Peacock Moth/Io Moth Caterpillar (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.    

This month, River is providing the prompts on her blog.

NOTE:  This week's story is true, and is sad.  I won't be upset if you skip it.

This week's words/prompts are: 

1.feeling  

2.motion  

3.unthinkable  

4.blowing  

5.shopping  

6.road trip

Charlotte's colour of the month is beauty berry purple.

A few weeks ago i got the bright idea to change some things around on my every-other-Monday schedule and put it in MOTION.

Carl is always first thing in the morning, mostly so i can help him jump-start his work week.  He's just not a morning person and his mom appreciates the boost it gives him.

Once done with Carl, i had been doing Ms. D's house.  Ms. D lives only a few doors down from us.  Then i'd come home, pack supplies and go see Ms. JAI, who doesn't live far but it's at one of the busiest areas around.  I'd get finished just as the traffic was getting to be at its worst, and getting home wasn't always easy, especially on a hot afternoon in a car with no A/C.

I had the bright idea to start going to Ms. JAI right after Carl, at midday, and then get back to my neighborhood well before the traffic picks up to take care of Ms. D's place.

Both ladies had agreed, as long as i'm not waking them up in the early morning, switching was a fine idea.  Ms. JAI was especially happy as she always hated sending me off at 5pm, knowing what kind of ROAD TRIP i was getting into at that time of day.

This past Monday was supposed to be the first day for the new schedule.  I had already packed the cleaning supplies and took them with me in the morning.  When i finished at Carl's, i headed to Ms. JAI's and i started trying to call her.

There was no answer, and once i got there, there was no answer of the doorbell.  I had a bad FEELING about it, it's not like her to simply not answer either phone and not let me know if she has an appointment and won't be there when i arrive.

In other words, she's not one for BLOWING off commitments or appointments and has always let me know what's up, and it had been a few days since we'd texted each other.

I even climbed onto her balcony which overlooks the pond to see if the back door was open (she often leaves it unlocked all day, going in and out when she wants) but it wasn't, and the house was dark.

It made me uneasy, but i realized there was nothing for it but to go on with my day.  Since i was in the area near a store where i needed something but i don't get over that way except every other Monday, i decided to do a little SHOPPING and picked up one much needed item.

I then went on to Ms. D's place, where we talked and laughed and i got her place squared away for when family comes later this week.

About 20 minutes after i arrived home from Ms. D's, i got a phone call from Ms. JAI's number and answered.  It wasn't her, it was her daughter.

The UNTHINKABLE had happened.  Last week, the day after she and i had texted, she had one of her horrible dizzy spells, fell and broke her hip.  Once at the hospital, she had a massive stroke and brain bleed, becoming paralyzed on the same side where the broken hip was, her left.  She also became unable to swallow.

Because her "living will" has her as DNR, no feeding tube, no ventilator, and her blood pressure was too high for them to do surgery, she was taken to the hospice just up the highway from me.

The moment i heard, i left to go visit her.  I arrived to find several of her friends from her church there.

She was awake and aware, i was able to talk to her for a while and so did her other friends, and when she fell asleep, i left.  I went back yesterday three times, once before i started taking care of our little Annie for the day, and twice with Annie.  The first two times i was there with no other family or friends around, and while she didn't really respond, i was able to talk to her, sing to her and pray with her.

The third time, her youngest daughter was there and we got to talk.  She'd put Ms. JAI's favorite hat, a jaunty Beauty Berry Purple beret, on her with the sparkly pin attached.  The pin is a wine bottle and wine glass.  It just fits Ms. JAI, she loves the hat.  Her daughter told me she'd been aware enough during part of the day to Facetime with faraway family and was able to mouth "I love you" to them.

I plan to go back and visit as often as i can with my work schedule over the next few days.  As much as it hurts my heart to see her like this, in a way it's better than having her linger for months or years like so many do.

Prayers for an easy passing would be much appreciated.

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Today is:

Birthday of Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala -- Tonga

Citizenship Day -- US

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 7, Women (sponsored by We, the World) 

Feast of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fundacion de Melilla -- ML, Spain

International Country Music Day

National Apple Dumpling Day

National Heroes Day -- Angola

National Rehabilitation Day -- US (on the Wednesday of National Rehab Awareness Week)

National School Backpack Awareness Day 2025 -- US (or anywhere else that you want to weigh your child's backpack on the 3rd Wednesday of September, to make sure it's not heavy enough to hurt them)  

Niketeria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Operation Market Garden Remembrance -- Netherlands

Pledge Across America Day -- US (beginning of Constitution Week, every school is invited to join a synchronized Pledge of Allegiance across the whole nation, from 8am Hawaiian time to 2pm Eastern; schools are also encouraged to have an exercise of some kind about the US Constitution)

     on the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, or on the school day nearest if it's a weekend

Responsible Dog Ownership Day -- sponsored by the AKC    

Stigmata of St. Francis' Day

St. Hildegard von Bingen's Day (author of treatises on natural healing and the first musical composer whose biography is known)

St. Lambert's Day (Patron of Middelaar, Netherlands)

Time's Up Day -- created by Wellcat Holidays; time's up on holding that grudge, you need to make amends with people today, since you aren't guaranteed a tomorrow

VFW Ladies Auxiliary Day -- anniversary of founding in 1914

Anniversary Today:

The Constitution of the United States is signed, 1787

American Professional Football League (later the NFL) founded (a/k/a the Swallowing Up of Weekends), 1920

Birthdays Today:

Patrick Mahomes, 1995

Chuck Liddell, 1969

Kyle Chandler, 1965

Rita Rudner, 1956

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, 1951

John Ritter, 1948

David H. Souter, 1974

Ken Kesey, 1935

Maureen Conolly, 1934

Anne Bancroft, 1931

Roddy McDowall, 1928

George Blanda, 1927

Hank Williams Sr., 1923

Chaim Herzog, 1918

Warren E. Burger, 1907

Jerry Colonna, 1904

John Willard Marriot, 1900

Andrew "Rube" Foster, 1879

Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, 1730

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Home Improvement"(TV), 1991

"Head of the Class"(TV), 1986

"M*A*S*H"(TV), 1972

"McMillan and Wife"(TV), 1971

"Mission: Impossible"(TV), 1966

"Bewitched"(TV), 1964

"The Fugitive"(TV), 1963

"Car 54 Where are You?"(TV), 1961

"Outward Bound"(Play), 1923

Today in History:

The Battle of Thermopylae, fought between 300 Spartans, led by their king, Leonidas, and the Achaemenid Empire begins, BC480

Arabs conquer Alexandria, and destroy its library for the last time, 642

Netherland sailors discover Mauritius, 1598

Massachusetts Bay Colony gets a new charter, 1691

Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, 1776

US Constitution is adopted by the Philadelphia convention, 1787

Sprinkler system for extinguishing fires is patented by Phillip W. Pratt, 1872

The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality, 1908

The first transcontinental airplane flight, from New York to Pasadena, is completed after 82 hours 4 minutes, 1911

The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards

of 2,500 people, the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, 1928

The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives, 1949

Television is first broadcast in Australia, 1956

Malaysia joins the United Nations, 1957

Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations, 1974

The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA, 1976

The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt, 1978

Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America, 1983

Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations, 1991

The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet, 1991

Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years, 2006

A drill finally reaches the 33 Chilean miners trapped after the Aug. 5 Copiapo mining accident, 2010

In an attempt to curb child marriages, Indonesia raises the legal marriage age of females to 19, the same as males, 2019

Seventy years after they were declared extinct in India, cheetahs are re-introduced to India from Namibia at the Kuno National Park in Madya Pradesh state, 2022

Aided by tax rebates, Norway becomes the first country to have electric vehicles outnumber petrol vehicles, 2024