The Pet Geranium Loves the Heat (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Vest at The Daily Gaggle.   

Words for Wednesday, July 18. 2018:

Cheerful

River

Children

Sunday

House

Age

Or and

Demise

Noise

Point

Idea

Above

Year

"Yippee!  Yippee!  Yippee!  It's finally here!  We get to spend a week at the RIVER!"

Charlene, age seven-and-three-fourths (as she was quick to tell anyone who asked) was dancing and skipping and just so doggone CHEERFUL that even her I'm-busy-packing-don't-interrupt-or-I'll-forget-something mother stopped to smile at her.

"Whatcha making so much NOISE about, Charlatan?" her older brother Ryan asked as only a sneering older brother can do.  He'd given her that nickname from the moment they found out what the word meant because he knew she hated it.

"Even you calling me that isn't going to make me sad or mad today," she taunted back.  "We are going to the HOUSE on the river we've been wanting to go to for a whole week of vacation!  And I'm not going to let you mess it up because you're a meany-pants!"

"That's the IDEA, darling daughter of mine," her father said as he came down stairs with yet another suitcase.

"I've been trying to get that POINT across to her for ABOVE a YEAR," her mother spoke to her father in a low voice, "and now she gets it?"  She was laughing as she said it, although a bit ruefully.

"You know how long it takes children this AGE to learn to let things go," he whispered back, then with a wink added, "at least she learned before your DEMISE!"

Both parents tried to choke back laughter, but could not.  It became one of those moments when the initial occurrence isn't so funny, but the laughter becomes contagious and feeds on itself, and soon they were both sitting on the stairs laughing until they were almost gasping.

The CHILDREN had left off taunting each other and were staring at their parents, wondering what on earth could be so funny, when their father reached out and started tickling both of them.  They screamed and started to run, bringing on a game of tickle monster that left the whole family breathless with the fun.

"All right, me mateys, it's off for bath and bed with ye," their father finally said in Charlene's favorite of his funny voices, the pirate.  "We're shippin' out early tomorrow for SUNDAY service and then we'll let the wild vacationing begin!"

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Today is:

Anti-Bigot Day -- doesn't seem to be sponsored by any particular group, which is good on a day to practice consideration and respect toward all

Bregenzer Festspiele (Bregenz Festival) -- Bregenz, Austria (an amazing performing arts festival, through August 19)

Constitution Day -- Uruguay

Lunch of the Forward Goblins -- Fairy Calendar (not surprisingly, attended by Fairies only)

Mandela Day -- UN

National Baby Food Festival -- Fremont, MI, US (in the hometown of Gerber Products, adults have a baby food eating contest and tots have crawling races, among other fun things; through Saturday)

National Caviar Day -- no one knows how it started, but even The Russian Tea Room in New York has celebrated it for years and caviar importers know all about it; pair it with ice cold vodka or a Burgundian pinot or unoaked chardonnay, but never with champagne!

Sinclair Lewis Days -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (a grand celebration in Lewis's hometown; through Sunday)

St. Theneva's Day (Patron of Glasgow, Scotland)

Sumarauki -- Iceland (their calendar's extra days added to take into account the "drift" of the calendar from the moon phases)

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Vitula, goddess of exultation, joy, and life, is given the first fruits of the earth)

Wienermobile Day -- celebrating the creation, in 1936, of the now iconic vehicle by Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl

World Listening Day -- World Listening Project (this year's theme is "Future Listening")    

Anniversary Today:

Timothy Verner Taylor marries The Lady Helen Windsor, 1992

Bobby Brown marries Whitney Houston, 1992

Birthdays Today

Chace Crawford, 1985

Priyanka Chopra, 1982

Kristin Bell, 1980

Vin Diesel, 1967

Elizabeth McGovern, 1961

Ricky Skaggs, 1954

Richard Branson, 1950

Steve Forbes, 1947

James Brolin, 1941

Martha Reeves, 1941

Joe Torre, 1940

Dion DiMucci, 1939

Paul Verhoeven, 1938

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1932

Dick Button, 1929

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929

John Glenn, 1921

Nelson Mandela, 1918

Harriet Nelson, 1914

Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913

Hume Cronyn, 1911

Clifford Odets, 1906

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, 1906

George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895

Charles E. "Chick" Evans, Jr., 1890

Vidkun Quisling, 1887

Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867

William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811

Gilbert White, 1720

Robert Hooke, 1635

Today in History

A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390

The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64

King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290

Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801

The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870

Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898

Adoph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925

The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California, 1968

Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics  at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976

Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984

On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995

Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996

Phoenix, AZ, US, is hit by a dust storm of the kind known as a "haboob", 2011

King Jong-un, son of King Jong-il, is announced the official Supreme Leader of North Korea, 2012

The 'immediate and severe' fiscal emergency declared by the U.S. city San Bernardino, California, allows it to declare bankruptcy without negotiating with creditors, 2012

Investigators on the case of the October 2012 Kunsthal gallery theft of paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Monet, discover paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son has been charged with the crime, 2013

Detroit, Michigan files the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, 2013