A Working Lunch, Ms. G Style (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G warned me Tuesday evening she wouldn't be there when i arrived at her house Wednesday morning but said she'd be along rather quickly.

I had time to get most of the usual chores done, with the exception of vacuuming as it takes the longest, by the time she arrived and when she did arrive, she had to immediately lie down on her recliner chair heating pad as her sciatic nerve had a pinch, as she calls it, and she was really hurting.

She sat and sent texts as i vacuumed, removing all the evidence of Ms. Sassy Floofypants and Mr. Gray which was scattered hither and yon.

Once i was done she said we had an errand, and she took me out to lunch, which was an unexpected treat, and while there, she fielded calls from Ms. Fiona, whom she placated with a promise to come by tomorrow and call Humana for her to get them straight, and texts from the family of Ms. J, her godmother, who is still in a rehab place which wanted to label her psychotic for her constant yelling and confusion when what she really had was a UTI about to go septic.

That morning, Ms. G had been up at the rehab fighting with the nurses to get them to give Ms. J her meds on a schedule, instead of the "whenever we get to it" way they'd been doing it, which was leaving her still in pain and still prone to "act crazy" as they try to call it.

In some ways it's rather sad Ms. G can't even have a meal out without all the drama following her, but she's at her happiest with life, i think, when she's in the thick of it and when i left her house she was preparing to go back up to the rehab place and try to calm Ms. J's older daughter who is not handling this so well.

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

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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:    

You may not think it's much

but we love to call it home,

the view is great, the water cool,

and we very seldom roam.

We've found everything we love

is really right around here,

so we don't need a castle,

just our little cabin so dear.

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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 the A/C in Lawrence is fixed and there's a plan afoot to repair the timing chain this weekend.

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Today is:

Birthday of Emperor Haili Selassi I -- Rastafari

Flag Day -- Abkhazia

Gorgeous Grandma Day -- a day to celebrate those who age, date, and mate in style!   www.gorgeousgrandma.com

Hot Enough For Ya Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays as the only day on which you may utter these words; any other day, and you will get high fived on the back of the head!;)

Mayan Sun Festival -- honoring Ahau Kin, the sun god, date approximate

National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

Neptunalia and Salcia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (god and goddess of the ocean and wide seas, celebrates Neptune in his role as god of irrigation)

Private Eye Day -- internet generated

Remembrance Day -- Papua New Guinea

Renaissance Day -- Oman (celebrates the accession of Qaboos bin Said Al Said, 14th Sultan of Oman)

Revolution Day -- Egypt

St. Apollinaris' Day (Patron against epilepsy, gout; of Aachen, Germany; Burtscheid, Germany; Düsseldorf, Germany; Ravenna, Italy; Remagen, Germany)

St. Bridget of Sweden's Day (Patron of widows; Europe; Sweden)

St. Phocas the Gardener's Day (Patron of agricultural workers, boatmen, farm workers, farmers, field hands, gardeners, husbandmen, mariners, market-gardeners, sailors, watermen)

Tisha B'Av -- Judaism (began sunset yesterday, through nightfall)

Warei Shrine Summer Festival -- Warei Shrine, Uwajima City, Japan (through tomorrow, includes "bull-sumo", a non-fatal type of bull fighting, where the bulls try to push each other out of the ring)

Anniversaries Today

Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson, 1986

Coronation of King Mohammed VI of Morocco, 1999

Birthdays Today

Daniel Radcliffe, 1989

Michelle Williams, 1980

Omar Epps, 1975

Nomar Garciapara, 1973

Marlon Wayans, 1972

Charisma Carpenter, 1970

Philip Seymour Hoffman, 1967

Eriq La Salle, 1962

Woody Harrelson, 1961

Lamont "ShowBoat" Robinson, 1961

Edie McClurg, 1951

Belinda Montgomery, 1950

Don Imus, 1940

Nicholas Gage, 1939

Ronny Cox, 1938

Anthony M. Kennedy, 1936

Don Drysdale, 1936

Bert Convy, 1933

Arata Isozaki, 1931

Gloria DeHaven, 1925

Amalia Rodrigues, 1920

Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, 1918

Arthur Treacher, 1894

Haile Selassie I, 1892

Raymond Chandler, 1888

Samuel Augustus Maverick, 1803

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha! Ha!"(Single release), 1966

"The Gene Autry Show"(TV), 1950

Today in History

William Austin Burt patents the Typographer, a precursor to the typewriter, 1829

The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union, 1840

The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, the world's oldest international sport federation, is founded, 1881

The Ford Motor Company sells its first car, 1903

Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film, 1926

Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite, 1962

The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling within 4 years, 1982

Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba, 1983

Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered, 1995

Cape Verde becomes the 153rd member of the World Trade Organization, 2008

Patent law disputes between Samsung and Apple deadlock as the dispute addresses valuation of each other's patents, 2012

NASA's Kepler mission announces the discovery of the most Earth-like planet yet - Kepler-452b, 1,400 light years from Earth, 2015

Japan records its highest ever temperature at 41.1 degrees (105.98F) in Kumagaya, 2018

China launches its first mission to Mars, Tianwen-1, a combined orbiter, lander and rover, 2020

The XXXII Summer Olympic Games officially open at the Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan, 2021

Greece evacuates 19,000 tourists and residents from the path of wildfires on the island of Rhodes amid the country's hottest July in 50 years, 2023

Shelter Size Cleaner Bottle (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 Charlotte and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.spice  

2.think  

3.scissors  

4.glue  

5.numbers  

6.glum

and/or:

1.patch  

2.banana  

3.evening  

4.lamp  

5.shady  

6.golden

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

Charlotte's colour of the month is Jade Green.

It's been a busy couple of days, and if you want to SPICE up your life, let your son learn to work on cars by working on yours.

No matter how many times #2 Son tells me it's easy, just these bolts and these screws, i know better and as always, it's harder than he THINKs.

After all, we're not just playing with SCISSORS and GLUE here, these are major car parts.  It never quite goes by the NUMBERS.

Monday, i left the car at the house and the key on the hook and walked to Ms. D's to work for her so he could get a good start if he wanted.  He ran to the car parts place, got what he thought he needed, and came back, dropping Annie with me and leaving her with a BANANA to snack on and her favorite capybara, Sid, which is her latest favorite.

He got #1 Son to come help, and of course it was harder than #2 Son thought.  #1 Son ended up needing a PATCH on the back of his thumb where one of the belts cut into it.

By early EVENING, i was holding little Ben and playing with Annie and #2 Son and Daughter-in-Law were fighting with the part by the light of one of those headLAMPs he has, the time had gone past SHADY and the GOLDEN sunset was over and he finally sheared off a screw trying to get it out.

That's when he called time and left, looking rather GLUM.

Tuesday morning, he came over with Annie and went back to the parts store, got a different component, and fought it for a few hours.  At one point it has to sit with a vacuum on the parts, making sure the system is clean with nothing in it, and his pump was plugged into two extension cords running through the house to an outlet with room.

"Yeah!  Get out here!" he finally yelled in triumph, and taking me out with whoops and hollers, he let me open the door to Lawrence the Honda, which now has a functioning A/C!

He washed up and took Annie to go for her nap, and i let the car run with the A/C on for 15 minutes to prime the system and let the pag oil circulate (i now know more about car A/Cs than i ever wanted to, including the special oil they need which mixes with freon to keep them lubricated) and i no longer have to be Jade Green with envy of those who have functioning air conditioning in their cars.

Next job, the A/C and driver's window in GusGus die Fledermaus, which will soon be #1 Son's car to replace the one wrecked two weeks ago.

Little by little and by the hardest, #2 Son is learning car repair.

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Today is:

Aphrodisia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho [Persuasion]; through tomorrow)

Casual Pi Day / Pi Approximation Day (22nd day of month 7; 22/7 is the approximation of Pi)

Hammock Day -- don't know who came up with this one, but at the height of the dog days, it seems appropriate; on some sites listed as Summer Leisure Day

International Childbirth Education Awareness Day -- can't find confirmation on this, but if you're going to have a kid, it's not a bad idea to get educated about what to expect!

King Father's Birthday -- Swaziland

National Penuche Fudge Day

Ratcatcher's Day -- celebrated by the British dating of the Pied Piper story; celebrated June 26 in Hamelin, Germany

Revolution Day -- The Gambia

Soma-Nomaoi Festival -- Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (Wild-Horse Chasing, a four-day festival in which a thousand horsemen, clad in ancient armor, compete for possession of three shrine flags, and along the Hibarigahara Plain, men clad in white costumes attempt to catch wild horses)

Spooners Day (Spoonerism -- Named for William Archibald Spooner, English cleric and scholar who once fussed at a student because "You hissed my mystery lesson," told a groom it was "kisstomery to cuss the bride," and once accidentally referred to Queen Victoria as "the queer old Dean.")

St. Mary Magdalene's Day (Patron of apothecaries, contemplative life and contemplatives, converts, druggists, glove makers, hairdressers and hair stylists, penitent sinners, penitent women, people ridiculed for their piety, perfumeries and perfumers, pharmacists, reformed prostitutes, tanners, women; Anguiano, Spain; Atrani, Salerno, Italy; Casamicciola, Italy; Elantxobe, Spain; Foglizzo, Italy; La Magdaleine, Italy; against sexual temptation)

   Stilt Dance Day -- Anguiano, Spain (a special stilt dance performed on the Feast of the city's patron, St. Mary Magdalen)

Sumarauki -- Iceland (their calendar's extra days added to take into account the "drift" of the calendar from the moon phases)

Tisha B'Av -- Judaism (begins at sundown, through tomorrow; fast in remembrance of the destruction of the First Temple in 586BCE and the Second Temple in 79AD)

Birthdays Today:

George Alexander Louis Windsor, His Royal Highness Prince of Cambridge, 2013

Madison Pettis, 1998

Selena Gomez, 1992

Scott Dixon, 1980

Daniel Jones, 1973

Rufus Wainwright, 1973

Irene Bedard, 1967

Rhys Ifans, 1967

Shawn Michaels, 1965

David Spade, 1964

John Leguizamo, 1964

Rob Estes, 1963

Keith Sweat, 1961

Willem Dafoe, 1955

Alan Menken, 1949

Albert Brooks, 1947

Don Henley, 1947

Danny Glover, 1946

Estelle Bennett, 1944

Bobby Sherman, 1943

Kay Bailey Hutchison, 1943

Alex Trebek, 1940

Terrence Stamp, 1939

Louise Fletcher, 1934

Oscar De la Renta, 1932

Orson Bean, 1928

Bob Dole, 1923

Amy Vanderbilt, 1908

Alexander Calder, 1898

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1890

William Archibald Spooner, 1844

Gregor Johann Mendel, 1822 (Note:  some sources say July 20)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Plan 9 From Outer Space(Film), 1959

Today in History

King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk, 1298

The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I in the Battle of Dornach, 1499

A second group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony, 1587

Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada, 1793

In the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Rear Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm, and part of it is amputated, 1797

Death of Josef Strauss, Austrian composer, 1870

First ever motorized racing event is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The race is won by comte Jules-Albert de Dion, 1894

Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes, 1933

Dezik and Tzygan become the first of Russia's Space Dogs, making a sub-orbital flight, which they both survived, 1951

Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during WWII, 1976

Martial law in Poland is officially revoked, 1983

The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, 1997

The Stonehenge World Heritage Site announces the discovery of a possible new henge, the biggest discovery at a major monument in over 50 years, 2010

Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, on government buildings in Oslo and a youth camp at Utoya, 2011

Scientific studies reveal that dolphins have unique names for one another, much like humans do, 2013

The Brain Kids, a team of robots from Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology, wins this year's RoboCup, a robotic soccer tournament started 18 years ago to encourage new developments in the robotics field, 2015

India's lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, successfully takes off from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota aiming to make India the fourth nation to soft-land on the moon, 2019

The French submarine Minerve, which disappeared in 1968 with a crew of 52, is  rediscovered off coast of Toulon, France, 2019

Droupadi Murmu is the first tribal politician to be elected President of India (head of state, without executive powers), 2022

The United States Postal Service issues a commemorative stamp in honor of Alex Trebek, long-time host of Jeopardy, 2024