Random Tuesday

And now a bit of random meandering, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked. 

As i was making my way across town the other day, dodging people who are obviously out to kill me (the only thing that could turn this teetotaler into a drinking woman is the traffic around here), one very determined person merged onto the interstate with no sign of caring that the lane was already occupied and that i was hemmed in with no way to vacate said lane.

My thought was, well, you certainly don't believe yield signs apply to you, do you?

At that moment, my conscience was given a nudge.  It was as if The Almighty was saying to me, "Does that sound like anyone else you know, when applied to situations where you've been told to wait for Me?"

Mea culpa.  So often we(i) want to just forge ahead, ignore the obstacles (or people!) in our(my) path, not yield to what we(i) know is the right way or right thing to do.

Not long after, someone who was obviously in such a hurry that i guess it was a life and death emergency or his hair was on fire, got upset by not being able to go fast enough and instead of doing the usual dodge and weave among those already on the interstate he swung into the exit lane, sped around several cars and dodged back into traffic at the last second, taking off like a shot.

My thought was, a bit passive-aggressive there, are we fella?

And again, a nudge -- "Does that sound like anyone else you know?"

Again, mea culpa.  How often does the traffic, or something else, call upon me to wait, to slow down, to go a different way, and i pretend not to hear the instruction or i pout and then choose to make my own way around?

My Bible verse of the day yesterday on my page-a-day calendar?  "For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." John 6:38

It's a good thing the Good Lord is patient with me, i can take a long time to learn my lessons.

In other news, Sweetie has been scouring the house for something of his, turning his things (and some of mine) upside down, and moping because it had not been seen.  It turned out he loaned it to Brother-in-Law, The Mouth.  It has been returned post-haste and peace now reigns.

After experimenting and trying very hard to disprove the theory, i have had to admit that newspaper makes the best material for wiping down windows and mirrors and glass.  Every other type of cloth or paper rag/towel, i do not care how many times they claim otherwise, leaves lint and streaks.  Only a fresh piece of newspaper for every couple of square feet of glass/mirror, with an ammonia based cleaner, does a good enough job.  Grandpa gives us the funnies/puzzles and metro sections of his papers, and they are now being read, the puzzles done, and the pages cut and stacked and taken to work with me.  Talk about using stuff up until it can be used no more!

The kittens are growing, as kittens are wont to do, and they will be going to the shelter very soon.  As much as we will miss them, it's also a good thing.

Today is:

Air Force Day -- US (declared by President Truman in 1947)

Anniversary of the Founding of Scouting -- first day of Brownsea Island Camp in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell began Scouting; related observance:

     World Scout Scarf Day -- wear your Scout Scarf in public today 

Armed Forces Day -- Lebanon

Emancipation Day -- Barbados; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and Grendines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands (Trad.)

Fast in Honor of the Holy Mother of Jesus / Procession of the Cross and Dormition Fast -- Orthodox Christian

Feast of Kamal (Perfection) -- Baha'i

Fiesta de Santo Domingo -- Managua, Nicaragua (patron saint; through the 10th)

Girlfriends' Day -- a day to celebrate the women who enrich your life

Harriet Quimby Day -- first woman to earn a pilot's license, this date in 1911

Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri -- Hirosaki, Japan (through the 7th, parade and purification ritual to rid the the town of future illness and bad fortune)

Homowo -- Ghana (a festival of thanksgiving and remembrance, among various groups of Ga peoples, all through August and September.)

Imps Charity Scramble -- Fairy calendar (Do they scramble the imps, or do the imps scramble for something?)

Independence Day / National Day -- Benin(1960)

Kalends of August -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances

     Feast of Spes (personification of hope)

     Festival for Victoria (goddess of victory)

Lammas Day / Lammac Tide -- Christian, a Cross Quarter Day (called the Gule of August in Wales, and known as August Eve and Lady Day Eve)

Liberation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafari

Lughnassad / Imbolc -- Wicca and Pagan (based in the Northern Hemisphere on the Celtic Feast of Bread, beginning of the harvest season)

Minden Day -- British Armed Forces

Nagaoka Festival -- Nagaoka, Japan (through the 3rd, samuri procession, traditional music and dances, fireworks)

National Day -- Switzerland (where it is also called Swiss Confederation Day, when Switzerland became a single unit in 1291)

National Minority Donor Awareness Week -- US (bringing awareness to the fact that there are fewer minorities who are organ donors) 

National Night Out -- US (sponsored by National Association of Town Watch, to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness) 

National Non-Parent Day -- sponsored by The National Alliance for Optional Parenthood (formerly the National Organization for Non-Parents) and No Kidding!

National Raspberry Cream Pie Day

Parents' Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

Respect For Parents Day -- with information here 

Rounds Resounding Day -- “as rounds resound and resound, all the world’s joined in a circle of harmony;” sponsored by Rounds Resounding Society (Grab your friends and sing a few songs that go in rounds, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Frere Jacques".)

Social Resistance Day -- North Cyprus

South Mountain Fair -- Arendtsville, PA, US (celebrating agriculture, arts, crafts, and industry; through Saturday)

Spiderman Day -- he first appeared today in Amazing Fantasy #15, released Aug. 1, 1963

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori's Day (Founder of the Redemptorists, a/k/a Ligourians; Patron of confessors, final perseverence, moralists, scrupulous people, theologians, vocations; Pagani, Italy; Sant'Agata de' Goti, Italy; against arthritis, scrupulosity disorder)

Tish'a B'Av -- Judaism (began sunset yesterday, through sunset today)

World Breastfeeding Week begins -- International (the theme this year is "Sustainable Partnership and the Rule of Law," encouraging all of us to think about what you could do to protect, support, and promote breastfeeding, and who would you work with and how?) 

World Lung Cancer Day -- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer  

World's Fair of Money -- Denver, CO, US (the greatest money show on Earth, including dealers, exhibits from around the world, family activities and educational programs; through Saturday)

World Wide Web Day -- what would become our current ability to waste time reading blogs and doing other fun stuff was begun as an idea at CERN during August back in 1990

Yorkshire Day -- Yorkshire, England

Anniversaries Today:

Colorado becomes the 38th US State, 1876

Birthdays Today:

Tempestt Bledsoe, 1973

Robert Cray, 1953

Giancarlo Giannini, 1942

Jerry Garcia, 1942

Yves Saint Laurent, 1942

Ronald Harmon "Ron" Brown, 1941

Dom DeLuise, 1933

Tom Wilson, 1931

James Hill, 1916

Herman Melville, 1819

Maria Mitchell, 1818

Francis Scott Key, 1779

William Clark, 1770

Debuting/Premiering Today:

M2(TV Network), 1996

"The Rush Limbaugh Show"(Radio), 1988

MTV(TV Network), 1981

Today in History:

The future Caesar Augustus, Octavian, enters Alexandria, Egypt, and brings it under the control of Rome, BC30

Japan sends Ono no Imoko to the Sui court in China as envoy, 607

The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter, 1291

Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain, 1492

Henry Tudor, soon to be Henry VII, sails with his army to England, 1495

The first black Americans arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, 1619

Oxygen is "discovered" for the 3rd time, by Priestly, 1774

The Act of Union is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800

Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, 1834

First coast to coast automobile trip, from San Francisco to New York, is completed, 1903

The first Jeep is produced, 1941

Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary, 1944

The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), 1957

Israel annexes East Jerusalem, 1967

Peat cutters discover Lindow Man, Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England, 1984

CERN physicists begin discussing building what would eventually become the World Wide Web, 1990

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency, 2001

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies and is succeeded by Prince Abdullah, 2005

Buddhist treasures buried during the Mongolian Communist Purge in the 1930's are rediscovered in the Gobi Desert, 2009

Russia grants NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden one year of temporary political asylum; Snowden leaves Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, 2013