Cézanne, Birds and Dog-Sitting, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

 ***********************************

Well, look at this, we've gone and gotten to Thankful Day again.  This was a week where i had to keep the calendar near, and i'm thankful to have a calendar.

Grandpa, i am thankful to say, is back to going over the "what to do" files in his office, and i am taking notes.  The most important files are the funeral plan (he's got all the details done and paid for!) and the will.  If anything ever happens, at least we are as prepared as you can be.

This past Monday was our Civic Association meeting.  Attendees spread out all over the sanctuary of the Baptist church across the highway, making sure we stayed apart.  A good many people got in on the meeting via Zoom, including the Mayor, who had some very nice things to say.

We're thankful for a nice neighborhood, and nice association, and the shortest meeting we've ever had.

Some very good friends from church moved away, and while we're sad to see them go, we're thankful for their wonderful contributions to our music program over the years.

They have moved to Dallas to be near all of the children and grandchildren, and they hired me to do the final clean-out on the apartment.  Tuesday after i got through with Ms. RW and Ms. S, i went over and dusted the blinds and walls, cleaned baseboards, the two bathtubs and vanities, wiped out the ash from the self-cleaning oven's self-clean cycle, and wiped down the kitchen.

While i was there, i joined our church ladies' circle Zoom meeting, listening in and cleaning at the same time and it was a blessing and a big thankful thing.

Here i also have to insert that at Ms. RW's house, her husband, who is now on hospice care, he's going down fast.  They are having a difficult time controlling his pain.  The good news is that when the pain is under control, he's almost like his old self for a bit.  When i left, he was sitting on the front porch, smiling and lighting one of his cigars.  (Mr. BA, one of his best friends, told me that another friend brought them a fried chicken dinner, and Mr. RW laughed and said, "The good thing is, I can eat   anything I want now!")

Wednesday, after finishing with Ms. G and Ms. S, i went back to the apartment.  Ms. GA had loaned me the old, old vacuum cleaner (think metal parts old, 1980's old), and when i accidentally went over a screw that had fallen on the floor, i did not kill the poor thing because i stopped it right away and got it dislodged.  As old as it is, it did the job, and i am thankful as it was a shag carpet (yes, really) and the vacuum had a setting for that.  (Yes, the complex is renovating, but this apartment won't get done for a bit yet.)

Little Girl texted me that night to ask if we could keep Coda starting the next morning, as her friend had to bow out last minute (he's also military reserves, and got a sudden assignment).  We're always thankful to have Coda, and now we get to take her to see Lulu.

Thursday was office and Ms. SE day, followed by going back to the apartment so Sweetie could help me asses if i'd gotten the place clean enough and figure out how to get some things home.  When they moved out, the couple left behind some items that the full truck just could not hold, a beautifully framed Cézanne print, and two porch chairs.  They also left more food in the fridge than you could shake a stick at.

We packed up some of the food, and made arrangements to borrow The Big Boss' truck to move the chairs, we are thankful he will let us do that.

As we were heading to the apartment, i texted Becca's mom to see what time she needed me to babysit that night.  She texted back that on Tuesday they were exposed to Covid19 through her father, so they are in quarantine until Feb. 6.  Now we just hope none of them get it, they don't need that on their plates, too.

Friday i finished up Ms. GA's house and headed over to see Ms. S, who was in a bad way.  She could hardly walk, was shaking although not with cold, and had spilled her entire pill minder for the rest of the week.

She said she wanted to get back into bed, and i told her that as weak as she was, i did not think i could get her into that ridiculously tall bed that she has to use a stool to get into, and still has to hoist herself in with great difficulty.  She has a lift chair/recliner now, purchased from my other client, Ms. JAI, who wants a leather version for herself and so sold this one for a good price.

Her response to the suggestion to get in the chair was, "I don't want to mess it up!"  When i pointed out that i had two waterproof pads on it, she agreed and we got her settled there much more easily than if she'd continued to insist on trying to climb into bed.  Waterproof pads are a big thankful right now.

Once i got her straight, with lunch in her and the place tidied, i went back to the apartment to pack up the fridge/freezer while Sweetie went to get the truck.  The food and chairs came home with him, then he returned the truck while i went to the shelter.

When i got home, i was very thankful to see the porch chairs, they give us another place to sit besides the porch swing, which will only hold two.  Now we can have two more out there.

Also i am thankful i managed to get all of the food in the fridge/freezer.

One last bit of fun, a bird flew into Ms. S's apartment this week, and we played havoc trying to get it to fly out, which it eventually did.  My feather duster came in handy for bird shoo-ing, another reason to be thankful for good quality feather dusters.

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.   

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

Today is:

Cash Register Day -- James Ritty and John Birch were granted a patent on this day in 1883 for an early mechanical cash register

Congressional Brawl Day -- marking the first ever all out brawl in the US Congress in 1798

Draw A Dinosaur Day -- and post it to the web site   

Feast of King Charles the Martyr -- Anglican

Fred Korematsu Day -- US (honoring the civil rights activist who protested the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII) 

Inane Answering Message Day -- the day to change those annoying messages, sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

King's Birthday -- Jordan

Martyrs' Day -- India (assassination anniversary of Gandhi)

National Croissant Day

National Storytelling Week -- UK (the Society for Storytelling encourages you to celebrate one of the most ancient art forms; through Feb. 6)  

Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Peace)

Puce and Ochre Day -- Fairy Calendar

School Day of Nonviolence and Peace -- sponsored by DENIP

St. Aldegund's Day (Patron of cancer patients; against cancer, childhood diseases, sudden death, wounds)

St. Bathilde's Day (Patron of children, sick people, widows; against bodily ills and sickness)

St. Martina of Rome's Day (Patron of nursing mothers; Rome, Italy)

Three Archbishops' Day -- Eastern Orthodox (a/k/a Holy Hierarchs' Day)

Yodel For Your Neighbors Day -- begun by a neighbor hater, perhaps?

Birthdays Today:

Johnathan Lee Iverson, 1976

Christian Bale, 1974

Brett Butler, 1958

Phil Collins, 1951

Charles Dutton, 1951

Steve Marriott, 1947

Marty Balin, 1942

Dick Cheney, 1941

Vanessa Redgrave, 1937

Boris spassky, 1937

Tammy Grimes, 1934

Louis Ruckeyser, 1933

Gene Hackman, 1930

Dorothy Malone, 1925

Dick Martin, 1922

Barbara W. Tuchman, 1912

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882

Isaiah Thomas, 1749

Thomas Rolfe, 1615 (Only child of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Yogi Bear Show"(TV), 1958

"Robert Montgomery Presents"(TV), 1950

"City Lights"(Chaplin Movie), 1931

Today in History:

The Jews of Freiburg, Germany, are massacred, 1349

King Charles I of England is beheaded, 1649

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed after having been dead for two years, 1661

The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, 1703

Henry Greathead tests the first boat intended to be specialized as a lifeboat for rescue purposes, which he invented, on the River Tyne in England, 1790

The burned Library of Congress is reestablished, with Thomas Jefferson contributing, 1815

Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica, 1820

The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened, 1826

A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 1841

The city of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco, for the nearby mission of the same name, 1847

William Wells Brown publishes the first Black drama, "Leap to Freedom," 1858

The US Navy's first ironclad warship, the Monitor, is launched, 1862

The pneumatic hammer is patented by Charles King of Detroit, 1894

The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy, 1911

The House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill, 1913

"The Lone Ranger" begins a 21 year run on ABC radio, 1933

Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Pandit Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist, 1948

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956

The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police, 1969

Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide, 1971

Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations, 1972

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary, 1975

Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner", 1982

Peter Leko of Hungary becomes the world's youngest chess grand master at age 14, 1994

Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease, 1995

Over half a million people participate in the world's largest wildlife survey after extreme cold drives exotic birds into Britain's back gardens, 2011

Peter Paul Rubens’s 1608 drawing, "Nude Study of Young Man with Raised Arms," sells for $8.2 million at auction in New York, 2019

The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva, 2020