First it was a...

...Christmas tree, then an Easter tree, and now:

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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Delores at Muted Mumblings started Words for Wednesday, giving prompt words to use for a story.  This week's prompts and my story:

dominant, carpet, magazine, duster, finicky, display

and/or

carbine, boots, tactical, determination, filthy and disgusting

or you could use this phrase

MANIACAL MEGALOMANIAC 

He always thought of grandpa as a MANIACAL MEGALOMANIAC, but she knew her grandfather-in-law was just a tormented old man.

Yes, the house was FILTHY and DISGUSTING from years of hoarding.  The DOMINANT color of the CARPET was dirt, a pile of old, now unwearable BOOTS was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door.  He had come to a point where he greeted everyone who came to the door with his old CARBINE, just knowing it was those awful people from the county coming to try to tell him, again, he couldn't live this way and they were going to move him into an assisted living place.

He had years of grit and DETERMINATION behind him when he said he was not leaving his home, and she knew a more TACTICAL approach was needed.

She showed up at noon with nothing more than a home cooked dinner, because in the old South when he grew up you had dinner at noon, and a feather DUSTER.  She reminded him that grandma had always been FINICKY about how she kept the house, and he smiled and reminisced and admitted that he wasn't as good keeping it as she had been.

Her offer to bring dinner and work with him on the house for an hour a day was met with suspicion at first, but day by day they worked and laughed together and the grime began to give way.

By the time he died, it was no MAGAZINE spread quality home by any stretch, but it was livable again, and he could DISPLAY his and grandma's home without shame. 

Today is:

All or Nothing Day -- no history on this one, but it's supposed to be the day you decide to live as if it's going to be your last!

Aunt and Uncle Day -- originally proposed on this day in 2005 by Florida State Senator Tony Hill; if you have aunts and uncles you love, why not give them a call today 

Dia de la Rebeldia -- Cuba (Revolution Anniversary)

Festival of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Sleipnir -- Norse Pagan (date approximate, honored Odin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir)

Green Corn Ceremony -- Native Americans (thanksgiving for the maize harvest; these are celebrated by many tribes in many different ways and are not generally scheduled as they depend on how the corn grows; some have with rites including a Thanksgiving Prayer, Confession Chant, and Feather Dance; the Santa Ana Pueblo holds an annual Corn Festival on this date each year that is open to the public)

Groovy Chicken Day -- don't ask, just enjoy

Independence Day -- Liberia(1847); Maldives(1965)

Kargil Vijay Diwas -- India (Kargil Victory Day)

National Coffee Milkshake Day

One Voice Day -- readings around the world of the Universal Peace Covenant, sponsored by the School of Metaphysics

Oregon Brewers Festival -- Portland, OR, US (81 microbreweries from across the nation showcase their best, including rare, hard-to-find, and exotic beers; through Sunday)

Otaru Tide Festival -- Otaru Wharf, Otaru City, Japan (one of Japan's biggest sea festivals, through the 28th)

Racial Desegregation Day -- date in 1944 the US Army ordered training camp facilities desegregated, and the date in 1948 President Truman signed the order integrating the US armed forces

St. Anne's Day (traditional name given to the mother of Mary; Patron of broommakers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, childless people, equestrians, expectant mothers, grandmothers, grandparents, homemakers, horse men, horse women, housewives, lace makers, lace workers, lost articles, miners, mothers, old-clothes dealers, poor people, pregnancy, pregnant women, riders, seamstresses, stablemen, turners, women in labour; Canada; France; Micmaqs; over 20 cities around the world; against poverty and sterility)

St. Joachim's Day (traditional name given to the father of Mary; Patron of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents; Adjuntas, Puerto Rico)

Wonderful Drinks Day -- Fairy Calendar

Anniversaries Today

Signing of the American's With Disabilities Act, 1990

New York becomes the 11th US State, 1788

The United States Postal Service is founded, 1775

Birthdays Today

Taylor Momsen, 1993

Kate Beckinsale, 1973

Jeremy Piven, 1964

Sandra Bullock, 1964

Kevin Spacey, 1959

Angela Hewitt, 1958

Dorothy Hamill, 1956

Susan George, 1950

Roger Taylor, 1949

Helen Mirren, 1945

Mick Jagger, 1943

Dobie Gray, 1940

Stanley Kubrick, 1928

Blake Edwards, 1922

Jason Robards, Jr., 1922

Vivian Vance, 1912

Gracie Allen, 1902

Aldous Huxley, 1894

Carl Jung, 1875

George Bernard Shaw, 1856

George Catlin, 1796

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Alice In Wonderland(Animated film), 1951

The Babe Ruth Story(Film), 1948

"The Bob Howard Show"(TV), 1948

"Young Widder Brown"(Radio), 1938

Today in History

The first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, England, 1745

The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress, 1775

The Surrey Iron Railway, often considered the world's first public railway, opens in south London, 1803

In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway, 1878

Premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal at Bayreuth, 1882

Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement, 1887

United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation), 1908*

King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicated the throne, officially unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memoria, 1936

The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power, 1945

U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council, 1947

U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States, 1948

Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution, 1953

Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster, 1963

The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government, 1977

A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 1989

Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days, 2005

Over 92,000 classified documents detailing incidents related to the war in Afghanistan are released by Wikileaks in the largest leak in U.S military history, 2010

President of France, Francois Holland finalizes a deal with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara to forgive $4.7 billion dollars in debt incurred by the Ivory Coast when it was a French Colonial Power, 2012

*Yes, the grand-nephew of Napoleon I started the FBI -- I'm not sure why that seems so odd to me.