It's Not So Hard

"Here you go, honey."

Sweetie had just come in from running errands, including to the Local Hardware Hangout.  It's our favorite, not a BigBoxStore.  He had gone there to get me some material to repair our window screens.

The weather has gotten a bit cooler, and we are starting to leave windows open.  Since insects don't have a season, the screens need a bit of work.

"Did you go to the Local Hardware Hangout, Dad?" Bigger Girl asked when she saw him hand me the materials.

"Yes, I did," he answered, fishing the receipt out of his pocket.

"I love that place!" she said.  "It smells like what a hardware store should smell like.  I went there yesterday, to get better brackets for my shelves, because the cats keep trying to knock them down.

 "It was great.  The young guy behind the counter was one I hadn't seen before.  When I walked in, he leaned forward and asked, 'Can I help you find something?' and I answered, 'No, thanks, I know what I need,' and you should have seen the look on his face.  I love it when a new guy's 'Girl in a Hardware Store' radar goes off, and I can make it shut down that fast!"

She grinned with glee over the thought, and her comment explained why i had heard hammering in her room earlier.  It also explained why i can't find my hammer again, but at least now i know where to look next.

It's nice having kids who like to do it themselves, they've learned it's not so hard to work with hardware.




Today is:

Boss's Day -- either celebrate, or roll your eyes, both are acceptable responses (begun by Patricia Bays Haroski in 1958 in honor of her boss, who was also her father; this date was his birthday)

Buffalo Races -- Chon Buri, Thailand (lots of water buffalo contests, including fancy dress!; through Nov. 1, with Oct. 29 being the biggest day)

Chrysanthemum Festival -- Japan ("The Festival of Happiness", various shrines; through Nov. 15)

Circleville Pumpkin Show -- Circleville, OH, US (celebrating with over 100,000lbs of pumpkins, squash, and gourds; through Saturday)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day -- internet generated, and we're getting a bit overboard here, aren't we?

Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence -- US (students around the nation are asked to sign the Pledge Against Gun Violence)

Day of Pope John Paul II -- Poland

Dictionary Day / Learn a Word Day -- Noah Webster's birth anniversary

Dress Like A Dork Day -- does someone have it out for us with these?

East Texas Yamboree -- Gilmer, TX, US (yam it up with the family at the carnival, watch them crown the Yamboree Queen, enjoy the livestock show, and more; through Saturday)

Elephantine Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (several such celebrations of elephants were held around this time of year in Egypt)

Ether Day (first demonstrated use, see History)

Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) -- Baha'i

Hagfish Day -- a day to celebrate the uniqueness and necessity of even the ugliest of sea creatures, like the hagfish

International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction -- UN

National Feral Cat Day -- US (sponsored by Alley Cat Allies)

National Liqueur Day

National Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day

Niihama Drum Festival -- Niihama, Japan (three day festival with two ton drum floats)

Sennin Musha Gyoretsu -- Tochigi, Japan (procession of 1,000 warriors; through tomorrow)

St. Hedwig's Day (Patron of brides, duchesses, difficult marriages, widows; Bavaria; Berlin, Germany; Gorlitz, Germany; Silesia; against the death of children, jealousy)

Tacoma Holiday Food and Gift Festival -- Tacoma, WA, US (through Sunday)

Teachers' Day -- Chile

World Food Day -- UN


Anniversaries Today:

The first birth control clinic in the US is opened, 1916
Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah, 1875
Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women, 1869
Zion's Co-Operative Mercantile Institution, America's first department store, opens, 1868
The Collegiate School (forerunner of Yale University), 1701, Old Style Date


Birthdays Today:

John Mayer, 1977
Kellie Martin, 1975
Flea, 1962
Tim Robbins, 1958
Suzanne Somers, 1946
Angela Lansbury, 1925
Eugene O'Neill, 1888
Oscar Wilde, 1854
Noah Webster, 1758


Today in History:

Jadwiga (yes, a she) is crowned King of Poland, 1384
Olivier van Noorts' ships reach the Philippines, 1600
George Washington takes Yorktown, 1781
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined, 1793
Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers, 1843
Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether, 1846
Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is published, 1847
John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1859
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", 1869
John Harwood takes out a patent on a self-winding watch, 1923
The Disney Company is founded, 1923
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army, 1940
Fidel Castro is sentenced in Havana to 15 years in prison, 1953
The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1964
In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, 1970
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1973
Pope John Paul II is elected after the October 1978 Papal conclave, 1978
Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1978
Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders, 1986
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated, 2002