Happy St. Patrick's Day (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 words/prompts are:

1. a cloud of dust settled around him

2. slapped in the face with a wet fish

3. I bowed my head and wept

4. I didn't know what else to do

use any or a few or just one,  just have fun.

He rolled up on a dirt bike and a cloud of dust settled around him as he came to a stop.

Nodding his head at me, he let me know it was a challenge, or perhaps an invitation.  The bike I found myself standing next to was older and clumsier looking than his, and I knew I didn't stand a chance on it, but I didn't know what else to do so I climbed on and started trying to remember how to pedal and balance.

It had been so many years since I'd been on a bike, I was proving the old saying that you never forget how.  It's true, to an extent, but more true on even pavement than over a hilly terrain on a style of bike you've never ridden before.  Holding on for dear life I followed him, desperate not to be left behind.

Eventually, though, as he pulled further and further ahead of me, I'd lose sight of him over hills and in gullies for longer and longer periods of time.  Always I'd see him ahead, and then he'd disappear again.  Sweat dripped down me as I exercised more than I'd done in years just trying to keep him in sight.

When I arrived at the top of what felt like the biggest hill I'd ever biked over in my life, I saw him at the bottom, the bike next to him with one wheel gone and the other spinning in the air.  His body was twisted into an unnatural position, and as tired as I was in a burst of speed I reached him at the bottom of the hill in what for me would have been record time, if anyone had been around to record it.

Standing over him, I bowed my head and wept, wept for him, so young and beautiful and athletic and yet still so vulnerable, and wept for myself now lost out here and alone, not knowing where I was or what I should do next.

When the sadness left I grew angry.  I kicked his broken bike.  Lost, alone, I was left feeling like I'd been slapped in the face with a wet fish.

Picking up the bike, I started to trudge back the way I'd come, hoping I could find my tracks to follow them back.  When I finally got back to the top of the tall hill, I lost my footing and started to slide down the other side.  As I slid faster and faster I knew I was going to slide right into a boulder and before I could wonder how much it was going to hurt I woke up with a start. 

That's it, I thought to myself, no more hot tamales right before bedtime!

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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

Dieticians Day -- Canada   

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

Purim -- Judaism (begins at sundown)

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