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A blessed and beautiful Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate. To all others, a blessed and beautiful happy Thursday.
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For those who want to go off the grid and live like a hermit, a cautionary tale from another of Ms. G's ongoing adventures.
Ms. Fiona is 82, widowed, one sister older than her three states away, one son who stole from her and disappeared and has no contact with her, no other relatives in this world at all.
She lives in a house trailer in a park that used to be a great neighborhood but is now dilapidated and riddled with crime, filth, and drugs; the trailer itself is falling apart and landlords do nothing to repair anything.
She had to have surgery and now is in rehab, Ms. G is feeding her stray cats which were TNRed a few months ago by a group Ms. G works with, and it is starting to look like she will not be coming home and Ms. G will be trying to find a good barn home for her cats.
My question to these modern day hermits remains, if you do everything right and perfectly, make a way to survive alone or with your one or two other favorite people, have water, can grow food and provide for all your needs, what in the world do you do when you get sick, need medical attention, get old, can't do the work needed to maintain it all any longer.
You can be a "prepper" all you want, be ready for any and every end of the world scenario, figure out how to initially survive and even thrive for a while, but the day of reckoning comes when you have to have help, and what do you do then?
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Hermit.
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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
They've tried to make the back fence look nicer with some plants and done a pretty good job of it.
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
I know you want to learn
the latest dancing craze
so you can impress the girls
at the ball in a few days.
I'm happy now to teach you
to be light on your feet and spry,
but once you've learned, remember,
that I danced with you, dude, I'll deny!
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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop. It's time to share something for which i am thankful.
Today i am thankful for a new-to-me computer procured by #2 Son when he played with mine and saw how old and very, very slow it was. This one is bigger, too, no more squinting at the screen.
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Today is:
Buffalo Bill Day -- he staged his first Wild West show on July 4, 1883
Bullion's Day -- Anglican tradition, the translation of the relics of St. Martin of Bullion; rain today means rain for the next 20 days, according to the legends
Day of Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar
Filipino-American Friendship Day -- Philippines; U.S.
Garibaldi Day -- Italy
Independence Day -- US and Territories(1776)
Independence from Meat Day -- don't be a slave to tradition! sponsored by Vegetarian Awareness Network
King Tupou VI's Birthday -- Tonga
Liberation Day -- Rwanda
National Barbecue Spareribs Day
National Country Music Day -- US
Old Midsummer Eve -- by the Julian Calendar
Sidewalk Egg Frying Day -- you can do this anywhere that it's hot enough, but for the real deal, plan to go to the Solar Egg Frying Contest, held annually on July 4 on old Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, US, where the rule is you must use solar heat only
St. Elizabeth of Portugal's Day (Patron of brides, charitable societies, charity workers, charities, difficult marriages, falsely accused people, peace, queens, tertiaries, victims of adultery, victims of jealousy, victims of unfaithfulness, widows; invoked in time of war; Coimbra, Portugal)
St. Ulrich's Day (Patron of peaceful deaths, pregnant women, weavers; Augsburg, Germany; Creazzo, Italy; against birth complications, dizziness, faintness, fever, frenzy, mice, moles, vertigo)
Stone Skipping Tournament -- Windermere Pointe Beach, Mackinac Island, Michigan, US (open to all, come skip some stones and have a blast!)
World's Greatest Lizard Races -- Chaparral Park, Lovington, NM, US (cheer the lizards and iguanas as they race down a 16 foot ramp, and yes, trophies will be awarded!)
Anniversaries Today
Tuskegee Institute opens, 1881
Birthdays Today
Becky Newton, 1978
Koko, 1971 (gorilla who speaks sign language, and has now taught it to her offspring)
Pamela Howard "Pam" Shriver, 1962
Signy Coleman, 1960
Geraldo Rivera, 1943
George Steinbrenner, 1930
Al Davis, 1929
Gina Lollobrigida, 1927
Neil Simon, 1927
Eva Marie Saint, 1924
Ann Landers, 1918
Abigail Van Buren, 1918
Mitch Miller, 1911
Gloria Stuart, 1910
George Murphy, 1902
Rube Goldberg, 1883
Louis B. Mayer, 1882
George M. Cohan, 1878
Calvin Coolidge, 1872
Stephen Foster, 1826
Hiram Walker, 1816
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"American Top 40"(Radio), 1970
"Honky Tonk Women"(Single release), 1969
"America the Beautiful"(Publication date), 1895
Today in History
A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star Tauri; for several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day, and its remnants form the Crab Nebula, 1054
Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye, 1534
The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (Quebec, Canada), 1634
City of Providence, Rhode Island forms, 1636
The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress, 1776
The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, opens, 1802
The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American public, 1803
Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York, 1817
The world's first long-distance railway, the Grand Junction Railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool, 1837
The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end, 1840
Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, 1845
The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published, 1855
Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, 1862*
The Anglo-Zulu war ends, 1879
The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States, 1886
The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia, 1886
Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4, 1892
The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, 1894
Dorothy Levitt was reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race', 1903
African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States, 1910
First flight of the Lockheed Vega, 1927
Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball, 1939
After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States, 1946
The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe, 1950
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law, 1966
NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars, 1997
The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1, 2005
The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks, 2009
Discovery of a picture of the Biblical Samson and a Hebrew inscription in an ancient synagogue in the Galilee region of northern Israel is announced, 2012
Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announce the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson, 2012
Unesco grants World Heritage Status to vineyards in Champagne, France along with Singapore's Botanical Gardens, Diyarbakir Fortress (Turkey) and Maymand Caves (Iran), 2015
NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully enters Jupiter's orbit, 2016
North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan, 2017
Chinese technology company Baidu announces it has begun mass production of self-driving buses, the 14-seat Apolong, 2018
Mad Magazine announces it will stop publishing new material after 67 years, 2019
Researchers reveal there are 14 living descendants of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, 2021
Australian rules player Heather Anderson, who suffered a concussion in 2017 while playing becomes the first known professional female athlete to be diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known to plague male athletes of contact sports who suffer concussions, 2023
Your six sentence story is so very sad, and the questions it raises right on the money.
ReplyDeleteLove the dancing bear poem.
A safe and Happy 4th July to you.
A new and bigger computer is a HUGE thankful!
ReplyDeleteThe hermit's problems ... if only they had no pets, it would be easier. In Denmark we have homes for those not able to care for themselves, but no pets allowed. Heck living off the grid is almost impossible here with our lives as regulated and digitalized as they are.
Love the dancing bears. A timely warning in your six sentences.
ReplyDeleteLove story - when a wooden fence meets a brick fence.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Happy 4th of July. I like the trees planted in large pots beside the fence. Good picture. That poor lady at age 82 and living in a shack like that today. All humans need other humans to survive and survive nicely.
ReplyDeletevery much on the money, Six. cycles of history are apparently far from over their noxious repetition. ayiiee
ReplyDeleteThat is quite the thought-provoking story, yes, what to do?!?! That's a fun poem and a most excellent thankful. Thanks for joining Angel Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop and Happy Independence Day!
ReplyDeleteWe are experiencing some of that situation in our lives. Mom had a small taste when she had her heart attack and had to have someone care for us all of the sudden for the days she was in the hospital. Now we have a friend who is self employed, has two dogs and has breast cancer. One of our dog groups set up a caring bridge page for people to sign up to walk dogs, make food for our friend, drive her to appts, pretty much everything. It is hard when you are alone, but if you at least have groups you participate in, they can and will help out. Happy 4th of July to you!
ReplyDeleteFor your Six: I must say, Mimi, I honestly don't know. Brilliant question. Brilliant Six
ReplyDeleteHa ha - your poem made us laugh. And your story has such a good message or warning - being prepared is utmost. Good food for thought for all
ReplyDelete✭✭✭ HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! ❤️🤍💙
Woos - Misty and Timber
Happy 4th of July!
ReplyDeleteSince you asked...preppers may prepare to give up and go back into town, or to die in their own homes, but it's more fun to prepare to have trained one's heirs to move in and take over.
ReplyDeletePriscilla King
That is a sad story. I hope the cats will have a good place on a farm. We all need to have people in our lives. My hubby's sister insisted she move far away from family and now she is alone and too far for us to help her. XO
ReplyDeleteCharlee: "It's a sad thing about the kitties. Our Mama and Dada's parents are getting older too and I know they are starting to worry about them, so many states away."
ReplyDeleteChaplin: "I'm just glad we all have good homes here. I sure hope it stays that way."
Lulu: "Happy Independence Day! No fireworks, please!"
Your poem takes the sting out of your very real question in your Six. For myself, I laughingly say that if I die, at least my cat an live on for quite a while, on mg remains. 😳 Yikes!
ReplyDeleteA most important question.
ReplyDeleteYour eyes will be much happier now!
That poem is hilariously FUN! That photo was too hard to resist to use this week even though we had a polar bear coming out of a bus a few weeks ago. Thanks for having poetic fun with us!
ReplyDeleteHugs, Pam and Teddy
Very provoking this time. I'm not sure what will happen to me in the future. Let’s not worry at the moment though!
ReplyDelete