Unbelievable, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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When you get to Thankful Day, don’t ask how much weirder life can get, because you might get an answer.

Anyway, last Saturday we took Coda down one more time to play with all the dogs before Uncle J took Jack and Abby back with him to Dallas.  Sweetie and i cleaned the house from the aftermath of the funeral, and i’m thankful we got to see Uncle J and his pups one more time.

We even got home early enough for me to have a bit of a rest, a thankful as i needed it.

Then Sunday was great, Becca cooperated and we went to church.  Ms. S was doing pretty well when i went to visit.  Thankful things, both.

Monday is when adventures started.  Yes, i went to work, but that doesn’t stop the action at home, and some of the adventure was work related.

Ms. G, my Wednesday lady, had asked me to check on her cats, feed, water, scoop boxes, and feed the feral colony and the birds while she was gone.  This meant getting to work at 6am Monday, then leaving to run a few blocks over to her house, traipsing around in the rain to feed all of the outdoor critters, and going back to work.  It was actually fun and i was thankful for it in spite of the drizzle, i even got to see the feral that gets the canned food, he came and let me put food down for him.

We’re thankful that we haven’t gotten nearly as much rain as we might have with the latest storm.  Mostly it’s been drizzle and spurt, with an occasional frog-strangler thrown in for good measure, but a lot less than was feared and that’s a blessing.

Back in July, i finally agreed to go ahead and update our internet service.  We’d had the same router forever, and they were going to stop supporting that anyway and were after us to switch, so i scheduled a visit from the technician.  Then rescheduled when Sweetie got Covid, then rescheduled again when he got hospitalized, figuring it might be a while before it would be safe to have someone in our house.

Anyway, Monday was the day at last, and the tech kept calling me because he couldn’t find our house.  Finally he did, thankfully, and he and his partner had the atomic bomb version of wasp spray with them.  We’d been battling wasps, but whatever they had cleared out every wasp anywhere near our house, hooray!

Then they went to work, left for parts, came back, and after running poor Sweetie ragged moving furniture and running new lines and all kinds of stuff, we finally have new internet service, and i’m thankful it’s done.

Friend Chris, whom i hadn’t heard from in quite a while, called me while i was working that morning to ask if i had the spare A/C downstairs still.  We did, and as he’s now married and has a child and is living where the hurricane came through and really tore things up, they’re on a generator and needed it.  He came by while i was still working and he and Sweetie got the A/C, which works but leaks and has to live in a rubbermaid container, into his truck.  It will do in a pinch, and i’m thankful we could help them in this pinch.

Monday was also the day i called the phone people to ask them about whether an email i got saying a new phone was going to be delivered to me was spam.  Turns out it wasn’t, the phone we had for that number (it’s the spare, or house phone) is a 3G, and they won’t be doing that any more so they sent a new one.  The nice lady offered to call me back Tuesday evening and help me get it set up, and i gladly and thankfully accepted the offer.

Monday evening is also when Mr. J, Becca’s dad, sent me a text.  He and Ms. A both had been suddenly told of work meetings Tuesday evening and they had no one to stay with Becca.  Could i do it?  Can Coda clear a meal in no time flat?  It’s a thankful thing to be able to put something in the schedule suddenly.

On the way to Ms. RW’s house Tuesday morning, my “you have low tire pressure!” lights came on.  When i arrived, i realized thankfully none of the tires were flat, so i just went in and worked.  Twice during the day i ran out to check the car, and the tires looked the same, so i figured it was like last time, the pressure in them was low but i wasn’t in danger of having to try to change one in the middle of driving someplace.

Ms. RW asked me to scrub the bathroom floor with baking soda, peroxide and vinegar, so i did.  She kept saying, “It needs to be kept damp or it doesn’t work,” so i went back in there every 20 minutes for about two hours to pour on more vinegar or peroxide and scrub at it some more.  She sent me a text that evening telling me it looked better than when she does it, and i was thankful i’d put so much effort into it.

After work i ran over to Kevin and Lenny’s to get the tires checked.  All four were down by almost the same amount, so i was grateful to get an explanation.  It seems you lose a pound of pressure every month, and a pound for every 10 degree drop in temps.   We’d had a couple of cooler mornings recently (60’s instead of 70’s), and it’s been a few months since i had the pressure checked, so each was down by right at 4 pounds.  Not bad tires, thankfully, just bad on me for not airing them up more often!

Then i ran to Becca’s and we had a ball.  We cooked dinner, and she took her meds, we played games, and when she started yawning it was time for brushing teeth, retainers in (no fuss!), one more visit to the potty, then we had prayers and good night.  It was a good night, and i was thankful.

After i got home, the nice phone lady called to help me set up the new phone, only she couldn’t.  It seems there was something about a fraud alert on my account, and as the fraud department was closed that late at night, i’d have to call in the morning and see if i could figure it all out.  At least she tried, right?

Are we ready for Wednesday?

By 6am i was at the shelter, where a whole side of the building is under ringworm quarantine again.  A little later i left to go tend Ms. G’s critters, and while i was at it, called to try to figure out what kind of fraud trouble is going on with my phone accounts.

Juggling the phone in the drizzle while feeding animals, i got disconnected 3 times, sent to the wrong department four times, and given a different number to call 4 times.  In the end, after about 3 hours on the phone while working at the same time, it turned out that my account has a form of fraud protection on it that says if i don’t go into a store to buy a new phone, i have to call the fraud department (and i have to call the unified service department, not the global or the Uverse) to get the phone number unlocked so i can activate a new phone. 

It’s all to keep someone else from trying to move my service to their phone without my knowing about it, which actually almost happened one time, so i’m thankful to have the protection but wish it were easier to get the information and get it all done.

While juggling the phone still and back at the shelter, there was a knock at the door.  In a saga that can only happen to me, a lady in a motorized wheelchair, one who lives in the subsidized housing nearby, was out there.  She’s allergic to cats, but she heard this kitten screaming by the fast food restaurant right on the highway, and she was afraid it would run in the street and get run over, so she grabbed it with her mechanical grabber and stuffed it in her umbrella.

Of course, it jumped out when i opened the door and ran into the bushes in the locked gated yard of the building next door.  So i’m traipsing over there to ask the nice people to open the gate and let me rescue the cat while the shelter manager is attempting to entice it to come out by opening a can of food.  Between all of us, thankfully it finally came out and was caught and is now in a foster home and doing well, none the worse for the adventure.

Finishing up with the shelter, i stopped at the house before i went to visit Ms. S.  While there, i handed Sweetie his two new insurance cards for the car, and i grabbed the old one he took out of his wallet and threw it away.  He put one of the new ones in his wallet and then said, “Where’s the other one so I can put it in the car?”

When i told him i’d already given it to him, he said, “No, you didn’t, you only gave me one.”  Well, i’d given him two, and he’d torn the other one up thinking it was the old one(which i grabbed out of the trash can to show him that he’d torn up the wrong one because he didn’t believe me).

This is one of those time’s i’m thankful i can call my agent and she’ll get a new one sent in the mail.

After Ms. S it was back to Kevin and Lenny’s.  It was time for an oil change, new wiper blades, and i asked them to go ahead and inspect GusGus already while i was reasonably sure it would pass.

Then, in one of those thankful things that lets you know the Good Lord is really good, i said, and please check the battery, it was in the car when i got it from my parents almost 2 years ago and i have no idea if it’s still good or on the way out.

It was on the way out.  In fact, it should put out 750 cranking amps (i think that’s what they said) and it was only putting out 550.  In other words, it shouldn’t have been starting, and all those times we went to NOLA for the funeral and the cleaning, we could have easily been stranded.  GusGus die Fledermaus now has a new battery, new inspection sticker, new oil, and is good to go.  That’s a big thankful thing.

Sweetie wanted to go to choir practice Wednesday evening, but Lunceford the Land Yacht wasn’t cooperating.  The compressor on the A/C doesn’t come on until you’ve been running the car for at least 10 minutes, and until it comes up you can’t clear the fog from the windows, and he couldn’t roll the windows down to clear everything because it was raining.  He didn’t go, and it was a blessing and a thankful thing as we had the hardest rain of the week right then.  He has a very hard time driving in the rain, and if he’d been able to go he’d have been trying to drive in that mess.  He’ll still sing on Sunday since he knows all the music and will rehearse that morning,

Thursday was boring by comparison, but now i was ready for boring and thankful for it.  Ms. V’s house got done, Ms. G’s critters got taken care of (and her Chewy package showed up just in time for me to freshen up the litter boxes), and that evening, Little Girl was able to come by for a visit with Coda.

We were so thankful to see her.  She’s been helping to take care of the elderly people who were rescued from the warehouse, and she was gushing about how precious most of them were.  It’s making her think of going into geriatric nursing, i think she’d be great at it.

She brought Coda’s monthly heartworm/flea prevention pill and they had a great romp.  We are hoping she gets released from duty on Sunday so she can have her dog back, not because i want Coda to go, but because i know Coda wants to be with her.

Friday morning i’m thankful i finally got to go back to prayer meeting, then to clean Ms. GA’s house.  They have another houseguest, and he was working on fixing their wifi.  It was giving him fits, we had to pray over it and twice he had to go outside to take a break, but he finally got it, thankfully.

While cleaning, i gave Handyman Mike, the Generator Guy, a call to ask him when he’d be able to run by and install the new window A/C in our bedroom as the old one died and the substitute stand up one was not working to well.

He said he’d be by at 11am, so i called Sweetie and told him not to linger when his doctor appointment was done.  He said he’d be there as early as he could.

Meanwhile, when i was done at Ms. GA’s i needed to go to the bank.  The previous week i’d deposited a check in the ATM that somehow got past me without having my name in the “Pay to the order of” line.  (Sometimes Ms. RW and Ms. PA leave their checks blank except the signature and the amount in the little rectangle and leave me to fill out the rest.)  The bank lady had called to tell me she’d have the check for me to come and fill it in on Friday.

When i walked in the bank to tell the receptionist what i wanted, the lady who had the check in her hand was walking by, heard me mention my name, and said, “You’re here for this check!”  Talk about timing to be thankful for.  She was trying to save me a trip by putting “cash” on that line and depositing it for me.  Since had two more checks by this time, i just went ahead and did all of them, and i’m thankful i got it done.

Mr. Mike was at the house by the time i got there and was almost finished.  We are thankful for the new A/C, it’s working like a charm.

If you’ve made it this far, and it’s far, i will finish with saying today i’m taking Coda back to NOLA with me to play with Lulu and thank you for reading.  The week was all that and more, and i’m so thankful everything worked out for good, just like He promises it will.

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:

America's Day For Kids -- sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America   

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset through the 27th)

Chiropractic Founder's Day -- celebrating the first chiropractic adjustment ever performed, by D.D. Palmer on Harvey Lillard, on this date in 1895

Constitution Day/National Day -- Nepal

Ear Wig Fitting Day -- Fairy Calendar

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 8, Human Rights (sponsored by We, the World) 

Feast of the Ingathering -- UK traditional (also called Harvest Home; in Scotland, Kirn; in northern England, Mell-Supper.  Celebrations will be held in rural areas for the next few weekends, celebrating the end of the harvest.)

Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day -- they are generally anonymous, often underappreciated, so today, give one a hug! (if you know any, that is)

Idaho Spud Day 2021 -- Idaho, US, wants the 3rd Saturday of September as a day to celebrate their favorite crop

Independence Day -- Chile

International Eat An Apple Day -- a celebration of the fruit of the season, on the third Saturday of every September

National Cheeseburger Day

National Gymnastics Day -- US (sponsored by USA Gymnastics, and with its own web page here)    

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day -- US  

National Respect! Day(sm) -- US (encouraging abused women to respect themselves enough to get out)

Plataia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Responsible Dog Ownership Day -- originally sponsored by the AKC, but i can no longer find info about it on their website  

St. Joseph of Cupertino's Day (Levitating saint, and so Patron of air crews, air travelers, astronauts, paratroopers, pilots/aviators, students, test takers; Cupertino, Italy)

World Water Monitoring Day -- International    

Anniversaries Today:

Constantine II of Greece marries Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, 1964

The United States Air Force becomes a separate military service, 1947

Hull House opens, 1889

Birthdays Today:

Jada Pinkett Smith, 1971

Lance Armstrong, 1971

Alsha Tyler, 1970

James Gandolfini, 1961

Ryne Sandberg, 1959

Frankie Avalon, 1939

Robert Blake, 1933

Scotty Bowman, 1933

June Foray, 1920

Jack Warden, 1920

Rossano Brazzi, 1916

Agnes DeMille, 1905

Greta Garbo, 1905

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, 1905

John Diefenbaker, 1895

Joseph Story, 1779

George Read, 1733

Samuel Johnson, 1709

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, Emperor Trajan, 53

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Baseball"(Documentary), 1994

"Love is a Many Splendored Thing"(TV), 1967

"Get Smart"(TV), 1965

"The Addams Family"(TV), 1964

"Wagon Train"(TV), 1957

"The Paul Winchell Show"(TV), 1950

"Johnny Belinda"(Play), 1940

"Strictly Dishonorable"(Play), 1929

"Disraeli"(Play), 1911

Today in History:

Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th and final voyage, 1502

Ft. Ticonderoga, NY opens, 1755

The British capture Quebec City, 1759

John Harris builds the first spinet piano in the US, 1769

President Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building, 1793

Royal Opera House in London opens, 1809

A horse beats the first US made locomotive, near Baltimore, 1830

Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City; the store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium", 1837

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is first published, 1842

First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times, 1851

Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone, 1870

The banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. in Philadelphia declares bankruptcy, which starts the Panic of 1873 and a severe economic depression, 1873

The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time, 1879

Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination, 1885

In appreciation for all she had done for the tribe, Harriet Maxwell Converse, adopted as a member of the Seneca tribe, is made a chief of the Six Nations Tribe at the Tonawanda Reservation, 1891

Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment, 1895

A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong, 1906

The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I, 1914

The Netherlands gives women the right to vote, 1919

The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air, 1927

Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel, 1928

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, 1948

Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations, 1960

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash, 1961

Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations, 1962

The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations, 1973

Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people, 1974

Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together, 1977

Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station, 1980

Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic, 1984

Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations, 1990

ICANN is formed, 1998

The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast, 2009

Chileans celebrate the 200th anniversary oof their independence, 2010

After a large storm that took the roof off of Stadium Southland in Invercargill, 100,000 people in New Zealand are left without water, 2010

Scotland votes to remain a member of the United Kingdom in an independence referendum, 2014

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal publishes finding about the earliest known fishhooks, at 23,000 years old, discovered on Okinawa Island, Japan, 2016

Cyclone Ianos, a rare 'medicane' (Mediterranean hurricane/tropical cyclone) begins sweeping across Greece, 2020