His Proud Moment (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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She opened his gift Christmas morning to find, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, a lovely model of a lighthouse.

Smiling at him, she asked, "Sweetheart, what made you think of getting me this?"

"I overheard you talking to Ellen a few weeks ago and you said something about liking model lighthouses, so I got you one, it can go on the mantle over the fireplace, this is one of the famous lighthouses in Maine -- do you like it?"

Her smile grew bigger, and he smiled back, proud he'd been paying attention when he overheard what she said and acted on it; he was trying so hard to be a good husband who listened and didn't realize her smile was because she was trying not to laugh.

It was such a sweet gesture on his part, and he was trying so hard to get her something he thought she'd like, she didnt tell him the rest of the story; she'd actually been talking about light-up Christmas houses to make a Christmas village, telling her friend she was thinking of starting such a collection, getting a new piece or two each year.

She never disabused him of the notion, and he got her many such model lighthouses over the years until she had quite a few on the mantle and elsewhere, and they rather grew on her, although she did start her Christmas village collection the next year.

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

(Based on a true story.  He still doesn't know she wasn't originally talking about lighthouses and they've been married almost 45 years.)

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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 know my workshop looks odd

but I'm a multi-talented cat,

depending on what you need,

I can wear more than one hat.

I've always enjoyed repairing things

so I've got every mechanics tool,

and I picked up a veterinary degree,

being on this side o'the needle's cool.

Then too, I like my mouse burgers fresh

so I'm a butcher and sell the meat,

while your kitty is here being doctored

I'll sell you his after visit treat!

(This picture looks like it has medical paraphernalia and mechanics tools, and the cat is wearing what looks like part scrubs and part butcher apron, and a chef's toque, thus the weird poem.)

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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 Ms. G was able to get to her doctor appointment, even if it cut our workday short yesterday. 

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Today is:

Assyrian Martyrs Day -- various Assyrian communities

Battle of Boyaca Day -- Colombia

Harvest Holiday -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (reaping ceases for a few hours in honor of Volos' beard; bread is eaten and offerings given to Mother Earth and Volos for a bountiful harvest)

Independence Day / National Day -- Cote d'Ivoire(1960)

National Hobo Convention -- Britt, IA (held each year since 1900, gathering for migrant workers who are proud to call themselves "hobos" and make a living through working where they choose and travelling where they want; through Sunday)

National Lighthouse Day -- US (American Lighthouse Foundation) 

National Raspberries in Cream Day

Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, and especially the kind no one can open without a machete, what's with that!

Professional Speaker's Day  

Purple Heart Day -- US (originally instituted this day in 1782 by George Washington)

Say "Cheese" Day -- begun by ecard companies looking for something to celebrate; in my family, we do not say "Cheese", we say "Chicken Lips!" Try it some time when walking past tourists who are trying to get a good photo, and watch them smile genuine smiles and come up with a good picture.

Sea Serpent Day -- no one knows why today, just enjoy

St. Albert of Trapani's Day (Patron of Carmelite schools; Messina, Italy; Trapani, Italy)

St. Cajetan's Day (Patron of job seekers and the unemployed)

Take Last Winter's Snowballs Out of the Freezer and Have a Fight Day -- in the northern hemisphere, it's certainly hot enough

Birthdays Today:

Charlize Theron, 1975

Harold Parrineau, 1963

DeLane Matthews, 1961

David Duchovny, 1960

Alberto Salazar, 1957

John Glover, 1944

Garrison Keillor, 1942

B.J. Thomas, 1942

Abebe Bikila, 1932

"The Amazing" James Randi, 1928

Carl "Alfalfa" Switser, 1927

Stan Freberg, 1926

Ralph Johnson Bunche, 1903

Rudolf C. Ising, 1903

William Boyd McKechnie, 1886

Billie Burke, 1884

Mata Hari, 1876

Nathanael Greene, 1742

Today in History:

Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon, following the death of Alexander the Great, BC322

Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begins in Florence, 1420

Coup again the Tianshun Emperor by the Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin, 1461

Francis Drake's fleet returns to Plymouth, 1573

The first documented performance of Macbeth, at the Great Hall at Hampton Court, 1606

Sieur de La Salle's brigantine Le Griffon becomes the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes, 1679

Cherokee Indians take Ft. Loudon, Tennessee, 1760

George Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart, 1782

Simon Bolivar triumphs over the Spanish at the Battle of Boyaca, 1819

The long simmering tension between the Hatfields and the McCoys on the Kentucky/West Virginia border erupts into full scale violence on election day, 1882

The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, 1927

IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I), 1944

Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America, 1947

Explorer 6 transmits the first TV photo of Earth from space, 1959

The "artistic crime of the century" occurs when Philippe Petit of France, after months of planning and smuggling in materials, makes an illegal tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, 1974

Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars, 1976

The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication, 1981

Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts, 1985

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run, 2007

Australia's Sally Pearson sets a new Olympic record when she wins the 100 metres hurdles in 12.35 seconds at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012

The Mendocino Fire becomes the largest recorded fire in California's history, at 290,600 acres, overtaking The 2017 Thomas Fire, 2018

The US Senate passes an Inflation Reduction Act in an attempt to help stabilize the economy, 2022

Thousands of peaceful counter-protesters hold rallies around England in response to the previous week's violent anti-immigrant protests, 2024

I'm Retired, Go Around Me (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

Much thanks again to Charlotte (MotherOwl) for providing the prompts last month. 

This month, yours truly is providing the prompts on my blog.

Please feel free to use some of the prompts, none of them, or all of them as you see fit.  The point is to get the creative juices flowing in whatever manner your muse leads you.

This week's prompts are:

district

slippery

feast

stop

paper

recruit

and/or

concede

threaten

screen

gain

enhance

gasp

As an additional prompt you may wish to use, Charlotte(MotherOwl) has chosen Straw Yellow as the color of the month.

Jensen looked up from his computer SCREEN to see Manny leading Mr. Zabriski in.  Manny looked sheepish and Mr. Zabriski looked as he so often did, grumpy.

"Tell your man to STOP treating me like a child!" Mr. Zabriski fairly bristled with anger.

Manny said, "Sorry to disturb you, boss, but Mr. Zabriski was trying to look through the windows of his new neighbor, Mr. Fellham.  I tried to explain to him, nicely, we don't allow such snooping..."

"It wasn't snooping!  I'll have you know, I think this new man is a spy!"

Jensen glanced at Manny and then the door, and Manny, quick to read his boss, took the hint.  He was glad not to have to deal with this directly, anyway.

"Okay, Mr. Zabriski, sit down and tell me what's going on," Jensen said, trying to keep his voice neutral.

"This DISTRICT has a spy, and I am almost totally convinced it's the new guy.  He's here to GAIN information to ENHANCE his own district's ability to get the jump on ours."

"How do you think he's doing it?" Jensen asked, playing along, although he knew poor Mr. Zabriski was talking total nonsense.  It was always best to let him talk himself out.

"He's trying to GAIN people's confidence here.  Remember the FEAST he gave when he moved in, inviting all the neighbors?  I was suspicious then, and while he was distracted, I had a moment to look into a couple of the moving boxes he'd put in the garbage bin.  He had wrapped things in what I first thought was regular newspaper, but the PAPER was an odd Straw Yellow color and covered with a foreign language!  It made me GASP to see it, but I tried not to let it show, you have to be careful.

"I just know he's here to RECRUIT people and gain more spies, as well as get information out of us.  These spies are SLIPPERY and won't let you figure them out easily, but I'm onto him.  We have to prove who he really is and who he's working for, or it will ruin us all!"

Jensen knew he had to pick his next words very carefully.  Mr. Zabriski was mostly harmless but could get his dander up and Jensen wanted to diffuse this situation.  He knew from experience Mr. Zabriski would soon forget this whole mess and be onto something else.  He really needed to get his brother-in-law, the lawyer, to give him some advice on how to take care of the older man, as he had no family and his mind was getting worse all the time, now to the point of thinking a new resident sharing home baked cookies was throwing a feast and that the poor guy was a spy.  Something would have to give.

Meanwhile, he had to say something to CONCEDE to Mr. Zabriski's current state of mind without putting Mr. Fellham in a position to be harassed by him.

Jensen suddenly had an idea.

"Mr. Zabriski, as a district manager, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Fellham is a spy."

"See!  I knew it!  I knew it!"

"But he's not a spy for another district, he's a spy for ours."  Jensen got up from the desk, moved toward his window, and looked out.  Yep, there was Manny, who always managed to hang around somewhere when Mr. Zabriski was on a tear about something.  Talk about a spy!

Mr. Zabriski was staring at him and he continued, "Fellham is our top man for ferreting out moles within our own district.  He's got a job nearby and is keeping his eyes and ears open and you really need to not blow his cover so he can do his job."

Mr. Zabriski straightened up in his chair and said, "Yes, sir!  If you're sure of him, and that's why he's here, you and he will have no trouble from me.  Moles need to be caught and taught a lesson, and I won't stand in his way.  Thank you for listening and letting me know, and I promise I won't breathe a word of it!"

Jensen opened the door and let Mr. Zabriski out, and Manny stood up at the open window.  He was shaking his head.

"A month ago it was robot bugs being let loose on the grounds and now it's spies and districts, Boss, what are we going to do for him?  He's getting worse."

"I know, Manny, and we'll do something, but I have to consult a lawyer first.  Meanwhile, we'll just have to keep an eye on him."

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Today is:

Accession Day -- United Arab Emirates (accession of H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan)

Feast of Everything Green Except Money -- Hooray for veggies! You'll need them before you have that root beer float.

Festival of Nut and Ra; Chief Festival of Thoth -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival Wednesday/East End Parade -- British Virgin Islands

Hiroshima Day

Independence Day / National Day -- Bolivia; Jamaica

National Fresh Breath (Halitosis) Day -- shouldn't that read, anti-halitosis?

National Root Beer Float Day -- A&W Root Beer really gets into this day  

Peace Festival -- Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima, Japan

Sts. Justus and Pastor's Day (Patrons of Alcala, Spain; Madrid, Spain)

Tanabata Festival -- Sendai, Japan (Japan's largest Tanabata 'Star Festival', through the 8th)

Teinne Festival -- Ancient Celtic Calendar (Teinne, the Celtic Holy Fire, sometimes called Tan; date approximate)

Transfiguration of the Lord -- Orthodox Christian

Wiggle Your Toes Day -- internet generated, and my suggestion is to celebrate it with a cool drink out by the pool if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, and by toasting your toes in front of a fire if you are in the Southern Hemisphere

Birthdays Today:

Romola Garai, 1982

Melissa George, 1976

Soleil Moon Frye, 1976

M. Night Shyamalan, 1970

Michelle Yeoh, 1962

Catherine Hicks, 1951

Dorian Harewood, 1950

Shirley Ann Jackson, 1946

Peter Bonerz, 1938

Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, 1934

Andy Warhol, 1928

Robert Mitchum, 1817

Lucille Ball, 1911

Clara Bow, 1905

Hoot Gibson, 1892

Alexander Fleming, 1881

Louella Parsons, 1881

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, 1861

Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809 

Daniel O'Connell, 1775

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Help"(Album debut), 1965

Today in History:

Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founds the city of Bogota, Colombia, 1538

Holland (The Dutch Republic) sells Brazil to Portugal and the two 

countries sign the Treaty of The Hague, 1661

The first private military school in the US, Norwich University, is 

founded in Vermont, 1819

The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg, 1845

William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by the electric chair, 1890

Alice Ramsey takes three friends (none of whom could drive) to become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, 1909

Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, 1926

Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down by the US National Forest Service, for reasons even they cannot explain, 1964

The Federal Voting Rights Act is signed, 1965

A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, 1986

The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, 1990

NASA makes the still disputed announcement that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms, 1996

The incoming coalition government of the United Kingdom discontinues the use of the controversial ContactPoint database of all children in that country, 2010

After a century of silence, Mount Tongariro in New Zealand erupts, spreading volcanic ash across the country's central North Island and affecting airports, 2012

The Curiosity Rover, controlled by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, lands safely on the surface of Mars, 2012

The world's largest ever Pinball tournament, "Pinburgh," is held in Pittsburgh, PA, US, with 700 machines, 2015

In an attempt to end 5 years of civil war, South Sudanese President Salva Kilr and rebel leader Riek Machar sign the South Sudan Peace Accord, 2018

According to the World Resources Institute, a quarter of humanity is running out of water, 2019

Director Greta Gerwig becomes the first solo female filmmaker to surpass US$1B at the global box office with the film, Barbie, 2023