April!!! (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins, Nature Friday and Flashback Friday

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Please note, today is not a usual day and it may be a few days before I can get around to visiting other blogs.  My daughter-in-law ended up spending all day in the Emergency Room yesterday with a terrible case of diverticulitis, and i am on baby duty when #2 Son is at work (which, with one of his managers out on vacation this week, is a lot).

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (may he rest in peace), and i'm going to believe it's because he liked cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she's entrusting it to me.

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

April is also known as Miss Mischief.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. I avoid _________ like the plague.

2. I hope to _________ this summer.

3. My favorite subject in school was _________.

4. I wish there was a _________ for adults.

1. I avoid   letting the depression get too deep  like the plague.

2. I hope to   have a day off  this summer.

3. My favorite subject in school was   pretty much all of them as i love to learn.

4. I wish there was a   place to call in sick to work that wasn't at home  for adults.   Think about it, if you go to work, you work, if you stay home, your family expects you to do for them so you work anyway.  A hiding place for grown-ups between work and home where you could call in sick to both and actually get some rest would be nice!

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Nature Friday is hosted by LLB in Our Backyard.  Simply post a picture of the natural world, and link up!   

The crepe myrtles are blooming, at least some of them.  Some are still trying to recover from the snow, i believe.

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Flashback Friday is hosted by FiveSibes.  Come hop along memory lane with us!  https://fivesibes.blogspot.com

Angel Dansig the Round and Link Linker the Stinker (still very much alive and missing his brother-from-another-mother).

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In some parts of the world, today is the Solstice!  For some, it is tomorrow.

Solstice -- June 21 02:42 UTC / June 20, 10:42pm EDT; related observances:

     Aimless Wandering Day -- use the extra daylight to wander someplace with nothing particular to do

     Anne and Samantha Day -- remembrance for Anne Frank and Samantha Smith, and their contributions to our world

     Daylight Appreciation Day -- celebrating the benefits of sunshine     

     Finally Summer Day/Finally Winter Day

     Hump Day -- Tasmania (because it is the shortest in the year, Taswegians today feel they are over the "hump" of winter.)

     Inti Raymi -- Inca (festival of the sun god Inti, ongoing);Sacsayhuamán Andes Mountain Natives (winter solstice and New Year festival)

     Litha / Yule -- Wicca/Pagan (northern hemisphere / southern hemisphere)

     Midnight Sun Baseball Game -- Fairbanks, AK, US (begins promptly at 10:35pm local time, and played without any artificial lights allowed)

     Midsomarsblog -- Norse Viking celebrations (time of fishing, trading, and raiding)

     Midsummer -- Midsummer Festivals begin -- Juhannus Day in Finland and Midsommar in Denmark and Norway, celebrated over the next several days in many Scandinavian traditions; often this time is also associated with betrayal, as the sunlight begins to decrease, this is when Baldur was betrayed, as well as Sigurd.

     Midsummer -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

     Midsummer Baal -- Ancient Celtic Calendar

     Polar Bear Swim -- Nome, AK, US (if they can break through the ice!)

     Solsticio de Invierno / Ano Nuevo Aymara -- Bolivia (Winter Solstice / Aymara Indiginous People's New Year)

     We Tripantu -- Chile (Mapuche natives winter solstice festival)

     Wadjet Summer Solstice Ceremony -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate, it may have been a multi-day ceremony that began on Midsummer's Eve)

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.         

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Today is:

American Eagle Day    http://www.eagles.org/programs/american-eagle-day.php

Cuckoo Warning Day -- if you hear the cuckoo today, it will be a wet summer, according to old European traditions

Day of the National Flag -- Argentina (Anniversary of General D. Manuel Belgrano's Death)

Day of the Purification of All Things -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of the Great Spirit / Great Mystery -- various Native Americans (celebrations are around the time of the solstice)

     Cherokee call the spirit Asgaya Galun Lati

     Iroquois call the spirit Orenda

     Lakota call the spirit Wakan Tanka

     Zuni call the spirit Awonawilona

Festival for Summanus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (the god who threw thunderbolts at night)

Hogueras de San Juan -- Alicante, Spain ("Bonfires of St. John," through the 29th, with the night of the 24th being the most magical as the festival is for St. John, whose day that is)

Ice Cream Soda Day -- i guess because it's hot enough now for one

International Surfing Day -- The Surfrider Foundation and Surfing Magazine suggest contests, barbecues, film screenings, and organizing beach clean ups to celebrate 

Iron Skegge's Day -- Vikings (martyrdom of Iron Skegge, who died defending the temples of Maeri against Christians)

Martyr's Day -- Eritrea

Midsummer's Eve -- many and varying traditions, with some celebrating the day before the solstice, and some always tying it to June 23, St. John's Eve

     Night of the Fairy Goddesses Aine and Finnen -- Ireland (watch out for the antics of the little people on Midsummer's Eve, whichever day you celebrate it!)

Midsummer's Eve Holiday -- Aland; Finland; Sweden

National Flip Flop Day -- sponsored by Tropical Cafe Smoothie to raise funds for its national charity partner, Camp Sunshine     

National Vanilla Milkshake Day

New Identity Day -- an internet generated holiday, just have fun thinking about who you might want to be for a day

Scira/Skirophoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival for Demeter, organized by the women of Athens; date approximate)

St. Michelina of Pesaro's Day (Patron of mentally ill people, people with in-law problems, widows; against death of children, insanity and mental illness)

Takekiri Eshiki Matsuri -- Kuramadera, Kyoto, Japan (bamboo cutting festival; the bamboo represents snakes, so cutting it symbolizes victory over evil)

Take Your Dog to Work Day® -- sponsored by Pet Sitters International®, and depending on where you work, what did your dog do to deserve this?     

World Productivity Day -- no central focus, just a day for suppliers of productivity tools and training to celebrate what they contribute to society

World Refugee Day -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

The University of Oxford receives its charter, 1214

West Virginia becomes the 35th US state, 1863

Birthdays Today:

Robert Rodriguez, 1968

Nicole Kidman, 1967

Michael Landon, Jr, 1964

Cyndi Lauper, 1953

John Goodman, 1952

Lionel Richie, 1949

Andre Watts, 1946

Bob Vila, 1946

Anne Murray, 1945

Brian Wilson, 1942

John Mahoney, 1940

Danny Aiello, 1933

James Tolkan, 1931

Martin Landau, 1931

Olympia Dukakis, 1931

Chet Atkins, 1924

Audie Murphy, 1924

Jean-Jacques Bertrand, 1916

Errol Flynn, 1909

Lillian Hellman, 1905

Charles W. Chesnutt, 1858

Scipio Africanus, BC236

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Jaws(Film), 1975

"The Ray Stevens Show"(TV), 1970

"The Ed Sullivan Show"(TV), 1948

Today in History:

Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun; the battle was inconclusive, and Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory, 451

Jews are expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique, 1567

The Irish  village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian  pirates, 1631

A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta, 1756

King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during The French Revolution, 1791

The U.S. vessel SS Savannah, the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, arrives at Liverpool, 1819

Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne, 1837

Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph, 1840

Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1877

Caroline Willard Baldwin becomes the first woman to earn a doctor of science degree, at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1895

A rare June hurricane struck Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35, 1959

The so-called "red telephone" is established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1963

The German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin, 1991

The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida, 2003

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers grants private companies the right to create new website domain suffixes, 2011

Instagram offers users the ability to upload videos to their service, 2013

Dunedin and Christchurch, New Zealand, have roads cut off and flights cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, 2013

Rome elects its first female Mayor, Virginia Raggi, who is also its youngest ever, at age 37, 2016

The Hungarian government passes legislation that criminalizes aiding undocumented migrants, 2018

An historic dust cloud reaches the Caribbean Sea, making it the largest in a half century, 2020

A record high temperature is recorded within the Arctic Circle, 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, Siberia, 2020

The Largo di Torre Argentina, site of Julius Caesar's assassination, opens to the public for the first time, 2023

In what is now heralded as a landmark trial in HIV prevention, researchers determine twice-yearly lenacapavir injections provided 100% protection in study in African women, 2024

Underwater archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,300-year-old Canaanite ship off the northern coast of Israel, the oldest deep sea shipwreck ever discovered 2024

Not Too Cool (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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While #2 Son, His Bride and our little Annie are living here, he is determined to pitch in and help wherever he can.

When he found out my car, GusGus (yes, we name our cars, don't judge), has no A/C in our south Louisiana swamp heat, he wanted to see if he could help as he's a fair hand at minor repairs and maintenance.

He sent me to an auto parts place for a can of the refrigerant with stop leak and dye in it, the special flashlight with a black light you need so you can see the dye if it's leaking out of the system at any point, and the nozzle/tube you use to put the refrigerant into the system.

Tuesday evening, i popped the hood and cranked the car, turning the A/C on so the compressor would draw the refrigerant out of the can and into the system and he hooked it up, waited until the can was empty, then started looking with the black light to see if there was dye showing leaks in the system.

Turns out when Ford made the Focus, they made it as hard as possible to do anything with it, putting all the hoses and wires behind a skid plate and the compressor to the A/C itself behind the firewall, so even if it was just leaking from a hose where he could see it and replace it, he'd need a lift to get to it.

We could hear the compressor kick in and while the refrigerant was in there, even if only for a short time, it should have blown cold but it never did, so while he didn't succeed in locating and fixing a small leak in my cooling system, he did give it a good try and now we know it's probably going to not be worth the money to repair it.

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

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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:    

Unique

Funny

Odd-looking

Habitation of an

Open-Minded

Unabashed

Sassy

Eccentric

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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 a bit of vacuum surgery has Ms. G's above-the-floor-cleaning tool on her vacuum working properly again after it greedily sucked up a paper towel.

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It's International Box Day, and if you do not understand the need for this one, you do not have a cat!

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.         

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Today is:

Asatru Alliance Founding Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Birthday of José Gervasio Artigas / "Never Again" Day -- Uruguay (Dia del Nunca Mas)

Butterfly Day -- an ecard holiday; if you know someone who loves butterflies, send an ecard, let them know you are thinking of them

Corpus Christi -- Catholic Christian

Day of the Independent Hungary -- Hungary (a memorial day for those martyred in 1958, and for the end of Soviet occupation)

Festival for Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of arts, crafts, skill, war, and intelligence)

Festival of the Coming Ice Age -- can't find out anything about this one, but it sounds hilarious

Garfield the Cat Day (his birthday/comic strip premier)

Juneteenth -- US, celebrates the news of freedom on the day it came to slaves on Galveston Island, Texas

Labour Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association used to sponsor this day to encourage you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices    

National Martini Day -- some sites specify a dry martini

New Church Day -- Swedenborgian Christian

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!   

Rusalka's Week begins -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (week long festival to honor the divinity of rivers)

Spooky Stories Appreciation Night -- because someone thought it would be a good night to tell a few scary tales

St. Boniface of Querfurt's Day (Patron of Prussia)

St. Jude's Day (Patron of desperate situations, forgotten/impossible/lost causes, hospitals, hospital workers; Saint Petersburg, FL, US)

World Sauntering Day -- origin unknown, but perhaps begun at Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island) in Michigan during the 1970s as a response by W.T. Rabe to a growing movement toward the recreation of jogging and the idea was to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the world around them; the rules are to observe the lost art of Victorian sauntering, discouraging jogging, lollygagging, sashaying, fast walking, and trotting, but no word on meandering that i can find!

World Sickle Cell Day   

Anniversaries Today:

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999

Birthdays Today:

Zoe Saldana, 1978

Poppy Montgomery, 1972

Mia Sara, 1967

Andy Lauer, 1965

Aung San Suu Kyi, 1965

Paula Abdul, 1962

Kathleen Turner, 1954

Ann Wilson, 1951

Phylicia Rashad, 1948

Salman Rushdie, 1947

Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, 1942

Gena Rowlands, 1930

Louis Jourdan, 1919

Pauline Kael, 1919

Pat Buttram, 1915

Abe Fortas, 1910

Earl W. Bascom, 1906

Lou Gehrig, 1903

Guy Lombardo, 1902

Moe Howard, 1897

Wallis Simpson, 1896

Elbert Green Hubbard, 1856

Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834

Blaise Paschal, 1623

King James I of England and VI of Scotland, 1566

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Batman Returns(Film), 1992

"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"(Musical), 1978

"The Rocky Horror Show"(Musical), 1973

"Devil May Hare"(Cartoon short, Tasmanian Devil's premier), 1954

"I've Got a Secret"(TV), 1952

"Moon Mullins"(Comic strip), 1923

Today in History:

King Louis IX of France orders all Jews  found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres  of silver, 1269

The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, 1306

English colonists leave Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America, 1586

Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion, 1770

Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1816

The first officially recorded, organized baseball match was played under Alexander Joy Cartwright's rules on Hoboken's Elysian Fields (Hoboken, New Jersey)with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1; Cartwright umpired, 1846

Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom; the anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 35 other states as Juneteenth, 1865

Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro, 1867

After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist, 1870

The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins, 1875

The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington, 1910

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York, 1953

Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom, 1961

In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University in Beirut, is kidnapped, 1982

Norway ratifies the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989, 1990

Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway, 2006

The first full genetic study of house cats, published in "Nature Ecology and Evolution", reveals that they were domesticated about 9,000 years ago, and are all descended from one species, the African wildcat, 2017

General Electric is dropped from the Dow Jones Index, the last original member from 1907, 2018

Joy Harjo is named the first Native American US Poet Laureate, 2019

The United Nations adopts the first-ever legally binding international treaty to govern the high seas, called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty, 2023

Archaeologists and scientists reveal they've found the world's oldest wine inside a 1st century CE Roman funeral urn mixed with a man's ashes in a mausoleum in Carmona, Spain, 2024