Lace Them Up (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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In the grand, time honored tradition of eschewing the normal drudgeries of employment (or even of retirement, as in this case) for a while, the season has come for the annual migration of those people called tourists, which for the next 11 days shall include my friends, church prayer partners and clients, Mr. BA and Ms. GA.

Yes, they have flown the coop to take a AAA tour of amazing sites of the USA starting from the Grand Canyon and stretching to Yellowstone, bussing to a different destination each day -- if it's Friday, we must be in Utah, right?

Meanwhile, the care of Mr. BA's gardens, Ms. GA's indoor plants, and all of the cats, both indoor/outdoor -- Little Orphan Annie, Oliver Twist, Puddin', Missy, Obi Buddy, Ruth(less) --  and outdoor/semi-feral -- Sunshine, Bruiser -- has fallen to me.

This means a twice daily wending my way to their abode to distribute canned food to the ones which will come to me, which the longer Ms. GA is gone, the more of them will, put down dry food because there is always dry food available, freshen up the water bowls for both felines and wild avians, scoop litterboxes, count as many noses as will peek at me and try to make sure there's no one sick or injured, interspersed with watering everything green that doesn't move under its own steam.

All of this is done before and after my regular work, which makes for extra long days and much less time at home in the evenings for all the stuff which needs to be done at home, and all the stuff i simply want to do.

Time to lace up my running shoes and watch where i spend every minute, for the next couple of weeks there's going to be fewer of them to go around when the work is done.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Lace.      

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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!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

I'd stare at the fridge with longing

just a-wishin' and a-hopin',

but now I know the secret,

sneak behind and scare it open!

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for rain, which we've had the last couple of days.  Every time it rains for the next 11 days, i don't have to water Mr. BA's garden, just the few porch plants the rain doesn't hit!

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Today is:

Ambarvalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (purification festival to Ceres, date approximate)

Ascension Day -- Orthodox and Western Christian; related observances

     Procession of the Holy Blood -- Belgium (religious historical procession recalling the adventurous crusaders, especially Count Thierry of Alsace, who was supposed to have carried back relics of the Holy Blood)

Ascension of Baha'u'llah -- Baha'i

Castleton Garland Celebration -- Derbyshire, England (a Garland King and Lady ride the bounds of the parish on white horses, after which the garland the King wore is placed on the church tower; possibly dating back to Oak Apple Celebrations)

Democracy Day -- Nigeria

End of the Middle Ages Day -- considered such by many historians because of the fall of Constantinople on this day in 1453

Feast of Mars -- Ancient Roman Calendar

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers -- UN

Learn About Composting Day -- can't find a sponsor for this day, but there is a week sponsored each year here; and you can learn about composting here, too 

Mount Everest Day -- Nepal (declared on the anniversary of first ascent in 1953)

National Coq Au Vin Day

Oak Apple Day / Royal Oak Day -- England (celebration of the restoration of the monarchy; no longer officially recognized, but many localities have traditions that have grown up around this date which are still celebrated)

Pink Flamingo Day -- Don Feathersone created the first plastic one on this day in 1957

Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day -- supposedly dating back, in Europe and the Americas, to the days when you put a piece of cloth in your larder for good luck; why it became a pillow no one knows

Runic Half-Month of Odal (home, possessions) commences

Squoosh an Ice Cream Sandwich Day -- rules say you must squoosh, not squish or squash!

St. Bona of Pisa's Day (Patron of couriers, flight attendants, guides, pilgrims, travelers; Pisa, Italy)

Anniversaries Today:

Rhode Island becomes the 13th US State, 1790

Wisconsin becomes the 30th US State, 1848

Birthdays Today:

Noel Gallagher, 1967

Lisa Whelchel, 1963

Melissa Etheridge, 1961

Adrian Paul, 1959

Rupert Everett,1959

Annette Bening, 1958

LaToya Jackson, 1956

Danny Elfman, 1953

Anthony Geary, 1947

Kevin Conway, 1942

Al Unser, Sr., 1939

Francis Thomas "Fay" Vincent, Jr, 1938

Paul Erlich, 1932

John F. Kennedy, 1917

Tenzing Norgay, 1914

T.H. White, 1906

Bob Hope, 1903

Oswald Spengler, 1880

G.K. Chesterton, 1874

Patrick Henry, 1736

Today in History:

Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a siege, ending the Byzantine Empire, 1453

Charles II (on his birthday) is restored to the throne of Great Britain, 1660

Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives, 1677

The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City, 1733

In Patrick Henry's historic speech against the Stamp Act, he answers a cry of "Treason!" with, "If this be treason, make the most of it!" 1765

Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect, 1874

Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal, 1886

Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, provoking a riot, 1913

Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the loss of 1,024 lives, 1914

Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles, 1942

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1953

First of the annual Bilderberg conferences, 1954

Amputee  Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months, 1985

Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station, 1999

Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule, 1999

A WWII Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., US, 2004

Scientists describe the 160-million year-old fossil of Aurornis xui as the most basal species of Avialae, possibly shifting the evolutionary position of the Archaeopteryx as the oldest known bird, 2013

A heatwave in Karachi, Pakistan, kills 65 as temperatures soar above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 2018

The world's smallest surviving baby, a girl, is discharged from Sharp March Birch Hospital in San Diego after being born at 23 weeks weighing 8.6 ounces (245 grams), 2019

A man disguised as an elderly disabled woman throws cake at the Mona Lisa in an unsuccessful vandalism attempt (it is behind protective glass), 2022

For the first time since apartheid ended 30 years prior, the ANC loses its majority in Parliamentary Elections in South Africa, 2024