Still Thankful, Even in August, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Please note the weekly blog hop Ten Things of Thankful is taking a hiatus in August.  This will not stop me counting my thankfuls on Thankful Day.

Last week, we learned Slow-Moe (our car, and yes, we name our cars, don't judge) was going to need a repair, but it was not urgent or extremely expensive.  We were thankful to be able to put it off a week so as to wait until the retirement check hits the account on the first day of the month.

I was also thankful i could put off the Chewy autoship order for a week to wait for that money to come in, and order Dansig the Round's insulin for after that came in.

If you are thinking we sometimes wait with bated breath for the first, you're right.  We're both always thankful to be able to get a few things we need which were put off at the end of the previous month.

Grandma has gotten to where she wants us to stay longer and longer on Saturday to visit, and i don't blame her.  We're thankful to be able to do it.

Becca and her family were out of town this past weekend attending a family funeral.  I was not thankful to be without my favorite church buddy.  I was thankful i got to sleep in a little and we had a fish fry fellowship after.  I was thankful to visit with people, it was fun.

Monday evening we had a rainstorm, and it was a real monsoon rain, a frog-strangler of intense proportion.  The electricity went out, and we were most thankful for the generator.

We were only on the generator a few hours.  Our neighbors were not so blessed, the electricity was out overnight.

The worst, though, was in an area where Ms. G, my Wednesday lady, lives.  They'd had a "microburst," the equivalent of rain and wind of hurricane proportion, over a small area.  Trees were down and had taken down lines, poles were broken, transformers and substations and all were seriously damaged.  People were without power in this awful triple-digit heat all of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Repairs were delayed by a second, smaller storm Tuesday evening and by a delay on shipping in new poles and other equipment.

Ms. G and i had to skip this week, and i was not thankful for that.  It did mean, though, i was able to devote more time and attention to the cat shelter.  The shelter had run out of cat litter, the shipment had not come in (sound familiar?) and i had extra time to scoop boxes instead of changing them, only changing the two or three that were really bad with the tiny bit of litter we had left.

I've also been helping out on occasion with a cat rescue on the other side of the river which has some adoption cages as a local pet store.  I was able to go over there and give those kitties some attention, as well as let people pet and play with them.  I was thankful to have the extra time.

I gave Dansig the Round his last dose of insulin from the old bottle on Wednesday morning, and as scheduled, picked up the new bottle on Wednesday afternoon.  I am very thankful for our vet's office.

My regular work went well this week, thankfully, and Sweetie got a lot of work with the Big Boss, always welcome for the extra income.  His car was repaired without a hitch on Wednesday, another thankful.

When i got back to the shelter on Friday, i was most thankful to see cat litter everywhere.  The delayed shipment had come in, and this week's regular shipment had come in, and as long as we don't miss any more shipments, we should be okay for a bit of a while.

Ms. M, my Friday evening partner who does rooms while i do cages, offices and the intake area, had called to say she'd been called to work late and wouldn't make it that evening.  I was very thankful for the volunteers who stepped in and between us we got everything done by ten minutes to closing time.

I'm also thankful they replaced the old dolly cart, as the wheels need to be fixed.  The old one can be salvaged, and i was most sorry it was going to be thrown out, as it's very sturdy and has a lot of life in it yet if someone had the know-how to attach new wheels.  

One of the volunteers who helped with caretaking jumped at the opportunity to take it.  I was thankful out of proportion to its importance that this nice piece of equipment was going to get a new lease on life, not be carted off to a landfill.

That's it for this week, and remember, even if the Ten Things of Thankful blog is taking a short break, you are still welcome list your thankful things, on your blog or in the comments.  When we count our blessings this way, it spreads the joy.

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Today is:

Andorra La Vella Festival -- Andorra (through Monday)

Barsi Bhagat Puran Singh -- Sikhism

Bogota Carnival -- Bogota, Colombia (celebrating the city's Hispanic founding; through tomorrow)

Celtic Tree Month Coll (Hazel) commences

Constitution Day -- Cook Islands

Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead Day -- uttered this day by Admiral Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864

Hanakasa Matsuri -- Yamagata City, Japan (10,000 costumed dancers perform; through the 7th)

Independence Day / Republic Day -- Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta)(1960)

International Hangover Day -- always the day after International Beer Day, which should tell you something, and sponsored by the same group that does International Beer Day, which should tell you something more!

National Blackmail Day -- according to mostly ecard sites, with suggestions to send a card to the friend who has told you his/her secrets, with the notice that you plan on celebrating this date!

National Mustard Day -- US, sponsored by the National Mustard Museum 

National Underwear Day -- sponsored by www.freshpair.com, which encourages people to rethink their underwear style, and make sure they have the right fit  

National Waffle Day

Nuestra Senora de Africa -- CE, Spain (Day of Our Lady of Africa, also called Fiestas Patronales)

Sacrifice to Salus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of health, associated with Greek Hygeia)

St. Afra of Augsburg's Day (Patron of converts, martyrs, penitent women; Augsburg, Germany)

St. Oswald of Northumbria's Day (Patron of Zug, Switzerland)

Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian defenders -- Croatia

Work Like a Dog Day -- different from work-a-holics, people who work like a dog work hard while they are at it, and rest when they aren't

Birthdays Today:

Jonathan Silverman, 1966

Patrick Aloysius Ewing, 1962

Maureen McCormick, 1956

Erika Slezak, 1946

Loni Anderson, 1946

Ja’net DuBois, 1938

John Saxon, 1936

Neil Armstrong, 1930

Sydney Omarr, 1926

Raoul Wallenberg, 1912

John Huston, 1906

Conrad Potter Aiken, 1889

Joseph Merrick, 1862

Guy de Maupassant, 1850

Thomas Lynch, Jr., 1749

John Eliot, 1604

Joseph Justus Scaliger, 1540

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Revolver"(Beatles Album, release date), 1966

"Eleanor Rigby" & "Yellow Submarine"(Beatles singles, A & B side respectively, release date), 1966

"American Bandstand"(TV, national premiere), 1957

"Andy Capp"(Comic strip), 1957

"Little Orphan Annie"(Comic strip), 1924

Today in History

The last outpost of Bar Kockba, Betar, falls to Rome, 135

Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield, 642

King Edward and Earl Aetherlred, leading the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, defeat the last major Viking army to raid England at the Battle of Tettenhall, 910

Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt, Germany, 1264

Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland, 1583

The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America, 1620

New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true, 1735

US Army abolishes flogging, 1861

Standard Oil of New Jersey is established, 1882

The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, 1884

Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip made in her husbands invention, the first patented automobile; her journey was to publicize the invention, and she garnered attention and sales, 1888

The first electric traffic light is installed, in Cleveland, Ohio, 1914

Debut of the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie", by Harold Gray, 1924

Debut of the comic strip "Andy Capp", by Smythe, 1957

Nelson Mandela is jailed, 1962*

The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty, 1963

The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm, 1995

The Copiapo mining accident traps 33 Chilean miners about 2,300ft below the ground, 2010

NASA launches the Juno Space Probe to study Jupiter, 2011

The world's first bovine stem cell lab-grown burger is eaten in London, 2013

The UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on North Korea for its continued missile program, 2017

New Zealand canoeist Lisa Carrington wins her third Olympic gold medal of the Tokyo Games and the 5th gold of her career, 2021

Volkswagen launches a prototype of its first flying car, an automated electric passenger vehicle nicknamed the "Flying Tiger", 2022

*Released in 1990