Success, Wordless Wednesday and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week's prompts are:

amber

alabaster

bow-legged

extensive

seesaw

kill

and/or

lighthouse

market

cloudy

pigeonhole

goldmine

mute

Last Friday, as noted, i received something in the mail i was not happy to see, a jury duty notice.

The summons was for the Monday after we get back from vacation.  That means i got a notice on June 4 to report on June 21.  Not an EXTENSIVE notice, is it?

It was about a half hour before the jury office would close for the weekend, so i called right away, asking why the notices are coming so late.  The nice lady informed me that a notice for June 21 would have been mailed out by May 6.  That's right, it took the USPS a month to deliver the notice, and these notices are ugly orange and huge, so it's not like the postal workers don't know they are important.

Did someone PIGEONHOLE it for 3+ weeks before sending it on its way?

Well, whatever the reason, i sent in my request for a delay in service until the end of the summer, outlining several reasons for the request, and knowing i wouldn't hear back from them before Monday afternoon at the earliest, i spent the intervening time on a SEESAW between hope and concern.

It's a good thing i have plenty of work to KILL time.

Monday i am always hopping with Carl and Ms. PA's house and then going to see Ms. S.  While i did check my email a couple of times, i really did not expect to hear anything before Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was CLOUDY, then clear, then cloudy again, then clear again.  There was only Ms. S on this particular Tuesday, and i was to go to the MARKET to get her shopping done, with the plan being that i would get enough to last her until i came back from vacation.  Also, of course, the laundry and changing the bed and all of the other stuff.

When i arrived, Ms. S was looking at me with such sadness, her eyes full of MUTE appeal.  After a few minutes, she finally said, "I think Kiki has died." The tears started to fall.

Peeking under the bed, i saw Kiki's AMBER eyes staring at me.  Her once ALABASTER white paws are now a bit yellowed, and she sometimes seems to have arthritis pain that makes her walk a little BOW-LEGGED, but she is still full of spunk.  Although she no longer runs away from me, and she knows to come to me for food and to be let outside, she glared at me and pulled back a bit when i reached under there to pet her.

She's fine, i told Ms. S.  She stifled a sob.  "I really thought she had gone under the bed to die," she told me.  "She sleeps so much more now, and the only reason I let her outside is because I know she would be miserable if I didn't, but every time I let her out, I'm afraid she will go off to die somewhere and I'll never see her again."

Well, i told her, today she is just fine, and we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Kiki chose that moment to come out from under the bed and make Ms. S very happy by demanding food and then asking to be let outside.

Within a few hours, the shopping was done, the bed was remade, the laundry done, and miracle of miracles, Ms. S agreed to take a walk outdoors.  It wasn't a long walk, but if she will walk a bit every day, i think it will be good for her.

Miss Puss, as Kiki is also called, came and went in her usual fashion.  She's 19, and i am sure her days are numbered, but for right now, she's still her own cat.

Right before i left, i checked my email, and there it was.  This must be what it feels like for a sailor trying to find the port in the storm when the LIGHTHOUSE finally comes into view.  The jury manager has given me a delay of service, and not just until the end of summer, but until January of next year.  That's like handing me a GOLDMINE in terms of being able to prepare ahead, get clients ready for me to be gone, save up for a week with no income, etc.

Now we just have to get through the rest of this week.

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Today is:

Accession Day -- Jordan (King Abdullah's accession to the throne in 1999)

Community Day -- LO, MU, Spain

Donald Duck Day -- his screen debut was today in 1934

La Rioja Day -- La Rioja, Spain

Meezer's Colors Day -- celebrating the many colors of "meezer" (Siamese) cats

National Heroes Day -- Uganda

National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day

National Time Out Day -- US, sponsored by The Association of Operating Room Nurses, which wants everyone involved in surgeries to take time out before the procedure to verify the surgery site, type, and patient and decrease OR errors  

Profess Your Love Day -- promoted by ecard companies which think you need to say "I love you" more often

Purple People Eater Day -- Sheb Wooley's hit reached #1 this date in 1958

Remembrance for Sigurd the Dragonslayer -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (in some traditions called Siegfried)

Sjalvstyrelsedagen -- Aland Islands (Self-Governing Day)

St. Columbia of Iona's -- Celtic Christian, today is one of the luckiest days of the year to superstitious Highland Scots, especially propitious if it's a Thursday (Apostle to the Picts; Patron of bookbinders, poets; Ireland; Scotland; Pemboke, Ontario, Canada; against floods)

St. Ephraem's Day (creator of hymns; Patron of spiritual directors, spiritual leaders; Syria)

World APS Day -- spreading awareness of Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome   

Anniversaries Today:

Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito marries Masako Owada, 1993

Nero marries Claudia Octavia, 53

Birthdays Today:

Natalie Portman, 1981

Johnny Depp, 1963

Michael J. Fox, 1961

Dick Vitale, 1940

Jackie Mason, 1928

Les Paul, 1915

Robert Cummings, 1910

Cole Porter, 1891

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Congo(Film), 1995

What's Love Got To Do With It(Film), 1993

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier(Film), 1989

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, 68

Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse, 721

Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River, 1534

The Harvard Corporation is established as the first corporation in the Americas, 1650

James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia, 1732

The Congress of Vienna, forerunner of the League of Nations and the UN, ends with much of Europe's borders redrawn and settled, Switzerland's neutrality confirmed, and free navigation guaranteed on many rivers, 1815

Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts, 1856

Alexandra Palace in London burns down after being open for only 16 days, 1873

China agrees to lease Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years, 1898

Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States, 1909

Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport, 1958

Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria, 1967

Secretariat wins the Triple Crown, 1973

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) opens its priesthood to black males after 148 years, 1978

The British lease of Hong Kong expires, 1997

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty, 1999

In Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, six women were arrested for practicing driving in an empty car lot; women are banned from driving on the road, 2011

The World Health Organization suggests women delay pregnancy in areas where the Zika virus is very active, 2016

In the largest ever protest in the city of Hong Kong, over one million people gather to take a stand against new laws regarding extradition to mainland China, 2019 

General Charles Q. Brown becomes the first African American to lead a US Armed Forces branch when the US Senate confirms him as the Air Force Chief of Staff, 2020