Strong Words and Fortunes, a Random and Happy Word Counter's Post

 ***********************************

It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Part of today’s post is also a writing challenge. This is how it works: one of the contributing bloggers picked a number between 12 and 50. The submitted number is a challenge to participating bloggers to write at least one piece using that exact number of words. 

This month, the word count number is: 44

It was submitted by:  Diane

 

Links to the other Word Counters posts:

Baking In A Tornado                    \

On the Border                                  

Carl is about to turn 42 next month, and he's feeling his oats.  "I should be allowed to drive somewhere at night, or go to choir, if I want to!" he told me.  Then added, "Doggone it!" which is rather strong language for him.

Of course, his mother and father are concerned about him traipsing all over.  He's Carl, and it would be easy for him to find himself into something over his head if he were out alone at night.  Not that he understands this at all.

I changed the subject and asked about church from the day before.  Ms. V has come to the point where, when Mr. L is sick and can't drive, she doesn't want to come into downtown for church, they go somewhere closer to their home.

They'd attended the closer church the day before, and as i was working Carl was telling me about the sermon, which had to do with missions.  What impressed him most, it seems, was the altar call and how some people went forward for prayer.

It distracted him a bit from his other concerns, and i was able to ask him about sunscreen and his ice vest.  It took me several trips to the car to find everything and we never did locate his lunch box -- another one gone.

I had arrived to find clothes in the dryer, not unusual.  What was unusual was when i got them out, one item was still dirty and stained, while the others looked and smelled clean and fresh.  Something was wrong in the state of laundry.

Then i realized he had set the clean stuff from the washer next to the pile of dirties on the counter while transferring from washer to dryer, and a dirty got mixed in.  Considering how distracted he gets, it was bound to happen eventually. 

He asked about lunch on the way out the door, and of course i'd packed it but in a grocery sack because his lunchbox is AWOL.  Then he started in about wanting his fortune cookie, did i find it and put it in there?

Since i hadn't known he had one, of course it wasn't in there, but he would be late if he delayed so i shooed him out the door and told him not to lock it, i'd do it after i took the garbage out.

He didn't lock the door, as i asked.  He also didn't close it, i found out a few minutes later as i headed to the outdoor garbage bin.  It's not the first time he's left the door open, and it won't be the last.

In honor of the fortune cookie left behind, some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone! 

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

Today is:

Anti-Bigot Day -- doesn't seem to be sponsored by any particular group, which is good on a day to practice tolerance of all

Constitution Day -- Uruguay

Hijra -- Islam (Islamic New Year Begins at the viewing of the new moon crescent, so exact time/date varies by location)

Mandela Day -- UN

National Caviar Day -- no one knows how it started, but even The Russian Tea Room in New York has celebrated it for years and caviar importers know all about it; pair it with ice cold vodka or a Burgundian pinot or unoaked chardonnay, but never with champagne!

Snake River Stampede -- Nampa, ID (the 104th year of one of the top 10 professional rodeo events in the nation; through Saturday)

St. Theneva's Day (Patron of Glasgow, Scotland)

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Vitula, goddess of exultation, joy, and life, is given the first fruits of the earth)

Wienermobile Day -- celebrating the creation, in 1936, of the now iconic vehicle by Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl

World Listening Day -- World Listening Project 

Anniversary Today:

Timothy Verner Taylor marries The Lady Helen Windsor, 1992

Bobby Brown marries Whitney Houston, 1992

Birthdays Today

Chace Crawford, 1985

Priyanka Chopra, 1982

Kristin Bell, 1980

Vin Diesel, 1967

Elizabeth McGovern, 1961

Ricky Skaggs, 1954

Richard Branson, 1950

Steve Forbes, 1947

James Brolin, 1941

Martha Reeves, 1941

Joe Torre, 1940

Dion DiMucci, 1939

Paul Verhoeven, 1938

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1932

Dick Button, 1929

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929

John Glenn, 1921

Nelson Mandela, 1918

Harriet Nelson, 1914

Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913

Hume Cronyn, 1911

Clifford Odets, 1906

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, 1906

George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895

Charles E. "Chick" Evans, Jr., 1890

Vidkun Quisling, 1887

Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867

William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811

Gilbert White, 1720

Robert Hooke, 1635

Today in History

A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390

The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64

King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290

Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801

The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870

Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898

Adoph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925

The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California, 1968

Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics  at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976

Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984

On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995

Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996

Phoenix, AZ, US, is hit by a dust storm of the kind known as a "haboob", 2011

King Jong-un, son of King Jong-il, is announced the official Supreme Leader of North Korea, 2012

The 'immediate and severe' fiscal emergency declared by the U.S. city San Bernardino, California, allows it to declare bankruptcy without negotiating with creditors, 2012

Investigators on the case of the October 2012 Kunsthal gallery theft of paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Monet, discover paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son has been charged with the crime, 2013

Detroit, Michigan files the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, 2013

PayPal is spun off from eBay as a separate publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, 2015

Google is fined a record $5.1 billion by the EU for abusing its power in the mobile phone market, 2018

The Hawai'i National Guard confirms that the current eruption of Kilauea volcano has destroyed 700 homes and added 700 acres to the size of the Big Island, 2018 

According to The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, June 2019 was the hottest June on record with average worldwide temperature of 61.6F (16.4C), 2019