The Shape of Things

This week, the shape of things has come to mind in composing my list of thankfuls.

Round standard analog clock faces make me thankful that i taught my children to read standard clocks, and that i have standard clocks here.  At my annual check-up every year, one thing my doctor has me do is draw a clock with the hands pointing to three o'clock.  (One sign of dementia/Alzheimers is you can't remember how to properly draw a clock.)  When i asked him what he would do with a young patient who had never had to bother learning an analog clock face, and he showed me a pair of interlocking pentagons that are an alternative.  My children should be able to use the standard clock face.

Cylinders full of cold liquid make me grateful on hot summer days.  It's especially nice when the liquid is pineapple-coconut juice Grandma bought me.

The rectangular shapes of windows make me thankful for the light they let in, and the view they afford.

Make those rectangles three-dimensional and i am reminded of our garbage and recycling bins.  There are some places where trash pick-up is expensive, or complicated, or even non-existent.  We get the standard garbage can picked up from in front of our house twice a week, a recycle bin picked up once a week, yard waste and other trash picked up once a week, and we can even throw away up to 4 tires and one white goods item (refrigerator/washer/dryer/dishwasher/etc.) each year at no extra charge, picked up where we can pile up yard waste.  When i imagine what would happen around here if i had to haul my own stuff to the dump, i am beyond thankful that we have such a great service here for a low monthly fee collected with the water bill.

Flower shapes in many colors and varieties make me grateful for the beauty and joy they add to my life.

Cat shapes of all sizes make me happy and frustrate me and keep me on my toes, and i am so thankful i have cats in my life.

When some of the men in my life look at automobiles, they see makes, models and years.  When i look, all i can identify are the shapes: sedan, SUV, minivan, big van, truck, sports car.  No matter the shape, though, i am very thankful for our vehicles that get us where we need to go.

The shape and size of a vase matters, especially when Sweetie accidentally knocks one off a shelf when we are cleaning a house.  Finding one of the same size and shape and near the same color and design, and having Ms. GA be perfectly happy with it is nearly a miracle, especially since it was at a place that only sells to retailers and they knew Sweetie was desperate and one person in line used his license to let us buy it.  You know i am thankful they still make that shape vase and over the moon grateful to the person who was willing to help and the cashier who looked the other way as he did.

Tube shapes full of insecticide might seem a strange thing to be thankful for, until you live down where the ugh! bugs run rampant (some called them palmetto bugs and i don't like to say their name).  Trust me when i say that i am thankful for #1 Son finding a product online that comes in a tube and kills those suckers within 20 minutes.

Finally, i am thankful for houses of every shape and design and variety that i clean to make a living.

The final shape of things is that i am very, very thankful for the shapes in my life, and the shape my life is in.

Get your own thankfulness muscles in shape by coming up with a list of thankful things and linking up to Ten Things of Thankful.  No one will count and fuss if you don't list ten, any amount of gratitude is acceptable and celebrated.

Today is:

Carousel Day -- Johnson City, NY, US (Kids won't want to miss all the fun at this family event, and grown-ups, come be a kid again for a day!)

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)

Cowes Week begins -- Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK (the largest, longest-running and most prestigious international sailing regatta in the world; through August 5)

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)

Hanover Dutch Festival -- Hanover, PA, US (celebrating the area and it's heritage)

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 Dance Day -- US (begun by Nigel Lythgoe, now a congressionally recognized day to encourage dance education and physical fitness, so go out and bust a move on a Saturday night, but don't bust you, please)

National Lasagna Day

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

"Paddle for Perthes" Disease Awareness Day -- to promote awareness of the children's condition called Legg-Calve-Perthes disease 

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

Quilt Exhibition -- Billings Farm, Woodstock, VT, US (a juried show, demonstrations and other activities; through Sept. 17)

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 114 out of the 143 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

Sumidagawa River Fireworks Festival -- Tokyo, Japan (one of Japan's largest fireworks festivals, held almost every year since 1733, making it also one of the world's oldest continuously held fireworks displays)

Taylor Horse Fest -- Taylor, ND, US (big enough to be fun, small enough to get you lots of time with the stars of the show, the horses! through tomorrow)

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