Getting to the Gutters (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G has become concerned about the gutters on her house as one seems to have rusted through in a spot and is dripping right where she doesn't want dripping to happen, and of course there’s no money to get them professionally cleared out, or repaired, or (heaven forbid) replaced.

Thus yesterday, in spite of the fact i am perfectly comfortable getting on a roof and cleaning a gutter (who do you think does it here?), i found myself steadying the ladder while she of the bad back and knees was up there trying to make headway with getting some of the huge amount of material which has gathered out of one particular corner.

Eventually she had me pass up the hose, and stand at the spigot to turn it on and off as she tried to float some of the material out toward the downspout.

At one point, the water spewed back at her and she looked at me with chagrin and said, "Well, I just had a bath!"

Of course, not much moved, and the downspout is now clogged making matters a bit worse, but a good bit of the material is out of the main area she wanted cleared.

Afterward, of course, it was my job to use the specially designated outdoor broom to sweep away what she had cleared by simply throwing it over her shoulder to land right on the part of the porch where she had just blown the leaves away, and i'm not so sure we did much good after all.

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

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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!

Ready for St. Patrick's Day.

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

Gracious mercy, sakes alive!

We ordered the appetizer for five,

but this could be shared by ten,

we'll take half home to have again.

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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, by the hardest, the front brakes on Slow-Moe are done.  The back brakes will be done soon, but the front were most important.

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Today is:

Arbor Day -- China; Taiwan

Donkey Appreciation Day -- formerly celebrated, but the lowly donkey is no longer as indispensable as he was; if you share my fondness for beasts of burden, celebrate it anyway

Girl Scouts Birthday -- US

Kronprinsessans Namnsdag -- Sweden (Name Day of HRH Crown Princess Victoria, the Heir Apparent; an official flag day)

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (three day festival, dates approximate; celebrates the marriage of Kore and Dionysos)

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria -- in 415, she was murdered for the three crimes of being intelligent, female, and pagan

National Baked Scallops Day

National Equal Pay Day -- US (the date of how far into 2026 a US woman had to work to earn what a US man did in 2025)  

National Day -- Mauritius (anniversary of independence in 1968)

Plant a Flower Day -- sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation; now's a good time to give wildlife friendly perennials a head start, starting them indoors if you have to 

St. Gregory the Great's Day (Patron of choir boys, educators, masons, musicians, popes, schoolchildren, singers, stonemasons, stone cutters, students, and teachers; England; Kercem, Malta; Legazpi, Philippines; Montone, Italy; San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Italy; West Indies; against gout and plague)

     note that Pope St. Gregory is also celebrated on Sept. 3, the date he was elected pope

     Graekarismessa (Mass of St. Gregory) -- Torshavn, Faroe Islands (traditional day on which the oystercatcher, their symbolic national bird, returns)

     Gregoru Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (Gregory's Day, similar to groundhog day for weather prediction)

St. Seraphina's Day (Patron of the disabled and handicapped, and of spinners)

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day -- UK (to focus on ensuring the positive wellbeing of people with mental health difficulties)        

World Day Against Cyber Censorship -- sponsored by Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International

World Kidney Day  

Youth Day -- Zambia

Anniversaries Today:

Mick Jagger marries Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, 1971

Paul McCartney marries Linda Louise Eastman, 1969

Birthdays Today:

Frank Catalano, 1978

Aaron Eckhart, 1968

David Daniels, 1966

Darryl Strawberry, 1962

Marlon Jackson, 1957

Rob Cohen, 1949

James Taylor, 1948

Liza Minnelli, 1946

Al Jarreau, 1940

Barbara Feldon, 1933

Andrew Young, 1932

Edward Albee, 1928

Wally Schirra, 1923

Jack Kerouac, 1922

Gordon MacRae, 1921

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1881

Simon Newcomb, 1835

Charles Cunningham Boycott, 1832

Clement Studebaker, 1821

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Moses und Aaron"(Opera), 1954

"Fervaal"(Opera; d'Indy Op. 40), 1897

"Simon Boccanegra"(Opera), 1857

Today in History:

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria, philosopher, 415

Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius, 538

Orvieto, Italy, rules it will behead and burn Jewish-Christian couples, 1350

Jews are expelled from Syria, 1496

New Jersey becomes an English colony, 1664

The first steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine, 1755

Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain, 1881

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time, 1894

The first main line electric train in UK, from Liverpool to Southport, begins running, 1904

The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States, by Juliette Gordon Lowe, 1912

The foundation stone of the new Australian capital in Canberra is laid, 1913

Mohandas Gandhi begins 200m (300km) march protesting British salt tax, 1930

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism, 1947

The Church of England ordains its first female priests, 1994

Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO, 1999

Financier Bernard Madoff plead guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history, 2009

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the world now has 7 billion people, 2012

JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract methane hydrate from seabed deposits, 2013

Research shows Chinese cites have decreased pollution by 32 percent on average in just four years, 2018

Tens of thousands of farmers from Indian state Maharashtra end protests over loan waivers, prices and land rights after promises from state officials and walking 167km to Mumbai, 2018

Researchers claim more births are resulting in twins than ever before in history, with almost 1 in 42 pregnancies resulting in multiples, 2021

After forming on Feb. 6, Cyclone Freddy makes landfall for a second time in central Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi, setting records as the longest-lasting cyclone in the southern hemisphere, 2023