Getting To Be a Lot, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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The closer the holidays get, the more i find i have to keep a list through the week, or i forget.  Not that i forget to be thankful, mind you, i just forget the individual incidents i'm thankful for and want to list if i don't write them down somewhere.

Last Saturday, Grandma put her most favorite very soft peppermint candies on the grocery list, but we could not find them at the store where we shop.

Sunday morning, i went to take care of Becca so her mother could sing in the special Christmas program (Sweetie was in it, too).  Becca was not happy about taking her meds, i am thankful i brought my own vitamins and so she and i took our "meds" together.

 Then she and i went to run a couple of errands.  First, i hunted those candies for Grandma and found them at Walgreens.

Becca had said, the previous week, that she wanted us to make spaghetti together.  Our second errand was a run to the grocery to buy pasta sauce, spaghetti, and garlic bread so she and i could surprise her mother with lunch when she got home from church.

We took Mr. Cal for a walk when we got back, and Mr. Cal has a particular habit of leaving a deposit for his walker to pick up twice while on his rounds.  First i was thankful that i found a garbage can by the pond bridge (it was half full of similar bags!) so i wouldn't have to carry it all of the way back to the house.

Then i was thankful i'd brought more than two baggies when he presented me with another deposit on the way home.  He gave me a sideways glance as if to say, "and you thought you wouldn't have to carry any home!"

This led me to thinking of what a dog would say out on a walk, and putting it in poetry form, and i'm thankful for the poetry hops because i would never have thought such a thing if they didn't exist.

Mail is a contentious subject with many right now, although that doesn't stop me from being glad when we do get ours.  This week we got an envelope from the mortgage company, and i figured it was some of the usual they send us each month.  Imagine our surprise and thanks when we opened it up and they were sending us a check!

Several years ago, we had one of those home warranties, and that company has had to refund money to clients.  Since we paid the monthly premium on the warranty through the mortgage company, that's how the money came back to us.  It's not a huge amount, but it's enough to be a big help this time of year.

Sweetie has worked like crazy for The Big Boss this week, and has been rewarded.  One night the boss told him to buy me a nice supper, so he ordered something and got it and we had a very nice meal.

Last week i started trying to get my Angel Tree child's mom on the phone.  She finally called me back, and i am thankful as we chatted and got straight what he would like.

Then Wednesday, while i was at the store buying safety pins for Ms. S (and dreading the trip, i might add), i wandered over to the electronics department.  Not only was there a nice gentleman who worked in that department right by the games, he knew what a 16-year-old boy would enjoy that was not violent and did not involve fighting, and they had one of that particular game left, and it was in budget, and that's more thankfuls squeezed out of one trip to the store than i believe i've ever gotten before.

Bonus, Ms. S's debit card worked at the store.  We've had our doubts about that card since her son cancelled the credit card, we weren't sure if he did the debit card, too.  He didn't, and i'm thankful as i don't have to try to take her check to the MallMart.

And a better bonus.  While at Ms. RW's house, she mentioned in passing that her husband was under the weather, and in fact he went back to bed for a while when i was there.  That's most unusual for him.  Of course, my first thought is to wonder if he's been exposed to the virus, but then Ms. RW said he'd just started taking new supplements and she was worried he was taking too much.

He'd had a horrible sleepless night with night sweats, headache, and aching joints.  She asked him how much of the new supplements he was taking, and he said, "The dosage says to take one, but I took two because I'm a big guy."

This worked out to him taking 100mg of zinc per day, when the dose for a healthy adult male is 11mg, with 40mg being the top recommended dose.  The symptoms of zinc overdose?  Sweating (to get the zinc out of your body), headache, aching joints.  Bingo.  He's off the supplements for a few days, and has promised to quite doubling them.

Our Thursday adventure involved the vacuum cleaner at Ms. SE's house finding a spool of ribbon and trying to eat it.  It took two screwdrivers and half an hour of tinkering and taking the whole cleaner apart in places to get the ribbon out from under the belt that turns the beater brush.  Makes me thankful i know how to take a vacuum cleaner apart and that Mr. DE is a contractor and has a ton of tools everywhere.

Yesterday i got to help Mr. BA with a couple of projects, including cooking his famous gumbo, and the shelter was as usual (although it has given me a good story for this coming Monday, stay tuned).

We're thankful to have had Coda for the week, and she's coming with us today to see Lulu.

Altogether, it's been quite a week.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Dyanne and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.   

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Today is:

Build a Snowman Day -- occupy your mind, as Christmas seems too far away still; if you have no snow, make snowball cookies

Chocolate Pizza Day -- yes, really

E-Mail Santa Claus Just in Case He Didn't Get Your Letter Day -- send your emails to northpole.com/Mailroom/

Festival for Juventas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of youth, protector of young soldiers)

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Skyrgamur -- Curd-glutton, who loves skyr (milk curd) so that he sneaks in the pantry to try to get it all

I've Got My Big Fat Guy Pants On Day -- someone tired of tight clothes started this, a day to wear whatever you like, so long as it is comfortable -- and roomy

Look for an Evergreen Day -- although if you haven't bought your tree by now, you may have waited too long

National Hard Candy Day -- this time of year, it probably means candy canes

National Heroes and Heroines Day -- Anguilla

National Oatmeal Muffin Day

Opalia -- Roman Empire (feast of Ops, goddess of abundance; 3rd day of the Saturnalia)

Riddle-Making Trials -- Fairy Calendar

Robinson Crusoe Rescue Day (1686)

St. Bernard Valeara's Day (Patron of Teramo, Italy)

St. Samthann (Samantha) of Meath's Day (Patron of the spiritual life)

United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation -- UN

Anniversary Today:

First radio broadcast from space, a Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower, 1958

Birthdays Today:

Jake Gyllenhall, 1980

Alyssa Milano, 1972

Tyson Beckford, 1971

Amy Locane, 1971

Kristy Swanson, 1969

Criss Angel, 1967

Jessica Steen, 1965

Jennifer Beals, 1963

Kevin Edward McHale, 1957

Janie Fricke, 1952

Robert Urich, 1946

Richard Leakey, 1944

Alvin Lee, 1944

Tim Reid, 1944

Cicely Tyson, 1939

Al Kaline, 1934

David Susskind, 1920

Leonid Brezhnev, 1906

Ralph Richardson, 1902

Carter Godwin Woodson, 1875

Minnie Maddern Fiske, 1865

Mary Ashton Livermore, 1821

William Edward Parry, 1790

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Titanic(Film), 1997

The Man with the Golden Gun(Film), 1974

"Homecoming A Christmas Story"(TV introduction of "The Waltons"), 1971

"The Music Man"(Musical), 1957

"A Christmas Carol"(publication date), 1843

"American Crisis"(publication date of the Thomas Paine essay in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls."), 1776

"Poor Richard's Almanack" (publication of first issue by Benjamin Franklin), 1732

Today in History:

Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor, 324

The Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad, 1055

The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States, 1606

The Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut colonies combine forces and attach the Great Swamp Fort of the Narragansetts during King Philip's War, 1675

Benjamin Franklin, under the name Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack", 1732

Thomas Paine publishes his first "American Crisis" essay, in which he wrote that "These are the times that try men's souls," 1776

Chinese troops occupy the capital Thang Long Vietnam, 1788

The US state of Kentucky becomes the first to appropriate money for road building, 1795

The US state of Georgia becomes the first to pass a birth registration law, 1823

Allen Wilson of Connecticut patents a sewing machine that can sew a curved seam, 1854

Albert L. Jones patents corrugated cardboard, 1871

The first black US Catholic priest, Charles Uncles, is ordained in Baltimore, 1891

The first city ordinance requiring separate neighborhoods for blacks and whites is passed, in Baltimore, 1910

Robert Ripley begins his "Believe It Or Not" column in the NY Globe, 1918

The British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas, 1932

The US Earth satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, 1958

The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, returns to earth, 1972

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People's Republic of China, in 1997, would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, is signed, 1984

Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky, 1986

A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia, 2001

Russian spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-07M, is launched in Kazakhstan, with cosmonauts Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield and Thomas Marshburn for the ISS Expedition 34 and 35 crews, 2012

The journal Current Biology publishes a study of the earliest fossilized trees ever found, dated to be 386 million years old, discovered at a quarry in Cairo, New York, 2019