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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

This is the kind of old...

...that i want to be someday.

Edward Heine, age 101, has just gotten his 85-year-old wife, Hya, a new car.

He no longer drives, but his wife of 41 years does, and they decided on a plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt.

No fear of new technology for them, they like that it is environmentally friendly and plan to trade it in a few years from now as they believe the technology will continue to improve.

When i grow older, i hope i don't "grow up".

Or, as i saw on a picture of a roadside sign posted by a friend, "Don't grow up, it's a trap."


Today is

Aberdeen International Youth Festival -- Aberdeen, Scotland (talented youth from all areas of the performing arts gather from around the world, through the 11th)

Anniversary of the Founding of Scouting -- first day of Brownsea Island Camp in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell began Scouting

Armed Forces Day -- Lebanon

British Columbia Day -- British Columbia, Canada

Emancipation Day -- Barbados^; Bermuda; Guyana; Jamaica^; St. Lucia^; St. Vincent and Grendines^; Trinidad and Tobago^; Turks and Caicos Islands

Farmer's Day -- Zambia

Fast in Honor of the Holy Mother of Jesus / Procession of the Cross and Dormition Fast -- Orthodox Christian

Feast of Kamal (Perfection) -- Baha'i

Fiesta de Santo Domingo -- Managua, Nicaragua (patron saint; through the 10th)

Girlfriends' Day -- a day to celebrate the women who enrich your life

Harriet Quimby Day -- first woman to earn a pilot's license, this date in 1911

Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri -- Hirosaki, Japan (through the 7th, parade and purification ritual to rid the the town of future illness and bad fortune)

Homowo -- Ghana (a festival of thanksgiving and remembrance, among various groups of Ga peoples, all through August and September.)

Imps Charity Scramble -- Fairy calendar (do they scramble the imps, or do the imps scramble for something? fairies do not give details, and it leaves me wondering)

Independence Day / National Day -- Benin(1960)

Kalends of August -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances
     Feast of Spes (personification of hope)
     Festival for Victoria (goddess of victory)

Lammas Day / Lammac Tide -- Christian, a Cross Quarter Day (called the Gule of August in Wales, and known as August Eve and Lady Day Eve)

Liberation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafari

Lughnassad / Imbolc -- Wicca and Pagan (based in the Northern Hemisphere on the Celtic Feast of Bread, beginning of the harvest season)

Minden Day -- British Armed Forces

Nagaoka Festival -- Nagaoka, Japan (through the 3rd, samuri procession, traditional music and dances, fireworks)

National Day -- Switzerland^ (where it is also called Swiss Confederation Day, when Switzerland became a single unit in 1291)

National Non-Parent Day -- sponsored by The National Organization for Non-Parents and No Kidding!

National Raspberry Cream Pie Day

Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka (begins at sunset)

Parents' Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rounds Resounding Day -- sponsored by Rounds Resounding Society (Grab your friends and sing a few songs that go in rounds, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Frere Jacques".)

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori's Day (Founder of the Redemptorists, a/k/a Ligourians; Patron of confessors, final perseverence, moralists, scrupulous people, theologians, vocations; Pagani, Italy; Sant'Agata de' Goti, Italy; against arthritis, scrupulosity disorder)

Yorkshire Day -- Yorkshire, England


Anniversaries Today:

Colorado becomes the 38th US State, 1876
MTV begins broadcasting, 1981
World Wide Web


Birthdays Today:

Tempestt Bledsoe, 1973
Robert Cray, 1953
Jerry Garcia, 1942
Yves Saint Laurent, 1942
Dom DeLuise, 1933
Herman Melville, 1819
Francis Scott Key, 1779
William Clark, 1770


Today in History:

The future Caesar Augustus, Octavian, enters Alexandria, Egypt, and brings it under the control of Rome, BC30
Japan sends Ono no Imoko to the Sui court in China as envoy, 607
The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter, 1291
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain, 1492
Henry Tudor, soon to be Henry VII, sails with his army to England, 1495
The first black Americans arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, 1619
Oxygen is "discovered" for the 3rd time, by Priestly, 1774
The Act of Union is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800
Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, 1834
First coast to coast automobile trip, from San Francisco to New York, is completed, 1903
The first Jeep is produced, 1941
Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary, 1944
The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), 1957
Israel annexes East Jerusalem, 1967
Peat cutters discover Lindow Man, Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England, 1984
CERN physicists begin discussing building what would eventually become the World Wide Web, 1990
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency, 2001

6 comments:

  1. Yes, I think the phrase is "use it or lose it" and they have clearly taken this to heart. Good on them!!!

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  2. I've been a parent for so dang long, I can barely even remember what it's like to not be a parent. I'd at least like a temporary flashback or something, but my time machine is broken. The kids did it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jenny, good on us if we follow their example, too.

    Josie, mine did, too. It's been 21 years since i didn't have a kid to consider.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've always been of the opinion that growing up is mandatory, but growing old is optional. Or is it vice-versa? Hey, if you do it right, who cares? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like what that wise philosopher, Red Green, had to say about aging: I may not be able to stop from getting older - but I can stay immature.

    ReplyDelete

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