Gum and Phones and Funnies, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Carl had a day off yesterday, so when i went in to get started, he wasn’t feeling it.  He moved to his favorite recliner in the big living room and kept on snoozing.  He loves to sleep almost as much as he loves to eat.

When he did finally get up, he asked for help with his car, so out we went.

Carl likes to chew gum.  Unfortunately, his propensity to not tidy up after himself makes for gum in odd places.   The last few weeks, i’ve gotten it out of the center console, where an ash tray would be if cars came with ash trays any longer.  His mother got onto him about that, so now it’s ending up elsewhere.  After i dug out what i could, i told Ms. V about a website that sells car accessories, and suggested a garbage can for his car.  She is seriously considering it, as she’s tired of having to scrape the gum out with a flat edge of a tool.

Mr. Jack kept following me this afternoon as i cleaned, and finally he said, “Well I think you do a great job, but I’m just an old coot!”  At that, i smiled and told him there was nothing wrong with being exactly who he is, and he said, “You’re right, if you can live long enough to be one!”

Ms. PA has had terrible trouble with her landline phone, and it is out again.  She was worried i would call and get a busy signal and not know whether to go to her house.  When i got there i told her not to worry, i had her mobile phone number, and i gave her mine again.  Then i grabbed her phone and put my number in it.  She was surprised that i knew how to do that.  Yep, i can still work one of those flip phones with the extra big numbers, but i won’t quit my day job.

Part of today’s post is also a writing challenge. This is how it works: one of the contributing bloggers picked a number between 12 and 74. The submitted number is a challenge to participating bloggers to write at least one piece using that exact number of words. 

This month, the word count number is: 28

It was submitted by:  Diane

 

Links to the other Word Counters posts:

Baking In A Tornado                    

On the Border                           

#2 Son bought a motorcycle a while back, and of course, with the usual consequences.  No matter how careful you are, the other guy is not.  Not careful.

He’d been riding for about a month when the inevitable happened.  Someone pulled in front of him, and he couldn’t stop.  They hit him and sent him skidding.

When he stopped skidding, he stood up, looked at the other driver, and the guy gunned it and fled the scene.  No cameras in the area, of course.

He called the police, but of course they could not do anything.  He rented a U-haul to get it to the shop, said it was cheaper than towing.

His only injuries, thank heaven, are his scrapes and bruises, a broken little toe on his right foot, and the cost of motorcycle repairs.  Please watch for motorcycles!

(Edited to add:  This part of my post, the Word Counters part, got left out completely by accident.  This is what happens when you use two different notepads on your tablet to compose a post, then go to a meeting in the middle of writing it all up, then forget when you get home to check that second notepad.  Karen, please forgive me, i will triple check myself next time, i promise!)

Now it’s time for the stuff Grandma forwards to me:

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Army Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

Coping With Uncertainty Day -- of uncertain origin, as it should be

Deepavali/Diwali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (fourth day of the festival)

     Goru Tihar/Goru Puja -- Day of Oxen (among most people)

     Gobardhan Puja -- Day of Cowdung (among followers of Krishna)

     Mha Puja -- Day of Self (among the Newar community)

Electronic Greeting Card Day -- internet generated, and of course probably started by the electronic greeting card websites

Homemade Bread Day -- use the bread machine, it's fun and easy, i promise!  sponsored by the Homemade Bread Day Committee of Ann Arbor, MI, US

International Students Day -- International (meant to celebrate all students around the world, not specifically students studying in countries other than their own; anniversary of the Nazi storming and closing of the University of Prague)

John Peter Zenger Day -- marking his arrest in 1734 for libel; he continued to edit his newspaper from jail and was acquitted, an early victory for freedom of the press

National Baklava Day

National Entrepreneurs Day -- US (by Congressional designation)

National Farm Joke Day

National Unfriend Day -- all those people on Facebook you regret accepting as friends?  Jimmy Kimmel suggests you unfriend them today!

Polytechneio -- Greece (anniversary of the 1973 student protests against the junta)

Presidents' Day -- Marshall Islands

Public Restroom Hand Dryer Appreciation Day -- internet generated, and why?  they've been proven less sanitary, blowing germs everywhere; i will not appreciate this one

School Pride Day -- US (always on the Tuesday of American Education Week)

Shogi Day -- Japan (celebrating shogi, a chess-like game)

St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Day (Patron of bakers, beggars, brides, charitable societies, charitable workers, countesses, exiles, falsely accused people, hoboes, homeless people, hospitals, lace makers/lace workers, nursing homes, nursing services, people in exile, people ridiculed for their piety, tertiaries, tramps, widows; Sisters of Mercy; Teutonic Knights; Erfurt, Germany; Jaro, Philippines; against in-law problems, the death of children, toothache)

St. Hilda's Day (Patron of learning and culture)

St. Hugh of Lincoln's Day (Patron of sick children, sick people, swans)

Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day -- Czech Republic; Slovakia

Take A Hike Day -- internet generated, and some websites say it's actually "Tell Your Boss to Take a Hike Day", but i don't recommend that unless you've recently inherited a fortune or won the Lotto

Winter Welcome Quadrilles and Dainty-Sixes -- Fairy Calendar

World Prematurity Day -- International (raising awareness about premature birth, the leading cause of newborn death each year, and what can be done to prevent it)  

Birthdays Today:

Isaac Hanson, 1980

Laura Wilkinson, 1977

Matthew Settle, 1969

Daisy Fuentes, 1966

Sophie Marceau, 1966

Dylan Walsh, 1963

RuPaul, 1960

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, 1958

Danny DeVito, 1944

Lauren Hutton, 1944

Lorne Michaels, 1944

Tom Seaver, 1944

Lauren Hutton, 1943

Martin Scorsese, 1942

Gordon Lightfoot, 1938

Rock Hudson, 1925

Sichiro Honda, 1906

Lee Strassberg, 1901

Bernard Law Montgomery, 1887

August Mobius, 1790

John Peter Zenger, 1734

Atahualpa, last Emperor of the Inca, 1502

Flavius Claudius Julianus, Roman Emperor, 331

Vespian, Roman Emperor, 9

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sunset Boulevard"(Musical), 1994

"Rumors"(Simon play), 1988

"The Elephant Man"(Play), 1977

"The Sorcerer"(Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera), 1877

"Andromaque"(Racine tragedy), 1667

Today in History:

Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers, 284

England and Spain sign an anti-French covenant/treaty, 1511

Elizabeth I ascends the English throne, 1558

France and Spain sign the Peace of the Pyrenees treaty, 1659

The Church of England organizes in New England, 1785

Congress holds its first session in the still incomplete Capitol Building of Washington, D.C., 1800

The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York, 1827

Ecuador and Venezuela separate from Greater Colombia, 1831

Street signs are first authorized at San Francisco intersections, 1853

David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, 1855

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow, 1876

Japan and Korea sign The Eulsa Treaty, 1905

The first US dental hygienist course is formed, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1913

US declares the Panama Canal Zone to be neutral, 1914

Lenin defends the "temporary" removal of freedom of the press, 1917

American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century, 1947

Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse, 1970

In Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution that would overthrow the communist government begins when student protests in Prague are quelled by riot police, 1989

Brian May of the rock band Queen was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, 2007

In Sweden, divers find the wreckage of the Svardet, a warship sunk in 1676 during the Battle of Oland, 2011

The Church of England adopts legislation enabling the appointment of female bishops, 2014

A smaller pyramid found within 2 known Kukulkan "nesting" pyramids dating from 550-580 AD is announced at Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico, 2016