Thankful Miscellany, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Ah, Thankful Day.  This week, i am not slamming into it at quite such a break neck speed, but it certainly doesn’t mean i am any less busy.

Indeed, i am staying generally 3-4 days behind on everyone’s blogs, and at the rate at which i am working extra long days, i should catch up by the next millennium.  At least i can be thankful that i never run out of reading material.

Bigger Girl’s car, Bessie Low-Key is still running even after the accident, and we are thankful.  After all, she will be moving soon and plans to sell it to #1 Son, who has been without wheels for a while.

We are thankful, too, that the accident, as these things go, was not very bad, all the damage to both cars was cosmetic.

As the nice gentleman driving the other car kept reassuring Bigger Girl not to worry, “That’s why it’s called an accident, if you could have prevented it, you would have!”  His attitude is refreshing, and i am thankful for that.

Bigger Girl has changed her moving date, and i am thankful because it means she will not be driving after that.  As much as i love that child i will be so glad when i do not have to worry about her driving any more.

It’s a wonderful, thankful thing to have clients who send you jokes, as Ms. R does.

Ms. G ended up being out of town Wednesday, so i was able to give extra attention to Ms. S, who needed it.  The housekeeping service did not come this week, so i am thankful i was able to do things for her and make up the difference on the clean-up front.

Thursday, we were thankful that not only were we able to go clean the office again (it’s been two months since they have allowed anyone but the three staff members in), but Ms. SE and her family were all busy and not there so we were able o concentrate and not have to clean around the children, who love to help.  (That term, help, is used loosely.)

Yesterday i showed up to the shelter and two lovely young ladies were there looking to adopt a kitten for their distraught mother.  Her precious cat, raised indoors and not supposed to go outside, was constantly escaping to run to the woods and have adventures.  They had managed to keep it in for a couple of months straight when it taught itself to open the front door and dashed out before anyone could stop it.  That was two weeks ago, and the whole family is sad.

The girls decided to adopt a kitten for mom, and if the other cat comes back, great, there will be two cats.  They chose Frodo, a beautiful solid gray boy who seems very laid back and not like one that will try to become a Houdini cat.  We are very thankful Frodo has a home, and hope he gives his new mom comfort.

Today i am thankful to be going to NOLA for cleaning Grandma and Grandpa’s house again.  She likes that i am consistent, and he tolerates it that i show up and do it (and no longer tries to forbid me from going in his room).

Happy Independence Day to all who celebrate!  Be thankful along with me that you are free to celebrate the way you choose.

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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Click here to enter

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Today is:

Buffalo Bill Day -- he staged his first Wild West show on July 4, 1883

Build a Scarecrow Day -- keep the crows out of that field of freshly growing corn out on the back 40!

Bullion's Day -- Anglican tradition, the translation of the relics of St. Martin of Bullion; rain today means rain for the next 20 days, according to the legends

Day of Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Earth at Aphelion -- @12:34 UTC (Earth at its furthest distance from the sun)

Filipino-American Friendship Day -- Philippines; U.S.

Garibaldi Day -- Italy

Hop A Park Day -- US (several years ago the Colleyville, Texas, Park and Recreation Commission started this celebration on the first Saturday of July, which is National Parks and Recreation Month; go visit a park today, or make plans to do it soon!)

Independence Day -- US and Territories(1776)

Independence from Meat Day -- don't be a slave to tradition! sponsored by Vegetarian Awareness Network

International Day of Cooperatives -- U.N. (theme: Cooperatives for Climate Action)

Jumping on the Mattress Night -- Fairy Calendar

King Tupou VI's Birthday -- Tonga

Liberation Day -- Rwanda

National Barbecue Spareribs Day

National Country Music Day -- US

Old Midsummer Eve -- by the Julian Calendar

Sidewalk Egg Frying Day -- you can do this anywhere that it's hot enough, but for the real deal, plan to go to the Solar Egg Frying Contest next  year on July 4 on old Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, US, where the rule is you must use solar heat only

St. Elizabeth of Portugal's Day (Patron of brides, charitable societies, charity workers, charities, difficult marriages, falsely accused people, peace, queens, tertiaries, victims of adultery, victims of jealousy, victims of unfaithfulness, widows; invoked in time of war; Coimbra, Portugal)

St. Ulrich's Day (Patron of peaceful deaths, pregnant women, weavers; Augsburg, Germany; Creazzo, Italy; against birth complications, dizziness, faintness, fever, frenzy, mice, moles, vertigo)

Anniversaries Today

Tuskegee Institute opens, 1881

Birthdays Today

Becky Newton, 1978

Koko, 1971 (gorilla who spoke sign language) 

Pamela Howard "Pam" Shriver, 1962

Signy Coleman, 1960

Geraldo Rivera, 1943

George Steinbrenner, 1930

Al Davis, 1929

Gina Lollobrigida, 1927

Neil Simon, 1927

Eva Marie Saint, 1924

Ann Landers, 1918

Abigail Van Buren, 1918

Mitch Miller, 1911

Gloria Stuart, 1910

George Murphy, 1902

Rube Goldberg, 1883

Louis B. Mayer, 1882

George M. Cohan, 1878

Calvin Coolidge, 1872

Stephen Foster, 1826

Hiram Walker, 1816

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"American Top 40"(Radio), 1970

"Honky Tonk Women"(Single release), 1969

"America the Beautiful"(Publication date), 1895

Today in History

A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star Tauri; for several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day, and its remnants form the Crab Nebula, 1054

Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye, 1534

The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (Quebec, Canada), 1634

City of Providence, Rhode Island forms, 1636

The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress, 1776

The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, opens, 1802

The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American public, 1803

Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York, 1817

The world's first long-distance railway, the Grand Junction Railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool, 1837

The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end, 1840

Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, 1845

The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published, 1855

Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, 1862*

The Anglo-Zulu war ends, 1879

The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States, 1886

The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia, 1886

Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4, 1892

The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, 1894

Dorothy Levitt was reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race', 1903

African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States, 1910

First flight of the Lockheed Vega, 1927

Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball, 1939

After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States, 1946

The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe, 1950

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law, 1966

NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars, 1997

The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1, 2005

The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks, 2009

Discovery of a picture of the Biblical Samson and a Hebrew inscription in an ancient synagogue in the Galilee region of northern Israel is announced, 2012

Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announce the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson, 2012

Unesco grants World Heritage Status to vineyards in Champagne, France along with Singapore's Botanical Gardens, Diyarbakir Fortress (Turkey) and Maymand Caves (Iran), 2015

NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully enters Jupiter's orbit, 2016

North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan, 2017

Chinese technology company Baidu announces it has begun mass production of self-driving buses, the 14-seat Apolong, 2018