A Slightly Tired and Sore Ten Things of Thankful

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I don't generally slam into Thankful Day quite as worn as i am now, but it's a good tired from a busy week so i'll be thankful for it, too.

Last Saturday while i was in NOLA, Sweetie was back home babysitting the generator guy.  Not our old guy, Mr. Mike is no longer in the business, but Mr. Rudy, who helped install ours, is still on the job.  He changed the oil, replaced the battery, gave it a good going over and declared it to be in excellent shape.  That's what we thought, since it's only 2 years old, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

I was able to take Bigger Girl's birthday/Mother's Day gifts to Grandma.  She'd made about two dozen origami cranes (i'm going to work on making them a mobile) and it turns out she's taking a woodworking class!  She'd carved a lovely piece, a bird holding a branch in its beak.  Grandma was as thrilled as a child with a new toy and walked all over the house to show everyone her gift.  I'm thankful to see her doing so well, as there were times in the first months after her fall we really thought she might not recover.

Grandpa chivvied me out the door to come home early Saturday, warning me of severe storms and wanting me to get home ahead of them.  I'm thankful the only rain i ran into was a tiny bit when i first left, once i got well out of the city, the sun was out and the roads were dry and clear.

On Sunday Becca and i were glad for a lovely walk with Mr. Cal, meeting up with some of his friends for a bit of chase and fun.

Then Sunday afternoon, Sweetie came home and said, "My car wouldn't stop today!  I pushed the brake pedal and it went all the way to the floor but it wouldn't stop, I put it in neutral and pulled the parking brake."  I'm thankful he didn't hit anything, that would have been a disaster.

He then drove it the rest of the way home and wanted to check the brake fluid levels.  He found the brake fluid bottle and went outside and i said i'd be there in a minute.  When i got out there, he was standing over the engine looking as lost as a white goose in a hailstorm, pulling dipsticks and shoving them back in.  When i asked what he was doing, he said, "Trying to figure out which one is brake fluid."

I showed him the label on the fluid, Dot 3, then showed him the cap for the brake fluid which is also labeled Dot 3.  Just match them up, i said, then looked inside.

It was full, meaning, thankfully, no need to rush to get a brake job or a line fixed or a new master cylinder.  Instead, he probably just had a bit of air in the brake line (that can happen) and we're thankful it turned out well.  (And i'm thankful i've learned how to check the fluids myself!)

Ms. JAI had forgotten i was coming on Monday, and she was in a pitiful state.  She and her daughter had a falling out again and the daughter has been calling everyone in the family telling her side of the story.  I'm thankful i was there to listen and sympathize (and not take sides, very important since i'm an outsider), get her root beer and an ice pack, and run to the store for a new charge cord for her iPhone and a loaf of bread.

I'm also thankful i was able to get through a 3 job day.  I don't have many of those any more and they can be tough.

In great thankful news, Sweetie and The Big Boss went back out to the farm and found his phone (and put in a good day's work).  I turned the service back on and he brought it home and charged it up and he's now glad to have it back (and so am i!).

Then came Wednesday.    It's kitten season and the shelter is busting loose with kittens everywhere.  I also had my hands full with several messy cages that needed extra attention. I was thankful for the time spent with the kitties, even so.

By the time i got to Ms. G's I'd been at it almost 4 hours already.  She had a project waiting.  A few weeks back, we'd worked on cleaning and clearing a house for sale.  They'd had a bookshelf, a big, heavy bookshelf, not the particle board kind but the real deal.  She wanted it in the library.

We moved several pieces of furniture, unloaded the shelf she was replacing, maneuvered it out of the room before it collapsed in the hall (that's why she was replacing it, it was on its last legs), hauled the debris to the curb for pick-up, and wrangled the new bookshelf, much taller than her doorway, into the house.

I'm thankful i managed to move out of the way quickly enough when that sucker collapsed.

Then we paused and went to see some of her friends and move some of their belongings into a storage room on their property.

They thanked me with fresh, home grown tomatoes, and i was thankful for those for dinner.

After that, it was back to Ms. G's house to maneuver the honking big bookcase into her library, reload it, and put all the rest of the stuff back.

Can we say i'm thankful i held up under all that?

The adventures for the week were not over yet.  Ms. SE's house is always good for something or other, and this time we were treated to a doozy.

On Wednesday, when Ms. G and i were playing "Two Gals With(out) a Truck" (play on the name of the moving company, Two Men and a Truck), Mr. DE was up in his attic, clearing out the drain line for the HVAC system.

Thursday morning, we got to their house and Sweetie was doing his usual walk-through to see where things stood and he started yelling, "Get in here, we've got trouble!"

We certainly did.  The hall bathroom was flooded with water that had poured out from under the toilet.  The other two bathrooms also had water, just not as much.

We're thankful Mr. DE answered his phone this time and that he's a contractor.

It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.  They get roots in the sewer pipes leading out of their house, which slows the rate of draining.  Add the plug he'd blown out of the HVAC drain (which goes into that same pipe) and their sewer line was backed up and in a right royal state.  When Ms. SE ran both the washing machine and dishwasher that morning, the water couldn't drain through the clog in the pipes fast enough so out it came from the only place it could, under the toilets.

We're thankful they had a ton of towels we could use to sop up the mess, Mr. DE rented a "snake" machine and managed, after almost an hour and a half of work to clear his sewer line, and in spite of the extra work, thankful we got everything done and Ms. SE didn't have to come home to deal with that mess.

The tip Mr. DE hid on the dashboard of my car to show his appreciation for dealing with it all was also a thankful thing.

Friday was a let-down (sort of) by comparison to the two previous days, but i was thankful for that, too.

The shelter Friday evening was busy but not crazy and most of the messiest cats from Wednesday morning had calmed and not done so much damage this time, for which i'm thankful.

I'm also thankful i don't have weeks like this all the time!

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:

Bake Your Own Bread Day -- it's really not that hard

Bunker Hill Day -- Suffolk County, MA, US (actual date)

Dia del Padre -- El Salvador; Guatemala (Father's Day)

Dollars Against Diabetes Days -- always on Father's Day weekend, with information here   

Eat All of Your Vegetables Day / Fresh Veggies Day -- yes, i have this listed yesterday, too; internet sites disagree about the actual date, and you need your veggies today, too!

Husband Caregiver Day -- to honor husbands who give health care to family members (wives, children, or extended family)

Independence Day/National Day -- Iceland

International Violin Day -- Stravinsky's birth anniversary

National Apple Strudel Day

Okinawa Day -- Japan/US (remembrance of signing the treaty, in 1971, to return Okinawa to Japan)

Pirate Radio Day -- no actual pirate (i.e., unlicensed) radio stations will admit to declaring this a holiday, but what do you expect?

Soviet Occupation Day -- Latvia

St. Botulph of Ikanhoe's Day (Patron of agricultural and farm workers, sailors, travellers; Bossal, England; Boston, England; Boston, MA, US; Botesdale, England; Botolph Bridge, Huntingdonshire, England; Botolph's Bridge, Kent, England; Botolph, Sussex, England)

St. Herve's Day (Patron of the blind; against eye diseases and problems)

Toadstool-Squatting begins -- Fairy Calendar (Leprechauns)

Vice President's Remembrance Day -- not officially, just a day to see how many vice presidents you remember

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- UN

World Juggling Day (sat closest to 17th -- after if it's midweek

Anniversaries Today

Orpheus marries the nymph Eurydice, Ancient Greek traditional date

Birthdays Today:

Mark Walker, 1999

Lee Ryan, 1983

Venus Williams, 1980

Will Forte, 1970

Dan Jansen, 1965

Greg Kinnear, 1963

Thomas Haden Church, 1960

Mark Linn-Baker, 1953

Joe Piscopo, 1951

Barry Manilow, 1946

Art Bell, 1945

Newt Gingrich, 1943

Gene De Paul, 1919

John Richard Hersey, 1914

Ralph Bellamy, 1904

Sammy Fain, 1902

M.C. Escher, 1898

Igor Stravinsky, 1882

William Hooper, 1742

John Wesley, 1703

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Oh! Calcutta!"(Revue), 1969

"Barney Google and Snuffy Smith"(Comic strip), 1919

Today in History:

Vlad III the Impaler (a/k/a Vlad Dracul or Count Dracula) attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia, 1462

Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, 1565

Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England, 1579

Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth; her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal, 1631

The Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775

In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands, 1839

1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory, 1876

The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor, 1885

The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT, 1901

 "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres, 1919

Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic, 1944

The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opens; it is still open today, 1958

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress, 1961

Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, 1972

With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct, 1987

The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth, 1991

Australian scientists report that they have "teleported" a laser beam, breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location, 2002

The first condemnation of discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people is issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011

The Incredibles 2 sets a box office record for an animated release, earning $180 million its opening weekend, 2018

Greece signs a historic deal with Macedonia ending years of dispute over its name; after this, it will be called North Macedonia, 2018

China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft with three astronauts arriving at its new space station Tiangong six and a half hours later, 2021