But Every Minute Counts, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  http://stacyuncorked.com

For the first time in a while, Carl had work on a Monday, but not until later in the morning.  Also for the first time in a while, he was not already in his sleep chair when i arrived.

He went to transfer to his chair and stopped.  "My boxer shorts have a hole," he observed.  I told him to change them, but he shook his head.

"Bathrobe!" he said, grabbing it.  It would have worked, but instead of putting it on and fastening it around him, he either let it stay open, or simply carried it around with him.  It did not do the job intended.

As he headed off to rest, he asked me to wake him at 9:12.  Knowing if he had a sleep motto it would be, every minute counts, i tried very hard to wake him at the exact time he asked.

Before then, however, he came in to brush his teeth and to comment about the foggy conditions.

I would wonder how much rest he actually gets when he goes out there, but every time i have to pass through that room, he is curled in his chair with a blissful smile, so it works for him.

As i cleaned, i noticed this in his bathroom drawer where we keep spare lids (since he loses so many lids, we keep spares).

various bottle and tube caps with white chunks of deodorant stick

I've never seen anyone take the deodorant stick out of the tube it comes in before.  Of course, it had broken into pieces and i had to dig them out.  I didn't bother asking about it, he had 3 other sticks so i found the empty tube and threw all of it away.  Even he probably doesn't know how it happened.

He also presented me with another mystery.  He used to have 3 laundry baskets, and this time he only had two.  I searched the house, no dice.  I went out to his car to see if it was in the back seat or the trunk, nope.  When he was up later and i asked him, he looked confused.  "I had how many?" he asked.

Never mind, two is enough, right?

When he did get up, i tried to steer him to the bathroom for a shower (i'd just cleaned it and put in clean linen and all his clothes) when he said, "Just a few more minutes?"

I told him it was up to him, but to make sure he wasn't going to be late to work.  He thought a moment and headed to the bathroom, assured me the clothes i'd chosen would work, and i in turn told him not to come out undressed and left him to it.

He came out a little bit dressed, asking if he could change shirts.  Again, up to him, so he did.

Carl likes to chat while i'm cleaning and he's puttering or eating breakfast, and this was no exception.  "It was staff appreciation day yesterday," he noted.  Then added, "At church.  And a four-year-old talked, something about liking Sunday school."

Before i could respond he changed to, "Should I sign up for tutoring?"

What kind of tutoring, i asked, and he answered, "Math and such."  Then he stopped and noticed i was cleaning out his fridge.

"Kiwi!" he said, grabbing one and trying to eat the inside out of it without peeling it while standing over the garbage can.

Please take it to the kitchen and put on the apron i left on your chair, i told him, so you don't wear kiwi to work.

"But it's so good, one more bite!" he kept saying.  Eventually he left with the kiwi, and i was able to deal with the half eaten apple in a bag and the bag with only an empty juice bottle and his wet wipes.  Why did the wet wipes land in the fridge?  Because they were in the bag with the former full bottle of juice, and taking them out of the bag to put them away is too complicated.

As i was finishing and he was about to leave, he had another question.

"What direction should I go?" he asked.

Thinking carefully, because he might be asking for directions to work to take him around the current road construction or he might be asking about the state of the universe, i neutrally said, do you mean your direction in life?

"Yeah!"

That's not an easy question, i told him, i would suggest you talk to your pastor and your parents, and pray about it, and seek plenty of counsel.

"I do my best at work, but they're never satisfied.  I want to get out of retail!" was his answer.

Thus the earlier question about tutoring.  He's wanting a different job, and i don't blame him as pushing carts in a parking lot all day is hard work.

The thing is, the group home for special adults which has accepted him should have a place for him by next summer, so he won't even live in this town any longer.  Trying to find a new job wouldn't do him much good.

Before i could find a way to explain this, it was time for him to go.

Carl is fun and funny, and he's also a sensitive soul.  Even so, he can probably stand this job for another six months or so, and then be done with it.

In honor of his fun loving nature, let's have some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Constitution Day -- South Africa (the 1993 Constitution, granting blacks the right to vote, was approved)

Dan sjecanja na žrtve Domovinskog rata i Dan sjecanja na žrtvu Vukovara i Škabrnje  -- Croatia (Remembrance Day for Homeland War Victims and for the Sacrifice of Vukovar and Škabrnja)

Day of Ardvi Sura (Aredvi Sura Anahita), Mother of the Stars -- Ancient Persian Calendar (date approximate)

European Antibiotic Awareness Day -- ECDC (because prudent use of antibiotics can help stop antibiotic resistance)  

Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá -- Maracaibo, Venezuela

Independence Day -- Morocco(1956); Western Saraha(1975)

Married to a Scorpio Support Day -- remembering those married to Scorpios and suffering because of it, and encouraging them too hide the flow charts and assert themselves today; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Day -- Oman (traditional)

National Entrepreneurs Day -- US (by Congressional designation)

National French Vichyssoise Day

Ned Ludd Memorial Machine-Smashing Day -- internet generated, but enjoy!  i know i will

Proclamation of the Republic -- Latvia (1918)

Push-Button Phone Day -- launched this day in 1963

School Pride Day -- US (always on the Tuesday of American Education Week)

St. Odo of Cluny's Day (Patron of needed rain)

Total Disregard for Taste Day -- marking the debut of Howard Stern's radio show on this day in 1985

Vertieres Day -- Haiti (Battle of Vertieres and Army Day)

William Tell Day -- the famed apple-off-his-son's-head-shot was today in 1307

Birthdays Today:

Owen Wilson, 1968

Elizabeth Perkins, 1960

Sinbad, 1956

Katy Sagal, 1956

Kevin Nealn, 1953

Andrea Marcvicci, 1948

Jameson Parker, 1947

Wilma Mankiller, 1945

Susan Sullivan, 1944

Linda Evans, 1942

Brenda Vaccaro, 1939

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, 1939

Mickey Mouse, 1928

Alan Shepard, Jr., 1923

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer, 1909

Imogene Coca, 1908

George Gallup, 1901

Eugene Ormandy, 1899

Clarence Shepard Day, 1874

Dorothy Dix (Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer), 1861

Ignacy Jan Paderewski, 1860

James Edward Sullivan, 1860

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, 1836

Asa Gray, 1810

Louis-Jacques Daguerre, 1787

Sojourner Truth, 1787

Carl Maria von Weber, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Star Trek: Generations(Film), 1994

Malcolm X(Film), 1992

Calvin and Hobbes(Comic strip), 1985 (in this first strip, Calvin catches Hobbes in a tiger trap baited with a tuna sandwich)

"See It Now"(TV), 1951

"Skin of Our Teeth"(Wilder play), 1943

Steamboat Willie (a/k/a Mickey Mouse), 1928

US Uniform Time Zone Plan, 1883 (on this date, the railroads adopted the current uniform time zone plan; it wasn't legally mandated until 1918)

Today in History:

Old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated, 326

The Japanese Emperor Kammy relocates the residence of Nara to Kyoto, 794

William Tell shoots the apple off his son's head, 1307

The Holland/Zealand dikes break during a storm, resulting in thousands of deaths, 1421

The first English printed book, "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers", is published, 1477

Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico, 1493

Vasco da Gama reaches the Cape of Good Hope, 1497

The worst earthquake in Massachusetts Bay/Boston area, 1755

The first Unitarian Minister in the US is ordained in Boston, 1787

30 women meet at Mrs. Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset Maine, to organize the Female Charitable Society, first woman's club in America, 1805

Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press, 1865

National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland, 1874

Standard time zones are formed by railroads in the US and Canada, 1883

The first newspaper Sunday color comic strip is printed, in the NY World, 1894

Britain flies its first sea plane, 1911

Lincoln Deachey performs the first airplane loop-the-loop, over San Diego, 1913

Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1917

Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, 1928

Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula, 1929

New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison, 1940

In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is ratified, 1993

HIP 13044 b, a planet that was formed in another galaxy, is discovered in the Helmi Stream, 2010

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, 2012

NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars, 2013

A book written by Charlotte Bronte as a child for her toys is bought by the Bronte Society for €600,000 at auction in Paris, 2019

The longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440 occurs, lasting 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds, 2021

The Leap Second, originally inserted beginning in 1972 to keep the atomic and astronomical time scales reconciled, will be dropped as of 2035 according to the International Bureau of Weights, and Measures, 2022