Trash Talk

Did you ever notice, when you are sweeping the floor with other people around, no matter where you pile up the trash so you can get it into the dustpan, someone is going to step in it?

No matter what, even if there is only one other person in the whole building, that person will walk by and step in the mound of dirt, totally oblivious to it.

While cleaning up after the church event last night, i was given the unenviable position of keeper of the broom closet, and the broom. This after we had fed about 40 squealing girls and maybe 25 or so volunteer adults a meal of salad, chicken Alfredo pasta, bread, lemonade, punch, and hauled out the chocolate fountain for dessert.

The tables and chairs needed to be left up for the luncheon in there today, and decorations were left in place, too. Heart shaped plastic confetti pieces of varying sizes surrounded swirled clothes and candle holders.

Need i say there were crumbs, and confetti, and chocolate dribbles to be swept, all out from under the intertwining table and chair legs. The confetti pieces stick to the floor like they have glue on them (they don't), necessitating hand picking many of them off the floor. Some i left because it was getting too late to bother.

When i began, i swept down the hallway, where several of the girls whose mothers were volunteers for the event decided to run when i was halfway through. As i swept the pile into one out of the way (so i thought) corner, someone had to step into that corner and spill water.

Into the big room where i divided it up into secti0ons. In one section three volunteers, deep in discussion of what they were going to clean next, stepped right into the pile i had made. So i moved it to the side in the next section, and another volunteer decided that was the perfect spot to try to fold a tablecloth that draped right into the stuff. When i warned her, more concerned about getting crumbs and detritus on the tablecloth, she snatched it away so fast the breeze it created scattered about half of it.

Finally, i thought when i got to the third section. Nothing over here in one corner, where the puppet stage had been moved to make room for a table. Good opportunity to sweep out under the puppet stage, too, i thought and was almost done when, you guessed it, they stepped right into the middle of the area to put the stage back. They had to step back with it so i could get all the dirt out of the way.

One common expression for when two things are undeniably attracted to each other is, "Like a tornado is drawn to a trailer park." Well, i might change that to "like feet drawn to the just swept dust pile," but probably no one would understand.



Today is

April Fool's Day a/k/a Huntingowk Day or Gowkie Day in Scotland, because an April Fool is called a gowk; in England it is All Fools Day or April Noddy Day, as an April fool is a "noddy"

Capture of Brielle Remembrance -- Brielle, Netherlands

Civil Service Day -- Thailand

Day of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Edible Book Day -- sponsored by the Edible Book Festival, Austin, TX, US (celebrating books and culinary creativity by making edible representations of books, then eating them)

Fortuna Virilis/Veneralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (women's festival to Venus, seeking good relationships with men)

Fossil Fools Day -- part of the conservationist movement of many organizations

Greek Cypriot Day -- Cyprus

Hug a Newsman Day

International Tatting Day

Investiture of the New Captains Regent -- San Marino (sometimes listed as National Day)

Kha b-Nisan -- Assyrians (traditional New Year celebration)

Loki's Day -- by some calculations, but more likely it was moved to this date to celebrate the trickster of all time on the trickiest day of the year

Miyako Odori -- Kobu Kaburenjo Theatre, Kyoto, Japan (highly anticipated geisha dance and music festival, through the 30th)

National Sourdough Bread Day

Orissa Day -- Orissa, India

One Cent Day -- no history on this, just noted on several sites

Palm/Passion Sunday -- Christian

Pigasus Award Announcement Day -- by James Randi, awarded to parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds

Ramnawami / Ramanavami / Chaitay Dashain -- India; Nepal (birth of Rama, avatar of Vishnu)

School Year Begins -- Japan, most schools and universities

Sizdehbedar -- Iran (Nature Day)

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival -- Skagit Valley, Washington, US; through the 30th

Sorry Charlie Day -- for Charlie the Tuna, always rejected but never giving up, and anyone who has ever been rejected and lived to tell about it

St. Gilbert de Moray's Day (Patron of Caithness, Scotland)

St. Stupid's Day (First Church of the Last Laugh) -- begun in San Francisco, but it should be celebrated everywhere

Tree Loving Week begins -- South Korea (their "Arbor Day")

Uzupis Day -- Uzupis District, Vilnius, Lithuania


Birthdays Today:

Randy Orton, 1980
Susan Boyle, 1961
Ali MacGraw, 1938
Gordon Jump, 1932
Debbie Reynolds, 1932
Anne McCaffrey, 1926
Toshiro Mifune, 1920
Abraham Maslow, 1908
Clara "Mother" Hale, 1905
Lon Chaney, 1883
Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1873
Otto von Bismarck, 1815
William Harvey, 1578
Emperor Go-Saga of Japan, 1220


Today in History:
The ruins of the city of Pompeii are found, 1748
Japan's volcano Unsen erupts, killing about 53,000, 1793
Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine, 1826
Cincinnati becomes the first US city to pay firefighters, 1853
Singapore, Penang & Malakka become British crown colonies, 1867
The London-Paris telephone connection is opened, 1891
The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois, 1891
The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, 1918
The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed, 1924
Generalisimo Frederico Franco announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, 1939
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes Hawai'i, killing 159, 1946
The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland, 1949
The Canadian government repeals Japanese Canadian internment after seven years, 1949
The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax on its current affairs programme Panorama, 1957
Project Tiger, a tiger conservation program, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India, 1973
Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, 1976
The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created, 1996
Comet Hale-Bopp is seen passing over perihelion, 1997
Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories, 1999
Croatia and Albania join NATO, 2009