Panic is Overrated, a Random and Happy Tuesday Word Counters Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Part of today’s post is also a writing challenge. This is how it works: one of the contributing bloggers picked a number between 12 and 50. The submitted number is a challenge to participating bloggers to write at least one piece using that exact number of words. 

This month, the word count number is: 22

It was submitted by:  Karen of Baking in a Tornado

Sweetie, as is typical for him, started worrying about us leaving on time for vacation not that morning, or the night before.

No, he had to start worrying on Monday for a Saturday departure.  By Thursday, he was absolutely frantic about the Friday schedule.

He thought he had good reason, as his ENT vacations here and warned him Saturday traffic is worse than ever now.

In his mind, we should be leaving the night before, catching a nap in the car while waiting for check-in time.

Please note, with no traffic and no stops, this area is about a 4+ hour drive for us, not a world away.

Leaving at 10pm to avoid traffic would mean arriving by 3am and thus a 12 hour wait until check-in time.  Ugh.

In my mind, we leave when we're ready, don't panic over traffic delays, and enjoy the adventures instead of fretting over anything.

It's not easy for him, he has claustrophobia.  Being in places he can't get out of makes him panic, highway traffic included.

When he called me at work Thursday, he'd reached a fevered pitch, "If you work tomorrow, we'll never leave here on time!"

We're not leaving until Saturday, i asked, what does work tomorrow have to do with it?And i'm not skipping Grandma's tomorrow!

"That means you won't be packing tomorrow and on Saturday it will be too late and we won't leave here on time!"

After i talked him down a bit, i told him we'd have a good talk about it when we were both home.

To give him credit, he was calm and didn't get upset when he helped me clean the second client's house that day.

Once home, i laid it out clearly for him.  Yes, i had to go to Grandma's on Friday to shop and clean.

Yes, i'd come back early so i could take the cats to the boarding place and go to my cat shelter shift.

Then i got serious.  No one, i told him, has ever died of terminal traffic.  It's just not something that ever happens.

You don't see rusted, abandoned cars on the side of the road with skeletons in them, pushed aside when traffic moved on.

Rest assured, we will not bury you on the side of the highway because you starved to death in a traffic jam.

By this time he was laughing, and i continued, there will always be an exit coming up for your rescue, i promise!

He guffawed, and he realized he's made traffic out to be a bigger monster than it is.  It won't really kill him.

We did leave earlier than usual Saturday and actually ran into very little in the way of traffic jams, stops, or accidents.

Our arrival was a story in itself, but i've now done 22 sentences of 22 words, so it will be told soon.

Links to the other Word Counters posts:

Baking In A Tornado                    

On the Border                                  

Anybody up for vacation funnies?

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Family History Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, urging people to brush up on family history during summer family reunions

Feast Day of Elisha the Prophet -- Christian

Flag Day -- United States

Freedom Day -- Malawi

Full Strawberry Moon / Rose Moon; related observances

     Ancient Celtic month Equos (horse-time) begins

     Nayon Full Moon -- Mayanmar

     Poson Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

Leinapaev -- Estonia (Mourning and Commemoration Day; remembering those deported under Soviet rule)

Liberation Day -- Falkland Islands

Lord Buddha's Parinirvana -- Bhutan

Magic Circles Day and Magic History Gathering -- marking the founding of The Magic Circle, a society of amateur and professional magicians 

Missing Mutts Awareness Day -- to help families whose beloved pets have gone missing, the Missing Mutts Awareness Society was formed; it no longer seems to sponsor a particular day, though its Facebook Page is active    

Mourning and Hope Day -- Lithuania (remembering those exiled to Siberia under the Soviets)

National Bourbon Day -- celebrating America's "Native Spirit"   

National Strawberry Shortcake Day

Pause for the Pledge Day -- US, in conjunction with Flag Day, all citizens are asked to pause at 7pm EDT to recite the Pledge

Pig Callers' Day -- no clue where this came from, or why; any pig callers out there want to weigh in?

Pop Goes the Weasel Day -- and just as no one knows for sure the origins of the song or it's meaning, no one knows why it is celebrated on this day

Rice Planting Festivals -- Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka and Izawanomiya Shrine, Mie Prefecture, Japan (rice planting at sacred fields, some rites date back over 1,700 years)

Rumor Sunday -- Fairy Calendar (usually held on a weekday)

Runic Half-month Dag (day) commences

Sandpaper Day -- Isaac Fisher, Jr., of Vermont, was issued the first US patent for sandpaper on this day in 1834

St. Basil the Great's Day (traditional date in Roman Catholic Church, current date in Episcopal Church; Patron of education, exorcisms, hospital administrators, monks, liturgists, reformers; Cappadocia; Russia)

St. Castora Gabrielli's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, widows)

Thangka Unveiling at Tashihungpo -- Tibet (Buddha Exhibition Festival, in which the large Thangka with the image of Buddha on it is unfolded in public; also celebrated as Amitabha Buddha Day, or the birth anniversary of the Buddha) related observance

    Zamling Chisang -- Universal Prayer Day (to the Tibetan Deities, especially Samye Dolde)

World Blood Donor Day -- International

     Blood Type Awareness Day -- while donating, make sure you know your type, and that of your loved ones; in an emergency, it's good to know

World Pet Memorial Day -- some sites say this is always on June 10, others that it's always on the second Tuesday in June, but none can tell us where it came from or who started it that i can find

Anniversaries Today:

The United States Army is founded, 1775

Munich, Germany is founded, 1158

Birthdays Today:

Daryl Sabara, 1992

Lucy Hale, 1989

Kevin McHale, 1988

Diablo Cody, 1978

Steffi Graf, 1969

Yasmine Bleeth, 1968

Traylor Howard, 1966

Boy George, 1961

Eric Arthur Heiden, 1958

Will Patton, 1954

Eddie Mekka, 1952

Donald Trump, 1946

John F. MacArthur, 1939

Jerzy Kosinski, 1933

Joe Arpaio, 1932

Marla Gibbs, 1931

Che Guevara, 1928

Pierre Salinger, 1925

Gene Barry, 1919

Burl Ives, 1909

Alois Alzheimer, 1864

John Bartlett, 1820

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Cable Guy(Film), 1996

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves(Film), 1991

"The Gong Show"(TV), 1976

Today in History:

Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin  princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria, 1287

Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath and the Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance, 1381

Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, 1648

The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States, 1777

Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat, 1789

Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig, who named it Bourbon because he lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1789

Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom, 1821

The village of Henley, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first Royal Regatta, 1839

Trade unions are legalised in Canada, 1872

Norway adopts female suffrage, 1907

John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic  flight, 1919

Action Comics issue one is released, introducing Superman, 1938

The Canadian Library Association is established, 1946

UNIVAC I, the world's first commercial computer, is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1951

The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency, 1962

The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1966

The 1994 Stanley Cup Riots occur after the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, 1994

The Wallow Fire becomes the largest wildfire in the history of the US State of Arizona, 2011

Australia announces its plan to create the largest marine reserve in the world, 2012

The women of Switzerland hold a strike to protest the slow change of pace toward equality in their country, 2019