Aired Up, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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First, an aside.  As to brushing my teeth with Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap, the Peppermint one, i started doing that several years ago.  One small bottle of the liquid soap lasts me several years, as you only use a drop, it gets teeth very, very clean, and the very first time i went to Sweetie's dentist he said i had some of the nicest teeth he's seen in a long time.  Once you get used to the taste, it actually grows on you.

There's a first thankful right there, i am thankful to the friend who mentioned several years ago that she uses this soap instead of toothpaste.  It's a great alternative for those who cannot use the conventional dentifrices.

As for the rest of the thankfuls, well, we have to start last Saturday.

Last Saturday, on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house with Coda, i was startled out of countenance to hear a loud dinging in the car, and seeing the light on the dash which indicates that a tire has low pressure.

Of course, it happened in a construction zone on the freeway in the dark and rain before dawn, so i am very thankful that i managed to get to the next exit.

The first gas station at which i stopped told me their air machine was broken, and i am thankful i stopped in to ask before parking by it and trying it and finding that out for myself the hard way.

The next station already had someone at the air machine, and he was getting back in his car in the drizzle, muttering about how you have to have quarters.  That seemed like a good sign to me, i was thankful at least it was working at all.

Pulling up to the machine, i went in to beg for change, as i had plenty, but just not too many quarters and it takes six; i was ready to offer them extra change to simply get quarters.  This is where thankful things pile up.  The nice people said they were going to turn the air on for me free of charge, as they didn't want me to be out there in the rain trying to struggle to pay for enough air.  They had fix-a-flat, which i purchased to have on hand just in case.  Equally thankfully i had the money in the checking account to pay for the fix-a-flat, as i had been paid by Mr. BA.  

When i went back out to try to put the air in, thankful that this particular kind of machine measures the tire pressure for you as i did not have a gauge, the man who had been there before me and left pulled back up behind me and offered to do it for me.  He was quick and efficient, and they had told him he could use the machine free, also.

Thankfully, none of the tires were really that terribly flat.  All of them were just a bit low, one of them one pound lower than the rest, and it was enough to set off the alarm.  The nice gentleman filling my tires reassured me that sometimes tires can lose air when the weather changes, and the weather had gotten much cooler for a couple of days.

Where was Coda all this time?   Thankfully, that very well behaved dog was sitting in the back seat, behaving.  There wasn't a peep out of her with all of my moving the car from place to place, running into and out of the stores at the gas stations, and a strange man running around the car playing with the tires.

The rest of the trip down and back was uneventful, for which i am thankful, and i did not have to mention it to Grandpa.  That's a thankful because he would have insisted on taking the car to the shop to have the tires checked for leaks, which they might not have been able to do last minute on a Saturday, and he would have wanted me to stay until Monday, and it would have been quite the big to-do.  It's nicer when there's no to-do, i am thankful it never had to come to that.

While i was down there, Little Girl called to say she'd come back into town, she was released from her orders.  We are thankful she's back, and Coda is especially thankful as she got to go home with her favorite person.

The rest of the week has been good, we got rain on Wednesday and are thankful it was just enough and not too much.  Our temps were cooler until Friday afternoon when the cloud cover broke, so we were thankful not to be sweltering.

Sweetie is thankful for the chiropractor, i am thankful he's feeling better and can come with me to NOLA today to do the cleaning.

Finally, a really, really odd thankful thing, one i never thought of before.  Just over a month ago, i placed an order online with a vitamin company i'd used several times before with no incident.  This last time, though, they contacted me after they'd shipped the items and said that Paypal had cancelled the payment to them.

It was very odd, but i went ahead and called their toll free number and paid with my debit card.  The whole thing left me wondering why Paypal would do that, i've had no trouble with any such thing before.

Then i got on the vitamin website on Thursday to place an order, and noticed that for my previous order which cost about $35, the amount i paid over the phone, they had tried to bill Paypal $75!  No wonder Paypal wouldn't let it through, i am so glad they didn't.  Thank you, Paypal, for not approving a transaction for so much above what i had agreed to pay.

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:

Bureflux -- Discordian Calendar

Cobweb Pie Making Day -- Fairy Calendar

Dia de la Bandera Nacional -- Ecuador (Day of the National Flag)

Dominion Day -- New Zealand (trad.)

European Day of Languages -- European Union

Fall Astronomy Day -- Bringing Astronomy to the People (local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums and observatories sponsor public viewings, presentation, workshops, etc., to increase public awareness of astronomy and our amazing universe) 

     sponsored by The Astronomical League; find out what your local astronomy society is doing today, and go enjoy

Family Health and Fitness Day USA  

Festival of Venus Genetrix -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Fish Amnesty Day (same as National Hunting and Fishing Day in the US, because it hurts fish to be caught!)

International Rabbit Day -- learn to care for these wonderful pets and promote responsible rabbit ownership   

International Tool Day -- internet generated, now gladly embraced by toolmakers

Johnny Appleseed Day -- birth anniversary of John Chapman

Kiwanis Kids' Day -- local clubs sponsor events for kids on the fourth Saturday of September

Love Note Day -- take pen and paper and send that special someone a love note today, the idea of Leona Hamel of QC, Canada

Mesothelioma Awareness Day -- bringing to light this cancer caused by asbestos exposure 

National Hunting and Fishing Day -- US   

National Pancake Day

National Public Lands Day -- US (Helping Hands for America's Lands -- a day to volunteer on America's Public Lands) 

Old Holy Rood Day -- OS calendar (the day blackberries become unsafe for picking) related observance

     Mid-Autumn Day -- Scottish Highlands (traditional; considered the day harts begin to mate and a weather prognostication day)

Search for Your Baseball Cards Again Day -- on lots of trivia sites; recommended because you never know

September Revolution Day -- Yemen (a/k/a First Revolution Day)

Sts. Cosmas and Damian's Day (Patrons of apothecaries/druggists/pharmacists, barbers, blind people, chemical industry/manufacturers, doctors/physicians/surgeons, hairdressers, midwives, people with hernias; Alberobello, Italy; Ossimo, Italy; against blindness and pestilence) related observance:

     Begin now to lay in supplies for your Michaelmas supper on the 29th

Thimphu Tsechu / Thimphu Drubchen -- Thimphu, Bhutan (three day Drukpa Buddhism tshechu festival, sacred masked dances dedicated to Bhutan's protective spirit which tourists may watch but are strictly prohibited from taking pictures; this is Bhutan's largest tshechu and has been held every year since 1867)

United States Postal Service Day -- US (the first postmaster general under the current constitution, Samuel Osgood, was appointed this day in 1789)

World Contraception Day -- International

Birthdays Today:

Serena Williams, 1981

Lawrence Leritz, 1962

Melissa Sue Anderson, 1962

Linda Hamilton, 1956

Jane Smiley, 1949

Mary Beth Hurt, 1948

Olivia Newton-John, 1948

Lynn Anderson, 1947

Brian Ferry, 1945

Anne Robinson, 1944

Kent McCord, 1942

Julie London, 1926

Jack LaLanne, 1914

George Gershwin, 1898

T.S. Eliot, 1888

Edmund Gwenn, 1877

John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, 1774

St. Francis of Assisi, 1181

Debuting/Premiering Today:

George(Magazine), 1995

"Knight Rider"(TV), 1982

"The Brady Bunch"(TV), 1969

"Hawaii Five-O"(TV), 1968

"Gilligan's Island"(TV), 1964

"The Beverly Hillbillies"(TV), 1962

"West Side Story"(Musical), 1957

"Lucia di Lammermoor"(Opera), 1835

"The Gladiator"(Play), 1831

Today in History:

In keeping a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus, Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix, BC 46

Sir Francis Drake returns to England with Spanish treasure, 1580

In a battle between Venetians and Turks in Athens, the Parthenon and Acropolis are seriously damaged, 1687

New Jersey passes a bill requiring a license to practice medicine, 1772

Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first Secretary of State of the US, 1789

Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren't poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey, 1820

The Diamond Match Company patents book matches, 1892

New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire, 1907

Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations, 1950

Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time, 1973

The United Kingdom agrees to the handover of Hong Kong, 1984

An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse, 1997

Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel, 2008

Georgia changes its second language from Russian to English, 2010

Saudi Arabia announces it is overturning its ban on women driving, the last country in the world to do so, 2017