Silver Linings and Happy Endings, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Ah, Thankful Day.  It's been wet, and a little bit wild.

At the shelter not this past week but the week before, a mama cat with 4-week-old babies was already back in heat and decided she didn't like me giving her food and water.  Another cat bite, another reason to be glad my doctor lets me text him a picture and prescribes the antibiotics without an in person visit.  It's almost healed up.

We are thankful for Coda, she is keeping me on my toes and has learned to actually bring the ball all the way back to me when i throw it so i can throw it again.  We get to keep her only until Tuesday, and will enjoy every moment we can.

Now, for this week.  On Monday, i did the usual, Carl, then Ms. PA, then went to see Ms. S.  My goal was to get home before the rain started, and i am thankful that i did, because once it did start, it came, and it came, and it came, over 13 inches in just a few hours.  (There's been lots of flooding, and one person drowned in his car, please consider this a PSA to never, ever, for any reason, drive through water if you don't know how deep it is!)

Tuesday morning i was doing the shopping for Ms. S before going to Ms. RW when Ms. RW called to tell me that if i couldn't come because of the weather, she would understand and pay me anyway.

Thankful is not a strong enough word to say how i feel about my clients.  Yes, of course i went to her house.

We got more rain on Tuesday, drips and drabs off and on.  Then on Wednesday, too, when i am thankful Ms. G actually let me run an errand for her instead of both of us going with me just along to help.  She chipped a bone in her "good" foot and i think she is figuring out she can't do everything herself.

More rain on Thursday, so i'm glad i brought my wading shoes so i could open the gate at Ms. SE's house.  The gate doesn't shut if you let it swing all the way open, so i'm also thankful i managed to stop it just in time.

Thursday evening, i got a message from Becca's father, her regular sitter had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning, could i come for a few hours?  This is where i am thankful my Friday client is Ms. GA, a fellow church member who understands the situation with Becca and was more than glad to let me come late.

When i got up Friday morning, the water pressure in our faucets was very low.  That means one thing, a leak.  My heart in my throat, i started making the rounds.

It was not us, thankfully.  Not so thankfully, it was the water main in front of the neighbor's house again, for the 4th time in just over 3 years.  The water company just keeps patching it instead of repairing it, and the fact that it always washes tons of mud into the drain is the reason our drain backs up when it's raining.

What i am thankful for is knowing the drill, you cannot call the water company directly when it's not 8am to 4:30pm on a Monday-Friday, you have to get a sheriff's deputy to come look, agree that it's a water main gushing and thus an emergency, and he can call the water company.  The sheriff's station was called, and they promised to dispatch someone right away.

We were hoping for a clear day so Brother-in-Law could get moved, but it was not to be.  It's okay, i am thankful we are not in a situation where he has to be out on a deadline, moving day should be this afternoon after we get back from cleaning Grandma's house.

Despite the rocky start to Friday morning, i made it to Bible study, then made it to Becca's so her parents could go to work.  She and i had a lovely morning until her regular sitter got done with the doctor.

Meanwhile, the water company did come out and do their thing, so the water pressure is back to normal and the leak is stopped, we shall see for how long.

Thankfully i was able to do Ms. S and Ms. GA after watching Becca, and still got to the cat shelter.

Which was a madhouse, again, as the adoption coordinator is on maternity leave.  Not only was i cleaning the restrooms and doing some caretaking, i was showing people around, helping them spend time with kitties, answering the door and everything in between.

Thankfully another volunteer showed up to help and did cage caretaking as well, or i'd have been there all night.

Also, that morning, Ms. M had moved the cat named Lady Gaga out of her office and into a colony room.  Ms. M said, "I was getting too attached and I would have wanted to take her home myself, and I can't!"  While i was there, a wonderful couple came in and said, "We're here to adopt Lady Gaga!"

As always, we are thankful for happy endings.

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:

Abolition Day -- Martinique

Bear Waking Day -- Norway (traditionally said to be the day the bears awaken from their hibernation, at least according to many sites)

Buy a Musical Instrument Day -- even just a kazoo, and have some fun making music; maybe if this one spreads around the world and enough of us do it, it will foster some harmony in our lives

Harvey Milk Day -- The Harvey Milk Foundation    

Independence Day -- Montenegro

International Blacksmith's Day   

International Day for Biological Diversity -- UN

National Maritime Day -- US (commemorating the first transoceanic voyage under steam power)

National Sovereignty Day -- Haiti

National Vanilla Pudding Day

Skerpla Month begins -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (Sharpness)

St. Julia's Day (Patron of torture victims; Corsica, Portugal; Livorno, Italy)

St. Rita of Cascia's Day/La Abodada de Impossibles (Patron of desperate causes, difficult marriages, forgotten causes, illness, lost causes, parenthood, sick people, sterile people, victims of physical spousal abuse, widows, wounded people; against abuse, infertility, loneliness, sickness, sterility, wounds, unhappy marriages; Cascia, Italy; Dalayap, Philippines; Igbaras, Philippines)

Toad-Pinching Day -- Fairy Calendar (Pixies)

Toothpaste Tube Day -- the tube was invented on this day in 1892 by dentist Washington Wentworth Sheffield, who wanted to replace the unhygenic practice of dipping the brush into a jar of dental cream

Unity Day / National Day -- Republic of Yemen

World Goth Day -- Get your Goth on around the world! 

Birthdays Today:

Apolo Anton Ohno, 1982

Ginnifer Goodwin, 1978

A.J. Langer,1974

Naomi Campbell, 1970

Morrissey, 1959

George Best, 1946

Paul Winfield, 1941

Michael Sarrazin, 1940

Frank Converse, 1938

Richard Benjamin, 1938

Susan Strasberg, 1938

Garry Wills, 1934

Peter Nero, 1934

Charles Aznavour, 1924

Judith Crist, 1922

Sun Ra, 1914

Sir Laurence Olivier, 1907

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859

Mary Cassatt, 1844

Richard Wagner, 1813

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"(TV), 1967

"Paulus / St. Paul"(Oratorio, Mendelsshon Op. 36), 1836

Today in History:

The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus, BC334

The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo, 1176

Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe, 1377

Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England, 1455

A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason, 1807

On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the first time, 1809

The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean; the ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20, 1819

HMS Beagle  departs on its first voyage, 1826

The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished, 1840

Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discover Howe Caverns, 1842

The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened, 1897

The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine", 1906

Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century, 1915

The most powerful earthquake ever documented, the Great Chilean Quake, measures 9.5 and strikes southern Chile, 1960

The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores, 1968

Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations, 1972

Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man, 1980

Microsoft  releases the Windows 3.0 operating system, 1990

Johnny Carson retires from The Tonight Show after 30 years, 1992

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations, 1992

A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, 2002

Sarah West, a British naval officer Commander is appointed commander of HMS Portland, the Royal Navy frigate; she is the first female officer to take command of a major British warship, 2012

Japanese researchers from University of Yamanashi report birth of mice from freeze-dried sperm stored on the International Space Station, 2017

The New York Stock Exchange announces Stacey Cunningham will be its first woman head in its 226-year history, 2018