Japanese Magnolia/Tulip Tree (Wordless Wednesday) and No Coincidence (Words for Wednesday)

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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 to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Mark Koopmans, and are being posted by Elephant’s Child.        

This week's prompts are:

1. Constipation
2. Rivalry
3. Occupation
4. Sneeze
5. Wishy-washy
6. Diatribe

And/Or

1. Snot
2. Beluga
3. Emergency
4. Qualify
5. Coffee
6. Butt

It really is true that i am not one for big adventures and crazy things happening.  Yet, they happen.  Yesterday was no exception.

Also note that i do not believe in coincidence; i agree with Albert Einstein that it is simply G-d's way of remaining anonymous.

Due to the RIVALRY of college sports, and football in particular, there was a mix-up with a client yesterday.  Some of my clients are very good about telling me ahead of time when they are going to be out of town, thus allowing me to look for other work or make other plans, and some are very WISHY-WASHY about informing me of such things.

Yesterday's client does QUALIFY for latter category, and i will not go into a DIATRIBE about it, although part of me wants to.  After all, when i am suddenly out of work, i have no paid time off, it means i am out of the money, too.  

Her husband's OCCUPATION makes it possible for them to do fun things like run to NOLA to watch football, so they chose to do so.  They also chose to spend the night down there.  Thus Sweetie and i showed up to clean their house Tuesday morning, and no one was home.

A quick call to her confirmed that we would not be working that morning, although we agreed that if they got back in town soon enough, i would come in the afternoon.

Then we simply went home to wait.  While Sweetie warmed himself another cup of COFFEE, i heard a loud noise, looked out the kitchen window and faster than a SNEEZE can sling SNOT the tree behind our next door neighbor's house, and the electric wire next to it, spewed out a fireball!

My instinct was to call the EMERGENCY number as i ran out the door to see if the neighbor was home.  The 911 operator put me in touch with the fire department, and i reported what was going on.  By this time, the tree limb was just smoldering, there were no more actual flames, but i did not let that fool me into any complacency.  The fire fighters were dispatched and i then turned my attention to calling the power company to let them know of the situation.

By this time, our neighbor had answered her door -- her husband and daughter were at work, and she was still in her nightdress, which made her look as white as a BELUGA whale.  (Had to work in that word somewhere, without making someone sound like the BUTT of a joke!)  She was quite frightened and hadn't known what to do, so us being there to see it and call it all in was quite providential.

The fire department showed up and made sure the limb was brought down and put totally out, while we settled in to wait and see if our client would get back in town early enough for us to clean her home.  Since traffic from NOLA was moving like a 'gator with CONSTIPATION, we gave up on that eventually.

It took the electric company quite a while to get out there (several hours, to be exact).  Once they did, all was restored rather quickly.  It turned out the one limb was the only one close enough to cause trouble, the wire itself has suffered no damage.  How that happened i do not know, but i am thankful they didn't have to get back there and run new wires.

We were home to see it and deal with it because of ciercumstances beyond our control, the generator worked, the fire department responded, the area has had quite a bit of rainy drizzle lately so the whole tree didn't go up in flames, just the one dangling branch, and all is well.  As much as i regret the loss of expected income, we have a great deal for which to be grateful.

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Today is:

Arbor Day -- Jordan

Armed Forces Day / Remembrance Day -- Nigeria

Army Day -- India

Basketball Day -- rules for the game were first published this day in 1892(day debated, year is certain)

Chosun-gul -- North Korea (Korean Alphabet Day)

Dia del Maestro -- Venezuela (Teacher's Day)

Feast of the Ass -- Ancient Roman Calendar (celebrates Vesta being saved by a donkey)

Feast of Entering Heaven and the Two Lands -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of All Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

Fiesta Del Senor de Esquipulas/Pilgrimage of Cristo Negro de Esquipulas -- Esquipulas, Guatemala (Festival of the Black Christ)

John Chilembwe Day -- Malawi

Lenaea -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a Festival of Comedy; date approximate)

Moliere Day -- France

National Hat Day -- begun by a hat loving individual who has chosen to remain anonymous

National Strawberry Ice Cream Day

Procrastinator's New Year -- declared by someone who had a really great sense of humor

Sailing of Wadjyt -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (the icon of the cobra goddess, Wadjyt, is carried on the Nile to visit many cities; date approximate)

St. Ita's Day (Patron of Limerick, Ireland)

St. Paul the Hermit's Day (the first of the Egyptian hermits; Patron of clothing industry, weavers)

Thiruvalluvar Day -- PY, TN, India (remembrance of the celebrated Tamil poet)

Tree Planting Day -- Egypt

Tsunahiki Matsuri -- Japan (various shrines hold tug-of-war festivals in which the team for god Ebisu vie with the team for god Daikoku; if Ebisu wins, the next year will have good catches at sea, if Daikoku, it will bring good harvests)

Anniversaries Today:

Opening of the British Museum, 1759

Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England, 1559

Birthdays Today:

Drew Brees, 1979

Chad Lowe, 1968

Mario Van Peebles, 1957

Charo, 1951

Andrea Martin, 1947

Margaret O'Brien, 1937

Ernest J. Gaines, 1933

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929

John Cardinal O'Connor, 1920

Lloyd Bridges, 1913

Gene Krupa, 1909

Elie Siegmeister, 1909

Edward Teller, 1908

Aristotle Onassis, 1906

Goodman Ace, 1899

Pierre S. du Pont, 1870

Philip Livingston, 1766

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a/k/a Moliere, 1622 (baptismal date, actual birth date unknown)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Hill Street Blues"(TV), 1981

"Happy Days"(TV), 1974

The Democratic Donkey(symbol in newspaper comic), 1870

"Stella"(Goethe Play), 1816

Today in History:

Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign, in a siege lasting until July 23, BC588

Christopher Columbus sets sail for Spain from Hispaniola, ending his first voyage to the New World, 1493

Third sitting of the Council of Trent opens, 1562

The British Museum opens in Montague House in London, 1759

John Etherington of London steps out sporting the first top hat, 1797

The first US built locomotive to pull a passenger train begins its first run, with Mr. and Mrs. Pierson on board for the first US railroad honeymoon trip, 1831

The donkey is first used as a symbol for the Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly, 1870

The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia, 1889

James Naismith publishes the rules of Basketball, 1892

Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premieres in St Petersburg, 1895

Dr. Lee DeForest patents a 3-element vacuum tube (one of the inventions that later made radio possible), 1907

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African-American college women, 1908

The Boston Molasses Disaster, 2 million gallons of molasses spill, 21 killed, over 150 injured, 1919

The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio, 1936

The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia, 1943

The US Supreme Court rules that "clear and present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech and can be a cause for arrest, 1951

The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles; the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10, 1967

The USSR launches Soyuz 5, 1969

The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm, 1991

Wikipedia goes online, 2001

An intense solar flare blasts X-rays across the solar system, 2005

ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon, 2005

The Stardust space mission returns dust from a comet to Earth, 2006

Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. All passengers and crew members survive in what becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", 2009

The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan unveils its newest exhibit, a replica skeleton of a Titanosaur dinosaur (found in 2010 in Argentina), the largest known dinosaur at 70 tons, 37m, 2016

Chinese scientists confirm that they have germinated a cotton seed on the moon on board the Chang’e 4 lander, 2019