Spinning Yarns (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G is a person who can spin a good yarn.

Not that the stories are not true, mind you, they are, but she can add details and asides and comments which can make a story go from, "The dog chased the cat," to "Cindy's dog, and she had no business getting a dog, she doesn't know what she's doing or how to handle it, and I told her she had holes in her fence and she got that guy Sean to 'fix' it, but of course he's an idiot and can't fix anything and she should have hired Mike like I told her to, anyway, the dog saw a cat and broke out through the supposedly 'fixed' fence and went chasing it, and she and I had to spend hours driving around asking people if they'd seen the dog, finally finding it in an old lady's back yard and she was yelling 'cause she's scared of dogs..." and you get the picture of what one of her stories would be like.

Yesterday it was all about the camper and the boat and her property up in Mississippi to where she will retire someday, at least she hopes she can retire someday and move there, and meanwhile she's got to keep working to pay the bills, and she has to take the boat up there today and bring the camper back tomorrow because she's not giving up on going fishing at one of the lakes up there when she retires but she no longer wants the camper and she may have a buyer.

Thus when i was done with the regular chores yesterday, we made room in the truck and stowed things she will need for an overnight trip to the country, because she's not going to go and come back on the same day, including piles of mail she wants to sort through, all her meds and CPAP, food, and all the stuff she's been meaning to bring up there when she goes but she hasn't had a chance to go up there lately.

Then we had to carefully water all the plants which need watering because we're supposed to have rain soon but who knows, and make sure the cats were set up with food and water for overnight, and get the boat hitched to the truck, which took a few times back and forth with the truck to get the hitch in the exact right spot and she's glad i'm strong enough to turn the crank to lift and lower the boat trailer part of it and we got it correctly on there on the second try.

When i finally left, she'd made me watch to make sure the lights on the boat trailer were all working and she drove around the block twice to be certain it was all holding correctly since you don't want to find out it's wrong at 65mph on the freeway, and she was heading back in the house to pack just enough clothes for an overnight stay and to yell at April cat to leave her mother Ms. Sassy Floofypants alone while she was gone, and i hope she can get the boat off the hitch tomorrow morning and the camper on and get back without help, but i'll find out soon enough.

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

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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:    

I wonder if she knows,

I'm trying to stay quite cool,

I'm going to propose but don't want

to end feeling like a fool.

I wonder if he knows,

I really love him a lot,

if he were to pop the question

I'd say yes on the spot!

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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 #2 Son managed, with much fussing and fuming and a screw which would try to hide, to get the A/C working in GusGus die Fledermaus (the Ford).  #1 Son now has wheels again which won't cause him to pass out at the wheel.

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It's International Friendship Day as declared by the UN.

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.

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Today is:

Dia del Amigo -- Paraguay

Earth Overshoot Day -- according to the Global Footprint Network, this is the date on which humanity has exhausted the Earth's budget of resources for the year 

Emancipation Day -- Bermuda (first day of the Cup Match)

Father-in-Law Day -- unsponsored and unclaimed, but fathers-in-law deserve respect, too

Feast of the Throne -- Morocco; Western Sahara

Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Fortune of the Present Day")

Friendship Day/International Day of Friendship -- UN

Herbal Ballooning -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day -- Vanuatu(1980)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Kronos as god of the harvest; date approximate)

Martyr's Day -- South Sudan

National Cheesecake Day

National Chili Dog Day

National Support Public Education Day -- Change.org wants this to be an official day for support of US public education systems

Paperback Day -- anniversary of the 1935 publication of Penguin #1, Arial, A Life of Shelley, by Andre Maurois in London, the first successful series of paperback books

Sts. Abdon and Sennen's Day (Patrons of barrel makers and coopers; the ashes of ferns cut and burned on this day will keep away insects and unwanted guests)

Sumiyoshi Matsuri -- Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, Osaka, Japan (Osaka's last major summer festival, through Aug. 1)

Urs Festival of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai -- Sindh, Pakistan (the grand three-day festival of Sindh, celebrating this famous Sundhi Sufi scholar, mystic, and saint)

Anniversaries Today

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, marries Michael Tindall, 2011

Birthdays Today

Hope Solo, 1981

Jaime Pressly, 1977

Misty May-Treanor, 1977

Hilary Swank, 1974

Tom Green, 1971

Simon Baker, 1969

Vivica A. Fox, 1964

Lisa Kudrow, 1963

Alton Brown, 1962

Laurence Fishburne, 1961

Kate Bush, 1958

Delta Burke, 1956

Ken Olin, 1954

Jean Reno, 1948

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947

William Atherton, 1947

David Sanborn, 1945

Paul Anka, 1941

Peter Bogdanovich, 1939

Buddy Guy, 1936

Allan Huber “Bud” Selig, 1934

Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, 1933

Thomas Sowell, 1930

Sid Krofft, 1929

Christine McGuire, 1926

Henry W. Bloch, 1922

Henry Spencer Moore, 1898

Casey Stengel, 1891

Henry Ford, 1863

Thorstein Bunde Veblen, 1857

Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, 1855

Emily Bronte, 1818

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Santa Barbara"(TV), 1984

"Death Valley Days"(Radio), 1930

Today in History

City of Baghdad is founded, 762

The First Defenestration of Prague, 1419

Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage, 1502

At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs, which set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years, 1608

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first European style representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time, 1619

An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people, 1629

Baltimore, Maryland is founded, 1729

Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers, 1756

First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps,1859

Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah, 1863

In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup, 1930

Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short, 1932

A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto, 1956

US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid, 1965

David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo Lunar Module module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon, 1971

Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp, 1974

Jimmy Hoffa disappears, 1975

In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line, 2003

Israel and Palestinian officials agree to resume negotiations for a peace agreement, 2013

The first centenary of the WWI Battle of Passchendaele is marked at a ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, 2017

NASA launches to Mars its Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter aboard a V 541 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 2020

Amazon becomes the second largest private employer in the US, after Walmart, 2021

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake strikes off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean, 2025

High-resolution images reveal intricate tattoos on a 2,500-year-old female Siberian 'ice mummy', 2025

Shoemaker's Wives Go Barefoot, Contractor's Wives...(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.snake  

2.linen  

3.cake  

4.tired  

5.letter  

6.clip

and/or:

1.brush  

2.matter  

3.rake  

4.blue  

5.bush  

6.read

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

Charlotte's colour of the month is Jade Green.

He walked into the house holding the CAKE box out in front of him and set it gently on the LINEN tablecloth in the dining room.

"Is that you, Jake?"  Diane's voice from the kitchen sounded TIRED.

"Yes," he answered, "I picked up the cake on the way home like you asked."

"Go ahead and bring it in the kitchen, please, we'll want to serve it on a cake plate."  She gently took it from him when he walked in and they gave each other a peck on the cheek.  

"Where are the kids?" he asked.

She said, "I sent them outside to do some yard work and keep them out from under my feet.  

"After all, I figured it was only a MATTER of time before either they killed each other or I killed them both, and this was the easiest way to handle it.  I handed Abby the small BLUE RAKE and told her to rake up the spent flowers and bits of bark under the crepe myrtles, and gave Sam the small pruners and told him to CLIP the overgrown azalea BUSH.  They know how to do the work and it's about time they stayed busy instead of hanging around indoors all summer trying to irritate each other.  Also, Sam came in with a ribbon SNAKE, I told him to go release it down at the creek."

"Brilliant," he smiled at her.  "I know you've been busy with this party, but did we get the LETTER from the attorney today?"

"Yes, and I READ it, and it said about what we figured, so everything is going to come out right once the will is probated, it's pretty ironclad.  Meanwhile, don't say anything when Mom comes over for her birthday party tonight.  I cooked all her favorites and," here she opened the cake box and smiled, "got the cake frosted in her favorite shade of Jade Green, so we're just going to forget the worries and celebrate tonight."

He smiled and agreed, and she mentioned he should go out and see what the kids were doing.  "I at least need to wash up a little and run a BRUSH through my hair before Mom and the rest of the family get here."

Jake went out to call the kids in to get cleaned up themselves, first making a big deal over all their help and how well they did it, and the party was a success as they were too tired from the work to even argue with each other at supper!

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Today is:

Asalha Puja Day -- Buddhism (Buddhist "Lent" begins)

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Chicken Wings Day -- Buffalo, NY, US (they want it to be a national day, and maybe someday it will be)

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, innkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travelers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

Full Buck Moon a/k/a Full Thunder Moon or Full Hay Moon; related observances

     Adhi-Esala Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

     Asalha Puja Day/Dharma Day -- Buddhism (Buddhist "Lent" begins)

     Waso Full Moon / Dhamma Cakka Day -- Myanmar

International Tiger Day

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 113 out of the 140 observances of this festival on this date) 

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; patron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway), related observances

     Olavsokadagur -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)

     Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)

     sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

Tu B'Av -- Jewish (a celebration of love, originally a joyous holiday at the beginning of the grape harvest, and now rather akin to Valentine's Day; through nightfall)

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman

Anniversaries Today

Andy Taylor marries Tracey Wilson, 1982

Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565

Birthdays Today

Danger Mouse, 1977

Josh Radnor, 1974

Wanya Morris, 1973

Wil Wheaton, 1972

Julian McMahon, 1968

Martina McBride, 1966

Alexandra Paul, 1963

Patty Scialfa, 1956

Ken Burns, 1953

Tim Gunn, 1953

Marilyn Quayle, 1949

David Warner, 1941

Peter Jennings, 1938

Elizabeth Dole, 1936

Paul Taylor, 1930

Chester Bomar Himes, 1909

Melvin Belli, 1907

Clara Bow, 1905

Dag Hammarskjold, 1905

Stanley Kunitz, 1905

Benito Mussolini, 1883

Newton Booth Tarkington, 1869

Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1861

Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friday Night Videos"(TV), 1983

Help(Film), 1965

"Steamboat Willie"(Animated short, first appearance of Mickey Mouse), 1928

Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030

James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567

English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588

John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793

Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836

In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848

The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899

Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907

The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987

The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988

Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005

South Sudan becomes the 54th member of the African Union, 2011

Scientists reveal new research identifying a mechanism by which Earth-warming carbon is pulled deep into the Southern Ocean, and locked away, and scientists claim this process may be threatened by climate change, 2012

Microsoft launches Windows 10, 2015

A scaled back Hajj pilgrimage begins in Saudi Arabia, with no foreign visitors permitted, 2020

Sunisa Lee becomes first Hmong-American Olympic champion in any sport when she wins the women's artistic individual all-around gymnastics gold in Tokyo, 2021

A modified 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser is driven 7km under water across Darwin's Harbor in Australia, setting a world record, 2023

Heavy rains after a prolonged drought causes partial collapse of a pyramid estimated at 1,100 years old at Ihuatzio Archaeological Zone, Michoacán, Mexico, 2024