The Fun Never Stops, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

 ***********************************

Folks, it's another wild ride into Thankful Day, another time to count how many times i'm thankful anyway.

We can pick up with last Saturday, when we drove home from NOLA in the sleet and were thankful to make it back.

Becca and her family go on a family reunion camping trip every year at this time, i was thankful they got to go this year and were having a good time, although i missed having my worship buddy with me.

Monday was another adventure with Carl, and then an adventure with Bigger Girl.  She came back in the country coughing and hacking (not Covid, she'd taken 5 tests) and they'd lost her luggage somewhere between Dublin and Chicago.  She was wearing borrowed clothes and we were both thankful for her friends, the fact she'd worn her best souvenir (she'd been back in Europe) home instead of packing it (a lovely, expensive hat), and we were thankful to spend time together shopping for some things she needed and having lunch.

Tuesday was a long work day, doing what i would have done Thursday if it hadn't been Thanksgiving on Thursday as well as tending to Ms. G's critters which i will do until she gets back next week.  That day i texted #1 Son and asked him if he'd be able, since he had a newish car and all, to take Bigger Girl and his father with him to NOLA on Thursday so i could spend the night Wednesday and get stuff done down there.

It turns out the dealership he bought the car through hadn't completed his paperwork, so the car is his, it has a tag, and the registration is applied for but it does not have an inspection and he can't get that until the registration is done.  He's not going to drive it out of town without the inspection sticker, as the local police do look at your paperwork and will give you 30 days to get your registration in order and get the sticker, but the state troopers who watch the highways are often not so lenient and accommodating, and he didn't want the risk.  He needed a ride from us!

Halt all plans to spend the night in NOLA Wednesday, i'm thankful i found out before i left town.  Sweetie called the very good friend, Mr. J, who sometimes can lend us his truck as it's a 3rd vehicle for them and only used when they need to haul or move things.  Would it be possible to have the truck for Thursday?

Mr. J said yes, then his wife stepped in and put a halt to it.  No way was she wanting us on the road in the truck on Thanksgiving, the weather in the afternoon was expected to be bad.  She wanted us in her SUV, since it's safer and in better shape, and has a bigger back seat so our extra passengers wouldn't be sitting with their knees almost under their chins.  We're thankful for such friends.

Brother-in-Law, for reasons best known to himself, does not choose to come with us for holidays (he did a few times, but has not in many years).  He was not planning anything except the usual leftovers feast that evening when he came to our house when a family stepped in and invited him.  I'm thankful on his behalf, if we can have hypograts (things that aren't in themselves thankful but bring other reasons to be thankful), then i guess we can have sideline thankfuls, when we're thankful for things that go right for other people in our lives.

Wednesday morning i arrived at the cat shelter to find The Breakfast Club, kittens Hash, Bagel, and Grits, were out of their cage as a visitor the night before had probably not shut it correctly.  Once i got them rounded up, i did my shift at the cat shelter in very good time, got the bit done at Ms. G's house, and headed to NOLA without some of the ingredients i needed to bring with me.  Thankfully, i just didn't cook that item and since i hadn't told anyone about it, no one was the wiser.

While down there Wednesday, the fun began.  Bigger Girl called to say she was getting sicker and she doesn't have insurance yet because her new job hasn't started and she really needed to see a doctor.  I'm thankful we had a bit on our credit to give her, i'm thankful she got an Uber to the doc-in-a-box, thankful it was just a seasonal cold, ear infection and pink eye(!), thankful the cost was not exorbitant, thankful Sweetie was able to get her the prescriptions even though they were sent to the wrong pharmacy, and thankful i know how to juggle cooking and being on the phone as i got calls from both of them as they traversed everything.

Little Girl and her boyfriend came to visit Grandma and Grandpa while i was there, and brought Coda and Bart.  I'm thankful for time to sit with everyone outdoors while the dogs played and we talked.  I haven't seen Little Girl in a while, she's been so busy

Soon it was time for me to head back home so i could pick up the food we were ordering.  Grandpa entrusted me with a valued heirloom of our family that he wanted me to have now and he instructed me to get it straight home for safekeeping.  That was not to be, not quite.

As i got over the spillway bridge, someone on the onramp didn't speed up and almost pulled into my car.  I was in a position to either hit that person, hit my brakes and get rear-ended, swerve and hit the car next to me, or speed up suddenly and avoid the collision.  I sped up and suddenly my engine stopped.  As in, completely stopped, and the message board on the dash said, Engine Disengaged, ESC Disengaged, TC Disengaged.  The other cars in the mess all sped around me and i coasted to a stop on the side of the highway.

It could have been a big accident, so i'm thankful it turned out that way.  I'm also thankful i not only have AAA, i have the premier membership so they will tow me further than the nearest car repair facility.

The next hour was spent calling AAA, calling Grandpa, getting texts from everyone in my family wondering how i was doing, calling Sweetie to get him to get over to the place where much of our Thanksgiving fare was so he could pick it up for me.  I even gave them a call and told them it would be someone else getting it so there wouldn't be a problem.

Little Girl and boyfriend were heading home anyway, so they stopped on the side of the road with me and tried to jump the vehicle with Uncle J's jumper cables that he sent and texted me to remember to get and bring back to him, although i figured that was futile and it was but i was thankful for the company.  While they were with me, a local sheriff's deputy stopped to make sure all was well, and while we were talking the tow truck showed up.  It felt like a three ring circus, and i'm so thankful because when you're stuck on the side of the highway, you just never know what you are in for.

Little Girl took the "precious heirloom" and they headed to the house to turn it over to Sweetie while i rode back in the tow truck with my poor Slow-Moe.  While in the truck, i got another call from Sweetie at the place we were getting the food from, they'd lost my order sheet, and they weren't sure if it was paid for, they gave him the things and he counted four items but didn't make sure it was the correct four items and could they call me on Monday and make sure the charge had gone through?

We're thankful to have gotten anything at all.

By the time the tow driver got us to our area, the traffic was so bad Sweetie was stuck out trying to pick up the vehicle we were borrowing for Thursday, Little Girl and her boyfriend were stuck at our house waiting for him, and i had them meet me at Kevin and Lenny's to drive me back to the house and turn the heirloom back over to me, then they left so boyfriend could study for his upcoming calculus exam.  We're thankful it all worked out and everyone eventually got where they needed to be.

Thanksgiving morning i was up bright and early (2:30am), got stuff ready, got to Ms. G's house, went and got Bigger Girl, came back to the house for Sweetie and #1 Son and what followed was the smoothest, easiest and lightest traffic drive to NOLA we've ever had on a holiday.  It was weird, but we were very thankful.

I'm thankful when i unpacked the items and realized we'd been given an extra casserole instead of gravy for the turkey, i was able to round up turkey gravy ingredients and make do.  Grandpa happened to adore that casserole, so i was also thankful and can get it again, this time on purpose, at Christmas.

We were all thankful for a wonderful time together.  I am thankful i got the kitchen cleaned after all the cooking at eating with a minimum of fuss.

The drive home in the rain was not too difficult, we were thankful we got home before the deluge.

Bigger Girl was supposed to have a friend pick her up so she could go stay with different friends over this weekend.  Their car broke down.  We were thankful to "engineer" a place for her to sleep as she spent the night, and i was thankful for the extra time to talk to her.

Friday morning i went back to Ms. G's house to find Angel waiting for me.  I'm thankful she's finally realizing i'm not a threat.

Ms. GA and Mr. RA were packing to leave for a week as i was cleaning, so i was thankful to clean around them and steal away.  

Kevin and Lenny called to say they'd finally gotten around to my car (they are always super busy), the onboard computer decided to give up the ghost.  They are trying to find one, and will let me know early next week if the part is even available.  I'm thankful for good mechanics.

The cat shelter was closed on Friday, but i arrived just as my fellow Friday evening volunteer arrived, and while we were there, the ACS (Animal Care Specialist) arrived to do evening medication.  It was quiet and we were thankful to get all our work done with a minimum of fuss.

Heading back to feed the cats for Ms. GA, she sent me a text.  The front door lock had gotten stuck on Granddaughter B (it happens regularly, and Mr. RA, the fix-it guy, never has time to fix it) so she'd had to leave and could i try to get it working again.  Yes, i was thankful i could and i did.

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.   

***********************************

Today is:

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (about 3,000 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch in what some describe as a riot but without the police; through tomorrow) 

Constitution Day of the Republic of Abkhazia -- Abkhazia

Day of the Covenant -- Baha'i

Day of the Tan-Wallopers -- Fairy Calendar

Good Grief Day -- birth anniversary of Charles Schultz

Guadalajara International Book Fair -- Guadalajara, Mexico (through Dec. 4)

Holodomor Remembrance Day -- international commemoration of the Death By Hunger Genocide in Ukraine

Independence Day -- Mongolia(1924)

International Aura Awareness Day -- to increase the awareness of the human energy body, or aura    

National Cake Day

Small Business Saturday -- encouraging everyone to patronize local businesses for your holiday shopping

Sojourner Truth Day -- died this day in 1883

St. John Berchmans' Day (Patron of alter servers, Oblate novices, young people)

Anniversaries Today:

Founding of Sigma Alpha Mu in the City College of New York, by 8 Jewish young men, 1909

The first official Thanksgiving in the US, by presidential proclamation, 1789

Founding of the University of Notre Dame, 1842

Founding of Kappa Alpha Society, the oldest surviving US college fraternity, 1825

Birthdays Today:

Natasha Bedingfield, 1981

Shannon Dunn, 1972

Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, 1966

Dale Jarrett, 1956

Tina Turner, 1939

Rich Little, 1938

Robert Goulet, 1933

Charles Schultz, 1922

Eugene Ionesco, 1912

Eric Sevareid, 1912

Lefty Gomez, 1908

Mary Edwards Walker, 1832

Sarah Moore Grimke, 1792

John Harvard, 1607

Emperor Go-Daigo of Japan, 1288

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Anarchy in the UK"(Sex Pistols single release), 1977

"The Price is Right"(TV), 1956

"Twenty Questions"(TV), 1949

Casablanca(Film), 1942

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland(Publication date), 1865

Today in History:

The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian", later "Caesar Augustus"), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony is formed, BC43

Vlad III Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time, 1476

The first lion exhibited in the US makes his debut in Boston, 1716

Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui, 1778

The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established, 1784

The first national US Thanksgiving is celebrated, 1789

The first streetcar railway in the US begins operation in NYC, fare 12 cents, 1832

The refrigerated railway car is patented by J.B. Sutherland of Detroit, Michigan, 1867

The first photograph of a meteor is taken, 1885

The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams, 1917

King Tut's tomb is opened by English archaeologist Howard Carter, 1922

Four young lads from Liverpool have their first recording session under the interesting name "The Beatles", 1962

Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament, 1998

Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England, 2003

A male Po'ouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct, 2004

NASA launches the Mars Science Laboratory, its largest rover ever, 2011

UK nonprofit Raspberry Pi releases its $5 Zero computer and sells out in a day, 2015

The WHO announces the first multidrug randomized control trial to treat Ebola has started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2018