Still Open, Thank Goodness for the A to Z Challenge, a Wordless and Words for Wednesday Post

***********************************

  

To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.     

***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

***********************************

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 Elephant's Child.   

This week's prompts are:

1. Justice,
2. Mark,
3. Game,
4. Sleeping,
5. Rivers,
6. Human.

And/or

“If there was any JUSTICE in the world, we’d all still only travel by way of these beauties!” MARK said in a tone hushed with awe.

He was standing next to a beautiful old locomotive, pointing out things and squealing like a kid when they got to the caboose.

Building his dream model railroad at home wasn’t a GAME to him, it had been serious business.  He’d saved up for a long time to take a cross country trip by rail, and SLEEPING in the sleeper car had been almost impossible for him the first night just from the sheer excitement of being there.

As the train crossed RIVERS and mountains, he’d been glued to the window as much as he possibly could.

Now here at the railroad museum he’d traveled so far to visit, he was in his element, a veritable HUMAN question mark as he asked every person who worked there to tell him everything they could about everything to do with trains.  Much of it he knew, but he also knew there was more to learn, and he wanted to learn as much as he could while there.

One taciturn older man, who had been an engineer on a train in his younger days, had finally climbed up on top of one of the cars to “work on something,” the something being getting away from Mark’s incessant questioning!

When it was finally time to head home, Mark knew he’d come back someday.  His life work might involve engineering of another kind to make his living, but loving the rails would be what gave spice to his life.

***********************************

Today is:

Chemists Celebrate The Earth Day -- promoting public awareness of the important contribution of chemists

Discovery Day -- Brazil (landing of Cabral in 1500)

Earth Day

Festival of Jupiter and Juno -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Girl Scout Leader Appreciation Day -- Girl Scouts of the USA  

Granary Offering to Renenutet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (offering to the Lady of Granaries; date approximate)

International Mother Earth Day -- UN

Lela's Holiday -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (honoring the goddess-daughter, Lela)

National Bookmobile Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

National Jelly Bean Day

Queen Isabella Day -- Spain and some US states (birth anniversary of Isabella I of Castille)

St. Epipodius of Lyon's Day (Patron of bachelors, betrayal victims, torture victims)

Thank Your School Librarian Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

Walpurgis celebrations begin -- through May 1, Norse, Scandinavian, and Germanic celebrations (remembering the sacrifice of Odin upon the World Tree Yggdrasil

    Yggdrasil Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar

Yom HaShoah -- Judaism (Holocaust Remembrance Day; began sunset yesterday, ends at sunset today)

Birthdays Today:

Amber Heard, 1986

Francis Capra, 1983

Daniel Johns, 1979

Kim Elizabeth, 1978

Eric Mabius, 1971

Chris Makepeace, 1964

Byron Allen, 1961

Ryan Stiles, 1959

Peter Frampton, 1950

John Waters, 1946

Jack Nicholson, 1937

Glen Campbell, 1936

Aaron Spelling, 1928

Charlotte Rae, 1926

Yehudi Menuhin, 1916

Eddie Albert, 1906

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, 1891

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, 1870

Immanuel Kant, 1724

Queen Isabella, 1451

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Avengers: Endgame(Film), 2019

"The Who's Tommy"(Rock musical), 1993

"Le Triomphe de Plutus/Money Makes the World Go Round"(Play), 1728

Today in History:

Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil, 1500

President George Washington attends a performance of Rickett's, the first circus in the US, 1793

Thomas Stevens sets out from San Francisco on the first round the world journey by bicycle, 1884

The Oklahoma land rush begins at noon; thousands rush to claim land, and the towns of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed within hours with populations of over 10,000 each, 1889

Pravda begins publication in St. Petersburg, 1912

The Germans begin using poison chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, 1915

British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world, 1969

The first Earth Day is celebrated, 1970

The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is dedicated, 1993

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan's war record, 2005

Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War, 2006

The Pope, Benedict XVI, becomes the first pontiff to participate in a televised interview session, 2011

The Paris Agreement on climate change is signed in New York, 2016