What Do You Say

when everything is going catawhumpus?

The day didn't start that badly.

We have a newborn bottle-feed kitten that is the tiniest i have ever seen. It's a preemie, and we aren't sure it will survive, but she eats, and that's all we can expect right now.

The deluge of rain had resulted in water in the house, as it usually does, but this time the sump pump took care of most of it and the other leaky spot, where we can't put a pump, didn't require constant attention, just a towel once in a while.

Then we went to exercise class at the church, and Bigger Girl's best friend, Teresa, had a seizure while we were doing sit-ups. It took 3 calls to her mom to get her to call me back, and we had to get an ambulance to come take her to the hospital. Poor girl, it was worse for her than us because she was so disoriented after. And yes, i promised we will still take her with us on vacation this year, it's not like it's that big a deal.

Then Mike-next-door came over with the news that he can't finish the lawn until he gets the belt on his riding mower replaced, and his weed eater broke. Not that huge, really, but if you stand where you can see the front and back yards, you can tell he only got it half done before the equipment went out on him, and it does look funny. Take your laughs where you can, i guess, as he also told me that a good friend's grandfather just died, and so it looks like we will be attending a funeral soon.

If i have a ride, that it.

Because the worst was yet too come. My van gave out. We think it's the starter.

There is no money for a starter, or any other repair, for that matter.

Right now, Sweetie is using his old back up glasses as his good pair broke, and we don't have money for that, either.

It never seems to just rain, it pours.

So, what do you say or do when things just seem to keep going down?


Today is:

Anniversary of His Majesty the King -- Bhutan

Card Reading Day -- because greeting cards can be fun to just stop and read, can't they?

Day in Honor of Dr. W. H. Lini, Father of Independence -- Vanuatu

Feast of the Feralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (final day of the Parentalia, with picnics in the graveyard that included libations to the departed)

International Mother Language Day -- UNESCO

Lesser Eulusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Mardi Gras -- Fat Tuesday, Carnival, the last day to feast before the Lenten fast begins tomorrow; related observances and names:
Scotland, Fasten's E'en or Bannocky Day
Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda
Italian, Martedì Grasso
Swedish, Fettisdagen
Danish Fastelavn
Norwegian, Fastelavens
Estonian, Vastlapäev
Spanish, Martes de Carnaval
German, Faschingsdienstag
Hawaiian, Malasada Day
Lithuanian, Uzgavenes
Icelandic, Sprengidagur
also Pancake Day or Bursting Day, the day to eat the last of the eggs and butter in the form of some kind of fried cakes, and to eat until bursting

Musikahan Festival -- Tagum City, Phillipines (through the 27th)

National Sticky Bun Day

Remember the Funniest Thing Your Kid Ever Did Day -- in honor of Erma Bombeck's birthday

Shaheed Dibosh -- Bangladesh (Language Martyr's Day, for those who died in the Bengali Language Movement in 1952)

Shrove Tuesday -- Christian

St. Peter Damian's Day (Patron against headaches)


Anniversaries Today:

The Washington Monument is dedicated, 1885


Birthdays Today:

Charlotte Church, 1986
Jennifer Love Hewitt, 1979
Alan Trammell, 1958
Kelsey Grammer, 1955
Tyne Daly, 1946
Alan Rickman, 1946
David Geffen, 1943
John Lewis, 1940
Barbara Jordan, 1936
Rue McClanahan, 1935
Nina Simone, 1933
Roberto Gomez Bolanos, 1929
Erma Bombeck, 1927
Sam Peckinpah, 1925
Ann Sheridan, 1915
Anais Nin, 1903
Andres Segovia, 1893
Charles Scribner, 1821
John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801
Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, 1794


Today in History:

England begins the trial against Joan of Arc, 1431
John Wilkes is thrown out of the English House of Commons for his pornographic poem "An Essay on Woman," a satire of Pope's "An Essay on Man," 1764
Freedom of worship is established in France under its Constitution, 1795
The first locomotive, Richard Trevithick's, runs for the first time, in Wales, 1804
The first Native American Indian newspaper, the "Cherokee Phoenix", begins publication, 1828
The first known sewing machine in the US is patented by John Greenough of Washington, D.C., 1842
Sarah G Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts becomes the first US woman telegrapher, 1846
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto, 1848
The US Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in the US, 1857
Edwin T. Holmes installs the first electric burglar alarm, in Boston, Massachusetts, 1858
The first Roman Catholic parish church for blacks in the US is dedicated, in Baltimore, Maryland, 1864
Lucy B. Hobbs becomes the first US woman to earn a DDS degree, 1866
Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier, 1874
The first telephone book is issued, to 50 subscribers in New Harbor, Connecticut, 1878
Oregon becomes the first US state to declare Labor Day a holiday, 1887
The North Carolina legislature adjourns for the day to mark the death of Frederick Douglass, 1895
Dr. Harvey Cushing, the first US neurosurgeon, performs his first operation, 1902
Gustav Mahler conducts his last concerto, 1911
The Battle of Verdun (WWI) begins, will last until Dec. 18; over a quarter of a million casualties, half a million injuries, 1916
The last Carolina parakeet, Incas, dies in the Cincinati Zoo, in the same cage that had held Martha, the last passenger pigeon, 4 years earlier, 1918
The Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution, 1921
Great Britain grants Egypt independence, 1922
The first issue of "New Yorker" magazine is published, 1925
The first instant developing camera is demonstrated in NYC, by E H Land, 1947
The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free", 1952
Watson and Crick discover the structure of the DNA molecule; according to legend, they walk into the Eagle Pub in Cambridge and Crick announces "We have found the secret of Life," 1953
The Peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1958
Malcolm X is assassinated, 1965
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna, 1971
The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon, 1972
Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison, 1975
Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, 1995