Staying Warm and Saving Money, 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.  

I stepped into the laundry room at Carl's yesterday and knew something was wrong when i stepped on cloth.

Then the light wouldn't go on.  Doggone ballast in the light needs replacing, okay, feel for the lanterns.

Nope, Ms. V put the lanterns away!   Since the light works sometimes, when Carl remembers to turn it off so it doesn't overheat, we don't need them out any more, right?

I finally got some indirect light in the laundry room with the closet light and finally there was some good news.  Carl had done 2 loads, the ones in the dryer smelled clean and were almost dry, the ones in the washer had been properly washed, too.

Only a couple of items had dropped on the way to the washer, that's what i was stepping on.

Then i heard the dishwasher come on.  Curses, foiled again.  When it's on, you can't turn on the clothes washer, you can't get enough water pressure for both at the same time and Ms. V sets the delay so it will run at the coldest time in the morning.  Instead of dripping a faucet all night to keep pipes from bursting, she just sets the dishwasher to run then to keep water flowing.

She's frugal, all right, that's why the laundry room light still hasn't been fixed.

Carl moved to his sleep chair as i got the dryer restarted and headed to his room.

He didn't have much in his fridge, but his mom has ordered him a ton of the red knit caps to help him stay warm at work, one was already on the floor.  And the bags were stuffed with stuff from the car (he had a date this weekend and needed to clean the car), and i dealt with as much as i could.

Although i am worried about the "flushable" wipes he bought.  I don't care what they say, those things will stop up your pipes.

And the cheese, left uncovered in the fridge.  It was hard as a brick, and later i showed him as a reminder to cover such things, then threw it out.

Once he was up and showered, he was his usual talkative self.

"I've been going to the fitness place," he told me and i complimented him on it.  He's been keeping up with it well, which is a good thing, since most of the candy he was supposed to give away over Christmas ended up  in his room and is being eaten.

"We [he and his date] went to see Mufasa on Sunday.  You know, Lion King?"

Yes, i told him, my kids grew up with The Lion King.

"What's going on at church?" was his next inquiry.

I told him about Pastor W retiring in a few weeks, and an upcoming conference.

"At the other church this weekend, two boys were, you know..."  Here he began motioning as if imitating boys being boys in a church pew and about to start a ruckus.

Roughhousing? i supplied the world.

"Yeah, that, and I told them they shouldn't be doing that at church, and they didn't, well, they shouldn't disrespect adults, and they grinned..."

Just like you grin when you are doing something you know you shouldn't, i told him, and he did, at that moment, give me his little-boy-planning-mischief grin.

You know how boys are, i told him, and he just smiled bigger.

Once he was ready to go, he was running around looking for his coat.

Is it in the car? i asked, and we went to look.   While i was checking in back, he rummaged in front and grabbed something, began putting it on, and what do you know, it was his bathrobe again!

You can't wear a bathrobe to work, i told him, taking it to go hang it up.

Come get two more sweaters to put on so you'll have layers, i told him, but he didn't have time and left, wearing only the thermal shirt and a long sleeve shirt over it.

Later, i told Ms. V about it and she thanked me for not letting him wear his bathrobe to work, then said, "Well, I told him to put a warm wrap in his car for when he can't find his coat and at least he did as I asked!"

It's cold for our area, so a few cold funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Fasching Carnival -- Munich, Germany (through Shrove Tuesday)

Festa del Tricolore -- Italy (Tricolour or Flag Day)

Harlem Globetrotters' Day -- anniversary of their first game in 1927

I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day -- declared by Bob O'Brien, Consumer Advocate, who encourages us to fight back

Nanakusa no Sekku -- Japan (Festival of Seven Herbs, dates back to the 7th century and recalls the medicinal herbs that were traditionally served to the emperor)

National Tempura Day

Nativity of Christ / Orthodox Christmas / Coptic Christmas -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians still using the Julian Calendar.

Old Rock Day -- a/k/a "St. Distaff's Day" or simply Distaff Day(the distaff, for spinning yarn, was also called a "rock"; today was the day women went back to spinning after the Christmas holidays)

St. Raymond of Penyafort's Day (Patron of attornies, barristers, canonists, lawyers, and medical record librarians)

Usokae -- Kameido Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (Bullfinch Exchange Day, Uso also means "lie" so when exchanging carved birds, it is considered a way of exchanging lies for the truth)

Victory Day over the Genocidal Regime -- Cambodia

Anniversary Today:

Princess Juliana of Netherlands weds Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 1937

Birthdays Today:

Dustin Diamond, 1977

Jeremy Renner, 1971

Nick Cleg, 1967

Nicholas Cage, 1964

Katie Couric, 1957

David Caruso, 1956

Erin Gray, 1950

Kenny Loggins, 1948

Jann Wenner, 1947

Paul Revere, 1938

William Peter Blatty, 1928

Jean-Pierre Rampal, 1922

Vincent Gardenia, 1922

Charles Addams, 1912

Butterfly McQueen, 1911

Aristotle Onassis, 1906

Zora Neale Hurston, 1891

St Bernadette, 1844

Millard Fillmore, 1800

Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, 1745

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Video-Telephone, 1992 (US$1,499)

"Fame"(TV), 1982

"Flash Gordon"(comic strip), 1934

"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D."(comic strip), 1929

"Tarzan of the Apes"(comic strip), 1929

Transatlantic telephone service, 1927 (US$75 for 5 minutes)

Today in History:

Calais, the last English possession in France, is taken back by the French, 1558

Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne upon the death of Feodore I, 1598

Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia, 1608

Galileo discovers the first 3 moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), 1610

Francis Bacon becomes the English Lord Chancellor, 1618

A prototype typewriter is patented by Englishman Henry Mill, 1714

Battle at Panipat India: the Afghan army beats Mahratten, 1761

The Bank of North America opens in Philadelphia, the first US commercial bank, 1782

The first gas balloon flight across the English channel, by Blanchard and Jeffries, 1785

The modern Italian flag is first used, 1797

Liberia is colonized by Americans, 1822

The first railroad station in the US, in Baltimore, opens, 1830

Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, 1896

The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS", 1904

The first steamboat passage through the Panama Canal, 1914

The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927

The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London, 1927

"Buck Rogers", the first sci-fi comic strip, and "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, premier, 1929

Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast, 1931

The "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts, 1934

President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb, 1952

The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM, 1954

Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met (NYC), 1955

The Polaris missile is test launched, 1960

Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off, 1968

Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1984

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union, 1985

The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns, 1990

U.S. President Clinton goes on trial before the U.S. Senate for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, 1999

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics estimates at least 17 billion planets exist that are comparable to the size of the Earth, 2013

A terrorist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris kills 12 and injures 11, 2015

It snows in the Sahara Desert - up to 15 inches as reported in Aïn Séfra, Northwest Algeria, 2018

Puerto Rico suffers a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, its worst in almost a century, resulting in one death and 800 homes destroyed, 2020

A genetically modified pig's heart is successfully transplanted into a 53-year-old male patient in Baltimore, Maryland, US, 2022

The USDA approves the first ever vaccine for honeybees in the US, against the bacteria which causes American Foulbrood, 2023