Is That You, Oliver? (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Friendship (Poetry Monday)

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

Several years ago, Ms. GA's cat Oliver was chased and injured by dogs that had escaped their fenced yard.  He ended up needing medication regularly after his surgery, and one day while i was there, i gave him the noon dose instead of Ms. GA having to run home on her lunch break to do it.  He declared me untrustworthy and wouldn't come near me after that.

As years have gone by, he has continued to declare me untrustworthy, until the last few times when i've done cat sitting.  He has figured out i not only let him outdoors without offering to touch him, he lets me slide a bowl of canned food to him as long as i stay far enough away.

Then, the other day, i stepped out on the front porch and this happened.

He let me get close, and even wove between my legs a bit.  He seems to have forgiven me at last!

(Note:  Oliver is skinny.  Dumpster cat skinny.  He eats canned food twice a day and is free fed all the dry kibble he wants, has a normal thyroid and blood panel on everything, eats all he wants and stays skinny.  He's totally healthy, just skinny, like most of us would want to be!)

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is Girlfriends.          

              

Unlike your spouse or sweetheart,

best girlfriends can step back,

and give each other perspective

your darlings just might lack.

To be right there and save the day

for each other you have the knack.

You support each other through

every life and career setback.

When something goes kablooey

work together to find a hack.

You don't give each other lousy gifts

like dust-catching bric-a-brac.

When one can't take it any more

you don't give each other flack.

Neither cares if the other lives

in a mansion or a shack.

When the peckish mood does strike

both always up for a snack.

Together you are quite a team,

taking up each other's slack.

At each others shenanigans

you're never taken aback.

When the days are hard and long,

you cut each other slack.

You know each other's favorite drinks

from sodas to wine or cognac.

You tell each other secrets 'cause

you neither one will yack.

My advice is keep each other close

don't let years your friendship hijack,

'cause everyone gets off the rails,

best girlfriends put you back on track!

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Today is:

Air Force Day -- US (declared by President Truman in 1947)

Anniversary of the Founding of Scouting -- first day of Brownsea Island Camp in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell began Scouting

Armed Forces Day -- Lebanon

August Bank Holiday -- ACT, NSW, Australia; Ireland; UK

August Monday/Culturama -- Saint Kitts and Nevis 

British Columbia Day -- British Columbia, Canada

Carnival Monday -- Anguilla (August Monday); Antigua and Barbuda (J'ouvert); British Virgin Islands (Festival/Emancipation Monday)

Carnival Monday -- Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba 

Civic Holiday -- Canada

Emancipation Day -- Bahamas; Dominica; Granada; Montserrat; Turks and Caicos Islands (Obs.)

Emancipation Day -- Barbados; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and Grendines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands (Trad.)

Farmer's Day -- Zambia

Fast in Honor of the Holy Mother of Jesus / Procession of the Cross and Dormition Fast -- Orthodox Christian

Feast of Kamal (Perfection) -- Baha'i

Fiesta de Santo Domingo -- Managua, Nicaragua (patron saint; through the 10th)

First Sermon of Lord Buddha -- Bhutan

Frídagur verslunarmanna -- Iceland (Commerce Day)

Ganesha Chaturthi -- Hindu (festival to honor the god of prosperity, prudence, and success, Ganesha; local customs and dates can vary, as can official government holiday status)

Girlfriends' Day -- a day to celebrate the women who enrich your life

Harriet Quimby Day -- first woman to earn a pilot's license, this date in 1911

Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri -- Hirosaki, Japan (through the 7th, parade and purification ritual to rid the town of future illness and bad fortune)

Homowo -- Ghana (a festival of thanksgiving and remembrance, among various groups of Ga peoples, all through August and September.)

Imps Charity Scramble -- Fairy calendar (Do they scramble the imps, or do the imps scramble for something?)

Independence Day / National Day -- Benin(1960)

Kadooment Day -- Barbados (huge carnival celebration of the end of the Crop Over festival, celebrating the end of the sugar cane harvest)

Kalends of August -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances

     Feast of Spes (personification of hope)

     Festival for Victoria (goddess of victory)

Lammas Day / Lammac Tide -- Christian, a Cross Quarter Day (called the Gule of August in Wales, and known as August Eve and Lady Day Eve)

Liberation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafari

Lughnassad / Imbolc -- Wicca and Pagan (based in the Northern Hemisphere on the Celtic Feast of Bread, beginning of the harvest season)

Minden Day -- British Armed Forces

Nagaoka Festival -- Nagaoka, Japan (through the 3rd, samuri procession, traditional music and dances, fireworks)

National Children's Day -- Tuvalu

National Day -- Switzerland (where it is also called Swiss Confederation Day, when Switzerland became a single unit in 1291)

National Minority Donor Awareness Week -- US (bringing awareness to the fact that there are fewer minorities who are organ donors) 

National Non-Parent Day -- sponsored by The National Organization for Non-Parents and No Kidding!

National Raspberry Cream Pie Day

New Brunswick Day -- New Brunswick, Canada

Parents' Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

Picnic Day -- NT, Australia

Respect For Parents Day -- with information here 

RSPCA Cupcake Day -- a fun and delicious way to raise funds to stop animal cruelty; it used to be held on a Monday in mid-August, but is now encouraged on any day you want to participate 

Rounds Resounding Day -- sponsored by Rounds Resounding Society (Grab your friends and sing a few songs that go in rounds, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Frere Jacques".)

Social Resistance Day -- North Cyprus

Spiderman Day -- he first appeared today in Amazing Fantasy #15, released Aug. 1, 1963

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori's Day (Founder of the Redemptorists, a/k/a Ligourians; Patron of confessors, final perseverance, moralists, scrupulous people, theologians, vocations; Pagani, Italy; Sant'Agata de' Goti, Italy; against arthritis, scrupulosity disorder)

World Breastfeeding Week begins -- International (the theme this year is "Step Up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support") 

World Lung Cancer Day -- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer  

World Scout Scarf Day -- wear your Scout Scarf in public today 

World Wide Web Day -- what would become our current ability to waste time reading blogs and doing other fun stuff was begun as an idea at CERN during August back in 1990

Yorkshire Day -- Yorkshire, England

Anniversaries Today:

Colorado becomes the 38th US State, 1876

Birthdays Today:

Tempestt Bledsoe, 1973

Robert Cray, 1953

Giancarlo Giannini, 1942

Jerry Garcia, 1942

Yves Saint Laurent, 1942

Ronald Harmon "Ron" Brown, 1941

Dom DeLuise, 1933

Tom Wilson, 1931

James Hill, 1916

Herman Melville, 1819

Maria Mitchell, 1818

Francis Scott Key, 1779

William Clark, 1770

Debuting/Premiering Today:

M2(TV Network), 1996

"The Rush Limbaugh Show"(Radio), 1988

MTV(TV Network), 1981

Today in History:

The future Caesar Augustus, Octavian, enters Alexandria, Egypt, and brings it under the control of Rome, BC30

Japan sends Ono no Imoko to the Sui court in China as envoy, 607

The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter, 1291

Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain, 1492

Henry Tudor, soon to be Henry VII, sails with his army to England, 1495

The first black Americans arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, 1619

Oxygen is "discovered" for the 3rd time, by Priestly, 1774

The Act of Union is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800

Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, 1834

First coast to coast automobile trip, from San Francisco to New York, is completed, 1903

The first Jeep is produced, 1941

Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary, 1944

The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), 1957

Israel annexes East Jerusalem, 1967

Peat cutters discover Lindow Man, Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England, 1984

CERN physicists begin discussing building what would eventually become the World Wide Web, 1990

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency, 2001

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies and is succeeded by Prince Abdullah, 2005

Buddhist treasures buried during the Mongolian Communist Purge in the 1930's are rediscovered in the Gobi Desert, 2009

Russia grants NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden one year of temporary political asylum; Snowden leaves Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, 2013

Two crowns and an orb from the Swedish crown jewels are stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral, Stockholm, 2018

Italian Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar avoid a jump-off by agreeing to share the long jump gold medal after tying on 2.37m at the Tokyo Olympic Games, 2021