Timers, Sheets, and Garbage Cans, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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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.  

Carl wasn't finished having days off with last week's round and he has Monday and Tuesday of this week off, too.

Oh, joy.

I woke him and told him he needed to go to his sleep chair and he said, "Good!  I can't sleep.  GERD.  Don't know what to do," and picked up almost all of his pajamas to take with him.  He wears one pair (or a top from one pair and bottom from another) and wraps the rest of them around his pillow or drapes them over the chair because he likes the way they feel.

He also grabbed his sheet, but i convinced him to take the fresh one in the closet and let me wash the one on the bed, as well as change the pillowcase.  I also reminded him if he didn't get his pajamas to me in time, he'd have to wash them himself.

When he did get up later, i found the sheet on his sleep chair, still folded.  What in the world he wanted it for i have no clue.  He probably doesn't know, either.

Once he was safely snoozing, i turned to his room where i found his mom had ordered the usual assortment of new gloves, new sunglasses, and new ice packs for the summer run.  He breaks or loses or just plain wears out a fresh set of everything almost every year, so she simply reorders new each summer and hopes he keeps track of enough of them not to have to reorder until next summer.

Setting those aside to deal with later, i got the first load of laundry started, the bedding, found 4 items hung in his closet still dirty and was stain treating clothes when he came back in.

What's up? i asked and he headed for the sink.  "Brush teeth," he said, and proceeded to do so for about 20 seconds at the most.  Then he said, "That's good, all better," and headed for the door.

Once at the door he turned back so i asked him if he was going back to sleep or getting up to go do something.  "Sleep," he said, then, "shouldn't I straighten up?"

That's my job once i walk in the door, i told him, and he nodded solemnly, mumbled something about some church families he knows going on vacation or some such, then went back to his chair.

While straightening and sorting and tidying, i noticed what might be a minor miracle in his world.

He'd not only taken out the garbage, he'd put in a new bag and clipped it properly!  Asking Ms. V later, she didn't help him with it and Mr. L has not been feeling up to doing much, so i'm pretty sure he actually did this on his own.

Will wonders never cease!'

Not long after finding he'd left one of his frozen packs in an ice vest (it weighed too much when i picked it up to hang it up was my clue), he came in to brush again and said he was setting the timer.  Because i was flipping the laundry at the time, i followed him into the kitchen and saw him set the timer -- for ten minutes.

Okay, i thought, if he's sleeping ten minutes more, and he's dirtied every single washcloth and towel in his room, time to break out the emergency spares in the hall closet.  I got them and had them and clean clothes waiting for him when his timer went off and he went for his shower.

Once he came out, and i made him go back into the bathroom to get the socks i'd already given him instead of letting him rummage for yet another pair, he returned with them and then yelled, "Spider!  Spider!  Oh, why is it running after me!  Get it!"

The little wolf spider, quite harmless, was not chasing him but simply looking for a place to hide so i steered it into a box and took it outside.  Crisis averted.

While he got ready to go have breakfast, he talked about a controversial statue somewhere that's having to be redone and showed me a photo on his phone i could barely see because he keeps his screen almost totally dark to save the battery.  I just nodded and let him talk until he got hungry enough to go hunt up his breakfast, and reminded him about an apron, which he found.

What i didn't find until later, in the kitchen all by it's lonesome, was one of his new shoes.  How he ends up with one shoe in the closet and one in the kitchen is a mystery for the ages.

Working my way steadily through the room and the laundry and the cleaning, he bounced in and out to tell me about a local summer camp for disabled adults he wants to go to on his days off, his plans to go work out and return something to a local store, and lamented his lack of ready cash.

I was able to help there, as i collect all his change, put it in the change sorter, and then bug him to take it to the bank once he has several rolls of coins saved up.  This time there was no bugging about it, he had $28 in coins and he was desperate enough for more money to spend on his day off he put them in a bag to go convert at the bank into folding money, and i'm pretty sure he didn't forget this time like he usually does.  He's often riding around with the coins in his car a couple of weeks before he remembers them.

Meanwhile, i was able to not only do the cleaning, but also to get his ice packs sorted, the ones that were frozen into weird shapes that won't go in the vest set out to thaw (and i reminded him very carefully before he left to freeze them flat when they'd thawed out this time), incorporated his new sunglasses and gloves and hats into their places in the closet, and he is supposedly set up for heading back to work on Wednesday.

Time will tell, but meanwhile how about some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Arrephoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (ceremony for the two girls chosen to weave the new robe for Athena's Statue and care for her sacred olive tree during the next year; date approximate)

Corn on the Cob Day

Fandens Fodselsdag(The Devil's Birthday) -- Denmark (traditional date when contracts between masters and servants expired, making them free to renew or renegotiate or sever ties; it was also considered The Devil's Birthday because taxes and rents came due!)

Hug Holiday -- some internet sites have this one, and since hugs are good for mental health, indulge!

King Kamehameha Day -- Hawaii, US

Magic Circles Day and Magic History Gathering -- marking the founding of The Magic Circle, a society of amateur and professional magicians 

National German Chocolate Cake Day

Rites of Matralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring of Mater Matua, goddess of dawn and childbirth, by women who had been married once) related observance:

     Day Sacred to Fortuna Virgo (Fortune the Virgin, the day marriage robes of girls were dedicated to this goddess)

Shavuot -- Judaism (Feast of Weeks; begins at sundown, through sundown on the 27th)

St. Barnabas the Apostle's Day (Patron of Antioch; Cyprus; Marbelia, Costa del Sol, Spain; Marino, Italy; invoked as a peacemaker; against hailstorms) a/k/a Barnaby Bright Day or Long Barnaby*

World Pet Memorial Day -- some sites say this is always on June 10, others that it's always on the second Tuesday in June, but none can tell us where it came from or who started it that i can find

*Under the Julian calendar, June 11, St. Barnabas' Day, was the longest day of the year --

Barnaby Bright, Barnaby Bright,

The longest day

And the shortest night

Anniversaries Today:

Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon, 1509

Birthdays Today:

Shia LeBeouf, 1986

Joshua Jackson, 1978

Caroline Quentin, 1961

Dr. Mehmet Oz, 1960

Hugh Laurie, 1959

Joe Montana, 1956

Peter Bergman, 1953

Adrienne Barbeau, 1945

Jackie Stewart, 1939

Chad Everett, 1936

Prince Henrik of Denmark, 1934

Gene Wilder, 1933

William Clark Styron, Jr., 1925

Vince Lombardi, 1913

Jacques Cousteau, 1910

Jeannette Pickering Rankin, 1880

Richard Georg Strauss, 1864

John Constable, 1776

Ben Jonson, 1572

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"American Idol"(TV), 2002

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial(Film), 1982

"Main Street Electrical Parade"(Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida), 1977

"Rock 'n' Roll Music"(Beatles' UK album release), 1976

A Day at the Races(Marx Brothers film), 1937

Today in History:

Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes, BC1184

Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paves way to the creation of the Principalía, 1594

The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence, 1776

Russian  explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska, 1788

The first American stove patent is granted to Robert Haeterick, 1793

The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia, 1892

New Zealand annexes the Cook Islands, 1901

Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the Triple Crown, 1919

Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island, 1962

Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington become the first women to receive the rank of general in the U.S. Army, 1970

Cassini-Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe, 200

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an official apology to Canada's First Nations for residential school abuse that isolated native children from their homes, families, and cultures for a century, 2008

Ancient Korean royal books looted by French troops in 1866 are returned to South Korea; 1,000 officials and locals celebrate the return of the 297-volume 'Oegyujanggak' books, 2011

Winds in southwestern Western Australia of up to 140km/h batter the area and leave more than 170,000 homes without power, 2012

Japan passes a law that will allow Emperor Akihito to abdicate, 2017

“The New York Times” reveals that the fire on the back lot of Universal Studios in Los Angels eleven years earlier had destroyed over 500,000 original master recordings, including many by Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald, 2019

A US lobsterman survives being swallowed by a humpback whale off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2021