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Each week we get to Thankful Day and i read over my list (yes, i have to keep a list, i'm thankful i do or i'd never remember it all) and wonder how it all happens in just one short week.
Last Saturday was the day before Father's Day, the day i always go get Grandpa a big order of BBQ from a local place known for doing it right. I walked in with his goodies and he looked at me oddly, and i said, Happy Father's Day!
He had totally forgotten, so it was a huge surprise for him. I'm thankful there is something i can still get for him which he really enjoys, as he doesn't grill for himself any longer.
By the time i started home we were having another frog strangler rain, and for once people on the interstate were actually driving reasonably since none of us could see well in the deluge. I was thankful for this and for the fact the rain and the driving 30mph on the freeway was over by the time i got to the spillway.
Our wet weather wasn't over yet, though, and on Sunday Mr. Cal, a dog who loathes rain with a passion, actually chose to walk even though there was a light sprinkle of rain! It seems he loathes missing his walk more than being a little wet, and i'm thankful Becca and i didn't get too wet and we weren't out long.
Father's Day afternoon, i was thankful to get to watch #2 Son testing out his gift, some kind of electrical something or other he was placing up against the electric cord of everything running, telling us at what efficiency it was running and something about amperage (i have no clue). It was fun to watch him having fun.
Ms. D was asking me Monday if i know a handyman as she not only needed the house cleaned after her daughter left (not that messy, but when there's two in the house instead of one, you know crumbs and things accumulate), she also needed the old and now broken toilet seat replaced in the hall bathroom.
I'm thankful i know how to replace toilet seats, having done many in my day, and we made short work of it.
Our little Annie has been having trouble napping, not wanting to go down and once sleeping, not wanting to sleep long. I'm thankful she took a good, long, almost 2 1/2 hours nap on Tuesday. She needed it, and so did we.
I was thankful to watch her for a while that evening, too, after #2 Son came home from a very tough day at work. I'm thankful to be able to do that and thankful those tough days don't come too often.
As i'd arranged a few weeks in advance, i did the cat shelter volunteer shift Wednesday morning, and was thankful to be able to because they were very short on staff this week, then took the rest of the day off.
While at the shelter, out of the corner of my eye i saw someone approaching through the front windows with a box in his hand. My breath caught as my mind went right to the thought someone was once again going to abandon a box of cats/kittens on the shelter doorstep, although it's illegal, they are supposed to call and make an appointment, but it doesn't stop them.
I was so thankful when i noticed the "smile" on the back of the man's jacket, it was an Amazon box being delivered, and it was such a relief to open the door and take the package, i had a big smile myself as he took the "photo proof of delivery."
At 11am, i picked up Ms. V and we went to the church for a beautiful luncheon and time of sharing. I was thankful to get to go, and thankful i'd reminded Ms. V about it and suggested she come, too. We both had a great time.
While there, i was thankful to do some of what i call "stealth janitoring." When i see things which need cleaning, i tend to them and just don't say anything about it. Someone had accidentally left the ice machine open and it was partially defrosting, i was thankful to be able to clear out the jammed ice and get it properly working and closed again and no one the wiser.
On Thursday, Ms. SE and the boys had gotten back from Europe Sunday and were desperately trying to catch up before her parents came in that evening, as the whole family were turning around and going to the beach for Ms. SE's birthday week.
I'm thankful the boys were cooperative about tidying up, not making huge messes in the kitchen i was cleaning when they fixed snacks, folded their own laundry and vacuumed their own bedrooms. They also helped with the dogs. Altogether things went wonderfully well considering their family is even busier than mine usually is!
Friday i was watching Annie again and i had the chance to observe several things with great thanks.
She wants to be helpful. If i pull out the broom, she wants a broom so she can sweep, too (i grab the spare). She also loves to help pick up her toys.
Her speech is improving. All babies mispronounce some things, much to our amusement, but they have to outgrow it sooner or later and she is now saying "water" more often instead of her own version, "dandah" and the same with other words. She still has a few delightful things she says, and while it's bittersweet to watch these slowly disappear, i'm also thankful as it shows she's growing and developing well.
Her love of good, real food remains unabated, and i was thankful yesterday she was running full speed to the fig tree in our yard to find figs to pick and eat, right off the tree. I'm thankful she knows what real food should be and that it grows from the ground, instead of always coming from a store, and her mama and dada let her help water their kitchen garden and pick cherry tomatoes, strawberries and blueberries.
The evening shift at the cat shelter was just about textbook perfect last night, and we're thankful for adoptions, people looking and trying to decide about adopting, volunteers, and one very sweet older woman who got lost on the way but finally made it because, "she wanted to bring a donation check." We let her hang out as long as she wanted and pet kittens to her heart's content, as her dog is cat aggressive and she can't adopt at this time.
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 International Maltese Cat Day!
Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.
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Today is:
Armed Forces Day -- United Kingdom
ARRL Field Day -- American Radio Relay League's most popular on-air operating event, in which amateur/ham radio operators practice and drill for communications during emergencies; through tomorrow
Birthday of Cheng Huang -- Taiwan (the gods that are city guardians are celebrated with a procession of actors on stilts doing dragon and lion dances on this 13th day of the fifth moon)
Canadian Multiculturalism Day -- Cananda
Day of National Unity -- Tajikistan
Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art -- Turkmenistan
Day Sacred to the Lares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (personal household gods); also
Festival of Jupiter Stator -- Jupiter, Stayer of the Rout, god who helped soldiers especially to stand their ground
Initium Aestatis -- three-day festival for the goddess of summer, which season they saw as beginning on this day
Decide to Be Married Day -- sponsored by Barbara Gaughen-Muller; to focus on the joy of couples deciding to be married
Great American Picnic Day -- various dates given, with the most common being the final Saturday of June
Guan Sheng Di Jun Dan -- Taoism (Heavenly Sage Guan Di's Birthday [god of war])
"Happy Birthday to You" Day -- tune composed this day in 1859
Independence Day / National Day -- Djibouti
Industrial Workers of The World Day -- founded this day in 1905
Martyrdom of Joseph & Hyrum Smith -- Mormon
Mixed Races Day -- Brazil
National HIV Testing Day -- US
National Indian Pudding Day
National Orange Blosssom Day
National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day -- US (by Senate resolution)
Seven Sleepers Day (Siebenschläfertag) -- Germany (according to legend, today's weather determines the pattern for the next seven weeks)
St. Ladislaus' Day (Patron of Szekszard, Hungary)
Sunglasses Day -- a reminder to wear those shades, protect your eyes from UV damage! Sometimes called National Sunglasses Day
Veteranendag -- Netherlands (Veterans Day)
Birthdays Today:
Gabi Wilson, 1997
Madylin Sweeten, 1991
Ed Westwick, 1987
Drake Bell, 1986
Tobey Maguire, 1975
J.J. Abrams, 1976
Jason Patric, 1966
Isabelle Adjani, 1955
Julia Duffy, 1951
James Daughton, 1950
Norma Kamali, 1945
Shirley-Anne Field, 1938
H. Ross Perot, 1930
Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, 1927
Helen Keller, 1880
Patrick Lafcadio "Koizumi Yakumo" Hearn, 1850
Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846
Debuting/Premiering Today:
Live and Let Die(Film), 1973
"Dark Shadows"(TV), 1966
"Captain Video and His Video Rangers"(TV), 1949
Today in History:
General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec, 1759
Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail, 1844
George Dixon becomes the first black world boxing champion in any weight class, while also being the first ever Canadian-born boxing champion, 1890
The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia, 1898
Sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war, 1905
Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane, 1923
The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War, 1950
The world's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow, 1954
The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield, London, 1967
The President of Uruguay dissolves Parliament and heads a coup d'état, 1973
U.S president Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R., 1974
France grants independence to Djibouti, 1977
The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, ILO 169 convention, is adopted, 1989
Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before, is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, starting the Ten-Day War, 1991
Bill Gates resigns from Microsoft to focus on his charity work, 2008
The first democratic election in the history of Guinea is held, 2010
Tests show radioactive cesium is present in small quantities in residents of Iitate and Kawamata, Fukushima, towns located 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 2011
NASA launches IRIS, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun, 2013
The European Union fines Google a record $2.7 billion for unfair competition practices, 2017
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 arrives at asteroid Ryugu, 2018
The science journal Nature publishes an article describing carbon-based molecules, previously only seen on Earth or in meteorites, that were found by the Cassini spacecraft on Saturn's moon Enceladus, 2018
Apple's chief designer, Jony Ive, designer of the iMac and the iPhone, announces he is leaving Apple after 30 years, 2019
A locust invasion is named "Swarmageddon" by The Times of India as it reaches Delhi, 2020
NASA launches a rocket from a commercial spaceport outside the US for the first time, at Arnhem Space Centre, Northern Territory, Australia, 2022
Archaeologists in the city of Pompeii uncover a fresco which shows a flatbread with toppings, possible evidence of "pizza" style foods as early as the first century, 2023
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