Plans to Cover Our Plans (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G wasn't at the house when i arrived and began the usual chores, but she came in soon after and gave me what was, for her, the short version of her previous 24 hours.

She'd had little sleep and had started packing, her sister in Florida was in the ICU, she'd been throwing up blood and had gone to the little freestanding mini-ER instead of the big hospital where it took them two hours just to get a doc in who could read her CT scans.

They are pretty sure they know what's going on but have to do an endoscopy to confirm, and what they find will tell the course of treatment, and meanwhile Ms. G was partially packed and figuring on making the 14-hour drive today.

Our work day yesterday consisted of a quick trip to The Bulk Club where she's a member (yes, she also has a membership at Cramco, for a single woman she buys a lot of stuff in bulk) where she got her things and i grabbed a mega size bag of Trick or Treat candy and paid her back, knocking one chore off of my list and at a more reasonable price than where i usually shop.

Back at the house, after putting everything away and quick cleaning all the usual stuff, we had a meeting of the minds on how to proceed should she end up in Orlando for a while, especially as i may end up in NOLA with Grandma on short notice as well, 

because nothing in our lives is a snap and it's done.

If she goes to be with the rest of the family, she will leave extra food and water and an extra litter box for Bossy April and Ms. Sassy Floofypants, and i will plan to come every other day, and if i'm in NOLA and can't come every other day, with the extra food, water, and litter we'll be providing they can go two days if they have to, but here's praying they don't have to.

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

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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!

A very temporary spider web fence.  'Tis the spooky season!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

I've been working like a dog,

my paws to the bone,

now the house is spotless

I'll have a spa day at home!

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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 to have gotten my Trick or Treat candy for a more reasonable price, thanks to Ms. G.

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Today is:

Air Force Day -- India

American Touch Tag Day -- go outside and remember how much fun it is to play tag

Cephalopod Awareness Days:  Octopus Day -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, celebrate all the eight-armed species

Children's Day -- Iran

Feast of St. Bridget -- Sweden (traditional date, others who recognize the saint celebrate on July 23; Patron of widows; Europe; Sweden)

Feast of St. Keyne -- Celtic Saint, patroness of the spring and tree arbor that bear her name; the first to drink of her water after being newly married will have the upper hand in the marriage

Lovable Lawyers Day -- internet generated, and if you love one, good for you

National Fluffernutter Day

National Depression Screening Day® 2026 -- US (find out where to get screened or help others get screened) https://www.iabhp.com/national-wellness-observance-calendar/national-depression-screening-day/

National Pierogi Day -- this day in 1952, Ted Twardzik, Sr., produced Mrs. T's Pierogies samples and took them to a local grocery store; eat a pierogi today in his honor

Navy Day/Battle of Angamos Day -- Peru

San Ernesto Day -- celebration of Che Guevera as a saint who answers prayers for rain among Bolivian campesinos

Sergeant Alvin C. York Day -- US (the feats for which he earned the Medal of Honor in 1918 were accomplished on this date)

St. Demetrius' Day (Patron of Belgrade, Serbia; Salonica, Greece; Thessaloniki, Greece; against evil spirits)

St. Pelagia the Penitant's Day (Patron of actresses)

St. Thais' Day (Patron of fallen women)

Tube Top Day -- if you dare. i don't

World Sight Day -- International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (#LoveYourEyes)   

World Student Day -- International Fellowship of Evangelical Students   https://ifesworld.org/en/wsd/

Anniversary Today:

Ozzie Nelson marries Harriet Hilliard, 1935

Birthdays Today:

Matt Damon, 1970

Darrell Hammond, 1960

Stephanie Zimbalist, 1956

Bill Elliot, 1955

Sigourney Weaver, 1949

Sarah Purcell, 1948

Chevy Chase, 1943

R. L. Stine, 1943

Jesse Jackson, 1941

Harvey Pekat, 1939

Paul Hogan, 1939

Clodagh Aubry, 1937

Rona Barrett, 1936

Faith Ringgld, 1930

Juan Peron, 1895

Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890

Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, 1676

Heinrich Schutz, 1585

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cagney and Lacey"(TV), 1981

"Sugar Babies"(Revue), 1979

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(Radio), 1944

"Capricorn Concerto"(Barber Op. 21), 1944

"In the Shadow of the Glen"(Play), 1903

Today in History:

Constantine, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, defeats Licinius, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of Cibalae, 314

Great standing on the Ugra River, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which resulted in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and eventual disintegration of the Horde, 1480

The supernova "Kepler's Nova" is first sighted, 1604

The Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its first government, 1633

First recorded eruption of Galunggung (volcano of West Java, Indonesia) sends boiling sludge into the valley (this volcano would later erupt at such a time as to cause passenger jets to be damaged and forced into emergency landings), 1822

The first Hawai'ian constitution is proclaimed, 1840

The telegraph line from LA to SF opens, 1860

A gas explosion causes the Peshtigo Fire, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, which killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people and consumed the entire town of Peshtigo and surrounding forests and several other villages -- the deadliest fire in American history, it covered 1.5 million acres, and occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, 1871

The Great Chicago Fire, which consumed 4 square miles, killed 200, and destroyed the original Emancipation Proclamation, began, 1871

The first women's prison run by women opens at the Indiana Reformatory Institute, 1873

Dow Jones begins reporting an average of selected industrial stocks, 1896

Edmonton, Alberta and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan are incorporated as cities in Canada, 1904

New York Yankees's Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series; one of only 20 perfect games in MLB history, 1956

Algeria joins the United Nations, 1962

Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia, 1967

Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60mph at Blowering Dam, Australia, 1978

A deadly earthquake hits Pakistan, 2005

Australian mare Black Caviar ties the horse racing record set by Phar Lap with an unbeaten run of 14 wins, 2011

Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, 2014

The Noble Prize for Physics is awarded to James Peebles for his work on evolution of the universe, and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of planet 51 Pegasi b, orbiting another star, 2019

American poet Louise Glück is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2020

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks," 2024

You Drive What You Have and Be Glad You Have It (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, Sean Jeating is providing the prompts which will appear on River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.contemporaries  

2.easily  

3.life  

4.met  

5.never

and/or:

1.one  

2.say  

3.sentence  

4.who  

5.within

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

Charlotte's colour of the month is Smoky Rose

It is almost inevitable when you get into one of the sandwich generations (taking care of an older and a younger generation at the same time), many of your friends are going to be in this stage of LIFE around the same time as you.

Ms. Winnie is in one of my ladies' circle groups.  Grandma (my mom, simply called this on my blog because it's what my kids call her) and Ms. Winnie's mom are close to being CONTEMPORARIES, although they have NEVER MET.  They EASILY could have been at school together, with Grandma a few years ahead in grade, but not by enough to make a huge difference.

Ms. Winnie and her family are having to go through the vicissitudes of elder care just as my family is.  Grandma is getting noticeably worse in many ways although so far we've been able to keep her at home, albeit with more help now and probably we will need even more in the future.

My friend Ms. Winnie and her family made the difficult decision to move her mother to a care home as her father, unlike Grandpa (my father), cannot oversee her care at home.

It broke Ms. Winnie's heart when it came to this, but she lives several hours away and her youngest child is still in his last year of high school (he was behind by a grade for special needs), so she cannot move to be nearer.  

The problem is, after agonizing and choosing what they hoped was the best place for her mom, a major incident on the day her mother moved in has caused them to have to rethink everything.

It seems a few hours after they had seen her mother comfortably settled in and had left, her mom fell and injured her back, was taken by ambulance to a hospital, and not only did no one from the care facility go with her to see to it she got properly treated, they did not notify the family for nine hours.

Yes, her mother was in the hospital for nine hours before anyone bothered to tell them, and the neglect of her injury with no one at the hospital to tell the staff what had happened means they are not sure she will fully recover.

This ONE SENTENCE should SAY all there is to be said about such a care home.  Any place which drops the ball this badly and this soon is not going to be on my list, no matter WHO tells me they are "an excellent, five star facility" WITHIN just a few miles from where her parents have lived almost their whole lives.

The worst of it for Ms. Winnie is the family members who are contributing the least to her mother's care are the ones pointing fingers and arguing about what steps to take next, and although they will be glad to tell Ms. Winnie and her father what to do, they (even her brother and sister) aren't going to step in and do it.

They seem to see the world through Smoky Rose colored glasses.

As noted, Grandma is losing a bit each day and is asking for pain relief more often (it's given whenever she asks).   We simply wait and do what we can to make her comfortable.

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Today is:

Balloons Around the World -- balloon artists around the world are encouraged to donate an hour or more to a charity of their choice in their community, entertaining children everywhere with balloon sculpture

Banned Websites Awareness Day -- sponsored by the American Association of School Librarians   

Bathtub Day -- can't confirm this one, but it's as good a day as any to be glad you have one!

BOL Foundation Day -- Laos

Change a Light Day -- US (was originally sponsored by EnergyStar, promoting energy saving light bulbs; although they don't seem to be running this particular campaign any longer, it's a great idea to switch to the highest efficiency bulbs you can)

     while the original dates were on Wednesdays, some websites list this on the first Sunday

Feast Day of Ma'at -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

If At First You Don't Succeed Day -- in honor of Frank Sinatra, whose CBS-TV musical variety show debuted on this day in 1950; it and the other two shows that followed didn't succeed, but he never gave up and had a great career

Lepanto Day -- Greece

Nagasaki Kunchi -- Nagasaki, Japan (harvest festival, through the 9th)

National Flower Day -- US (anniversary of President Reagan signing the bill, in 1986, that made the rose the US National Flower)

National Frappe Day

National Propane Day  

Nones of October -- Ancient Roman Calendar; other observances

     Festival of Juno Cutitis and Jupiter Fulgor

     Victoria, Lady of Victories Day a/k/a Pallas Athena -- also celebrated by the Ancient Greeks

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary -- Catholic Christian

St. Justina of Padua's Day (Patron of Padua, Italy; Santa Giustina, Italy)

Try To Start an Argument Over Which Is the Best Muppet Day -- Kermit, hands down (argue below, if you wish)(Possibly started by the International Association of People without a Life)

You Matter To Me Day -- because the phrase "you matter to me" can make a profound difference in someone's life    

Anniversaries Today:

Larry King married Julie Alexander, 1989

Dow Jones makes the first report, in the Wall Street Journal, of an average of the prices of 12 industrial stocks, 1896

Birthdays Today:

Toni Braxton, 1967

Simon Cowell, 1959

Michael W. Smith, 1957

Yo-Yo Ma, 1955

Vladimir Putin, 1952

John Cougar Mellencamp, 1951

Joy Behar, 1943

Charles Dutoit, 1936

Thomas Keneally, 1935

Amiri Baraka, 1934

Bishop Desmond Tutu, 1931

Al Martino, 1927

R. D. Laing, 1927

June Allyson, 1917

Vaughn Monroe, 1911

Andy Devine, 1905

Niels Bohr, 1885

Thomas J. Wise, 1859

James Whitcomb Riley, 1849

Caesar Rodney, 1728(O.S. date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Independent(Newspaper, first issue), 1986

"Cats"(Musical), 1982

"Route 66"(TV), 1960

"Your Hit Parade"(TV), 1950

"One Touch of Venus"(Musical), 1943

"Eve of St. Mark"(Play), 1942

Today in History:

The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar), BC3761

The first public burning of books in Louvain, Netherlands, 1520

Ralph Wedgewood patents carbon paper in London, 1806

The first chartered railway in the US, the Granite Railway, begins operations, 1826

Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba, 1886

Henry Ford institutes the moving assembly line, 1913

Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland college in the infamous 222-0 football game, 1916

160 consecutive days of 100*F+ temperatures begin at Marble Bar, Australia, 1924

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco, 1955

U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon, 1959

Nigeria joins the United Nations, 1960

Oman joins the United Nations, 1971

Cats opens on Broadway and begins a run of nearly 18 years, 1982 

The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, 1993

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten, 1998

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins, 2001

A Southampton University research fellow discovers a long lost Antonio Vivaldi flute concerto at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, 2010

Scientists Stefan Hell of Germany and Eric Betzig and William Moerner of the U.S. share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing 'super-resolved fluorescence microscopy'; the technology can be used to observe molecular activity in living cells, 2014

Jodie Whittaker debuts in her first full episode as the 13th and first female Doctor Who on BBC television, 2018

The Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology is awarded to Peter Ratcliffe, William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza for discovering how cells sense oxygen, 2019

Zanzibar born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2021

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to the Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, 2022

Hamas launches a major air and ground attack on Israel from Gaza, killing over a thousand people and taking hundreds of hostages, sparking a state of war, 2023

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun "for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation," 2025