Ups and Downs

So far, it's been a fun and odd and fabulous and discouraging and then fun again vacation.

Sunday evening was just plain weird.  My "new to me" phone just stopped working. Wouldn't come on, wouldn't take a charge, nothing.  So when i got up Monday morning and it was raining so i couldn't walk on the beach, i drove to MallMart and bought a new Cheap-O Phone and put my SIM card in it, just so i could have something.

It was depressing to think that such a nice and not very used and still in good shape phone would just stop.

Monday is usually "big shopping" day for the family.  Most of us load up into several cars and we go to the Outlet Mall to get everyone clothes and shoes and such for the coming year.  Grandma gets taken to the scrapbook shop and the cosmetics store, the kids go to the weird places with "mod" fashion that the kids like, and i get a pair of jeans or two that i can at least hope to keep from getting clawed up by the kittens for a short time.

Everything went well as usual, but i didn't get to a couple of the stores i like to get to because Grandma's back was hurting.  It was much more important to get her home than to wander through the kitchen supply places looking at doodads.

When i got back from that, the phone i thought was dead was working again.  Right now, i'm not so sure if i trust it.  The last thing i need is to have it and not realize it just quit on me then find out there was an emergency.

Speaking of emergencies, there was one.  Most of the afternoon was quiet, with bouts of rain and sun and then rain again.  During one of those quiet times, i took a walk up to the state park area to pay for my use of the park every morning when i walk.  As i talked to Ranger Bob, #2 Son called to ask if i would take him to get more fishing poles.  There was only one between the four kids.

As we got back from that errand, and i was grabbing the door handle to go back in the condo, i heard a horrible sound and turned just in time to see, eleven stories below, a car spinning out on the highway as two other vehicles pulled to the side of the road, obviously part of whatever crash had caused the spinning.

By instinct i grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911.  It was answered in Alabama, but since the accident was just barely a mile on the Florida side, i had to be transferred twice, to both the local police and then the highway patrol  It means i had to tell the story three times, but they finally figured it out and eventually got people there.

No one was hurt, either, although the car that spun out was totaled.

The evening ended with plans to go to the National Museum of Naval Aviation on Tuesday.


Today is

Broken Dolls Day -- Japan (all broken dolls are taken by their children to monks for burial)

Callynteria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a service of atonement and cleaning Athena's temple; date approximate)

Chimborazo Day -- to publicize that while Mt. Everest may be the highest, the top of Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the furthest from the center of the earth

Dr. Charles Drew Day -- honoring the man who made blood transfusions possible

Festival to Bellona -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of war)

Impersonate Authority Day -- at your own risk, i will not bail you out just because i noted an internet holiday and you decided to celebrate it ;)

Jack Jouett Day -- Virginia (the "Paul Revere" of his day and place, rode to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson that the British were coming, 1781)

Mabo Day -- Australia

Martyr's Day -- Uganda

National Egg Day

National Chocolate Macaroon Day

Opium Suppression Movement Day -- Taiwan

Pull Your Pants Up Day -- internet generated, various dates given, and some are trying to make it a national movement; to encourage young men to pull up their pants for 24 hours and see if they enjoy having both hands free

Repeat Day -- i said, "repeat day" (no, i don't know who comes up with this stuff, sometimes; if i do, i try to place the blame appropriately)

Shavuot -- Judaism (Pentecost; begins at sundown, through sundown on the 5th)

St. Clotilde's Day (Patron of adopted children, brides, disappointing children, exiles, parenthood, parents of large families, queens, widows; against the death of children)

St. Kevin of Glendaulough's Day (Patron of blackbirds; Dublin, Ireland; Glendaulough, Ireland; Ireland)

Worst Day in the Fairy Year -- Fairy Calendar (must be nice to know when your worst day will be)


Anniversaries Today:

U.S. Air Force Academy first graduating class, 1959
The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson, 1937
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded, 17


Birthdays Today:

Lalaine, 1987
Rafael Nadal, 1986
Anderson Cooper, 1967
Charles Hart, 1961
Scott Valentine, 1958
Deniece Williams, 1951
Suzi Quatro, 1950
Curtis Mayfield, 1942
Larry McMurtry, 1936
Norman Brinker, 1931
Raul Castro, 1931
Chuck Barris, 1929
Colleen Dewhurst, 1926
Allen Ginsberg, 1926
Tony Curtis, 1925
Leo Gorcey, 1917
Josephine Baker, 1906
Dr. Charles Drew, 1904
Ransom E. Olds, 1864
Jefferson Davis, 1808


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dragnet"(Radio), 1951
“Casey at the Bat”(Publication date), 1888


Today in History:

French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy, 1140
Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain, 1539
Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins at Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 1620
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, 1770
President John Adams moves to Washington, D.C., to live in a tavern (the White House wasn't ready), 1800
In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, which prompts the First Opium War, 1839
In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, Cree leader Big Bear escapes the North West Mounted Police, 1885
The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner, 1888
The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway is completed, 1889
One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario, 1935
Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew, which included the first space walk by an American, 1965
A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill ever recorded, 1979
SkyDome is officially opened in Toronto, Ontario, 1989
Aboriginal Land Rights are granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought by Eddie Mabo, 1992
USS Carter Hall engages pirates after they board the Danish ship Danica White off the coast of Somalia, 2007
A pageant on London's River Thames marks the highpoint of a series of events celebrating The Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 2012
Three of the most extremely well-preserved and most complete triceratops specimens ever found are unearthed in Wyoming, 2013