If the House is on Fire (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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When i told Ms. G i was on my way yesterday, she responded she was on the freeway with Patience the camper on the way back home, and said she would call me soon.

Some may remember last week she was gone because she was championing Ms. Fiona up at the care home, the final outcome of spending all the time up there was Ms. G, on Thursday, fell seriously ill with whatever virus it was which had made Ms. Fiona so ill and was one sick lady until Monday morning.

This is what she told me when she called me back, giving me a blow by blow of how her week had gone, how if the neighbor had not had some prescription meds left over for "gastric distress" she would have had to go to the ER, how she had finally been able to start eating on Monday night when a bit of macaroni and cheese didn't cause any trouble, and then leaving Tuesday to go meet the electrician at her retirement house in the country with plans to come home with the camper the same day but she was too tired and had to wait overnight.

She then asked me to park at the neighbor's house and have the green cart at the front for her when she got there and gave me detail by detail what was going on and what we were going to get out of the truck when she got back, including asking me to immediately get the sandwich she had with her and get it to the fridge so it would not spoil.

Once she arrived, she went over all the details again as we unhooked the camper and emptied everything out of the truck, telling me place by place where each item should go and yes, i got the sandwich before anything else and she made sure to enquire closely as to whether or not it was still cool when i grabbed it from the cab of the air conditioned truck (it was).

While all this is going on, i was thinking i hope she never has a fire, as by the time she finishes telling me everything which has transpired to cause the situation and that there is, indeed, a fire and we need to flee, it might be too late to get out of the building.

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

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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:    

Son, quit pretending

I am choking you unless

you want to be grounded

for the weekend with no redress.

We're going to get this photo

for the Christmas family letter,

just be glad I didn't make you

wear the jingle bell sweater!

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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 trash pick-up service.  Every once in so often, i talk to a friend who has to take her trash to the dump herself where she lives, and i'm reminded how blessed we are, even if we do have to pay for it.

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Today is:

Day of Battle between Horus and Set; Aset gains the Horns of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Aventine Diana / Nemoralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (commemoration of the dedication of her temple; celebrated between now and the 15th, and rededicated as the Festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin after Christianization)

Festival of Xocotl Huetzi -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (first fruits of harvest festival; date approximate, but two weeks around the end of August)

Independence Day -- Central African Republic(1960)

International Left-Hander's Day -- sponsored by Lefthanders International

Lao Issara -- Laos (Day of the Free Laos)

Lesser Festival of Flora -- Ancient Roman Calendar

National Filet Mignon Day

National Hobo Convention -- Britt, IA (held each year since 1900, gathering for migrant workers who are proud to call themselves "hobos" and make a living through working where they choose and travelling where they want; through Sunday)

Obon -- Buddhist (celebration to revere the ancestors; celebrated at different times even within Japan, but usually the biggest dates are in mid-August)

Runic Half Month As begins (the gods)

Skinny Dipping Day -- funny t-shirt:  I no longer skinny dip. I chunky dunk!

St. Cassian's Day (Patron of students and teachers; Brixen, Italy; Comacchio, Italy; Imola, Italy; Mexico City, Mexico)

St. Concordia's day (Patron of nursing mothers and wet nurses)

St. Hippolytus' Day (Patron of horses, prison guards/officers/workers; Bibbiena, Italy)

Wall Day -- anniversary of the day in 1961 that the Berlin Wall began going up; observe it by trying to break down a wall or communication barrier somewhere in your own life

Women's Day -- Tunisia

Birthdays Today

Shani Davis, 1982

Midori Ito, 1969

Quinn Cummings, 1967

Danny Bonaduce, 1959

Dan Fogelberg, 1951

Kathleen Battle, 

Philippe Petit, 1949

Kevin Tighe, 1944

Don Ho, 1930

Pat Harrington, Jr., 1929

Fidel Castro, 1926

George Shearing, 1919

Ben Hogan, 1912

Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, 1907

Alfred Hitchcock, 1899

Bert Lahr, 1895

Annie Oakley, 1860

Lucy Stone, 1818

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Zaire/The Tragedy of Zara"(Voltaire's "Tragedy in Verse"), 1732

Today in History

The English army under King Henry V lands at the mouth of the Seine River, 1415

Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs is conquered by the Spanish, 1521

Tenbun Hokke Disturbance, in which Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto, 1536

John Smith submits the story of Jamestown's first days for publication, 1608

Christiaan Huygens discovers the Martian south polar cap, 1642

Founding of Litchfield, CT, 1651

Marie Antoinette and other French royals are imprisoned by Revolutionaries, 1792

Nat Turner sees the solar eclipse which he interprets as a sign from heaven to begin his ill-fated slave rebellion, 1831

Earthquake in Peru and Ecuador kills 25,000, 1868

Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon", 1889

First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, 1913

Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, 1918

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany, 1918

The first barbed wire fence that would become the Berlin Wall is erected, 1961

The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York, 1969

Michael Phelps sets the Olympic record for most the gold medals won by an individual in Olympic history, 2008

Footage of the previously unseen Kawahiva tribe is released; the Kawahiva is an indigenous tribe living in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and is thought to have had very little contact with the outside world, 2013

Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani becomes the first woman to win the Fields Medal in mathematics, 2014

Measles cases have tripled so far worldwide in 2019 according to the WHO, 2019 

Israel strikes an historic deal with the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations and suspends plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, 2020

Romanian swimmer David Popovici breaks the 13-year-old world record for the 100m freestyle with a time of 46.86, 2022

Canadian clothing company Gildan finalizes its purchase of Hanes Brands, 2025

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