Knowing When to Give In and Other Good Things, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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It's a joy to get to Thankful Day.

Especially when i've been keeping a running list.

Grandpa is...tenacious.  Some would say stubborn (even he says it, and claims i'm the only person as stubborn as he is, and he might be right).

He is 87, getting thin and frail, has a bad heart, and hates, no loathes, using his handicapped parking tag he keeps in the glove box.  He says, "Someone else might need it worse than me!"

Last Saturday, we pulled into the grocery store and there were no spaces near except a handicapped spot.  Thankfully, he didn't decide to try to play the hero and walk further than he should, he had me pull the tag out.

I was cat-sitting last week and was thankful to get a load of laundry in at my client's home (she says i'm welcome to do it any time, but i don't want to abuse the privilege).  It's nice to be able to skip the laundromat once in so often.

Abigail cat, a/k/a The Mad Pooper, is a mess.  The poor thing is happy, enjoying life, tests negative for everything and has the nastiest messes i've seen, and always next to the litter box, not in it.  Cleaning up after her takes a lot of extra time, i'm thankful last Sunday i still got it done in time to mop the floor and be at Becca's house.

Obi Buddy cat is also a mess, pestering the life out of Abigail.  I'm thankful i was able to catch him and lock him in the bedroom both nights so he was unable to bother her when no one else was there to run interference.

Monday is always busy and last week i got to Ms. JAI's and she was not doing well at all.  She is also 87, and fell again several days prior and by the time i got there she could hardly breathe or talk and was in a lot of pain.

I told her to go to the ER, and so did a lot of other people, but she didn't want to.  When she realized she had to have X-rays, and there was a storm expected that might strand her at home and no one would be able to get to her, she finally gave in and called 911 and let them take her.

I was so thankful she was the one who called, and i was able to get her ready to be there overnight if needed (it was needed).  She's back home and doing much better, nothing broken but her shoulder will have to recover from the strain as she tried to catch herself.

I'll also be thankful if she ever decided to get in-home help full time, or go into assisted living, she really needs it.

Speaking of that storm, it didn't.  Storm that is.  At least not much here.  We got plenty of needed rain, and Tuesday had sun and a wind fit to beat the band, but we're all thankful there was no really severe weather.

Also, the expected weather had so many people worried our ladies' circle was postponed so i had a day off.  I was thankful to actually sleep in for once.

Ms. G wants to consign some china for sale.  For the past 10 years, it has been packed in cardboard boxes in newspaper, with much of it having no padding between pieces, and has even rattled around in the back of her truck for months, and in all this time not a single piece of 112 has gotten chipped or broken.

She still decided in order to sell it, it all had to be taken out of what it's in, carefully wrapped piece by piece, and stored in boxes procured for it.  It took us 5 hours and i'm thankful it's done is all i can say.

Our Thursday client's house really wasn't so bad.  It's mom, dad, two kids, and the dog, and they try, they really do.  I'm thankful to say they mostly try to keep up between our visits every two weeks, and as the boys get older the number of toys scattered pillar to post is fewer and fewer.

Of course, I'm thankful for the cat shelter.  We had a new volunteer and we trained her last night to do evening caretaking.

We're thankful like crazy up at the shelter because Ani found a home after 512 days!  She was our longest term resident.

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.   

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Today is:

Bikaner Camel Festival -- Bikaner, India (colorful camel activities, including a beauty competition, and fun for people also in this gorgeous fortified desert town; through tomorrow)

Children's Day -- Thailand

Democracy Day -- Cape Verde

Feast of St. Kentigern (a/k/a St. Mungo) (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")

Ides of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Liberation Day -- Togo

Maghi -- Sikh

Make Your Dreams Come True Day -- no info on the origin of this; maybe someone who broke their New Year's resolutions by this day used the fact that it's New Year's by the Julian calendar to start over

Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)

National Peach Melba Day

Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (Yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)

Pongal begins -- India (thanksgiving festival at the end of the harvest season, honoring Indra, god of clouds and rain)

     first day, Bhogi

Radio Day -- anniversary of the first public radio broadcast in 1910

Runic Half-month of Peorth (womb) begins

Rubber Ducky Day

Sidereal Winter Solstice Eve -- celebrations through South and Southeast Asia, including

     Bhogi -- Tamil (first day of Pongal)

     Lohri -- Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh

     Uruka -- Assam

Silvesterklausen -- Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration, based on the Julian Calendar)

St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year; Patron of learning challenged children; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy; against snakes and snake bites)

St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it celebrates Canute IV of Denmark and is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and puting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)

Strive and Succeed Day -- Horatio Alger's birth anniversary

Theogamia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (anniversary celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera; date approximate, but during Gamelion, the month of marriages)

Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)

Tyvendedagen -- Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")

Birthdays Today:

Joannie Rochette, 1966

Orlando Bloom, 1977

Nicole Eggert, 1972

Keith Coogan, 1970

Patrick Dempsey, 1966

Penelope Ann Miller, 1964

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961

Kevin Anderson, 1960

Jay McInerney, 1955

Richard Moll, 1943

Frank Gallo, 1933

Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931

Frances Sternhagen, 1930

Gwen Verdon, 1925

Army Archerd, 1922

Robert Stack, 1919

Alfred Carl Fuller, 1885

Sophia Tucker, 1884

Horatio Alger, 1832

Salmon P. Chase, 1808

DEbuting/Premiering Today:

"The Sopranos"(TV), 1999

"Mickey Mouse"(Comic strip), 1930

Today in History:

Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099

Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435

The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605

The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607

Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695

James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733

John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785

The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830

Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842

Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854

A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863

A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883

 The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893

U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893

The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906

The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910

An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915

The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939

Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942

Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964

Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American  US Cabinet member, 1966

Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968

A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985

L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990

Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991

An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001

The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy, 2012

An early-morning ballistic missile alert is sent across Hawaii in error and revoked after 38 minutes, 2018

Scientists studying the Murchison Meteorite announce their belief that it contains material that is 7.5 billion years old, 2020

Archaeologists announce the discovery of the world's oldest known cave painting of an animal (a pig), in Leang Tedongnge cave, island of Sulawesi, Indonesia; it is estimated to be 45,500 years old, 2021

In a landmark decision, former Syrian intelligence officer Anwar Raslan is convicted for state-sponsored crimes against humanity, 2022