A Sticky Wicket (Six Sentence Story) and Good Fences

"So, Diane," Jonathan began after they were seated at the restaurant and had placed their order, "how do you think your father was able to collect valuable instruments and build a secret room for them?" 

"It really goes back to the time when Dad lost Mom in that horrible accident when I was barely more than a baby.  He was always eccentric, and from her diary I think she was the stabilizing influence in his life and I know she loved him, craziness and all.

"There was a large insurance settlement from the accident and a life insurance policy, and it was when I got old enough to start asking what he'd done with all that money that he and I began to argue.  While he did put a lot of it into investments that he used to pay for my college and that he left to Julia, now I see he was also trying to invest in the only things he really understood, valuable musical instruments."

"Which will stick us in the middle," Buddy said, and Diane asked, "What do you mean?" 

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

This is a continuing story, if you wish to read the previous entries they are on the Jonathan page linked above.

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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.

The ivy seems to be a bit out of hand here:

Yes. there's a fence under there somewhere.

Today is:

Armed Forces Flag Day -- India

Clute's Christmas in the Park -- Clute, TX, US (food and fun; through Sunday)

Day of Mourning for Dingle-Fritter, Gooseberry-Humple, Tiger-Get-By, LoneFolding, But Not Zimber-Quattor -- Fairy Calendar

Día de las Velitas -- Columbia (Day of the Little Candles, a celebration on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

Electric Light Parade -- Lovington, MN, US (over 60 entries, all decorated with Christmas lights)

Feast of Osiris in Abydos -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Hang a Wreath Day -- after all, by now it's about time

International Civil Aviation Day -- UN

Letter Writing Day -- no origin info found, but think of how happy someone will be to get a letter if you write one!

National Cotton Candy Day

National Heroes' Day -- East Timor

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day  -- US

Quema del Diablo -- Guatemala (Burning of the Devil, to cast out impurities before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

St. Ambrose of Milan's Day (Patron of bee keepers, bees, candle makers/chandlers, domestic animals, learning, schoolchildren/students, wax refiners; French Commissariat; Milan, Italy)

Students' Day -- Iran

Spitak Remembrance Day -- Armenia

Anniversaries Today:

National Fire Safety Council founded, 1979

Delaware becomes the first US State, 1787

Birthdays Today:

Aaron Carter, 1987

Tino Martinez, 1967

C. Thomas Howell, 1966

Edd Hall, 1958

Larry Bird, 1956

Tom Waits, 1949

Johnny Bench, 1947

Harry Chapin, 1942

Ellen Burstyn, 1932

Ted Knight, 1923

Eli Wallach, 1915

Louis Prima, 1910

Willa Cather, 1873

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"City of Angels"(Musical), 1989

"Band on the Run"(Album), 1973 (UK release date)

"The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria"(Savoy Opera), 1889

Today in History:

Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated, BC43

Chinese Emperor Lo-Yang makes notation of a supernova (MSH15-52), 185

Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways in the US, is completed to Trumbull, 1696

The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, 1732

Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general, 1776

The New York Philharmonic plays its first concert, 1842

Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission, 1900

Leo Baekeland of Yonkers patents the first thermosetting plastic, Bakelite, 1911

The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, 1941

Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils, 1962

The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise is held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats, 1970

The final Apollo mission is launched, and takes the photo now called The Blue Marble as they take off, 1972

Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist, 1988

The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched, 1995

The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement, 1999

The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, 2003

Scientists in Tanzania discover the oldest-known dinosaur fossil, and 243-million-year-old Nyasasaurus, 2012

NASA reports the GRAIL probes studying the moon reveal unexpectedly deep cracks, craters and tectonic structures, 2012