Some Behavior Confounds Me

Folks, you can't make some of this stuff up. 

The very nice Miss Sally, who lived two houses up the street, died this week.

She had lived in that house since this neighborhood was built, just about 55 years ago.  Back then, she and her husband and daughter had a barn with horses behind the house.

Her husband died over 20 years ago.  They only had one daughter, Trish, who had never married, but who did have a boyfriend when she died two years ago.

Trish's boyfriend was supposed to inherit a few things from her home, but Miss Sally and Trish's best friend Bonnie were to get most things, especially the family jewelry.

The moment Trish died, before Miss Sally and Bonnie could even leave the hospital to get there, boyfriend and his grandchildren went into her house and cleaned it out.  He even stole her car for his grandson, who has been in and out of jail for his addictions.  Grandson put the very nice car in a ditch, of course.

This all made Bonnie livid, but she kept her mouth shut because, by this time, Miss Sally was not only grieving the loss of her only child, but starting to show signs of dementia.

Miss Sally's will, done long enough ago to hold up legally, said that Trish would be her heir, but if Trish predeceased her, Trish's boyfriend would get half of her house, and Bonnie would get the other half of the house and all of the contents.

Boyfriend was not happy with that, and while Miss Sally was on her deathbed started telling Bonnie what he wanted from the house.

He had already gotten all of Trish's nice things, and now he was detailing what he wanted in a house that was not even yet his!  Worse, other people were calling Bonnie, as she was losing her best friend's mother who had been like a second mother to her for her whole life, to ask her if they could have stuff from the house, too.  Everyone wanted the painting.  It's an original Audubon, so of course they did.  Requests for the antiques were common, too.

When Miss Sally died, Bonnie kept her mouth shut and didn't tell boyfriend, and got movers to come and clean the house out of everything valuable.  After all, according to the will, it was all hers.  Only when it was safely moved out of the house did she tell boyfriend and other friends.

She did tell me, that's when she got Red-headed Alec to come over and help the movers.  Bonnie also asked me if i wanted anything to remember Miss Sally by.  My response was that i would love a scanned copy of a picture of Miss Sally, and that was all..

If you don't want people fighting over stuff, or circling like vultures, do yourself a favor and either don't have anything much, or give it all away to whomever you want while you are still here!

Today is:

Appreciate a Dragon Day -- share stories of your favorite dragons from literature; begun by author Danita K. Paul

Augusta Futurity -- Augusta, GA, US (the top cutting horses and riders in the world to compete for purse and awards; through Saturday)

Bald Eagle Appreciation Days -- Keokuk, IA, US (through tomorrow)

Concordia --  Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring the goddess of harmonious relations)

Day of Offerings to the Shemsu of Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Guru Goyind Singh Jayanti -- CR, HR, and PB, India; Sikh celebration

Inflatable Tire Day -- birth anniversary of Andre Michelin

International Hot and Spicy Food Day

Laurent Kabila -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (Heroes' Day)

Learn to Ski Day -- always the 3rd Saturday of January, and you go right ahead

National Day of Peace -- El Salvador (anniversary of 1992 peace treaty)

National Fig Newton Day

National Good Teen Day -- which really is most of them, isn't it

National Nothing Day -- created by newspaperman Harold Pullman Coffin in 1973 “to provide Americans with one national day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything.”

National Work At Home With Your Spouse Day -- internet generated; try if you dare, i won't, as much as i love him, i'd have to kill him.

National Religious Freedom Day -- US (anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, guaranteeing religious freedom to citizens of that state, and protecting them from discrimination for their religious choices)

Polar Bear Festival/Polar Bear Jump -- Seward, AK, US (lots of fun, if you want to freeze!)

Santos Tour Down Under -- Adelaide, Australia (a world class cycling event; through the 24th)

Sight-Saving Sabbath Weekend -- to alert synagoge and church members to the importance of regular eye exams

St. Anthony's Eve -- Abruzzo, Italy (Fires of Saint Anthony -- Anthony the Great)

St. Honratus of Arles' Day (Patron for rain; against drought, misfortune)

Teacher's Day -- Thailand

There's No Business Like Show Business Day -- Ethel Merman's Birth Anniversary!



Birthday's Today:

Kate Moss, 1974
Sade, 1959
Debbie Allen, 1950
John Carpenter, 1948
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 1947
Ronnie Milsap, 1944
A.J. Foyt, 1935
Dian Fossey, 1932
Dizzy Dean, 1911
Ethel Merman, 1908
Frank Zamboni, 1901
Harry Carey, Sr., 1878
Robert W. Service, 1874 (Poet, The Cremation of Sam McGee)
Andre Michelin, 1853


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Hello, Dolly"(Musical), 1964
"A Pastoral Symphony"(Ralph Vaughan Williams' third symphony), 1922


Today in History:

The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Casesar Octavian by the Roman Senate, BC27
The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison, 550
A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt, 1362
The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy, 1412
The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella, 1492
Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia, 1547
English parliament passes laws against Catholicism, 1581
The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, 1605
The Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks, 1776
The Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson, 1786
The refrigerator car is patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit, 1868
The Pendleton Act creates the basis of US Civil Service system, 1883
The British explorer Ernest Shackleton finds magnetic south pole, 1909
The British House of Commons accepts Home-Rule for Ireland, 1913
Writer Maksim Gorki returns to Russia, 1914
The US ratifies the constitutional amendment on Prohibition, to take effect one year later, 1919
The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, 1920
The first photo finish camera installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah Florida, 1936
Benny Goodman plays the first jazz performance at Carnegie Hall, 1938
Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard, 1942
Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk, 1969
Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects, 1970
The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt, 1979
First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force., 1986
El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending the 12-year Salvadoran civil war , 1992
The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban, 2002
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107, but disintegrates 16 days later on reentry, 2003
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president, becoming Africa's first female elected head of state, 2006