Oh, Now That's the Good Stuff (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Meowijuana Catnip Company
Meowi-Wauwi Catnip Buds

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 right here 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:

easy

student

invasion

encourage

housing

spectrum

and/or the following archaic words

gaud -- a trinket

moil -- drudgery

pore on -- think about, dwell on thoughtfully

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

Those of you who are familiar with Carl through my Tuesday posts which feature the adventures and misadventures of being his cleaning lady know he's a special guy.

Some of you may not know how special he really is.  He only survived his birth because a quick-thinking nurse took measures to save him and he was deprived of oxygen for a while, they aren't sure how long.

It left him with a high IQ and no way to practically use it, as he has no executive function (ability to make and implement plans, track where you are, measure progress, pick things up from the middle when you have to leave them, etc.).

Thus my adventures and misadventures helping him each week, and his family's adventures over the years living with him day in and day out.

Ms. V has been patience personified as she got him through his years as a SPECIAL education student.

Teaching him to drive was not EASY for her, it took over 2 years.

She has ENCOURAGEd him to stay gainfully employed as much as he can be, running interference with bosses and management when he cannot communicate what he needs.

Now she is over 80 (she looks 20 years younger and acts it, too) and his dad has chronic pain and is almost homebound.

It's time to think about what his HOUSING situation will be when they get to the point of being unable to watch out for him themselves.

He has a younger brother who is married, and he and his wife are willing to manage Carl's care, but don't feel equipped to care for him directly themselves.

Thus the search for some kind of facility started a couple of years ago, and the place was found.

Carl is on a waiting list at a place which serves people on the autism SPECTRUM, people with Down's Syndrome, and people who just generally cannot take care of themselves completely, like Carl.

They are building a new men's dorm to expand their HOUSING options, and when it's done, Carl will be able to move there.

The place has life skill classes, a gym, Friday night dances, tennis and golf, arts and crafts center, a chapel with an interdenominational service each Sunday residents may attend or not at their discretion, and every resident is employed in one of the businesses there or in the small local community.  It is set up so people can live there the rest of their lives, with family encouraged to visit or bring residents back "home" for visits.  They are even expanding with skilled nursing/elder services wings, so as their population ages, they can continue to care for them in the place which has become their home.

In their own words, they are a "place where men and women with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to build productive, meaningful lives, despite their challenges."

(Side note:  another member of our church has a grandson there.  His mom asked him if he wanted to come home for the summer two years ago and he responded with, "Mom, I'd miss my golf tournament!"  She has to go see him, he never wants to leave.  It makes us hopeful Carl will enjoy it, too.)

There's a "MALL MART" nearby, as i call it, and Ms. V wants to find out if they'd let him drive there to continue working as a cart pusher, if the local one needs him.  It's a job he's familiar with after 16 years with the company.

This coming Thursday, Younger Brother is coming to pick up Ms. V and Carl and take them to the open house weekend so all of them can become more familiar with the facility and the nearby small town.  I can imagine the residents and employees of the facility planning for the "INVASION" of relatives, friends and new residents.  We're hoping Carl will be impressed and make friends, as he's a social butterfly and loves having lots of people around.

Carl's fun attitude about life is why i never think of my working at his place as MOIL, but as helping someone who just needs a boost, as we all do sometimes in some ways.

When they do give him a move-in date (and Ms. V is hoping to know more about that after this weekend), it will be time to PORE ON his belongings and start to decide what he will keep and take with him, what will stay behind, and what he doesn't need at all.

The latter won't be easy as he is attached sentimentally to every GAUD.

It also won't be easy for Mr. L, his father, who is going to miss him dreadfully.  He'll feel the pain of an empty nest even more so than Ms. V, who loves him but knows it's time for her 43-year-old little bird to fly to another safe nest, a larger and better one to help him develop to the best of his potential.

I do hope he's impressed, enjoys the visit, and after being there a few days will know it's a good place where he wants to be.

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Today is:

Crayfish Premiere -- Sweden (although they are now available year 'round, it used to be that crayfish could only be sold and served in restaurants the day after the season opens; the actual premiere date is often still celebrated with crayfish parties and lots of schnapps)

Day of Battle between Horus and Set; Aset gains the Horns of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Aventine Diana / Nemoralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (commemoration of the dedication of her temple; celebrated between now and the 15th, and rededicated as the Festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin after Christianization)

Festival of Xocotl Huetzi -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (first fruits of harvest festival; date approximate, but two weeks around the end of August)

Independence Day -- Central African Republic(1960)

International Left-Hander's Day -- sponsored by Lefthanders International   www.lefthandersday.com/about.html

Lao Issara -- Laos (Day of the Free Laos)

Lesser Festival of Flora -- Ancient Roman Calendar

National Filet Mignon Day

Obon -- Buddhist (celebration to revere the ancestors; celebrated at different times even within Japan, but usually the biggest dates are in mid-August)

Royal Queensland Show -- QLD, Australia

Runic Half Month As begins (the gods)

Skinny Dipping Day -- funny t-shirt:  I no longer skinny dip. I chunky dunk!

St. Cassian's Day (Patron of students and teachers; Brixen, Italy; Comacchio, Italy; Imola, Italy; Mexico City, Mexico)

St. Concordia's day (Patron of nursing mothers and wet nurses)

St. Hippolytus' Day (Patron of horses, prison guards/officers/workers; Bibbiena, Italy)

Wall Day -- anniversary of the day in 1961 that the Berlin Wall began going up; observe it by trying to break down a wall or communication barrier somewhere in your own life

Women's Day -- Tunisia

Birthdays Today

Shani Davis, 1982

Midori Ito, 1969

Quinn Cummings, 1967

Danny Bonaduce, 1959

Dan Fogelberg, 1951

Kathleen Battle, 

Philippe Petit, 1949

Kevin Tighe, 1944

Don Ho, 1930

Pat Harrington, Jr., 1929

Fidel Castro, 1926

George Shearing, 1919

Ben Hogan, 1912

Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, 1907

Alfred Hitchcock, 1899

Bert Lahr, 1895

Annie Oakley, 1860

Lucy Stone, 1818

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Zaire/The Tragedy of Zara"(Voltaire's "Tragedy in Verse"), 1732

Today in History

The English army under King Henry V lands at the mouth of the Seine River, 1415

Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs is conquered by the Spanish, 1521

Tenbun Hokke Disturbance, in which Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto, 1536

John Smith submits the story of Jamestown's first days for publication, 1608

Christiaan Huygens discovers the Martian south polar cap, 1642

Founding of Litchfield, CT, 1651

Marie Antoinette and other French royals are imprisoned by Revolutionaries, 1792

Nat Turner sees the solar eclipse which he interprets as a sign from heaven to begin his ill-fated slave rebellion, 1831

Earthquake in Peru and Ecuador kills 25,000, 1868

Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon", 1889

First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, 1913

Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, 1918

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany, 1918

The first barbed wire fence that would become the Berlin Wall is erected, 1961

The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York, 1969

Michael Phelps sets the Olympic record for most the gold medals won by an individual in Olympic history, 2008

Footage of the previously unseen Kawahiva tribe is released; the Kawahiva is an indigenous tribe living in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and is thought to have had very little contact with the outside world, 2013

Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani becomes the first woman to win the Fields Medal in mathematics, 2014

Measles cases have tripled so far worldwide in 2019 according to the WHO, 2019 

Israel strikes an historic deal with the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations and suspends plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, 2020