Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Getting Close

Preparations to leave town are still underway, and getting more complicated by the moment.

Me leaving town alone is the equivalent, to my Sweetie and kids, to their being left alone on the tundra or in the wilderness to fend for themselves, with no supplies.

The first time i made a trip like this, to Albuquerque several years ago, they called me on average every two hours the first two days of the trip, and a little less after that.

While i try to leave detailed instructions:

Detailed lists, on the refrigerator.
It helps to a degree, but i still get a lot of phone calls.

The other complication is getting everything i'm taking packed and ready.  Because i don't know what ingredients i will or will not find anywhere outside of south Louisiana, i have to bring all the ingredients for gumbo with me.  This entails me having to mentally go through every step, imagine what i would grab from the cabinet or fridge or wherever, and bring it along.


Then there's the fact that i'm the weirdo vegan, so i pack a lot of food for me, because it can be difficult having my strange food preferences in places where the dominant cuisine is much more typical fare, with lots of meat.  Many a restaurant has had nothing on the menu that i would eat but an overpriced, soggy salad and steamed vegetables.  It can get old eating that meal after meal when i'm out a lot.

Today i am working, so when i get home, i have a ton to do so that i can be on the road tomorrow.  Lots of packing, lots of last minute laundry, and plenty of "how will we get along with you not here!" whining.  Yes, they really act that helpless, and they survive.  It makes them tough.

And it makes me grateful to be able to get away for a while, i need it!



Today is:

Agricultural Reform Day -- Sao Tome and Principe

Ask A Stupid Question Day -- teachers wanted to get students asking more questions, so they did, even if the questions were stupid; now, it's a holiday on the last school day of September each year!

Celtic Tree Month Gort begins (Ivy)

Day of Liberation of the Republic of Abkhazia -- Abkhazia (disputed territory on the Black Sea)

Do Something Wacky With A Grandparent Day -- just not the monkey bars, please; old bones don't knit fast enough

Durga Puja -- Hindu (start of the five day celebration of the goddess Durga)

Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the Greater Mystery Rites, date approximate; mystery rites of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis, one of the most sacred times of their year)

Independence Day -- Botswana

International Translation Day -- International Federation of Translators

Kokkeisetsu -- Chinatown, Yokohama, Japan (Chinese National Founding Day in the largest Chinatown in Japan; through tomorrow)

Medetrinalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival fruits offer to the goddess of medicine)

Monkey Bars Day -- a day to go see if you can still do tricks on the monkey bars, because the internet wants to kill us and let the machines that would never do anything so silly take over

National Mud Pack Day -- give yourself a facial

National Hot Mulled Cider Day

St. Gregory the Enlightener (or Illuminator; Patron of Armenia)

St. Jerome's Day (Patron of archaeologists, archivists, Biblical scholars, librarians, libraries, school children, students, translators; Saint-Jerome, Quebec)
     also an Apache celebration of Geronimo, the Native American who was named after this saint

World Dairy Expo -- Madison, WI, US ("Designer Dairy" is this year's theme; through Saturday)


Anniversary Today:

Haleakala National Park is established in Maui, Hawaii, 1960


Birthdays Today:

Dominique Moceanu, 1981
Marion Cotillard, 1975
Jenna Elfman, 1971
Crystal Bernard, 1964
Eric Stoltz, 1961
Fran Drescher, 1957
Deborah Allen, 1953
Victoria Tennant, 1953
Marilyn McCoo, 1943
Z.Z. Hill, 1935
Johnny Mathis, 1935
Angie Dickinson, 1931
Elie Wiesel, 1928
W. S. Merwin, 1927
Truman Capote, 1924
Deborah Kerr, 1921
Buddy Rich, 1917
William Wrigley, Jr., 1861
Rumi, 1207


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush(Publication date), 1990
"Murder, She Wrote"(TV), 1984
"Cheers"(TV), 1982
"Love Child"(Single release), 1968
"The Flintstones"(TV), 1960
"Tea and Sympathy"(Play), 1953
"The Red Skelton show"(TV), 1951
"Porgy and Bess"(Opera), 1935
Little Women(Publication date), 1868
"Les pecheurs de perles/The Pearl Fishers"(Bizet opera), 1863
"Die Zauberflote/The Magic Flute"(Mozart opera, K. 620), 1791
The Gutenberg Bible(first section, publication date), 1452


Today in History:

Rambam (Maimonides) authorizes Samuel Ibn Tibbon to translate the Guide of the Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew, 1199
Anesthetic ether is used for the first time by Dr. William Morton, who extracted a tooth, 1846
German scientist Hermann von Meyer announces the discovery of the first fossil of an archaeopteryx, 1861
The first Portuguese immigrants arrive in Hawai'i, 1878
The world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, 1882
Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner, 1901
The first manned rocket plane flight, made by auto maker Fritz von Opel, 1929
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations, 1947
The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time, 1947
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world's first nuclear reactor powered vessel, 1954
James Dean is killed in a road accident, 1955
Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez founds the United Farm Workers, 1962
James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation, 1962
General Suharto rises to power in Indonesia after an alleged coup by communists, and massacres over a million Indonesian people suspected of belonging to the Communist Party, 1965
BBC Radio 1 is launched and Tony Blackburn presents its first show, 1967
Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation, 1980
The Dalai Lama unveils the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Canada's capital city of Ottawa, 1990
The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo, 2004
The controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, 2005

8 comments:

  1. Hope you have a great trip and don't get TOO many phone calls. LOL.
    I would love to put your "I Pledge To NOT SHOP on Thanksgiving" on my blog too. When you get the chance, could you tell me how I can do that? I can only do the simplest things, I am one sad case!

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  2. you do need it! and they need a big old dose of survival without you so they can appreciate all you do! :)

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  3. Yes you need it and they need to have everything in order when you return. They could very well do that. If they tried. That's my two cents.

    Have a fabulous last day at home before the big trip. ☺

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  4. I've no doubt your family benefits from you being gone. It's a reminder of how much you do for everyone and why they shouldn't take you for granted.

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  5. The picture of the instructions on the fridge says it all :)

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  6. Do vegans eat eggs?

    (That was in honor of "ask a stupid question day". I know the answer.)

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  7. I don't get away much myself either -- but I do the same thing: try to have everything prepared for my family and myself, and then get so stressed out. And of course, they are always Just Fine.
    Enjoy your trip. Still thinking about gumbo! :)

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  8. I love the idea of 'Ask a stupid question day'. It sounds a bit like what your family might be like without you!!! As for beong vegan - my daughter and son-in-law are vegan and even relatives seem to find it almost impossible to feed them when they are away. I wonder why they find it so difficult - there is tons of scope for variety if people only tried. And restaurants over here are the same - hopeless for vegetarians (usually just one option like vegetarian lasagne) and vegans (not catered for at all).

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