So You Want To Send Flowers

So, you have decided, totally independently of the aggressive marketing of the florist industry, of course, to send flowers to your mother, stepmother, mother-in-law, stepmother-in-law, the mother of your children, grandmother, grandmother-in-law, stepgrandmother, great grandmother, or any other female in your extended family whom you feel is worthy of such attention on Mother's Day.

A few suggestions from those who have to deliver them, to make the experience one you, the recipient, and the deliverer will find fulfilling and joyful.

First, get the address right. There is nothing more frustrating, to you or to me, than us not being able to get the flowers there because you told the dispatcher 12237 instead of 12337, and there is no 12237 on that street.

Please tell us if the delivery address is a Street, Drive, Court, Circle, Avenue, Lane, Boulevard, Road, Way, Highway, or whatever such designation it happens to have. If Harrington Avenue, Lane, and Drive are all in your area, make sure we know which one your loved one is on.

This applies to everyone: Please make your address clearly visible from the street! Not just for us, the ambulance can find you more easily, too. This even applies to businesses, as when you call emergency services, and they want your location. Saying "It's the XYZ Bakery on Lee Drive" won't be good enough, they will ask for the actual number.

If the delivery is to a person at work, please give us the name of the business also. Having both helps.

Always leave a contact number. If you can, multiple contact numbers. Make sure they are numbers that will be answered during normal business hours, so we can call you or the recipient to ask for specific directions. Yes, you want it to be a surprise, but without this info it can end up being a surprise to you that it never arrived because we couldn't get proper directions or get into your gated community.

Finally, if you live in an area where it is at all possible, tell them when you call in the order that we can leave it on a back porch or other safe place away from the view of the street, and in the shade. That little note on my paper allowing me to do so has saved many a delivery from coming back to the shop with me.

Enjoy your flowers, and have a blessed and beautiful day.


Today is

Apple Blossom Festival -- Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US

Astronomy Day -- Spring, celebrates the rising of the spring/summer constellations in the Northern Hemisphere.

Bark in the Park -- Chicago, Illinois, US, to wind up Be Kind To Animals Week

Beaufort Wind Force Scale Day

Birth Mother's Day

Cotton Pickin' Fair -- Gay, Georgia (come on down to see how people lived on cotton farms back in the early 1900's)

Experience the Awesome Stomach-Churning Wonder of a Thrill Ride Day

Feast of St. Nicola (Bari, Italy's patron of orphans and pirates)

Free Comic Book Day

Hamburg Harbor Day -- Hamburg, Germany (founding of the city)

Helston Furry Dance a/k/a The Flora -- Helston, Cornwall, England

Homespun History Day

International Migratory Bird Celebration

International Wildlife Film Festival -- Missoula, Montana, US

Join Hands Day -- get together with others in your area and volunteer; when we join hands, together we can accomplish anything!

Kentucky Derby

Letter Carriers "Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive -- US

Mother Ocean Day -- celebrate the wonders of the ocean, wherever you happen to be

National Babysitter's Day

National Homebrew Day

National Roast Leg of Lamb Day

National Scrapbooking Day

National Tourism Day

Punch's Birthday -- St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England (Punch, of Punch and Judy, celebrates his birthday on the Saturday closest to May 9 by preaching at the cathedral to other puppets and their puppeteers, or "professors".)

Radio Day -- Bulgaria; Russia

St. John of Beverly's Day

Randwick Wap Cheese Rolling -- Randwick, Gloucestershire, England (Yes, they roll cheeses that were blessed last Sunday around the church; yes, they've been doing it for 700 years; no, no one is quite certain why, though many stories are told of the origin.)

St. Nicola's Day

World Fair Trade Day


Anniversaries Today:

Founding of Univerzita Karlova in Prague, the first university in Central Europe, 1348


Birthdays Today:

Owen Hart, 1965
Tim Russert, 1950
Johnny Unitas, 1933
Teresa Brewer, 1931
Darren McGavin, 1922
Eva Peron, 1919
Gary Cooper, 1901
Archibald Macleish, 1892
Gabby Hayes, 1885
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1840
Johannes Brahms, 1833
Robert Browning, 1812
Francis Beaufort, 1774


Today in History:

The dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople collapses, 558
Joan of Arc leads the final charge in the Battle of Orleans, 1429
Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles, 1664
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, 1718
Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia, 1727
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit, 1763
The world premier of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, 1824
The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London, 1832
Georgen Eastman patents the "Kodak Box Camera," 1888
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver, 1895
German submarine SM U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, 1915
England lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21, 1928
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees, 1946
The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress, 1948
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer, 1952
Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits, 1986
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, 1992
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history, 1998
The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered, 2007