The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange and More, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Picking up from last Friday, it was the night of The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange, which many call Halloween and on which all the moms (and grandmoms) in the neighborhood exchange candy through their children.

I am thankful for my habit of buying a small bag of candy with every trip to the store starting in September so the cost never becomes a problem.

I’m thankful for the fun costumes and smiles of the kids, the fact I always have candy with no nuts available for children who need it (one family brings their three allergic children to our house every year because they know we have stuff) and this year I am thankful for clear tape.  One young man’s costume, which was a “blow up” wearable with a fan in the back, had a tear it it.  A nice piece of clear tape over the tear and the costume worked well enough to get him through the evening.

Our biggest problem on Saturdays when Sweetie comes with me and we are driving back from NOLA in a rental is having to go all the way to the house to let my Sweetie follow me to the rental place in our car so we will have a ride home.  We have to drive through a very frustrating construction zone for the next several months and i thought we could eliminate that by having Brother-in-law meet us at the rental place and give us a ride home.

I’m thankful I survived and am glad to have finally met someone whose driving is worse than my Sweetie’s or my Bigger Girl’s, I won’t worry so much about either of them any longer.  (Yes, I’m thankful my Sweetie lets me drive whenever we are together.)

Becca and her family are out of town two Sundays in a row.  I am sad to miss our walk with Mr. Cal and Becca’s and my time at worship together, but thankful for a chance to sleep a little later and get to church in my own sweet time.  I’m also thankful the headache i got from sleeping late went away quickly, sometimes you can’t win everything so you take what you get!

Because my week was shaping up to be busy (again), i was thankful my Sweetie did agree after i got done with work to meet me at the Mall-Mart so i could buy all the stuff for the rEcess dinner and he could take it to the church and I wouldn’t have to worry about it later in the week.

Monday night we got the word our teacher for the monthly Tuesday ladies’ meeting was ill, i was thankful i’d already prepared as if i was going to teach (i like to be very ready to contribute to discussions) and i was able to step in, and she will teach next month.

Tuesday i was also thankful for a long stretch through the afternoon and evening with my little Annie.

Several weeks ago, our generator had developed a major problem, and then another, and the fix was a whole new panel for the electricals in the house, and it was set to be done this past Wednesday.

The moment of truth came, they showed, were able to get it done, and we’re thankful for a fixed generator with a new and improved panel and switched that work and best of all, it came in at less than the cost estimate!

We're also thankful, when the parish (county in most places) worker came to inspect it, it passed easily, so we are up to code.

Thursday was another two job day, Ms. V as well as Kevin and Lenny.  I’m thankful i got through it with only minimal soreness by the end of the day, remembered to flip the mattresses at Ms. V’s, and we have worked off all of our car repairs (they do small repairs and oil changes in exchange for a certain number of cleanings).

Which brings us up to rEcess, where we always have a good time and are thankful for a meal together, plenty of art and gym time, and non-stop action (and for those who don’t know, it’s a church ministry where a group of us volunteer to take care of special need kids and their siblings for free so the parents get a night out).

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Clark and his co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.   

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Click here to enter

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Today is:

Abet and Aid Punsters Day -- promoted by Punsters Unlimited, which seems to know better than to host a website

Cook Something Bold & Pungent Day -- especially for those who have had to close up the house for winter, we need to create a beautiful aroma for the house; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Dunce Day -- death anniversary of John Duns Scotus (one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of the Middle Ages, he was called the "Subtle Doctor" but his enemies turned his name into the word we use today for someone who isn't too bright)

Feast of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Patrons of cattle, masons, sculptors, stone cutters; against fever)

Festival of the Mania -- Ancient Roman Calendar (to placate the Manes)

Fuigo Matsuri -- Kyoto City, Japan (Bellows Festival, Shinto festival in honor of Inari, the kitchen hearth goddess)

I Hate to Cook Day -- internet generated, and probably started by someone who wanted an excuse to go out to dinner!

National Cappuccino Day

National Harvey Wallbanger Day

National Parents as Teachers Day -- US

Pohnpei Constitution Day -- Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Sadie Hawkins Day -- US (on Nov. 9 or the Saturday nearest, and based on the Li'l Abner comic, a day for a woman to ask out the man of her choice; also widely observed on Feb. 29 because of a law passed in Scotland in 1288)

Saints, Doctors, Missionaries, and Martyr's Day -- Church of England

Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven -- Eastern Orthodox Church

The Lord Mayor's Show -- London, England (originally "The Lord Mayor's Day," according to the official website this show has marched, floated, trotted, and occasionally fought through almost 800 years of London history, making it one of the oldest civic pageants in the world)

World Urbanism Day/World Town Planning Day

X-Ray Discovery Day / World Radiography Day -- commemorating the discovery, in 1895, of X-rays

Anniversaries Today:

Montana becomes 41st US State, 1889

Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women is founded, 1837 (considered by many to be the first true college for women in the US)

Opening of the Louvre, 1793

Birthdays Today:

Tara Reid, 1975

Masashi Kishimoto, 1974

Parker Posey, 1968

Courtney Thorne-Smith, 1967

Gordon Ramsay, 1966

Leif Garrett, 1961

Rickie Lee Jones, 1954

Alfre Woodard, 1953

Mary Hart, 1951

Bonnie Raitt, 1949

Virna Lisi, 1937

Morley Safer, 1931

Patti Page, 1927

Christiaan Barnard, 1922

Esther Rolle, 1920

Martha Gellhorn, 1908

Margaret Mitchell, 1900

Hermann Rorschach, 1884

Milton Bradley, 1836

Edmond Halley, 1656

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Six Degrees of Separation"(Guare drama), 1990

"Night and Day"(Stoppard play), 1978

"Days of our Lives"(TV), 1965

"Life With Father"(Play), 1939

Sister Carrie(Publication date), 1900

"Ruy Blas"(Victor Hugo drama), 1838

Today in History:

Emperor Theodosius declares Christianity to be the state religion, 392

Uprising against Piero de' Medici in Florence, Italy, 1494

First meeting of Montezuma and Hernando Cortez in Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1519

The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened to the public, 1602

Benjamin Franklin opens the first US library, in Philadelphia, PA, 1731

Elijah Craig, of Bourbon, Kentucky, US, first distills Bourbon whiskey from corn, 1789

Sarah Bernhardt makes her US debut at NY's Booth Theater, 1880

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time, 1892

Wilhelm Roentgen of Germany discovers X-rays, 1895

The New Testament Gospels are translated into Demotic Greek (as opposed to the Koine Greek of ancient texts), resulting in bloody clashes in Athens, 1901

The first Washington state elections in which women could vote take place, 1910

Operation Grapple X, Round C1: Britain conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific, 1957

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate, 1966

Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father), 1977

The UN Security Council demands that Saddam Hussein disarm or face serious consequences, 2002

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao releases pictures of the moon's Sinus Iridium, or Bay of Rainbows, taken during the Chang e-2 lunar mission, 2010

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao releases pictures of the moon's Sinus Iridium, or Bay of Rainbows, taken during the Chang e-2 lunar mission, 2010

The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passed 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), 2011

Mikhail Gorbachev warns that tensions between America and Russia over Ukraine have put the world on the brink of a new Cold War, 2014

Louvre Abu Dhabi is inaugurated, the largest art museum on the Arabian peninsula, 2017

Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa breaks the world record for surfing the biggest-ever wave at 24.4m at Nazaré, Portugal, 2017

Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, runs its first test of a high-speed levitating pod system to carry people and cargo, 2020

Archaeologists announce the most significant find of Etruscan and Roman bronze statues in the past 50 years while excavating an ancient spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy, 2022

European Space Telescope Euclid releases its first images - first telescope able to capture an entire galaxy in one single exposure, also built to explore dark matter and dark energy, 2023

The bells of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris ring out for the first time since the 2019 fire, 2024