Sometimes i wonder about that boy.

"Hey, mom, did you see Young Jacob's new wheels?" #2 Son asked.

Knowing that Young Jacob currently has a Tacoma truck and a Subaru of some sort, both not running, i wondered what in the world he was doing with new wheels.  He's supposed to be fixing the old ones.

No, i simply answered, i have not.

"Come see!  He got a sweet deal on a moped!"

Walking outside, i was greeted with this:

Not my idea of a moped.

That, i said, looks more like a motorcycle.

"No, it's just a moped," #2 Son said.  "And he got a deal on it, only $1,200!"

And he bought this while he's trying to save up and fix two vehicles because? i asked.

"Because he needed something he could use now!" #2 Son answered.

Logic only a wheel loving boy could use.

It worries me enough that Young Jacob drives at all, ever since he had a seizure behind the wheel two years ago.  It worries me more that he's now on a bike, which has no protection at all.  Yes, he always wears a helmet, i saw it sitting on the dining room table when he came over.  To me, that hardly makes up for the danger, but i guess that's why they like it.

Sometimes i wonder what these boys are thinking, but i have to admit, it's cool looking, motorcycle or moped or whatever it is.



Today is

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Chicken Wings Day -- Buffalo, NY, US (they want it to be a national day, and maybe someday it will be)

Eid al Fitr -- Islam (celebration of the end of Ramadan; began sundown yesterday, runs through sundown on the 11th, although local dating and official government observances may vary)

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, inkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travellers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

International Tiger Day

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 113 out of the 140 observances of this festival on this date)

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; pPtron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway)related observances
     Olavsokadagur -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)
     Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)
     sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman


Anniversaries Today

Andy Taylor marries Tracey Wilson, 1982
Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981
Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565


Birthdays Today

Danger Mouse, 1977
Josh Radnor, 1974
Wanya Morris, 1973
Wil Wheaton, 1972
Julian McMahon, 1968
Martina McBride, 1966
Alexandra Paul, 1963
Patty Scialfa, 1956
Ken Burns, 1953
Tim Gunn, 1953
Marilyn Quayle, 1949
David Warner, 1941
Peter Jennings, 1938
Elizabeth Dole, 1936
Paul Taylor, 1930
Chester Bomar Himes, 1909
Melvin Belli, 1907
Clara Bow, 1905
Dag Hammarskjold, 1905
Stanley Kunitz, 1905
Benito Mussolini, 1883
Newton Booth Tarkington, 1869
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1861
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friday Night Videos"(TV), 1983
Help(Film), 1965
"Steamboat Willie"(Animated short, first appearance of Mickey Mouse), 1928


Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030
James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567
English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588
John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793
Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836
In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848
The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899
Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907
The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987
The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988
Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005
South Sudan becomes the 54th member of the African Union, 2011
Scientists reveal new research identifying a mechanism by which Earth-warming carbon is pulled deep into the Southern Ocean, and locked away, and scientists claim this process may be threatened by climate change, 2012