The Thankfuls are Plentiful, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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The thankfuls are as plentiful as the spring flowers this Thankful Day.

Grandma has had a birthday and Mother's Day is tomorrow here, i'm thankful i can buy her the flavored sparkling water she loves.

Grandpa is usually on top of things, but last when we told him we won't be in NOLA for Grandma's birthday and we'd brought her gifts with us Saturday, he was confused.

"Wait," he said, "isn't tomorrow Mother's Day, on her birthday?  Aren't they on the same day this year"

No, we told him, it's not until next week.  (And because her birthday is the 7th, and the 8th is the earliest date for Mother's Day, they never coincide although they sometimes happen on the same weekend.)

He pulled out his little black notebook and turned to the page for Sunday, May 7, scratched out Mother's Day, and rewrote it for the next Sunday.

He's nothing if not thorough, even when, as in this case, he is thoroughly mistaken.

I'm very thankful he's such an organized person.

We've had rain and even a few storms.  I'm thankful we only had one "monsoon rain" as i call it, as it was more than enough.  It happened last week on my way to Friday morning Bible study which is very early and has me driving in the dark.

That morning the rain was so bad we couldn't see the lines on the road on the interstate, each car was simply aiming to follow the tail lights of the car in front of it.  It was rather harrowing and there were a couple of times my tiny GusGus hydroplaned.  I was thankful to get there in one piece (and of course the rain stopped just as i parked).

Little Girl had an important letter coming too her, and the USPS left of a notice because someone had to sign for it.  I looked at the slip left behind and was shocked as it said we could also pick it up at our local post office in Tampa, Florida.  That would be over 700 miles from here, not exactly what i would call local.  We were thankful after two days of tracking and lying it wait for our postal carrier, we finally got the letter.

#1 Son needed some work on his car.  We were thankful to be able to finagle rides and get him home after he dropped it off.  Then came pick-up time the next day, and Sweetie was supposed to get him from his apartment and take him back to the shop.

Sweetie tried to call several times, then called me saying he couldn't get in touch with #1 Son at all, by call or text.  It turned out their phones were not connecting, they cannot call or text each other.  This resulted, when Sweetie got lost and couldn't find the right apartment, with both of them calling me and me having to put everyone on a conference call and, let's just say all of us were very thankful when the whole ordeal was done.

A few weeks ago, i came in from working in Ms. D's garden with a very itchy ankle.  I assumed it was a mosquito bite and tried not to scratch, but woke one morning and i'd scratched it in my sleep.

Over the next few days, it got worse and i finally took it to Dr. BowTie.  He put me on an antibiotic just to be sure, and made me put some of the cream i keep for my hand eczema (which hasn't bothered me since i started wearing gloves to work consistently, and i'm thankful) on it for a few days.

I'm thankful it did clear up, finally.

We weren't done with packages after Little Girl's letter, as Sweetie had one coming and spent an inordinate amount of time waiting and bugging me into waiting around for it.  I'm thankful it came and he has no more in the near future that i know of.

Ms. V got a new clear vinyl cover for her tablecloth.  It has to have a cover so it doesn't have to be washed so often, as Carl can leave behind a mess at the table.  It was a very thick, stiff plastic and she and i spent several minutes wrestling with it to unroll it and get it into place.  I'm thankful she has it, thankful i'm in good enough shape to fight such a fight (it really was a tussle to unroll the thing) and thankful I don't have to do it again!

Mr. BA is working on the kitchen, and of course my cleaning morning was the day he picked for the project.  He told me he'd been done that morning, with plenty of time for me to clean the kitchen after.

His timing is his own, though, and Sweetie and i had finished cleaning the whole rest of the house when he decided to come out of his office and actually start the work.  I texted Ms. GA and asked if she wanted me to come back and clean it when he was done, later in the weekend, or what she wanted.  She told me to skip it, there was a good possibility he won't be done before the weekend is over anyway.  I'm thankful she is an easy boss to work with.

Yesterday afternoon i finally did what i'd been threatening to do and went to the shelter early, grabbed the keys to the gates, and went to the key shop and had new keys made.  The shelter doors in the back are self-locking, and it's easy to accidentally get locked out into the yard which has a high fence around it.  A couple of times people have been locked out when alone at the building and had to risk climbing that high fence to get out.

We used to have a spare key hidden back there so we could get out through the gate and back in at the front door if we locked ourselves out.  Somehow over the years it disappeared, and i've been saying i'd take the time to rectify the situation.  I'm thankful i was able to do it yesterday.

Yesterday was also a busy day at the shelter as there are many very young kittens just now and messy is how everything stays,  I spent much delightful time wrangling kittens to keep them in while at the same time getting them and their environment temporarily clean.  Of course it's temporary, they're babies, they'll have food and litter and everything strewn everywhere before you know it, but for the moment all was well and i was thankful to get to do it.

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:

Arlington National Cemetery Day -- US (the first serviceman to be interred here was Private William Henry Christman, on this date in 1964

Birth Mother's Day -- the day before Mother's Day, for all the women who have made an adoption plan for their babies

Bun Bung Fai (Rocket Festival) -- Yasothon, Thailand (through the 14th, teams compete to build the highest flier, with no regard for safety!)

Celtic Tree Month Huath (hawthorn) commences

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Awareness Day -- shedding light on this rare genetic condition 

Fairy King and Queen Jumping Competition -- Fairy Calendar

Frog Jumping Day -- original date for celebrating Twain's short story

Garland Day -- Abbotsbury, Dorset, England

King Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Lemuralia -- Ancient Roman Empire (third day)

Leprechaun Day -- spread around the internet, presumably by the little people themselves, as since St. Patrick gets a day, so should they!

Letter Carriers "Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive -- US (place non-perishable food items by your mail box, and help stamp out hunger in your area)

National Apple Pie Day

National Babysitter's Day -- US, giving recognition to the babysitters who make your date nights possible

National Fruit Cocktail Day

Pilgrimage to Fatima -- Fatima, Portugal (procession, mass, and etc. to commemorate the first appearance of the Virgin of the Rosary to the three shepherd children on this day in 1917)

Stay Up All Night Night -- as declared by George Mahood of Northampton, England, everyone needs to relive the excitement of staying up late like you always wanted to as a kid at least once a year

St Julian of Norwich's Day (Author of what is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, around 1393)

St. Servatus' Day (3rd Ice Saint, Patron for success; against foot problems, lameness, leg problems, mice, rats, rheumatism, vermin)

Sun Awareness Day -- like Melanoma Monday, a few days back, a day to remember the damage the sun can do to skin and stock up on sunscreen, if you haven't already

World Belly Dance Day -- to celebrate the wonderful art of belly dance 

World Fair Trade Day -- sponsored by the World Fair Trade Organization; this year's theme is "Reimagining the Economy: Regenerative Businesses for the Future" 

World Migratory Bird Day -- original date second Saturday in May, but the WMBD www.migratorybirdday.org organization encourages you to celebrate when birds are migrating in your area; this year's theme is "Water: Sustaining Bird Life"; one celebration that is on this date:

     International Migratory Bird Celebration -- Chincoteague, VA, US (walks, talks, tours, art, and children's activities, all outdoors with the birds)

Birthday Today:

Debby Ryan, 1993

Robert Pattinson, 1986

Samantha Morton, 1977

Darius Rucker, 1968

Darius Rucker, 1966

Stephen Colbert, 1964

Julianne Phillips, 1962

Dennis Rodman, 1961

Frances Barber, 1957

Stevie Wonder, 1950

Bobby Valentine, 1950

Franklyn Ajaye, 1949

Tim Pigott-Smith, 1946

Mary Wells, 1943

Ritchie Valens, 1941

Harvey Keitel, 1939

Beatrice Arthur, 1923

Joe Louis, 1914

Arthur Sullivan, 1842

Maria Theresa, 1717

Debuting/Premiering Today;

Let It Be(Film), 1970

"Paint It Black"(Single release), 1966

"The Pajama Game"(Musical), 1954

Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra (Bloch concerto), 1917

"Apollo et Hyacinthus"(opera, Mozart K 38), 1767

Today in History:

The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother, 1568

A major earthquake in Santiago, Chile, kills 1/3 of the population, 1643

Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England  with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia, 1787

Ecuador  gains its independence from Gran Colombia, 1830

The first performance of Finland's national anthem, 1848

Queen Victoria declares Britain neutral in the US Civil War, 1861

The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 1861

Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway, 1880

The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom, 1912

Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft, 1913

The first commercial FM radio station in the United States (WDRC-FM) is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut, 1939

Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons, 1940

The trade mark Velcro is registered, 1958

The Free Speech Movement is born at UC Berkeley, 1960

Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President  of India and the first Muslim President of Indian Union, 1967

Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike, 1989

Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, 1994

A 33 years old British mother Alison Hargreaves, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas, 1995

Star Trek: Enterprise broadcasts its final show in the U.S., 2005

Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins, 2007

In Belize, a construction company requiring road fill gravel destroys a 2,300 year-old Mayan pyramid, 2013

A 22 year old UK blogger halts the spread of a global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying its "kill switch", 2017

Undersea explorer Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds plastic waste, 2019

The journal Nature Geoscience publishes a study showing the moon is shrinking because of moonquakes as it cools, 2019

The Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica calves the world's largest iceberg, named 'A-76,' at 1,667-square-miles (4,320 square km) , 2021