The Vets Are At It Again (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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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, Delores is providing the prompts.  This may be the end of an era, as she has had so much trouble with a troll that she is planning to shut down her blog after she provides the prompts this month.  She will be missed.

This week's words are:

kindness

handicapped

blessings

fight or flight

and/or

gruff

spike

hurry

include

and/or

blind

chance

fright

frigid

She took a deep breath and tried to suppress her initial reaction, which was to be GRUFF at the slightest hint of KINDNESS from a man she didn't know, and to react with a FRIGID attitude even toward those she did.

Like a hedgehog ever ready to trust his suit of SPIKEs, she knew it was a FIGHT OR FLIGHT response.  Knowing didn't make the FRIGHT she felt any less.  She was still scared for her life, even though she'd been rescued.  The deep fear would take time to release its hold.

The counselor assured her she was only temporarily HANDICAPPED with this response, and that it was only natural.  

"You have family now," the counselor told her.  "They want to INCLUDE you in their lives.  It's a BLESSING, even though it feels odd to know at first."  Then she added, "Don't be in too big of a HURRY to accept or reject them.  They know what you've been through, and want to give you space and time to get over it."

It was BLIND CHANCE  that she was the one kidnapped as a child, held captive and abused.  It was her snatching a lucky break that got her out of the situation.

Now her freedom came with a price, the price of learning how to be free again, without fear, without wondering if there was a motive behind every nice thing a man did for her.  She took another deep breath and said, "Thank you" to the orderly who had handed her an extra cup of juice.

She couldn't quite manage a smile, but he knew what an effort it was for her to even acknowledge him.  He gently said, "You're quite welcome."  As he headed back toward the kitchen, he grinned.  Orderly or not, he'd been there long enough, he knew a breakthrough when he saw it, and even he celebrated in his own way.

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Today is:

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset through the 27th)

Chiropractic Founder's Day -- celebrating the first chiropractic adjustment ever performed, by D.D. Palmer on Harvey Lillard, on this date in 1895

Ear Wig Fitting Day -- Fairy Calendar

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 8, Human Rights (sponsored by We, the World) 

Golden Aspen Motorcycle Rally -- Ruidoso, NM, US (trade show, bike shows, riding tours, skills event, stunt show, parade, and fun; through Sunday)

Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day -- they are generally anonymous, often underappreciated, so today, give one a hug! (if you know any, that is)

Independence Day -- Chile

Kentucky Bourbon Festival -- Bardstown, KY, US (self explanatory; through Sunday)

National Cheeseburger Day

National Guitar Flat-Picking Championships and Walnut Valley Festival -- Winfield, KS, US (through Sunday)

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day -- US  

National Rehabilitation Day -- US (on the Wednesday of National Rehab Awareness Week)

National Respect! Day(sm) -- US (encouraging abused women to respect themselves enough to get out)

National School Backpack Awareness Day 2019 -- US (or anywhere else that you want to weigh your child's backpack on the 3rd Wednesday of September, to make sure it's not heavy enough to hurt them)   

Plataia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

St. Joseph of Cupertino's Day (Levitating saint, and so Patron of air crews, air travelers, astronauts, paratroopers, pilots/aviators, students, test takers; Cupertino, Italy)

World Water Monitoring Day -- International    

Anniversaries Today:

Constantine II of Greece marries Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, 1964

The United States Air Force becomes a separate military service, 1947

Hull House opens, 1889

Birthdays Today:

Jada Pinkett Smith, 1971

Lance Armstrong, 1971

Alsha Tyler, 1970

James Gandolfini, 1961

Ryne Sandberg, 1959

Frankie Avalon, 1939

Robert Blake, 1933

Scotty Bowman, 1933

June Foray, 1920

Jack Warden, 1920

Rossano Brazzi, 1916

Agnes DeMille, 1905

Greta Garbo, 1905

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, 1905

John Diefenbaker, 1895

Joseph Story, 1779

George Read, 1733

Samuel Johnson, 1709

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, Emperor Trajan, 53

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Baseball"(Documentary), 1994

"Love is a Many Splendored Thing"(TV), 1967

"Get Smart"(TV), 1965

"The Addams Family"(TV), 1964

"Wagon Train"(TV), 1957

"The Paul Winchell Show"(TV), 1950

"Johnny Belinda"(Play), 1940

"Strictly Dishonorable"(Play), 1929

"Disraeli"(Play), 1911

Today in History:

Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th and final voyage, 1502

Ft. Ticonderoga, NY opens, 1755

The British capture Quebec City, 1759

John Harris builds the first spinet piano in the US, 1769

President Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building, 1793

Royal Opera House in London opens, 1809

A horse beats the first US made locomotive, near Baltimore, 1830

Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City; the store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium", 1837

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is first published, 1842

First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times, 1851

Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone, 1870

The banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. in Philadelphia declares bankruptcy, which starts the Panic of 1873 and a severe economic depression, 1873

The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time, 1879

Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination, 1885

In appreciation for all she had done for the tribe, Harriet Maxwell Converse, adopted as a member of the Seneca tribe, is made a chief of the Six Nations Tribe at the Tonawanda Reservation, 1891

Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment, 1895

A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong, 1906

The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I, 1914

The Netherlands gives women the right to vote, 1919

The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air, 1927

Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel, 1928

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, 1948

Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations, 1960

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash, 1961

Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations, 1962

The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations, 1973

Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people, 1974

Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together, 1977

Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station, 1980

Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic, 1984

Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations, 1990

ICANN is formed, 1998

The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast, 2009

Chileans celebrate the 200th anniversary oof their independence, 2010

After a large storm that took the roof off of Stadium Southland in Invercargill, 100,000 people in New Zealand are left without water, 2010

Scotland votes to remain a member of the United Kingdom in an independence referendum, 2014

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal publishes finding about the earliest known fishhooks, at 23,000 years old, discovered on Okinawa Island, Japan, 2016