It Keeps Getting Better, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Most weeks, i hit Thankful Day with a "whew, what a week!" and this week was no different.

A big thank you, first, to all whose blogs i try to read, for being patient when i get behind.  Usually, i do get caught up eventually.

Last Saturday, when driving in from NOLA, #1 Son called to ask if i was home just as i was pulling in to the neighborhood.  Impeccable timing, so i won't peck at it, just be thankful for it.

Sunday was a bit different.  Becca's mother was not singing in the choir, so she decided to try to bring Becca to church, and i was there as back-up.  Becca did not do very well and was starting to get upset, so i offered to take her out for a treat.  She didn't want that, so her mother took her home.

While it didn't quite work as we had hoped, i am thankful i was able to stay there with Becca's sister so she could enjoy the service and go to Sunday school, then i took her home afterward.

Most days, the traffic around here is best described as difficult, but there is usually a moment, or a five minute window, somewhere between 4-5pm when for some reason there's a break.  It's almost as if everyone decides to get out on the road at once, but if you happen to be the one who leaves just a few minutes before that, you miss hitting that wall.  It's never at the exact same time every day, either.

By the time i get to Ms. S on Monday, she's my 3rd person of the day and the chances of me slipping into that tiny window before the traffic builds is slim to none, but it happened this week and i got home lickety-split.  When it happens, i am thankful indeed.

We got word this week that #2 Son, who just got promoted to assistant manager of his restaurant a few weeks ago, is now general manager and running the store.  The former GM got moved to a different place, and he got his second promotion in as many months.  He's thrilled and so are we.

Our prayer group is glad that our green postcards are back.  We send postcards telling people we've prayed for them (we send one to the President every week and they've done that since Clinton, not going to stop now).  The postcards have always been green, but the last time the secretary of the church printed some up for us, she must have been out of the green paper because we got blue cards.

This time when we requested more cards, Mr. BA specifically asked for our green ones back, and we got them.  As MS. GA says, we just don't like change!

Ms. S has trouble walking, and there were spots on her floor and carpet where linoleum was coming up or the carpet had worn totally through that were trip hazards.  The place on the door that has a sharp edge that cut her foot has not been tended, even though she's reported it over and over.

This week, a couple of very nice gentlemen showed up who were replacing carpet in an empty unit in the complex.  They looked at her situation and went to work.  First, they took a piece of carpet from the other unit that had been in the back of the closet there and was in excellent shape and replaced the worn spot by her front door that actually had the carpet tacks poking through.

Then they took a strip of linoleum that matched and replaced the corner that had peeled up right in the door of the bathroom, this even though linoleum work is not what they usually do.

Finally, one of them worked on the door edge and saw how dangerous it is.  We've reported it and reported it, and i think the people who work there didn't believe it was serious.  He went and made a report about it, telling them that he had hammered in a sharp edge and that it was better, but still a danger.

These two workmen did a fabulous job, put everything back in place that they'd moved, swept up and cleaned up, and even took the trash out to the dumpster for me when they saw i was about to do it.  Workers like that are worth their weight in gold.

We're thankful those trip hazards are gone, and hopeful that someone from the outside reporting that door situation will get the attention of maintenance at the complex, too.

The shelter was the usual joyful place this week.  Last week i told about a beautiful cat that had to be surrendered because the owner was suddenly called out of the country, and the nice lady who came in and filled out the papers to adopt it.  

This week, that lady came back to bring the cat home.  She was telling me everything she had ordered from Chewy, from litter box and litter to bowls and toys and a bed and even a deluxe scratching post.  Once that sweetheart gets used to his new home, he's going to be living the life.

Another thankful thing is how sometimes funny things happen.  For example, there were two orange tabby kittens that were named Colby and Jack.  Then someone noticed that Jack is really Jackie!  Most orange tabbies are boys, and somebody didn't look hard enough, i guess.

Our best thankful this week goes to Ms. RW.  Last year, she very kindly loaned us her vehicle so we wouldn't have to rent a car to go on our jaunt to Florida.  As she told us then, if she needed to go anywhere, her husband could take her.

Things have changed in that house, though, and Mr. RW passed away earlier this year.  Her daughter had borrowed his truck, but brought it back, and Ms. RW told me she was going to sell the truck, give her old car to her sister, and buy herself a new one.

Then she turned to me and said, "This year, when you go on your Florida vacation, you and your husband will be borrowing my new car!"

To say i was flummoxed is an understatement.  We had not planned to ask to borrow her car, as we knew she lives alone now and there's no way we want to leave her home for a week with no transportation.

When i told her that, and that we were saving up to rent a car, she said, "My neighbor runs errands with me, I have two retired sisters who will drop everything and give me a ride if I need it, I have a daughter who will give me a ride if I need it, and two of my best friends from our church live within a block of me.  I have so many people I can call if I need to go somewhere!  No, you're not going to rent a car, you are going to borrow my new car this year, and I'll be fine."

Sometimes, you just do as you are told, and this is one of those times. 

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:

Armed Forces Day -- Myanmar

Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Viewing and Celebrations begin -- Japan (the festivities get started around now, and vary by region depending on when the trees bloom in that area over the next 6 weeks)

Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Omotesenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)

Commemoration of the Birth of Lao-Tzu -- Taoist (15th day of 2nd lunar month)

Corkscrew Day -- M.L. Byrn of New York patented "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" on this date in 1860

Earth Hour --  8:30pm-9:30pm, your local time; turn off your lights to take a stand against climate change

Lailat al-Bara'ah (Shab Barat) -- Islam (Night of Forgiveness, a preparation for Ramadan; begins at sunset, local custom dates may vary)

National "Joe" Day -- no, it isn't official, but today you can make everyone call you "Joe" if you want, and call them the same; probably started by someone who had no memory for names

National Spanish Paella Day

Pesach/Passover -- Judaism (begins this evening, through the evening of April 4)

Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day -- after all, they do need their own day; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays (check out a few fun titles here) 

St. John Damascene's Day (Patron of pharmacists, icon paiting, theology students)

St. Rupert of Salzburg's Day (Patron of Salzburg; celebrated on the 24th in the rest of the Church)

World Theatre Day

Anniversaries Today:

Mary Pickford marries Douglas Fairbanks, 1920

Birthdays Today:

Brenda Song, 1988

Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, 1975

Nathan Fillion, 1971

Mariah Carey, 1970

Quentin Tarantino, 1963

Xuxa, 1963

Maria Schneider, 1952

Austin Pendleton, 1940

Michael York, 1942

David Janssen, 1931

Anthony Lewis, 1927

Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927

Sarah Vaughan, 1924

Harold Nicholas, 1921

Carl Barks, 1901

Gloria Swanson, 1899

Thorne Smith, 1892

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, 1886

Edward Steichen, 1879

Patty Smith Hill, 1868

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, 1845

Nathaniel Currier, 1813

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Starlight Express"(Rock musical), 1984

"Funky Winkerbean"(Comic strip), 1972

"Singin' in the Rain"(Film), 1952

"La Rondine/The Swallow"(Puccini Opera), 1917

"The Colleen Bawn"(Play), 1860

Today in History:

Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt, BC196

Pope Clement V excommunicates the entire population of Venice, 1309

Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, 1513

The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy, 1613

The dike at Hardinxveld breaks, causing the Alblasserwaard flood, 1709

Spain losses Menorca & Gibraltar, 1713

John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster, precursor to the band-aid, 1848

First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans, 1851

M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew), 1860

The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place, 1871

Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars, 1886

The first Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C., 1912

The first successful blood transfusion takes place in Brussels, 1914

Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, , 1916

Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor, 1931

Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, 1958

The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage, 1964

The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight. 1970

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins, 1975

The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212, 1980

The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours, 1981

The US FDA approves Viagra, 1998

HMS Scylla (F71), a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe, 2004

The UN General Assembly condemns Russia's annexation of Crimea, 2014 

Russia's Soyuz TMA-16M launches to deliver three crew members to the international space station to research the long-term effects of micro gravity, 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi announces the country is now a "space power" after successfully shooting down a satellite from space in a ballistic missile test, 2019