An Easier Week, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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This week wasn't as adventurous as last week, and that's my first thankful for this Thankful Day.

Every year, as a Father's Day gift, we go to a BBQ joint not far from where Grandma and Grandpa live and get a huge "mess" of stuff, meats, sauces, sides, bread, etc.

I'm thankful we were able to do that and there was enough they enjoyed it for a couple of days and Grandpa had some to freeze for another time when he has a hankering for it.  

I'm thankful even Grandma liked the chicken.  She can be hard to please, most meats turn out too dry for her.

Sunday, Father's Day, was when we got the big news from #2 Son and His Bride that they are expecting.  To say everyone in the family is thankful and excited is an understatement.

Carl is back to needing his ice vest and other things, i'm thankful we were able to get everything ready and still get him out the door on time.

Tuesday was the second half of my annual physical with Dr. BowTie.  He's very thorough.  My mammogram results were clear, my DEXA scan shows my bones are getting denser (hooray!) and he had me do an extra "whiz quiz" to check one finding and it came back all okay.

I'm thankful i've mostly checked out and even if i've outlived my warranty, i seem to be good for a while yet.  Now to get my colonoscopy scheduled and my eyes checked, these cataracts are getting really bad.

This Wednesday with Ms. G was not nearly so strenuous as last time, thankfully.  I just carried the 40lb. bird seed bags, nothing compared to moving bookshelves.

The cat shelter is hugely busy right now, with kittens up to the gills.  This Wednesday, thankfully, there weren't near as many awful messy cages as the week prior.

But that was Wednesday.  Friday, i was thankful to even get there with the traffic as bad as it can get here (i always joke i'm a teetotal but the traffic will turn me into a drinking woman).

Once i got there, i cleaned the bathrooms and got started with food and water.  After i'd gotten through some of the cages, Ms. H, the director, went behind me and put NPO (medical term for don't feed them tonight, they're having surgery in the morning) tags on some cages because they are doing surgeries on a Saturday!

Yes, we're thankful for our surgical suite and thankful there's a vet willing to come out on a Saturday when so many of our usual volunteer vets are on vacation that we were getting behind.

I'm also thankful i saw the NPO signs on the cages i'd already done so i could take some of their food away (we let the kittens have enough for a snack but they run out about midnight, which is just right).

The food doesn't go to waste when we have to throw some of it away, we toss it out for the ducks, we're thankful to keep them outside the gate with regular offerings of old, spilled or discarded cat and kitten kibble.

At one point, i picked up one of the water bowls in the ring that's supposed to attach it to the cage, and it slipped out.  This happens when someone puts a too small bowl in a too big ring.  Of course it went everywhere, even into the food bucket.

I'm thankful the bucket wasn't totally full, so i only had to throw away a little food.  I'm thankful we had plenty to refill it with (if a shipment is late, we can get to where there's none to waste, although we'd never let them do without).

I'm thankful i finished at the shelter with 3 minutes to spare before it closed.

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:

Araw ng Maynila -- Philippines (Manila Day)

Armed Forces Day -- United Kingdom 

ARRL Field Day -- American Radio Relay League's most popular on-air operating event, in which amatuer/ham radio operators practice and drill for communications during emergencies; through tomorrow     

Bannockburn Day -- Scotland (decisive battle of the first Scottish War of Independence, led by Robert Bruce)

Burning of the Lamps in Egypt at Sais -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar, a celebration of Isis and Neith (date approximate)

Calcio Fiorentino -- Florence, Italy (reviving 16th century style football in period costumes, through the 28th)

Carabobo Day -- Venezuela (battle commemoration)

Cat World Domination Day

Celebration of the Senses -- Wellcat Holidays urges you to enjoy all five (six?) of your senses today

Countryman's Day -- Peru (one of Peru's three Fiestas Patrias Peruanas)

Day of the Caboclo -- Amazonas State, Brazil

Feast of Rahmat (Mercy) -- Baha'i

Flying Saucer Day -- anniversary of Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting, while flying near Mt. Rainier, of 9 metallic, circular objects he could not identify

Fors Fortuna -- Ancient Roman Calendar (rites and festival for the goddess of good luck and fortune)

Great American Picnic Day -- various dates given, with the most common being the final Saturday of June

International Fairy Day/Faerie Day -- day for collectors, believers, and artists to share their love for the little folk   

Lost Handkerchief Day -- Fairy Calendar

Midsummer's Day -- Aland; Finland; Sweden (obs.)

Museum Comes to Life Day -- another fun and funny day someone came up with

National Creamy Pralines Day

Pixie Day -- Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England (reenacting of the "Revenge" of the Pixies who bothered the town until midsummer in 1454; now fun, games, music, pageant, and more)     

St. John the Baptist's Nativity Day and related Midsummer celebrations (Patron of baptism, bird dealers, converts, children with convulsions, epileptics, farriers, French Canadians, lambs, monastic life, motorways, printers, tailors; against convulsions, epilepsy, hail and hailstorms, and spasms; Patron of over 60 cities and countries around the globe)

    Inti Raymi -- Peru (Incan Sun Festival)

    Jaanipaev -- Estonia

    Jani -- Latvia

    Jónsmessa -- Iceland (feast of St. John the Baptist, considered a magical night when cows can speak, seals take on human form, finding magical stones and herbs is propitious, and rolling naked in the dew is healing.)

    Macau Day -- China (celebrating the defeat of Dutch invasion forces in 1622 and paying homage to St. John as the port's Patron Saint)

    Midsummer Day -- England

    National Holiday -- Quebec, Canada (Sant Jean-Baptiste)

    Saint John the Baptist Day -- Andorra

    Saint Jonas Festival or Jonines -- Lithuania

    San Juan -- CT and GA, Spain

    Surinal -- North Korea

    Zuni Buffalo, Corn, and Comanche Dances -- Zuni Native Americans (for fertility of land and people; Vespers is also observed, as San Juan is their Patron Saint)

Swim a Lap Day -- just for fun!

Swing a Kid Day -- if swimming isn't right for you, go play on the swing set

Veteranendag -- Netherlands (Veterans Day)

Anniversaries Today:

Eton College is founded by Henry VI, 1441

Birthdays Today:

Sherry Stringfield, 1967

Joe Penny, 1956

Nancy Allen, 1950

Phyllis George, , 1949

Peter Weller, 1947

Mick Fleetwood, 1947

Ellison Shoji Onizuka, 1946

Jeff Beck, 1944

Michele Lee, 1942

Claude Chabrol, 1930

John Anthony Ciardi. 1916

Phil Harris, 1904

Jack Dempsey, 1895

Roy O. Disney, 1893

Ambrose Bierce, 1842

Henry Ward Beecher, 1813

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Catch-22(Film), 1970

"Hopalong Cassidy"(TV), 1949

"American Mercury Presents:  Meet the Press"(Radio), 1945

Today in History:

Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place, 972

A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion, 1374

John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland; the first European 

exploration of the region since the Vikings, 1497

Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines, 1571

Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present-day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1604

The colony of New Jersey is founded, 1664

Kingston, Jamaica is founded, 1692

The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England, 1717

The first republican constitution in France is adopted, 1793

The decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain, the Battle of Carabobo takes place, 1821

First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français, 1880

The first exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens, 1901

Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract, 1916

The first airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto begins, 1918

Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the third prime minister, 1939

The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible, 1948

The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government, 1963

Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud completes his first mission, becoming the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist, 1985

John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history, 2010

The last known Pinta Island Tortoise, Lonesome George, is found dead in the Galapagos Islands, 2012

British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns after the UK votes to leave the EU, 2016

Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on women driving, 2018

The US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, 2022