Be Generous (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G will be traveling again, for her ex-brother-in-law's funeral, as she wants to be there to support her niece, which means i will again be going over there before work to tend critters, her indoor cats and the birds/squirrels outdoors.

This meant yesterday was spent tidying up all the loose ends before she could leave town, buying snacks for Ms. Fiona and going to visit her, emptying the car as much as possible, especially in the back, so someone can get to the spare tire if it's needed, and, most important, buying more bird seed.

Ms. G is quite hot under the collar about her favorite store to buy bird seed changing to a cheaper brand which is mostly filler seeds the birds do not eat and which do  nothing but clog the bird feeder and she is planning an email campaign in which she will ask many friends to also participate and see if they can get the old brand back.

In the meantime, under protest she is buying bird seed from another place which has a slightly better brand but not as good as the one she wants, and when we went yesterday she was glad to find the snacks we needed as well as a few other items at this other store.

This brand, however, comes in 40lb. bags, rather than the 30lb. bags, which of course means more for me to lug to the back yard and put in the protective metal garbage bins.

Last order of business before i left was to make sure i spread out a good bit of the sunflower seeds, bought separately from yet another store, on the ground for the mama squirrel who is raising 3 babies in the crepe myrtle tree up front and i was left with strict instructions while she is gone to be very generous with my portions as 3 babies is a lot for a mama squirrel.

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

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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:    

If you don't think I can make it to town

well, you'd best just think again.

This ol' truck has carried many such a load

and it will take this one, friend!

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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 a local church that has an evening service so i was able to go get ashes yesterday, Ash Wednesday.

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mexico

Birthday of Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Birth Anniversary of Shivaji -- Maharashtra, India

Chaoflux -- Discordianism

Chief Leschi Day -- US, especially Washington State (Native American chief wrongly executed for murder on this date in 1958; fully exonerated 2004)

Cracker Jacks Prize Day -- the first prizes were added to the boxes of caramel popcorn this date in 1913

Flag Day -- Turkmenistan

National Chocolate Mint Day (because every day needs chocolate in some form)

Prajatantra Diwas -- Nepal (Democracy Day, celebrating the overthrow of the Rana Dynasty in 1951)

Ramadan -- Islam (began sunset yesterday, through March 19)

Solar System Day -- birth anniversary of Copernicus

St. Conrad of Piacenza's Day -- (Patron against hernias)

Straw Wrapper Appreciation Day -- an internet spread holiday to remind you of how much fun it was as a kid to blow the wrappers off the straws

Temporary Insanity Day -- anniversary of the first time someone successfully pleaded temporary insanity in a court of law; Daniel Stickles, in 1859

Vassil Levski Day -- Bulgaria (Bulgaria's "Apostle of Freedom")

Anniversary Today:

Knights of Pythias founded, 1864

Birthdays Today:

Haylie Duff, 1985

Andrew Shue, 1967

Benicio Del Toro, 1967

Justine Bateman, 1966

Jonathan Lethem, 1964

Seal, 1963

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 1960

Ray Winstone, 1957

Jeff Daniels, 1955

Margaux Hemingway, 1955

Amy Tan, 1952

Stephen Nichols, 1951

Lou Christie, 1943

Smokey Robinson, 1940

Lee Marvin, 1924

Merle Oberon, 1911 (some sources say Feb. 18)

Willam III of the Netherlands, 1817

David Garrick, 1717

Nicolas Copernicus, 1473

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Woman of Independent Means"(TV Miniseries), 1995

"Crazy For You"(Musical), 1992

"Eastenders"(TV), 1985

"Rumours"(Album release), 1977

"The Feminine Mystique"(Publication date), 1963

"Picnic"(Inge Play), 1953

"Alexander's Feast"(HWV 75), 1736

Today in History:

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus' defeats beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon, 197

Emperor Constantius II shuts down all pagan temples, 356

The second Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates veneration of icons in the churches, 842

Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary (then Trnava, Czech) are expelled, 1539

The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America, 1600

Britain and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, and New Amsterdam formally becomes New York, 1674

British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III, 1819

The first practical coal burning locomotive in the US makes a trial run, in Pennsylvania, 1831

Tin-type camera is patented by Hamilton Smith of Gambier, Ohio, 1856

Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), on the grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense is successfully used, 1859

Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia, 1861

Thomas Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph), 1878

Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages, 1881

WK Kellog and Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., 1906

The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box, 1913

Ed Wynn becomes the first talent to sign as a regular radio entertainer, 1922

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry, 1949

Bill Keane's "Family Circus" comic strip makes its debut, 1960

Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital, 1985

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft, 1986

NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system, 2002

NASA loses communication with the International Space Station's for three hours as a result of updating the station's command and control software, 2013

Nigeria confirms 110 girls are missing from a school in Dapchi, Yoba State, and were  presumed kidnapped by Boko Haram, 2018

After a 4-year ban, the World Anti-Doping Agency decides to allow some Russians to complete in international sports under the Russian Olympic Committee, 2021

Two weeks after the devastating earthquakes that stuck in the south-east of Türkiye and in northern Syria, Türkiye ends rescue efforts in all but Kahramanmaras and Hatay, 2023

Brightest known object in the universe identified as a quasar powered by a supermassive black hole, 2024

The SS United States, the ocean liner which holds the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing, departs Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under tow on her final voyage before being scuttled to become the world's largest artificial reef, 2025

Clever Product Name (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, 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 lissa on her blog.

This week's prompts are: 

1. kerplunk

2. erase

3. meek

4. plead

5. tenacious

Charlotte's colour of the month is Electric Rose.

"I'm not stubborn, I'm TENACIOUS," I heard her say as I walked into the room.

"What's the difference?" he asked and she shot back, "Tenacity is a strong will and stubbornness is a strong won't."

"Well," he was nothing if not quick, "you won't go out with me, so that makes it stubbornness!"

I laughed, being used to my two co-workers.  He would PLEAD with her for a date and with a KERPLUNK she would shoot him down every time.

They'd grown up next door to each other and been friends since forever, or at least since they'd played tea party together when they were kids.  He was always willing to play back then,  he said, as she was always making cakes and cookies in her toy oven that used the light bulb for a heat source.  Now they were grown, he claimed her cooking had gotten better but her tea was still the same, rather watery.

There was nothing MEEK and mild about her and she resisted him with amused patience, not willing to give up their friendship but claiming she didn't want to take it any further than that.  "He knows too many of my secrets and I can't ERASE that," she'd say when I asked why not go out with him, they obviously had a rapport.

Once in so often he'd start in again, asking her out, and as she looked especially nice today in her Electric Rose blouse, it didn't surprise me to find them having this conversation.

Honestly, I always believed the only reason she wouldn't was because so many people expected it, as when you meet them you'd think they were already a couple.  But I'm just a co-worker and it's not my business as long as they are doing their share of the work, and they are.

Unless...

A thought came to me and it's either brilliant or stupid, and only time will tell.  There's a conference coming up that is on a cruise ship, of all places.  The participants come listen to presentations, including ours, but when they aren't at the presentations and we aren't presenting anything, well, it's a cruise, and it can be romantic and fun and she and I are supposed to be the ones going, but if I have an emergency at home and send him...

Maybe this will be continued.

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Today is:

Ash Wednesday -- Christian (beginning of the Lenten Fast)

     Oskudagur -- Iceland (with the special tradition of hanging oskupokar [ash bags] on people, as girls try to hang bags of ash on men's clothing, and boys try to hang bags of stones on women's clothing; begins Langafasta, and during the fast, you may not even mention meat at all)

Celtic Tree Month Nuin (Ash) begins

Clean Out Your Cubby Holes Day -- internet generated, but if you have any cubby holes, give them a look today, make sure nothing is in there you don't want to see

Cold Day in Hell -- snow fell in the Sahara today in 1979

Day of Spenta Armaiti -- Zoroastrian (goddess of earth and fertility, especially celebrated by women; originally on Esfand 5th, which corresponds to 24 February but is now celebrated on the 18th for reasons i can't figure out)

Festival of Women -- Persian (traditional, it has been kept even among those who are no longer Zoroastrian)

Independence Day -- Gambia(1965)

Losar/Loshar/Sonam Lhosar/Tamang New Year (Lunar New Year) -- Bhutan; Nepal; Tibet (this is Tibetan Year 2152, and it's dominant element is fire, and dominant animal is the horse)

National Battery Day -- probably created by the battery manufacturers, but they won't claim it

National Crab Stuffed Flounder Day

Pluto Day/Solar System Day -- the planet/planetoid was discovered on this day in 1930, and then considered to "complete" the solar system

Ramadan begins -- Islam (at sunset, through the evening of March 19)

Rastraya Prajatantra Dibas -- Nepal (Democracy Day)

Rites of Tacita -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of silence, rites to keep people from speaking out in anger)

St. Bernadette of Lourdes' Day (in France; the remainder of the church celebrates her on 16 April)

St. Fra Angelico's Day (Patron of artists)

Tanigumi Odori -- Tanigumi-mura, Gifu Prefecture, Japan (dance festival)

Thumb Appreciation Day -- your first digit does more than just get mashed when you use a hammer and hit the space bar on your keyboard; take time to appreciate the complexity that is your thumb.

Anniversaries Today:

Tommy Lee marries Pamela Anderson, 1995

Ohio State University is chartered as the first US land-grant college, 1804

Birthdays Today:

Jillian Michaels, 1974

Molly Ringwald, 1968

Dr. Dre, 1965

Matt Dillon, 1964

Vanna White, 1957

John Travolta, 1954

Juice Newton, 1952

John Hughes, 1950

Cybill Shepherd, 1950

Andrea Dromm, 1941

Aldo Ceccato, 1934

Yoko Ono, 1933

Milos Forman, 1932

Toni Morrison, 1931

Gahan Wilson, 1930

George Kennedy, 1925

Helen Gurley Brown, 1922

Bill Cullen, 1920

Jack Palance, 1920

Hans Asperger, 1906

Enzo Ferrari, 1898

George "The Gipper" Gipp, 1895

Wendell Lewis Willkie, 1892

Boris Pasternak, 1890

Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883

Sholem Aleichem, 1859

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848

Ernst Mach, 1838

George Peabody, 1795

Count Alessandro Volta, 1745

Uesugi Kenshin, 1530 (Japanese samurai and warlord)

Mary I Tudor, 1516

Saint Jadwiga of Poland, 1374

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Roots: Next Generations"(TV Miniseries), 1979

"Any Wednesday"(Play), 1964

"The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois"(Comic Opera), 1947

"Trouw"(Publication, Dutch Resistance newspaper), 1943

"Simple Simon"(Musical), 1930

"Cities Service Concerts"(Radio), 1925

"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"(Publication date), 1885

"The Pilgrim's Progress"(Publication date), 1678

Today in History:

Origin of the Kali Yuga Epoch ("age of vice" or Dark Age) of the Hindu/Buddhist calendars, BC3102

Jerusalem is taken by Emperor Frederik II, 1229

Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia, begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim regions, 1332

Henry Tudor (Henry VIII) created Prince of Wales, 1503

Zeeland falls to Dutch rebels, 1574

John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is published, 1678

Fort Saint Lewis, Texas, is founded by Frenchmen under LaSalle at Matagorda Bay, the basis for France's claim to Texas, 1685

Quakers conduct their first formal protest of slavery in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1688

The premiere of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson" takes place in London, 1743

Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, 1797

The Detroit Boat Club (still in existence) forms, 1839

The first continuous filibuster in the US Senate begins, lasts until March 11, 1841

The first regular steamboat service to California begins, 1849

A direct telegraph link between Britain and New Zealand is established, 1876

Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is published, 1885

The Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for the first time in 50 years, 1896

Winston Churchill makes his first speech in the British House of Commons, 1901

H. Cecil Booth patents a dust removing suction cleaner, 1901

The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet delivers 6,500 letters to Naini (a distance of about 10K), 1911

The US and Canada begin formal diplomatic relations, with the appointment of Vincent Massey as the first Canadian ambassador to the US, 1927

The first Academy Awards are announced, 1929

While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto, 1930

The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California, 1954

The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747, 1977

Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history, 1979

Dan Jansen skates world record 1000m (1:12.43), 1994

Pope Benedict XVI announces seven new saints - including American saint Kateri Tekakwitha - and appoints 22 new cardinals, 2012

The Ukrainian Revolution begins, 2014

A twenty-five-year-old cold case murder is solved when police in Minnesota run DNA though a genealogy site and find the suspect, 2019

The swarms of desert locusts affecting east Africa reach South Sudan, threatening a food crisis, 2020

NASA's Perseverance rover successfully lands at Jezero Crater, Mars, on mission to find microfossils, 2021

Singaporean chess prodigy Ashwath Kaushik becomes the youngest player, at eight years old, to defeat a grandmaster in a classic tournament game, 2024

The royal tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II (reigning from about 1493 to 1479 BC) is discovered west of the Valley of the Kings, the first tomb of a pharaoh found since Tutankhamun in 1922, 2025