stopped over, and very thankful i saw the slick cat barf on Friday and so did not step in it and slip.
While working for Ms. V on Thursday, i was thankful to be able to use the speaker phone to make a couple of phone calls when i was in a part of the house where she and Mr. L weren't. Some of it was a continuation of what i did online Monday morning. Then there was a call where i got so frustrated trying to type in numbers for the virtual assistant, i finally hung up, then called back. It seems when you do that to this organization, they automatically route you to speak to a person, for which i was most thankful as it meant i did not accidentally pay a bill twice.
I got a notice in my email about a new message from my doctor, so i got on to check and noticed some of my prescriptions were renewed, but one was not. I was thankful a message back got it taken care of and all four will be available at the same time, making it much easier to get the errand done.
#2 Son and i had a good talk Friday morning about the plan for this weekend with him and Friend West changing the timing chain in Lawrence. I'm thankful we got most of it squared away, with only the question of whether or not i will need to help with Annie on Sunday morning left open.
This, of course, means a conflict with Becca, but when i texted Ms. A to tell her there might be a schedule crisis, she texted back, "I was about to call you, Brandon is in town and you have this Sunday off!"
I'm thankful Becca's brother came to town and loves taking her to church on Sunday mornings when he's here.
Friday evening the shelter was busy, two cats went home and one lady came in too late to start a new adoption but said, "My 17-year-old cat just died and if I don't get a new cat soon, they're going to have to lock me up." She spent some time visiting cages and talking to me, and she will be back today to have a longer visit and see if there isn't a kitty who is the right fit for her (I'm sure there is). Again, i'm so thankful to be a volunteer.
Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Clark and his co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.
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Today is:
Air Force Day -- US (declared by President Truman in 1947)
Andorra La Vella Festival -- Andorra (through Monday)
Anniversary of the Founding of Scouting -- first day of Brownsea Island Camp in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell began Scouting
Armed Forces Day -- Lebanon
Cowes Week begins -- Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK (the largest, longest-running and most prestigious international sailing regatta in the world, this year celebrating its 200th Anniversary; through August 7)
Emancipation Day -- Barbados; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands (Trad.)
Fast in Honor of the Holy Mother of Jesus / Procession of the Cross and Dormition Fast -- Orthodox Christian
Feast of Kamal (Perfection) -- Baha'i
Fiesta de Santo Domingo -- Managua, Nicaragua (patron saint; through the 10th)
Girlfriends' Day -- a day to celebrate the women who enrich your life
Harriet Quimby Day -- first woman to earn a pilot's license, this date in 1911
Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri -- Hirosaki, Japan (through the 7th, parade and purification ritual to rid the the town of future illness and bad fortune)
Homowo -- Ghana (a festival of thanksgiving and remembrance, among various groups of Ga peoples, all through August and September.)
Independence Day / National Day -- Benin(1960)
Kalends of August -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances
Feast of Spes (personification of hope)
Festival for Victoria (goddess of victory)
Lammas Day / Lammac Tide -- Christian, a Cross Quarter Day (called the Gule of August in Wales, and known as August Eve and Lady Day Eve)
Liberation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafari
Lughnassad / Imbolc -- Wicca and Pagan (based in the Northern Hemisphere on the Celtic Feast of Bread, beginning of the harvest season)
Minden Day -- British Armed Forces
Nagaoka Festival -- Nagaoka, Japan (through the 3rd, samurai procession, traditional music and dances, fireworks)
National Day -- Switzerland (where it is also called Swiss Confederation Day, when Switzerland became a single unit in 1291)
National Minority Donor Awareness Week -- US (bringing awareness to the fact that there are fewer minorities who are organ donors)
National Mustard Day -- US, sponsored by the National Mustard Museum
National Non-Parent Day -- sponsored by The National Alliance for Optional Parenthood and No Kidding!
National Raspberry Cream Pie Day
Parents' Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo
Respect For Parents Day -- with information here
RSPCA Cupcake Day -- a fun and delicious way to raise funds to stop animal cruelty; it used to be held on a Monday in mid-August, but is now encouraged on any day you want to participate
Rounds Resounding Day -- sponsored by Rounds Resounding Society (Grab your friends and sing a few songs that go in rounds, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Frere Jacques".)
Social Resistance Day -- North Cyprus
Spiderman Day -- he first appeared today in Amazing Fantasy #15, released Aug. 1, 1963
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori's Day (Founder of the Redemptorists, a/k/a Ligourians; Patron of confessors, final perseverance, moralists, scrupulous people, theologians, vocations; Pagani, Italy; Sant'Agata de' Goti, Italy; against arthritis, scrupulosity disorder)
World Breastfeeding Week begins -- International (the theme this year is "Step Up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support")
World Lung Cancer Day -- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
World Scout Scarf Day -- wear your Scout Scarf in public today
World Wide Web Day -- what would become our current ability to waste time reading blogs and doing other fun stuff was begun as an idea at CERN during August back in 1990
Yorkshire Day -- Yorkshire, England
Anniversaries Today:
Colorado becomes the 38th US State, 1876
Birthdays Today:
Tempestt Bledsoe, 1973
Robert Cray, 1953
Giancarlo Giannini, 1942
Jerry Garcia, 1942
Yves Saint Laurent, 1942
Ronald Harmon "Ron" Brown, 1941
Dom DeLuise, 1933
Tom Wilson, 1931
James Hill, 1916
Herman Melville, 1819
Maria Mitchell, 1818
Francis Scott Key, 1779
William Clark, 1770
Debuting/Premiering Today:
M2(TV Network), 1996
"The Rush Limbaugh Show"(Radio), 1988
MTV(TV Network), 1981
Today in History:
The future Caesar Augustus, Octavian, enters Alexandria, Egypt, and brings it under the control of Rome, BC30
Japan sends Ono no Imoko to the Sui court in China as envoy, 607
The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter, 1291
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain, 1492
Henry Tudor, soon to be Henry VII, sails with his army to England, 1495
The first black Americans arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, 1619
Oxygen is "discovered" for the 3rd time, by Priestly, 1774
The Act of Union is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800
Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, 1834
First coast to coast automobile trip, from San Francisco to New York, is completed, 1903
The first Jeep is produced, 1941
Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary, 1944
The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), 1957
Israel annexes East Jerusalem, 1967
Peat cutters discover Lindow Man, Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England, 1984
CERN physicists begin discussing building what would eventually become the World Wide Web, 1990
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency, 2001
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies and is succeeded by Prince Abdullah, 2005
Buddhist treasures buried during the Mongolian Communist Purge in the 1930's are rediscovered in the Gobi Desert, 2009
Russia grants NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden one year of temporary political asylum; Snowden leaves Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, 2013
Two crowns and an orb from the Swedish crown jewels are stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral, Stockholm, 2018
Italian Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar avoid a jump-off by agreeing to share the long jump gold medal after tying on 2.37m at the Tokyo Olympic Games, 2021
South America experiences a winter heatwave, with temperatures in some places reaching up to 100°F/37.7°C, 2023
Tanzania opens East Africa's first electric rail line between its commercial hub Dar es Salaam and capital Dodoma, 2024
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, tasked with distributing government funding to public television and radio broadcasters announces that it will begin shutting down, weeks after Congress canceled previously approved funding, 2025
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