The best thing about traveling without the family for the first time ever will be getting away from it all.

The worst will be coming back to it all, after I haven't been here to at least try to keep a lid on things for a few days.

I keep reminding them that if they don't do something, whether feed the cats or refill the water pitcher or whatever it is, that it will not get done.

I'm trying not to let my imagination go with what I'm going to find when I get back.

Meanwhile, the flooding in our neighboring states is tearing my heart up. We have had hurricanes and flooding around here, and we know the devastation. One friend of mine on the board lives where a creek that averages 2-3 feet deep is right now at 30 feet and rising. The creek in our neighborhood has flooded, but never that badly. That would even reach our house.

May this end soon for them.


Today is

Alban Elfed (a/k/a Mabon) -- Celtic Winter Finding

Checkers Day

Dogs in Politics Day (Okay, I'm tempted but this one is too easy.)

Feast of Carman (Celtic goddess of poetry)

Feast of Carpo (Celtic goddess of autumn)

Feast of Chukem, Columbia (deity of footraces)

Festival of Papa, wife of Rangi -- Maori

Frontier Day, Wyoming

Proposal Day

St. Adaman's Day

St. Cadoc's Day

Unification Day, Saudi Arabia


Birthdays Today:

Jason Alexander, 1959
Bruce Springsteen, 1949
Mary Kay Place, 1947
Paul Petersen, 1945
Julio Iglesias, 1943
Tom Lester, 1938
Ray Charles, 1930
John Coltrane, 1926
Mickey Rooney, 1920
Walter Pigeon, 1897
William H. McGuffey, 1800
Kublai Khan, 1215
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, BC63
Euripides, BC480


Today in History:

Concord of Worms, 1122
The first major battle of the Wars of the Roses, at Blore Heath if Staffordshire, 1459
First commencement exercises of Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., 1642
Liechtenstein declares its independence from the German Empire, 1719
John Paul Jones' "Bon Homme Richard" defeats the HMS Serepis, 1779
Lewis and Clark arrive back in St. Louis from their explorations, 1806
Nintendo Koppai, later known as Nintendo Company, Limited, is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi; it produces and markets the playing card game Hanafuda, 1889