Score / Home Fence

He left the largest envelope that had come in the mail for last, tending to the one bill, the advertisement for a new dental office, and the "final notice" from the credit union that he knew would not be final, telling him he wasn't taking full advantage of their special insurance rates.  Bill in the folder, other two items into the recycle bin, he turned the large mailer over, figuring it to be one more piece of junk mail until he noticed that the return address was his parents' home in town, but the postmark was from out of state, in fact from the city in which he'd gone to college.

Slitting it with his letter opener, the one his kids thought was hopelessly old fashioned, he was startled when he turned it up and a key dropped out from between several papers.  He managed to catch the key, thus keeping it from doing the bounce-under-the-hardest-to-move-object-in-the-room that was his usual luck, and then watched with chagrin as the papers dropped.

As he gathered the scattered pile, he noticed it was sheets of a musical score, hand written.  Across the bottom of the final sheet he recognized his old head professor's handwriting, the words pulling him back across the miles and years:  Figure it out, Jonathan.

Linking up with Zoe's Uncharted Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Score.

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Good Fences

Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit others to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.

Our own back yard fence, with the dents from the neighbor's tree that came down in pieces:

No fence like the one in your own back yard.

Today is:

Anne Hutchinson Memorial Day -- Portsmouth, RI, US (honoring Anne Marbury Hutchinson, co-founder of Portsmouth, in 1638)

Barbershop Music Appreciation Day -- anniversary of the founding of Sweet Adelines International

Beans and Franks Day

Embrace Your Geekness Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, celebrate your love of online dungeon games, comic books, or dressing up like a vampire

Feast of Kalimat (Words) -- Baha'i Faith

Fool's Paradise Day -- a day to figure out how a fool can achieve paradise?  or how it can be paradise if it is full of fools?

Go West Day -- commemorates Horace Greeley's "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

Gruntled Workers Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; those of us who are gruntled, as opposed to the disgruntled, should unite and pass along some "great work" compliments to those doing a good job

Hodag Country Festival -- Rhinelander, WI, US (at the Hodag "50" Track, a large open-air country music festival; through Sunday)

Hot Dog Nite -- Luverne, MN, US (free hot dogs to all comers!)

International Carthage Festival -- Tunis, Tunisia (the country's biggest arts event and music festival, through Aug. 19)

International Puzzle Day -- some sites say Jan. 29, but today is Erno Rubik's birthday

La Retraite Aux Flambeaux -- France (night watch, before Bastille Day)

National French Fries Day

Obon (Ulambana) -- Buddhist; Shinto (Festival of the Lanterns, a time of honoring the ancestors, a reunion of them with the living; through the 15th, although Obon festivals are held on various dates in July at temples throughout the world)

Oregon Trail Days -- Gering, NE, US (the oldest continuing celebration of the Oregon Trail; through Sunday)

Statehood Day -- Montenegro

St. Henry the Emperor's Day (Patron of childless people, disabled people, dukes, handicapped people, kings, people rejected by religious orders, physically challenged people; Bamberg, Germany; Basel, Switzerland; Benedictine Oblates; against sterility)

St. Joel the Prophet's Day (Old Testament prophet of the Book of Joel)

Stirling Settler Days -- Stirling, Alberta, Canada (parade, pancake breakfast, firefighter games, a movie in the park, dancing, rodeo, and more; through Saturday)

Uniwaine / Unaine Day -- Kiribati (Senior Citizens' Day, specifically Elderly Men's Day / Elderly Women's Day)

Vancouver Folk Music Festival -- Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada ( folk music from around the globe, performed in a beautiful outdoor venue; through Sunday)

Birthdays Today

Anthony Jerome “Spud” Webb, 1963

Cameron Crowe, 1957

Jane Hamilton, 1957

Michael Spinks, 1956

Louise Mandrell, 1954

Cheech Marin, 1946

Erno Rubik, 1944

Harrison Ford, 1942

Roger McGuinn, 1942

Robert Forster, 1941

Patrick Stewart, 1940

Jack Kemp, 1935

Wole Soyinka, 1934

David Storey, 1933

Bob Crane, 1928

Dave Garroway, 1913

Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1821

Julius Caesar, BC100

Today in History

Capt James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas, 1772

William Wordsworth, on a walking tour through the Wye Valley, visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey and a few miles further on composed a poem about them, 1798

Greek War of Independence: Greeks defeated Ottoman forces at Thermopylae, 1822

Henry R Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River, 1832

After 9,957 unnumbered patents, the U.S. Patent Office issues Patent No. 1, for locomotive wheels, 1836

Queen Victoria becomes the first British monarch to live at Buckingham Palace in London, 1837

First day of the New York Draft Riots in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrolment Act of Conscription, 1863

Horace Greeley publishes his editorial advising young men to "Go West, young man, go west and grow up with the country," 1865

PT Barnum's American Museum was destroyed in one of the most spectacular fires in New York City's history, 1865

Gold was discovered near Cochrane, Ontario, Canada, 1909

The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight, 1919

Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in, 1973

The Live Aid benefit concert, a telecast fundraising concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, was held in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow, 1985

American Thoroughbred racehorse Cigar wins his 16th consecutive top-class race, the first horse to do so since Triple Crown winner citation, 1996

Researchers reveal two studies showing the antiretroviral drugs prescribed to treat AIDS can also prevent HIV infections, 2011