No Winding Down, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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If you think my life ceases to be a whirlwind because the year is winding down, you don't know me very well, do you?

That's why there's Thankful Day, because the adventure never stops.

Right before Christmas, Slow-Moe was declared fixed and sent home, and we were told to keep the loaner for the weekend anyway.  I'm thankful for a mechanic shop willing to make certain i had reliable transportation for that weekend while everything was closed.

Bigger Girl and i got down to NOLA Christmas Eve and got a lot done, including shopping and we're thankful we went early as it wasn't crowded yet.

Sweetie managed to get our food order picked up, and they got it right this time.

#1 Son called and said he couldn't come for Christmas, he had caught the flu.  We were sad but if he had to get sick, we're glad it wasn't a situation of coming down with symptoms after exposing Grandma, who catches everything.

Christmas Day, i went to get Bigger Girl then came back to the house to pack and leave.  She forgot stuff, we went back to the house she was staying at to get it.  She lost her phone, we came back to our house to look for it.  An hour late, we finally gave up and drove to NOLA.  We were thankful we still got the meal ready mostly on time.

We're also thankful her friend found her phone at the house where she was staying.

Monday, Carl couldn't find his keys, so i had to drive him to work, i'm thankful i was able to do that.

After i finished with Carl on Monday, i went and spoke to a friend who wants me to start doing the floors and shower at her house every other week, i'm thankful she's across the street from Carl and Ms. V and Mr. L, and i'll start this Monday.

Last time i went to Ms. D's she told me not to plan to come the week after Christmas as her daughter would be here.  I was relaxing at the house when she called and asked if i was okay.  When i reminded her, she had forgotten asking me not to come and needed me anyway, i was thankful for the unexpected work.

That morning i also received a call from the dealership where GusGus Die Fledermaus, my Ford car that broke down last summer, has been languishing.  It was an update, no word on when the part with be available, backorder, etc., ad nauseam.  I was thankful to make arrangements to go by this next Saturday (today) and get some items out of it.

Ms. G had us on another adventure Wednesday, i'm thankful no two days with her are very exactly alike.

While we've been in the midst of the car crisis, Mr. DE and Ms. SE, our every-other-Thursday clients, loaned us their Tahoe, a spare car they keep around for emergencies.  We were very thankful for it's use and they hadn't put a time limit on it, but Sweetie and i agreed we'd return it while working there this past Thursday, as it really is old and if any of its parts give out while in our possession, we'd feel responsible.

Then, in the midst of cleaning their house, i got a call i absolutely did not expect at all.  The Ford guy called and said, "Your car is ready to be picked up."

At first i thought he had a wrong number, he was calling the wrong client.  Nope.  An hour after he spoke to me on Tuesday, the parts, backordered for over a year, were delivered, and my car was ready.

Then he added of course, there's another part that needs replacing in the transmission that isn't covered in the recall.  It's not critical to do it now, yes, we can bring the car back home and have it done locally, but it needs to be in the next couple of months.

I'm just thankful to be getting GusGus back.  Kevin and Lenny have given me the name of the best and most reliable transmission place in this area, and i'm going to get that done ASAP, as i need this car.  It's 10 years old, and i still would like a more recent model soon, but for now it's the best we have as it only has about 30,000 miles on it.

Our church office was closed Friday so our prayer group met at Mr. BA and Ms. GA's house for fruit and coffee and prayer, and i was thankful not to have to drive anywhere once i arrived because i clean their house on Friday and it was raining.

That's a wrap for the week, if next year stays true to form, it won't be boring.

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.   

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Today is:

Check Your Smoke Alarms Day (may i suggest the carbon  monoxide detectors get done as well?)

Fairy Eve's Year News -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Sharaf (Honor) -- Baha'i

International Solidarity Day -- Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis worldwide

Kwanzaa, Day 6, Kuumba (Creativity)

Leap Second Adjustment Day -- if a second needs to be added or subtracted to coordinate the atomic and astronomical time, it will be done today, buy the International Earth Rotation Service of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Paris, France

Make Up Your Mind Day/Procrastinator's Day -- you have to make up your mind

National Champagne Day

New Year's Eve -- a selection of related observances

     Allendale Tar Barrel Burning/Baal Fire Festival -- Allendale, England (locals burn out the old year by carrying burning tar barrels on their heads, then use them to light one huge bonfire)

     Feast of Father Time -- because he ultimately overcomes us all

     Festival of Yemaya -- Yoruba/Santeria (celebration of the mother of the sun and moon)

     Fire and Ice New Year's Eve Celebration -- Anchorage, AK (fire jugglers, ice carvers, fireworks, and more)

     First Night -- a non-alcoholic alternative to New Year's Eve

     Fravartigan -- Parsi Zoroastrian (celebration to honor the dead through the night)

     Gamlarskvold -- Icelandic traditions; cows gain human speech, seals take on human form, the dead rise, and Elves move house

                obtain gold from the Elves by sitting at a crossroads and waiting for them to pass

                Housewives greet the Elves by reciting the rhyme of protection

                        Let those who want to, arrive

                        Let those who want to, leave

                        Let those who want to, Stay

                        Without harm to me or mine

                Light a bonfire, and "blow out the year" with fireworks 

     Harvest Day Celebrations -- Benin (celebration of the end of harvest season at the turn of the year)

     Hogmanay Day -- Scotland (Auld Year's Night)

     Japanese Observances (a few, at least)

          Joya no Kane -- Japan (ringing out the old year with temple bells; Buddhists believe humans are born with 108 worldly desires which are removed when the bells are rung 108 times)

          Namahge -- Oga Peninsula, Japan (devil appearing holiday; young men dress as demons and run through the town warning children to behave during the coming year)

          Okera Matsuri -- Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (Sacred Fire Rite)

          Omisoka Day -- Japan (the second most important day on the Japanese Calendar; tomorrow is the most important)

     Noche de Pedimento -- Oaxaca, Mexico (Night of the Petition)

     Ritual for Iemanja -- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (seaside rituals for the goddess of the sea and carnal pleasure, followed by a swinging party in the city and on the beaches overnight)

     Samoan Fire Dance -- Samoa

     Swinging the Fireballs -- Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland

     Universal Hour of Peace -- begins at 11:30pm your local time, welcome the New Year with peace

     Watch Night -- Christian

     World Peace Meditation Day (International observance of one hour beginning 12:00 PM GMT, focusing thought and energy on peace.)

No Resolution Day / Ditch the Resolutions Day -- if you don't want to, you don't have to!

Restoration Day -- Geneva, Switzerland

Seventh Day of Christmas

St. Sylvester's Day (Patron of Feroleto Antico, Italy; Poggio Catino, Italy) related observances

     Saint Sylvester's Day Celebrations-- Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland

     Silvesterklause -- Urnäsch, Switzerland

St. Zoticus of Constantinople's Day (Patron of the poor; often titled Feeder of Orphans)

You're All Done Day -- sponsored by something i haven't been able to pin down online called The Long Haul Committee (and it's more like "all done in" if you are like me!)

Anniversaries Today:

Gregory Peck marries Veronique Passani, 1955

Rocky Marciano marries Barbara Cousins, 1950

Bette Davis marries Arthur Farnsworth, 1940

Birthdays Today:

Joe McIntyre, 1972

Nicholas Sparks, 1965

Val Kilmer, 1959

Bebe Neuwirth, 1958

James Remar, 1953

Donna Summer, 1948

Tim Matheson, 1947

Barbara Carrera, 1945

Diane Halfin von Furstenberg, 1945

John Denver, 1943

Ben Kingsley, 1943

Andy Summers, 1942

Sarah Miles, 1941

Anthony Hopkins, 1937

Odetta, 1930

Simon Wiesenthal, 1908

George C. Marshall, 1880

Henri Matisse, 1869

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The London Eye(World's Largest Ferris Wheel), 1999

"Lost in Yonkers"(Play), 1990

"Pirates of Penzance"(Comic Opera), 1879

Today in History:

80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians attack the Rhine at Mainz, crossing into and beginning the invasion of Gallia, 406

Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year, 535

Ch'an monk Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in China, 765

James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca, 1229

100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily, 1492

The British East India Company chartered, 1600

The first Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope, 1687

A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, 1695

Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors, 1776

Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada, 1857

The cornerstone is laid for Honolulu, Hawai'i's Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the US, 1879

Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp, 1879

Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot, 1890

Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898), 1897

Boers & British army sign peace treaty, 1902

The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York, 1904

For the first time a ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year, 1907

The last San Francisco firehorses are retired, 1921

The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC, 1923

Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer," the first breath test, is introduced in Indiana, 1938

The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom, 1960

The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia, 1963

The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government, 1983

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved, 1991

Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 1992

This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones, 1994

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency, 1998

The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama, 1999

The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, 2004

Italy's ban of plastic bags goes into effect, 2010

A ship abandoned by human traffickers who deliberately set it on a collision course with the Italian coast is brought to shore safely by the Italian Coast Guard with 900 Syrian refugees on board, 2014

A ban on the ivory trade in China comes into effect, 2017