Try Telling Mr. Cal He's Not Allowed on the Furniture (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, 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.    

Huge thanks to Hilary Melton-Butcher for providing the prompts last month. 

The prompts this month will again be posted by Elephant's Child and are provided by Charlotte (MotherOwl)        

This week's prompts are:

• Ferry
• Determined
• Box
• Convey
• Paste
• First

And/or

• Family
• Astonish
• Obtain
• Avoid
• Magnificent

An additional prompt from Charlotte (MotherOwl) is to use her colour of the month in your take on the prompts.  In honor of how much we all love to write, this month's color is Writing Pleasure Purple.

Have fun.

It's not true my FAMILY annoys me when they come to visit each summer.

Let's just say it's a bit hard on this unmarried lady of a certain age who went out of her way to AVOID romantic entanglements and is DETERMINED to live her life to the full as she and The Good Lord think best.

No, I don't dislike them and I do go visit them each year at the holidays, we stay in touch, we send birthday cards and have a family Zoom meeting once a month, but having them here once a year is as hospitable as I like to get.

Writing is my Passion, I'm an author after all, and I love the color Purple, so my house has a lot of it in my decor and it always causes some commentary.  I take it in stride, liking what I like and I am careful to BOX up some treasures as the younger family members are not very careful.

Maybe that will CONVEY the crux of it there.  As MAGNIFICENT as it is to have family and people you love and care about and people to turn to in a crisis, some of us want them, but don't want them too close for too long at a time.

While they're here, too, things get a little different and I don't mind admitting I'm a bit more set in my ways.  Yes, I can adapt for a week.  I always OBTAIN their favorite foods and they never cease to ASTONISH me with just how much they can eat.  I'm sure to have extra toiletries here as we once almost ran out of toothPASTE and the fuss made over such a minor thing was silly.  I even make sure they have a good time, the FIRST order of business on the first morning after they arrive is a FERRY ride to the island, where they do "all the things" as they like to say.

They don't annoy me, I love them, and I can do for them for a week.

Just remember it takes me at least two weeks to recover and I won't be ready to do it again until next year.

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Today is:

Adonia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (date approximate, but always in July, a ritual to honor Adonis)

Flag & Anthem Day -- Curacao

Freedom From Fear of Public Speaking Day -- as proposed by Beverly Beuermann-King, because you don't want to blow it when your big opportunity comes because you are afraid to speak out!

I Forgot Day (the day to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or other special days that you forgot during the first half of the year)

National Anisette Day

Palio di Provenzano -- Siena, Italy (horse race and pageant, named after the Madonna di Provenzano, whose church is in Siena)

Remember to Feed the Hummingbirds Day -- internet reminder to be nice to these beautiful creatures

St. Swithin's Day (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

Try to Find Your Slinky Day -- the weird holiday of the day!

Violin Lovers' Day

World UFO Day -- unfortunately, a real day observed by many around the world (on the "anniversary" of the UFO crash in Roswell, if such a thing even happened, which i doubt*)

*i believe that if there's life elsewhere, it shows its intelligence by staying away from us!

Anniversary Today:

Prince Albert of Belgium marries Paola Ruffo di Calabria, 1959

Birthdays Today:

Lindsay Lohan, 1986

Ashley Tisdale, 1985

Johnny Weir, 1984

Jose, Jr., and Ozzie Canseco, 1964

Jimmy McNichol, 1961

Ron Silver, 1946

Vicente Fox Quesada, 1942

Richard Petty, 1937

Polly Holiday, 1937

Dave Thomas, 1932

Medgar Evers, 1925

Dan Rowan, 1922

Ken Curtis, 1916

Thurgood Marshall, 1908

Jean René Lacoste, 1904

Hermann Hesse, 1877

Thomas Cranmer, 1489

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Andy Williams Show"(TV), 1957

"The Lawrence Welk Show"(TV), 1955

"Finlandia"(Sibelius' Op. 26), 1900

Today in History:

Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine, 1698

Vermont  becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery, 1777

Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19, 1881

Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad, 1893

Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtains patent for radio in London, 1897

The first zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany, 1900

Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight 1937

The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas, 1962

North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 1976

The AbioCor  self contained artificial heart is first implanted, 2001

Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon, 2002

Planetoid Pluto's fourth and fifth moons officially receive the names Kerberos and Styx from the International Astronomical Union, 2013

British Petroleum agrees to compensate the US government and states bordering the Gulf of Mexico $18.7 billion for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, 2015

British divers discover 12 boys and their coach alive in Tham Luang Nang Non cave, Thailand, after being trapped for 9 days by monsoon flooding, 2018

A newly rediscovered Lewis chess piece sells at auction for £735,000 in London, 2019

The British Darts Organisation’s commercial arm, BDO Enterprises Ltd, goes into liquidation due to lack of sponsorship, 2020

Excavations at burials near Tel Yehud in Israel from the 14th century BC reveal the earliest known evidence of the use of opium, 2022

Sierra Leone bans marriage for those under 18, aiming to protect the 1/3 of girls who are forced to marry before adulthood, 2024

Hit the Ground Running and Don't Look Back, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

When i first started cleaning Carl's apartment (attached to his parent's house), his schedule had him at work at 7am each morning by his mom's preference.  He is not very heat tolerant, sunburns easily and has been known to get heat sick at work in summer, so she wants his hours to be early.

They've not been complying with her request the last couple of summers but have kept his hours short enough for him to be able to keep up.

This week he's back to a 7am start and it means when i get there at 6 i have to hit the ground running and not look back.  They also, unfortunately, want him to stay until 3pm.  It's going to be very hard on him.

I noticed Carl was already dressed, in long sleeves and long pants no less, so i asked if he'd showered and he said he had.  I then asked if he wanted to wear cooler clothes since he would be working a long day and said, "Working on it," and headed to the kitchen to hunt up breakfast.

This is when i started looking and realized he might need help finding shorts and a short sleeve shirt, so off to the laundry room.  Yep, in the dryer, and actually about 90% dry.  I turned the clothes on for a bit and went to see about his ice vest and lunch.

He'd obviously been chivvied by Ms. V to get ahead of the game and make some lunches.  One of the sandwiches he'd already nibbled on.  He lives to eat, this one.

I went to the kitchen to grab other items to add to the sandwiches and he and i passed each other so many times i almost asked him if he wanted to dance, but i refrained.  He wouldn't have understood the joke.

As usual, he kept up a running conversation.

"Where's the tea?"

I turned to look for it and he was already pouring some (and getting it on the counter) off to something else.

"Went to the fitness club, it was a limited time offer from work, and it's expensive..."

Those places do cost, i agreed.

"We got together this weekend...quiz.  Um, we had a quiz.  They asked about geography, bugs, animals..."

He trailed off and then came back with, "I was out until almost twelve Saturday night!"

It's most unusual for him to be out late, it must have been a special occasion.

Then it was, "I need to take up a hobby...art or something...what do you suggest?"

I told him it depended on what he liked best and got back to his room without having to explain hobbies cost money and take up space, and he has neither to spare.

Speaking of spare,

he's leaving change everywhere again and we had to have "the change talk."

You're up to almost $30 in change, i told him, so you need to take it to the bank, but not Friday.

"Why not Friday?  I have the day off..."

It's a holiday, i told him, and the bank won't be open.

He started at me, then went to change into shorts and a short sleeve shirt, leaving the clean long sleeve shirt and long pants on the floor of the closet where i'd already picked up all the dirty clothes.

As he tried to leave, he was wandering around with the back door open, muttering, "Do I have everything?  Do I have everything?"

I offered to help and he said, "Water!"

There's a bottle in your lunch, i told him, so he nodded once sharply and left.

This is what happens when his mom tells him to get everything up off the floor so no one trips on it.  It's up, mostly.

Carl's nemesis is bugs and he's not keen on spiders either.

Which is why it's hard to control such things when he somehow gets a piece of candy stuck to the bottom of his kettle bell.

But there's no fussing at him, he's really just a big kid.

How about some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is Canada Day!  I am so thankful for our neighbor to the north.

Today is ID Your Pet Day.  Make sure your pets have microchips and ID tags, it's the best way to make sure if the unthinkable happens and they get away from you, you can find them and bring them home safely.

Today is American Zoo Day!  The first zoo in the US, the Philadelphia Zoo, opened on July 1, 1874.

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

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Today is:

Green Corn Ceremonies -- among various Native Americans, honoring maize goddess with thanksgiving for the maize harvest; each area that celebrates has its own date, any time from now until late August, depending on when the corn begins to ripen

Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day -- a great way to start off Ice Cream Month; try a new one and you just might find a new favorite.

Day to Celebrate All the World's Creatures -- commemorates the day in 1975 that endangered species became internationally protected

Doctors' Day -- India

Emancipation Day -- Sint Maarten

Halfway Point of the Year Day / Second Half of the Year Day -- related observance

     Half-Year Day -- China

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day -- Hong Kong

Hug a Cowboy Day -- always on Canada Day

Independence Day -- Burundi(1962); Rwanda(1962)

Intact Day -- celebrating genital integrity, as far as possible from the Feast of the Circumcision on Jan. 1

International Chicken Wing Day -- some sites say the 2nd, celebrate today or tomorrow, your choice

International Joke Day -- as declared by many internet sites, but i can't find out why today; then again, why not?

International Reggae Day  http://www.ireggaeday.com/

International Tartan Day -- anniversary of the repeal, in 1782, of the Act of Proscription which banned the wearing of Tartans; celebrated especially by Scottish diaspora in Australia; New Zealand

July Morning -- Bulgaria (dates back to the '70s, young and old people hitchhike to the Black Sea in late June to greet the dawn of July 1 with Uriah Heep's hit song July Morning; began as a suble anti-communist protest, now in memory of the fall of communism and to celebrate the start of summer vacation)

Keti Koti -- Suriname (Emancipation Day)

Madeira Day -- Madeira

Memorial Day -- Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Mount Fuji Official Climbing Season begins -- Japan (through Aug. 31)

Moving Day -- Quebec, Canada

National Boating Day -- US

National Ducks and Wetlands Day -- US (presidential designation in 1990)

National Financial Freedom Day -- can't find how this one started, but it's as good a day as any to take a good look at your finances, and start learning how to better manage them.

National Gingersnap Day

Republic Day -- Ghana; Somalia

Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo -- Halifax, NS, Canada (through the 8th)

Sir Seretse Khama Day -- Botswana

Skiraphoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of cutting and threshing the grain)

St. Serf of Culross' Day (patron of the Orkney Islands)

Sts. Cosmas and Damian's Day -- Eastern Catholic Churches

     Holy Healers' Day -- Bulgaria (a special festival for the two saints/brothers who were healers; celebrated especially by all healers, fortune-tellers, witches, sorceresses and herbalists)

Territory Day -- British Virgin Islands

Unity Day -- Zambia

U.S. Postage Stamp Day -- first US postage stamp issued this day in 1847

Yukon Gold Panning Championships -- Dawson City, YT, Canada

Zip Code Day -- US (inaugural anniversary in 1963; when you mail that letter, zip it up! no zip, slow trip; wrong zip, long trip)

Anniversaries Today:

Prince Albert II of Monaco marries Charlene Whittstock, 2011

Haleakala National Park established, HI, US, 1961

Mammoth Cave National Park established, KY, US, 1941

Dwight D. Eisenhower marries Mamie Geneva Dowd, 1916

Birthdays Today:

Hilary Burton, 1982

Liv Tyler, 1977

Ruud Van Nistelrooy, 1976

Missy Elliott, 1971

Pamela Anderson, 1967

Andre Braugher, 1962

Princess Diana, 1961

Carl Lewis, 1961

Michelle Wright, 1961

Alan Ruck, 1956

Dan Aykroyd, 1952

Deborah Harry, 1945

Karen Black, 1942

Genevieve Bujold, 1942

Twyla Tharp, 1941

Jamie Farr, 1934

Jean Marsh, 1934

Leslie Caron, 1931

Farley Granger, 1925

Olivia DeHavilland, 1916

William James "Willie" Dixon, 1915

Estee Lauder, 1906

Charles Laughton, 1899

Thomas Andrew Dorsey, 1899

Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, 1872

Ignaz Semmelweis, 1818

George Sand, 1804

Debuting/Premiering Today:

CourtTV(Network, now TruTV), 1991

"Nick at Nite"(TV), 1985

"The Liberace Show"(TV), 1952

"Mama"(TV), 1949

NBC(Network, first scheduled TV broadcast ever), 1941

Today in History

Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor, 69

La Noche Triste: a joint Mexican Indian force led by the Aztec ruler Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadores led by Hernán Cortés, 1520

Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u., 1770

American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 1782

A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales, 1837

U.S. Postage stamps went on sale for the first time, 1847

In the first instance of photojournalism, a French photographer's daguerrotypes of Paris riots were turned into woodcuts so as to be published in the weekly newspaper L'Illustration Journal Universel on this date in 1848

Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands, 1863

The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada, 1867

The Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first US zoo, opens; admission twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children, 1874

The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States, 1881

SOS is adopted as the international distress signal, 1908

Grant Park Music Festival begins its tradition of free summer symphonic music concert series in Chicago's Grant Park, which continues as the United States' only annual free outdoor classical music concert series, 1935

NBC makes the first scheduled television broadcast, 1941

Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved; since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city), 1943

The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin Royal Family, 1949

Zip Codes are introduced for the U.S.mail, 1963

The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto, 1966

The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission, 1967

Sony introduces the Walkman, 1979

O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada, 1980

German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany, 1990

The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule, 1997

Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC, 2004

Smoking is banned in all indoor public spaces in England, 2007

The oldest European remains of a white man are discovered in Australia; the Manning River Skull may belong to a man born in 1650, predating the country's history that Captain James Cook was the first to land on Australia's east coast in 1770, 2013

Croatia becomes the twenty-eighth member of the European Union, 2013

Greece becomes the first developed country to default on loans from the International Monetary Fund, 2015

Tedros Adhanom takes office as first African Director-General of the World Health Organization, 2017

Colombia's Chiribiquete National Park is declared a world heritage site by the UN, 2018

Britain's Princes William and Harry unveil a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, 2021

Germany and Nigeria sign an agreement to return ownership of more than 1,000 Benin Bronzes, looted during colonial times, back to Nigeria, 2022

King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander issues a formal apology for the country's role in the slave trade at the 160th Anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in that country, 2023

The Euclid telescope is launched into space on board Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on mission to create a 3D map of the cosmos and search for dark matter and dark energy, 2023