Spitting a Spark (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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It was early, and the coffee hadn't been set up the night before.

The coffee maker, a cheap drip style, had been showing signs of wearing out, sputtering and not wanting to work properly.

Plans had been made to replace it, meanwhile, i was turning it on with the end of a wooden spoon pressed against where the "on" button had fallen out.

This morning, placing the dowel shaped end of the spoon into that area, it spit out a spark at me and refused to do anything else.

Sweetie was sent to procure coffee at the nearest fast food place that proffered liquid life post haste.

Once i had a belt in me, it was going to be off to the Mall-Mart -- we cannot and will not live without a coffee maker around here.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Spark.      

(Yes, this really happened!)

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

These are some of the fences at the cemetery.

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem (i did two poems, i couldn't resist the haiku):    

I can't imagine

having to brush all these teeth

must take all day long

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Open your imagination,

creation's full of surprises,

of plants and beasts in varying

shapes and kinds and sizes.

Some we get to see each day

and some are from times long past,

some creatures we get to pet,

and some make us run fast!

Don't close your mind to the possible,

there's so much to learn, you see;

let the past spring you into the future,

work toward what you want it to be.

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful i was able to speak calming words into a situation that came up for a family member recently.

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Today is:

Battle of Boqueron Day -- Paraguay

Constitution Day -- Brunei

Festival of Tezcatzonctl -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (chief god of intoxication; date approximate)

Gwynn ap Nudd's Fest -- Celtic Calendar (god of the underworld; date approximate)

International Coffee Day -- and i thought this was every day!  

Inventors Day -- Argentina

Make a List of the Top Ten Happiest Days in Your Life Day -- must have been started by an optimist

Mutation Day -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

National Attend Your Grandchild's Birth Day -- attendingthebirth.com; a day to remind grandparents to be active in their grandchildren's lives (and if you need a reminder, i wonder about you; if you aren't allowed by bitter parents, i feel badly for you)

National Mocha Day

Quick Draw Day -- debut of Quick Draw McGraw and his side kick, Baba Looey, in 1959

Sts. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and All Angels' Day (Michaelmas)

     Archangel Gabriel, Patron of broadcasters, clergy, communication workers, diplomats, messengers, philatelists/stamp collectors, post offices and postal workers, radio and radio workers, secular clergy, telecommunication workers, telegraphers, telephones, television and television workers; Argentinian ambassadors; Seattle, Washington

     Archangel Michael, Patron of artists, bakers, bankers and banking, barrel makers/coopers, battle, boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, dying people, emergency medical technicians/paramedics/ambulance drivers, fencers and fencing, grocers and greengrocers, haberdashers and hatmakers, knights, milleners, paratroopers, police officers, radiologists and radiotherapists, security guards, sick people, soldiers, swordsmiths; for a holy death and safety at sea; England, Germany, and over 25 cities around the world; against danger at sea and temptation.     

     Archangel Raphael, Patron of apothecaries/druggists/pharmacists, blind people, doctors/physicians, guardian angels, happy meetings, love and lovers, mentally ill people, nurses, shepherdesses/shepherds, sick people, travelers, young people; Dubuque, Iowa; MacKenzie-Fort Smith, Northwest Territories; Seattle, Washington; against bodily ills, eye diseases/eye problems, insanity/mental illness, nightmares, sickness

     related observances:

     National Day of Remembrance for Policemen Killed -- Australia (St. Michael, Patron of police officers)

     Payment of Quit Rent by London Royal Courts of Justice -- Michaelmas is a traditional English "Quarter Day", when rents come due

VFW Day -- US (The Veterans of Foreign Wars was established on this day in 1899)

World Heart Day -- International (to raise awareness of the signs and dangers of cardiovascular disease) 

World Maritime Day -- UN and IMO (this year's theme is “New Technologies for Greener Shipping")

Birthdays Today:

Emily Lloyd, 1970

John Paxton, 1960

Bryant Gumbel, 1948

Patricia Hodge, 1946

Lech Walesa, 1943

Dave Wilcox, 1942

Ian McShane, 1942

Madeline Kahn, 1942

Jerry Lee Lewis, 1935

Anita Ekberg, 1931

Lizabeth Scott, 1922

Trevor Howard, 1916

Stanley Kramer, 1913

Michelangelo Antonioni, 1912

Greer Garson, 1908

Gene Autry, 1907

Enrico Fermi, 1901

Horatio Nelson, 1758

Miguel de Cervantes, 1547

Pompey the Great, BC106

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Grace Under Fire"(TV), 1993

"Thirtysomething"(TV), 1987

"Designing Women"(TV), 1986

"MacGyver"(TV), 1985

"Houdini, A Circus Opera"(Opera), 1977

"The Judy Garland Show"(TV), 1963

"My Favorite Martian"(TV), 1963

"The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show"(TV), 1962

"My Three Sons"(TV), 1960

"Outlaws"(TV), 1960

"The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"(TV), 1959

"Sergeant Preston of the Yukon"(TV), 1955

"A View from the Bridge"(Play), 1955

The Barefoot Contessa(Film), 1954

A Star is Born(Film), 1954

"Make Room for Daddy"(TV), 1953

Today in History:

Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumata, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire, BC522

Battle of Salamis, at which the Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I, BC480

Pompey the Great Celebrates ending the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday, BC61

Saladin's army marches into Jerusalem, 1187

The First Congress of the US adjourns, 1789

"Scotland Yard", London's Metropolitan Police Force, goes on duty, 1829

The first practical public electric tramway ever opens in Blackpool, England, 1885

John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire, 1916

The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed, 1954

Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched, 1962

WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes the world's first black-owned-and-operated television station, 1975

Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to set foot on Irish soil with his pastoral visit to the Republic of Ireland, 1979

The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth, 2004

The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history, 2008

An 8.0 magnitude earthquake near the Samoan Islands causes a tsunami, 2009

The Koreas agree, for the first time in two years, to hold working-level military talks, 2010

Researchers discover a biofluorescent hawksbill sea turtle in waters off of the Solomon Islands; though biofluorescence has been observed in captive reptiles, this is the first occurrence seen in a wild reptile, 2015

Scientists confirm that Mars does have underground lakes, 2020

Tunisian President Kais Saied appoints Najla Bouden Romdhan as Tunisia's and the Arab world's first female prime minister, 2021

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declares 23 species of bird, fish and other wildlife extinct, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, 2021