A Doozy Of a Time, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Thankful Day!  As usual, it’s been a doozy of a time.

The first thankful is that, at the bottom of a Christmas bin of goodies a couple of weeks ago, we found some of the Royal Riviera Pears we love so much.  They were kept cold and we savored them for as long as we could.

Also, i bought some vegan cream cheese to eat with them.  There’s nothing like a pear with cream cheese, i am thankful i don’t have to give that up.

Our Sunday evening prayer group has started back up, and Pastor J had a surprise.  He wanted to do things a bit differently, so he had us meet in the chapel instead of one of the side rooms, and we started with a song.  (Yes, i promise i sang softly.)  Then he said he wanted to open with a song every week, and was wondering if anyone could play an instrument.  My Sweetie is thankful to have now been volunteered, he is going to officially open our prayer meetings with a song and his guitar.

By now everyone knows the car story, and i am still very thankful for GusGus, the new-to-me Ford Focus.  It’s just right for me.  There is a postlude to the story, though.

A very well off friend and his wife who have watched us struggle with our car troubles for a long time had decided they were going to step in and help.  After we got GusGus, they talked it over and decided they still felt led to help.  They gave us a check to pay off all of our car repair debts!

Sweetie did such a great job for The Big Boss last week that he told us to go out to dinner on him, always a treat for which we are thankful.

The remaining thankfuls have to do with Dr. D.  Yes, really.

A few months ago she was finally able to get a really great deal on a used Kia from Enterprise, thus solving all of her transportation issues.  Then, on Wednesday, a red-light runner destroyed it.

We are thankful she is still with us.  Someone had to cut the airbags away to get her out of the car.

They took her to the hospital, and have told her to have a follow up, as she didn’t break any bones but she was seriously bruised and may have some joint damage.

After our other jobs on Thursday, i am thankful Sweetie and i were able to run her errands for her.

Her attorneys stepped right up and took over when the normally sharp and on top of things Dr. D was having a lot of trouble getting a rental car out of the insurance company.  She has wheels again, and i am thankful because with me being out of town this weekend, there’s no way i could help if she got stuck and really needed it.

The nice gentleman who sold her the previous car at Enterprise already has another for her, just like the one she lost, and i’m thankful because neither of us were looking forward to her having to get used to yet another different vehicle.

She and i are both thankful that between her insurance and the other person’s insurance, the attorneys are going to make sure she comes out of this with a good vehicle and no more debt on it than she had on the previous one, and all the medical bills paid.

That’s the big adventure for this week.  Next week i will be thankful for a little less adventure, too.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Kristi and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.    

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Today is:

Anniversary of the Founding of Lima  -- Lima, Peru

Bald Eagle Appreciation Days -- Keokuk, IA, US (through tomorrow)

Confession of St. Peter -- Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican Christian

    Feast of the Chair of St. Peter -- Roman Catholic Church (celebrated as the founding of the papacy)

Feast of Neith -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of war and hunting)

Four an' Twenty Day -- Scotland (24 days after Christmas)

Gasparilla Extravaganza -- Tampa, FL, US (the rum free version of the Pirate Festival celebration, with a kid's parade and lots of fun; the adult version is next Saturday)

Hair Dryer Appreciation Day -- no history on this, but if you love your hair dryer, more power to you

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire -- Gainesville, FL, US (jousting, birds of prey, medieval arts, food, entertainment; through tomorrow, and again the next two weekends)

Jazz Day -- Jazz gets recognized, it plays the Met!

Learn to Ski Day -- always the 3rd Saturday of January, and you go right ahead

Loop Ice Carnival -- The Loop, St. Louis, MO, US (winter frolics, including the "Frozen Bun" run; through tomorrow)

Montana Winter Fair -- Lewistown, MT, US (from farm exhibits to a fiddler's contest, there's fun to be had here; through the 26th)

National Lay Awake and Whisper in the Dark Night -- another one i can't fathom or find out why it even exists

National Peking Duck Day

Polar Bear Festival/Polar Bear Jump -- Seward, AK, US (lots of fun, if you want to freeze!)

Revolution Day -- Tunisia

Royal Thai Armed Forces Day -- Thailand (former Siam)

Santa Prisca Day -- Taxco, Mexico

Thesaurus Day -- birth anniversary of Peter Roget

UFO Day -- see the history section, 1644

Unsliced Bread Day -- from this day in 1943, until the war ended, US bakers sold only unsliced bread loaves so no steel had to be diverted from the war effort for slicing machine blades

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity -- Christian (from the celebration of the Confession of St. Peter to the celebration of the Conversion of St. Paul, Jan. 25)

Winnie the Pooh Day -- birth anniversary of Winnie's author A.A. Milne

Anniversaries Today:

Wesley College, Melbourne is established, 1866

Henry VII of England weds Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, 1486

Birthdays Today:

Jason Segal, 1980

Dave Batista, 1969

Jesse L. Martin, 1969

Jane Horrocks, 1964

Kevin Costner, 1955

Bobby Goldsboro, 1941

Davis Eli "David" Ruffin, 1941

Curtis Charles (Curt) Flood, 1938

Ray Dolby, 1933

Evelyn Lear, 1931

John Boorman, 1930

Constance Moore, 1920

Danny Kaye, 1913

Cary Grant, 1904

Oliver Hardy, 1892

A.A. Milne, 1882

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, 1856 (The African-American doctor who performed the first open heart surgery.)

Thomas A. Watson, 1854 ("Come here, Watson, I need you," said Bell)

Peter Mark Roget, 1779

Daniel Webster, 1782

Daigo, Emperor of Japan, 885

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Jeffersons"(TV), 1975

"Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour"(TV), 1948

"The Nose"(Shostakovich' opera), 1930

Today in History:

Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong, 1126

Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, Peru, 1535

The first documented UFO sighting in America, by some very perplexed pilgrims in Boston, 1644

Pirate Henry Morgan defeats the Spanish defenders and captures Panama, 1670

San Jose, California is founded, 1777

Captain James Cook stumbles upon the Sandwich Islands (Hawai'i), 1778

The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay, 1788

Electro-Magnetic Intelligencer, the first US electrical journal, begins publication, 1840

Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, J. C. Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom, 1884

Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England, 1886

The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time, 1896

President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States, 1903

The first shipboard landing of a plane (Tanforan Park to USS Pennsylvania, flown by Eugene B. Ely), 1911

English explorer Robert F Scott & his expedition reach South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had gotten there before, 1912

Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia, 1915

A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri, 1916

The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden, 1944

Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut, 1958

A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War, 1974

Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease, 1977

Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs), 1981

The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family, 1983

Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, 1997

The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth, 2000

Sierra Leone Civil War is finally declared over, 2002

A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia, 2003

The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France, 2005

Hurricane Kyrill becomes one of Western Europe's deadliest storms, 2007

An amateur astronomer in Peterborough, England, discovers a new, Neptune-sized exoplanet, 2012

For the first time ever, lifeguards in Australia rescue endangered swimmers with a drone, using it to drop a rescue pod flotation device, 2018