That was Close

Sometimes things just work out.

Friday, i got about the usual, laundry, cat duties, etc., and planned to take the kids to school over in the next parish as always.

They woke up ill.  Great, i thought.  After missing school from the hurricane, they don't need another day off.

Turned out to be for the best.  About the time i would have been returning home from dropping them out there, there were two major accidents on the interstate out that way involving big rigs.

It would have meant a multi-hour ordeal to go get them later.  It feels like i dodged a bullet.

And in other breaking news:

We have our third home game in a row this week.  More football on the brain.  We are incorrigible.

My Uncle H, Grandma's brother, age 85, is in critical care.  He's been in and out of hospitals for the last couple of months, and they are now, finally, after my father telling them to do it all along (yes, he's an OB/GYN, but he's a smart guy) going to start dialysis.

Our only kitten with ringworm, Phee, is getting better, and the prompt treatment with several different antifungals has proven effective in keeping it not only in check, but it hasn't spread to the others.  That's good, because isolating them at this age is hard on them.

If you don't want bad news, skip this paragraph.  From the shelter, most everything is going well, with a couple of exceptions.  Grady was adopted, managed to get out of his adoptive home and got run over.  Frieda, the ever vocal office cat, was in kidney failure, and so is not longer howling around the office, begging for ear scritching.  We miss them both.


Today is:

America's Day For Kids -- sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Battle of Britain Day -- UK

Big Whopper Liar's Contest -- New Harmony, IN, US

Covered Bridge Festival -- Washington and Greene County, PA, US (arts, crafts, entertainment, and food at each of the 11 featured covered bridges; through tomorrow)

Egremont Crab Fair -- Egremont, Cumberland, UK (ancient fair given a charter in 1267, includes throwing apples from a cart for children to catch)

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 5, Health (sponsored by We, the World)

Engineer's Day -- India

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)related observance
     Grito de Dolores -- Mexico (Cry of Dolores,a/k/a Father Hidalgo's Cry for Freedom Day, the evening before Independence Day)
     Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows Day -- Slovakia

Felt Hat Day (Traditional day upon which men started to wear their winter felt hats, similar to women beginning to wear white shoes on Memorial Day)

German-American Steuben Parade/Von Steuben Day -- New York City, and other smaller parades in US

Heritage Weekend -- Blue Ridge Parkway Cultural Heritage Center, Ashville, NC, US
     featuring the Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Championships today

Independence Day -- Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua (all in 1821)

International Coastal Cleanup -- this year's theme:  Take On The Trash

International Eat An Apple Day

International Day of Democracy -- UN

Johnny Appleseed Festival -- Fort Wayne, IN, US (an 1800 style period festival; through tomorrow)

Levi Coffin Days -- Fountain City, IN, US (celebrating Levi Coffin, the "President of the Underground Railroad"; through tomorrow)

Make a Hat Day -- just for fun (and if you are a guy, make a felt hat)

National Creme de Menthe Day

National Hispanic Heritage Month -- US, through Oct. 15

National Linguine Day

National Neighborhood Day -- US

Peddler's Village Scarecrow Festival -- Peddler's Village, Lahaska, PA, US (start celebrating the fall with scarecrow making, pumpkin-painting, and more; through tomorrow)

Really Bad Ideas Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins celebration)

Restoration of Primorska to the Motherland Day -- Slovenia

Silpa Bhirasri Day -- Thailand

St. Catherine of Genoa's Day (Patron of brides, childless people, people in difficult marriages, people ridiculed for their piety, victims of adultery and unfaithfulness, widows; against adultery and temptation)

Trail of Courage Living History Festival -- Rochester, IN, US (frontier life in Indiana when it was Native territory; through tomorrow)

Waikiki Hoolaulea -- Oahu, Hawai'i (part of the Aloha Festival, two months of celebrations on all the islands, showcasing native Hawai'ian culture; this is a huge street party, well worth attending)


Birthdays Today:

Prince Harry, 1984
Dan Marino, 1961
Tommy Lee Jones, 1946
Oliver Stone, 1946
Merlin Olsen, 1940
Jackie Cooper, 1922
Fay Wray, 1907
Roy Acuff, 1903
Agatha Christie, 1890
Robert Benchley, 1889
William H. Taft, 1857
James Fenimore Cooper, 1789
François de La Rochefoucauld, 1613
Marco Polo, 1254


Today in History:

The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy, 1616
The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow, 1812
The first Negro National Convention begins in Philadelphia, 1830
The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, 1831*
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands, 1835
Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell becomes the first woman in the US to be ordained a minister (Congregationalist), 1853
Timothy Alder patents the typesetting machine, 1857
RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube, 1947
United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia, 1952
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
*The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C., 1981
Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations, 1981
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, 2008