Clients Are Fun, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post With Word Counters

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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.  

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: 36

It was submitted by:  yours truly

 

Links to the other Word Counters posts:

Baking In A Tornado                    

On the Border                                  

This week, a few client stories for my word counting.

The other day, Ms. S was sitting in her chair where she can see out the door of her apartment.  It was a pretty day, the sky a deep blue and the trees starting to bud.

Looking up at that sky, she said, "You know, G-d really knew what He was doing when He made the sky blue.  It's such a pretty color up there!  I'm glad He knew to do that!"

Mr. BA has a February birthday, and Ms. GA likes to plan a little road trip for him each year and not tell him what the plans are until they get going out on the road.

The trip was postponed by the ice storm of course, but finally occurred last weekend.  They had a wonderful time, starting by going east, as she didn't want him to guess their final destination too quickly.

He loves the guessing game, but they ran into a road block that wouldn't let them easily get to the first place she wanted to take him, a coffee shop her sister-in-law's nephew owns.

They tried to figure another route -- have you ever tried to go anywhere by back roads with a GPS that wants you on the interstate?  You need a paper map, but Mr BA doesn't keep maps.

When they finally arrived at the small town in north Louisiana that is often a local tourist destination, they checked into a beautiful B&B and had a great time eating, relaxing, and exploring the old town.

The best part, according to Mr. BA, was that they found a real, honest to goodness hardware store!  Two floors, family owned for over 100 years, and they had the shovel pins he's searched for everywhere.

They spent part of a morning exploring the store, and he got all kinds of things he'd been wanting and couldn't find anywhere else.  There's nothing like a hardware store that smells like a hardware store.

Yesterday Carl walked up to me, handed me an opened packet of pink salmon and said, "I need a lunch!"  That, of course, is my cue to go in the kitchen and make it for him.

First, you toast the bread for exactly thirty seconds.  Then the salmon goes in a plasticware container with exactly seven capers (no more, no less), a splash of caper juice, and one heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise.

The lettuce must be washed and dried, as it goes on the bread slices directly to keep the mayo from the salmon salad from making the bread mushy.  Don't forget to cut it in half, please.

Put the whole sandwich in a plastic baggie, and put the remaining salmon salad in the fridge for another day.  Leave it where he can find it as he's putting everything into his lunch box.

Then watch as he packs something else (different sandwich) in that lunch box.  It's okay, now at least he has plenty of salmon salad for the week ahead, and i get paid by the hour anyway.

 Okay, how about some of the fun stuff Grandma sends me to round out this random and happy post.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog -- can't confirm the exact date, but Sparky became an official fire prevention mascot in Mar. 1951

Curlew Day -- Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge, OR, US (traditional date the long-billed curlew arrives, with up to 500 reported during their nesting season)

Day of the Book Smugglers -- Lithuania (recognizing the brave people who smuggled Lithuanian language books in the Latin alphabet into the country from 1866-1904, when the Russian Empire had banned such books)

Day After Dumbstruck Day -- Fairy Calendar

Elaphebolia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Artemis; date approximate)

Everything You Do is Right Day -- another internet generated holiday designed to get you into trouble if you aren't careful

Feast of Heru and His Companions -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Bacchus / Bacchanalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (through tomorrow)

Freedom of Information Day -- on the birthday of James Madison, Father of the US Constitution and an advocate for openness in government

Latvian Legion Day -- Latvia (no longer a formal national holiday, still celebrated by many in the region)

Lips Appreciation Day -- after all, where would you be without them, and how would you give kisses?  sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Artichoke Hearts Day

St. Heribert of Cologne's Day (Patron against drought)

St. Urho's Day -- Finnish communities in Canada and the US (a made up saint, the Finns answer to St. Patrick, who supposedly drove the grasshoppers out of Finland)

Anniversary Today:

The United States Military Academy at West Point is established, 1802

Birthdays Today:

Judah Friedlander, 1969

Lauren Graham, 1969

Kevin Tod Smith, 1963

Isabel Huppert, 1955

Alice Hoffman, 1952

Kate Nelligan, 1951

Erik Estrada, 1949

Victor Garber, 1949

Chuck Woolery, 1942

Bernardo Bertolucci, 1940

Jerry Lewis, 1926

Mercedes McCambridge, 1916

Patricia Nixon, 1912

Henny Youngman, 1906

Rosa Bonheur, 1822

Georg Simon Ohm, 1787

James Madison, 1751

George Clymer, 1739

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Gumby Show"(TV), 1957

"1776"(Musical), 1969

"Der Unbestechliche"(Comedy), 1923

"In the South / Alassio"(Elgar, Op. 50), 1904

"Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen"(Mahler Song cycle), 1896

"Thaïs"(Opera), 1894

"Freedom's Journal"(first African American newspaper in the US, in New York), 1827

Today in History:

The Babylonians capture Jerusalem and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king, BC597

Caligula becomes Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius, 37

The Jews of York England commit mass suicide rather than submit to baptism, 1190

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches Philippines, 1521

Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset," 1621

The US Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point, 1802

Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in The Netherlands, 1815

New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded), 1830

Susan Hayhurst becomes the first woman to graduate from a pharmacollogy college, 1830

Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, 1861

Joseph Lister's article outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery is published in The Lancet, 1867

Hiram R Revels makes the first official speech by an African American in the US Senate, 1869

The Barnum and Bailey Circus debuts, 1881

Sir Arthur Evans discovers the ancient city of Knossus, 1900

Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts, 1926

The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding, 1958

Gemini 8 is launched, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle, 1968

General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado, 1968

Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany, 1983

Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he will be held for 6 1/2 years, 1985

Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust, 1998

Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control, 2005

Voters in Crimea vote overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia amid international condemnation of its design, 2014

Apple announces it will begin a web TV service in September, carrying 25 channels and including networks like CBS, Fox, and ABC, and costing less than most cable TV packages, 2014

A beached, dead whale in Mabini, Philippines, is found to have 88 pounds of plastic inside it, including 40 pounds of plastic bags, 2019

Global numbers of cases and deaths from Covid19 overtake the numbers in China for the first time, 2020