Happier This Way (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G, like any of us, can be a puzzle.

She claims she wants to be able to stay home and take care of some of her own many projects, and wants to be able to move out to her retirement place in the country soon enough to still have the health to enjoy it.

She has invested in both a pontoon boat and an RV with the stated intent of being able to get away and just go fish and enjoy herself.

She has a house and now a storage unit full of things she says she wants to post online and sell to make money so she will have extra toward her retirement.

Instead most of her time is taken up with anything and everything else, her real estate business, tracking down the provenience on some stained glass she has acquired so she can give it to someone who is restoring an older building if it's appropriate to the era, keeping track of every neighbor and how they are doing and what they need, volunteering, being available to many family members and friends any time they call and helping them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

When i showed up yesterday to work she "wanted to get a good bit done" and instead, after we'd gone to the car wash and Cramco, then done a few quick chores around the house, she went rushing off to yet another appointment; i think she says she wants to be home tending her own things, but really gets a kick out of being busy and being needed and isn't going to actually slow down any time soon, she’s happier this way.

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

(Editor's note:  Last week, someone asked about the car the pastor gave us, if it had a name.  At the time, i had not yet "met" the car or driven it.  Now i have, and its name is Lawrence, after Brother Lawrence who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God.  After all, it belonged to a pastor and it feels steeped in peace and prayer.)

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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!

If i'd had a fence like this when my kids were little, they'd have used it as a ladder and been out of the yard in no time!

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

I always wished to be able to fly

reach right out and touch the sky

and now I'm up here I have found

from now on my feet stay on the ground!

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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 paperwork is done on Lawrence the Honda and i was able to read the eye chart and get the "needs glasses" endorsement taken off my driving license.

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Today is:

Ascension Day/Feast of the Ascension -- Western Christian; related observances

     Procession of the Holy Blood -- Belgium (religious historical procession recalling the adventurous crusaders, especially Count Thierry of Alsace, who was supposed to have carried back relics of the Holy Blood)

Carabao Festival -- Pulilan, Philippines (to honor their patron, St. Isidro [St. Isadore the Farmer], hundreds of carabaos [water buffalo] are dressed up and paraded, and eventually blessed in front of the church; through tomorrow)

Dance Like a Chicken Day -- no idea why today, but i'm waiting for wedding season

Drunk Driving Memorial Day -- not sponsored by MADD, or anyone else i can find, but let's all work and pray for the day drunk driving by anyone is just a bad memory    

Gesta de Independencia -- Paraguay

Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival -- Izumo-taisha, Japan (through tomorrow)

King Father Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Marshmallow Fluff Day -- Mr. Durkee and Mr. Mower announced, on this day in 1920, that they were in business producing this sweet confection

Mars Invictus Festival -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Midnight Sun at North Cape -- Norway (the sun will not set until July 30)

National Buttermilk Biscuit Day

National Unification Day -- Liberia

President Kamuzu Banda's Birthday -- Malawi

Runic Half-Month Ing (expansive energy) commences

"Stars and Stripes Forever" Day -- first public performance of the composition was this day in 1897

St. Bonifatius' Day (4th Ice Saint)

St. Matthias the Apostle's Day (Patron of carpenters, reformed alcoholics, tailors; Gary, Indiana; Great Falls-Billings, Montana; against alcoholism and smallpox)

Underground America Day -- Malcolm Wells wants us to imagine what our landscapes would look like if more of our buildings were under ground

Yom Yerushalayim -- Israel (Jerusalem Day; begins at sunset)

Anniversaries Today:

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark marries Mary Donaldson, 2004

Carlsbad Caverns National Park established, NM, US, 1930

Birthdays Today:

Miranda Cosgrove, 1993

Amber Tamblyn, 1983

Dan Auerbach, 1979

Martine McCutdcheon, 1976

Cate Blanchett, 1969

Danny Wood, 1969

Jose Da Silveira, 1965

Suzy Kolber, 1964

Tim Roth, 1961

Valerie Still, 1961

Ronan Tynan, 1960

David Byrne, 1952

Robert Zemechis, 1951

Meg Foster, 1948

George Lucas, 1944

Jack Bruce, 1943

Atanasio "Tony" Perez, 1942

Bobby Darin, 1936

Laszlo Kovacs, 1933

Patrice Munsel, 1925

Otto Klemperer, 1885

Robert Owen, 1771

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727

Gabrile Daniel Fahrenheit, 1686

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Kids Are Alright"(Documentary), 1979

“It’s Time for Ernie"(Ernie Kovacs' TV premier), 1951

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love"(Hindemith composition), 1946

"Die Hebriden/The Hebrides"(Mendelssohn Op. 26), 1832

Today in History:

Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony, 1607

Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox  vaccination, 1796

The Lewis and Clark expedition sets out, 1804

Paraguay  gains independence from Spain, 1811

The first edition of the London Illustrated Times is published, 1842

Gail Borden patents her process for condensed milk, 1853

Vaseline, the first petroleum jelly, is marketed, 1878

Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five, 1939

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established; immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 1948

Kuwait joins the United Nations, 1963

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched, 1973

The Institute for War documents publishes Anne Franks complete diary, 1986

The last episode of Seinfeld airs, with commercials going for $2M per 30 seconds, 1998

Scientists at Stanford University invent a working bionic eye the is powered only by focused light; the eye could eventually restore the sight of millions of people suffering from macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa, 2012

Gabriel Medina becomes the first surfer ever to land the move called a "Backflip" in competition, 2016

The successful transfer of memory in snails as achieved by scientists from University of California is published in the journal "eNeuro", 2018

Chinese mountain climber and double amputee Xia Boyu reaches the summit of Mt Everest, 2018

Wikipedia confirms that the Republic of China has banned all versions of its site, 2019

Surrealist artist Man Ray's photograph "Le Violon d'Ingres" becomes the most expensive ever sold at auction when it goes for $12.4 million, 2022

Cyclone Mocha makes landfall on Rakhine coast, Myanmar, near southern border of Bangladesh, the second strongest storm ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, 2023

Thailand's military-backed government loses out to other parties in their General Election with the Move Forward Party securing 36% of the vote, 2023

Pink! (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 jabblog and can be found here at River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.tapestry  

2.machine  

3.apple  

4.bathroom  

5.broomstick  

6.lightning

and/or:

1. recipe  

2.order  

3.wasp  

4.explain  

5.never  

6.imagine

Charlotte's colour of the month is Gold.

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

Of course, I had to use the APPLE pie RECIPE grandmother gave us, exactly as written on the old, stained and worn piece of paper in the back of her cookbook.  None of us would IMAGINE doing anything else, as we would NEVER be able to EXPLAIN it to grandfather. 

In our family, it would be like making a TAPESTRY or quilt by MACHINE instead of by hand.  Why, it would upset the ORDER of the universe.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with other people doing it that way,” grandfather would say, “but in our family, we do it right!”

When I was very young, I asked him what would happen if we bought a store pie or machine made things, and he looked at me long and hard.  

"Well," he finally said, "one of two things would happen.  Either a WASP would follow you around for days no matter how many times you tried to swat it away with a BROOMSTICK, and it would bite you as often as it could, or you'd get struck by LIGHTNING on your bottom when you tried to use the BATHROOM, the lightning would hit the ground right next to the house and travel through the pipes right to the potty and get you!"

Chuckling to myself at the memory as I mounded the Gold heaps of apples diced just so into the pie crust, I was thankful both for modern conveniences when I needed them, and for knowing how to do things the old way and the ability to teach it to the next generation.

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Today is:

Arlington National Cemetery Day -- US (the first serviceman to be interred here was Private William Henry Christman, on this date in 1964

Bun Bung Fai (Rocket Festival) -- Yasothon, Thailand (through the 14th, teams compete to build the highest flier, with no regard for safety!)

Celtic Tree Month Huath (hawthorn) commences

Donate a Days Wages to Charity Day 2026  

Frog Jumping Day -- original date for celebrating Twain's short story

Garland Day -- Abbotsbury, Dorset, England

King Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Lemuralia -- Ancient Roman Empire (third day)

Leprechaun Day -- spread around the internet, presumably by the little people themselves, as since St. Patrick gets a day, so should they!

National Apple Pie Day

National Fruit Cocktail Day

National Nightshift Workers Day/Third Shift Workers Day -- US (remembering those intrepid souls who keep things running smoothly through the night)

National Receptionist Day -- US (because that first impression is important; National Receptionists Association)

Pilgrimage to Fatima -- Fatima, Portugal (procession, mass, and etc. to commemorate the first appearance of the Virgin of the Rosary to the three shepherd children on this day in 1917)

St Julian of Norwich's Day (Author of what is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, around 1393)

St. Servatus' Day (3rd Ice Saint, Patron for success; against foot problems, lameness, leg problems, mice, rats, rheumatism, vermin)

Birthday Today:

Debby Ryan, 1993

Robert Pattinson, 1986

Samantha Morton, 1977

Darius Rucker, 1968

Darius Rucker, 1966

Stephen Colbert, 1964

Julianne Phillips, 1962

Dennis Rodman, 1961

Frances Barber, 1957

Stevie Wonder, 1950

Bobby Valentine, 1950

Franklyn Ajaye, 1949

Tim Pigott-Smith, 1946

Mary Wells, 1943

Ritchie Valens, 1941

Harvey Keitel, 1939

Beatrice Arthur, 1923

Joe Louis, 1914

Arthur Sullivan, 1842

Maria Theresa, 1717

Debuting/Premiering Today;

Let It Be(Film), 1970

"Paint It Black"(Single release), 1966

"The Pajama Game"(Musical), 1954

Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra (Bloch concerto), 1917

"Apollo et Hyacinthus"(opera, Mozart K 38), 1767

Today in History:

The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother, 1568

A major earthquake in Santiago, Chile, kills 1/3 of the population, 1643

Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia, 1787

Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia, 1830

The first performance of Finland's national anthem, 1848

Queen Victoria declares Britain neutral in the US Civil War, 1861

The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 1861

Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway, 1880

The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom, 1912

Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft, 1913

The first commercial FM radio station in the United States (WDRC-FM) is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut, 1939

Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons, 1940

The trade mark Velcro is registered, 1958

The Free Speech Movement is born at UC Berkeley, 1960

Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President  of India and the first Muslim President of Indian Union, 1967

Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike, 1989

Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, 1994

A 33 years old British mother Alison Hargreaves, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas, 1995

Star Trek: Enterprise broadcasts its final show in the U.S., 2005

Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins, 2007

In Belize, a construction company requiring road fill gravel destroys a 2,300 year-old Mayan pyramid, 2013

A 22 year old UK blogger halts the spread of a global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying its "kill switch", 2017

Undersea explorer Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds plastic waste, 2019

The journal Nature Geoscience publishes a study showing the moon is shrinking because of moonquakes as it cools, 2019

The Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica calves the world's largest iceberg, named 'A-76,' at 1,667-square-miles (4,320 square km) , 2021

Commissioner Rob Manfred removes 17 deceased people, including "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Pete Rose from MLB's 'permanently ineligible' list, 2025