Nice to Go at My Own Pace (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday, an A to Z Challenge Post

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Ms. G has been promising a friend in another state she would come visit, and had finally settled on this week to keep said promise, so i am on critter duty Monday, Wednesday and again tomorrow, Friday, as well as expected to do the usual cleaning things on Wednesday.

The difference is, when she's out of town, i can go at my own pace, which i enjoy, and i can often shuffle around what i do both on Wednesday and with the days of the week when i am on duty.

My usual plan is to go do my main grocery shopping on Friday mornings, but because of the freedom with my schedule i instead went on Wednesday, when i was near the store i like, and my plan Friday is to instead go to another place i enjoy but don't get to often as it's out of my way (i'm generally in such a rush to get to the next job, i stop at places i'm closest to when i'm on the way and let that be that).

I'd made the mistake of letting her know Ms. Sassy, one of the cats, tried to get out on Monday, thus Ms. G insisted i had to call her when i arrived at her house Wednesday to do the critter tending and the usual chores, and i knew she was going to try to micromanage, from an 8 hour drive away and by phone, my every move between the indoor and the outdoor critters due to her worry about the cat possibly escaping.

Yes, i do get it, she's worried as Ms. Sassy is 16 and only moved here over a year ago, has never been outdoors here and doesn't know the territory, and there's a nasty cat next door that picks fights, but if Ms. G thinks making me stay on the phone, with it in my hand, while juggling supplies in and out of the door is going to help me be free to block Ms. Sassy's egress, it's not, it would just make things worse.

So i called her when i arrived all right, and immediately told her i was going straight to the back yard through the fence to use the hose directly for watering the critters, not bothering to get the pitcher from indoors she generally has me use and i would use whatever supplies were already in the sealed metal cans out there; thus i preempted her attempt and she simply sighed, said she agreed that was the best way to do it while she is gone, and after trying to cast around in her mind for something else to manage from an 8 hour drive away and not finding anything, went back to her visiting and leaving me to work in peace and at my own pace.

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

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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!

This one is wobbly, i wouldn't bet on it holding through any major storms.

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

When we got the job as film extras

we thought it would be a good hitch,

instead we look like idiots

and the costume's making me itch!

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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 Ms. Sassy didn't get out, it could have been a disaster.

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Today is:

Dronningens Fodselsdag -- Denmark (Birthday of Queen Margrethe II)

Emancipation Day -- Washington, D.C., US

Get to Know Your Customers Day (celebrated the 3rd Thursday quarterly)

Holiday of Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Jim Thorpe Day -- US (by Presidential Proclamation in 1973)

National CPA's Goof Off Day -- US, the day after tax day because they deserve it!

National D.A.R.E Day -- US (by Presidential Proclamation)

National Eggs Benedict Day

National Healthcare Decision Week begins -- US (to inspire, educate & empower the public & providers about the importance of advance care planning; "It always seems too early, until it's too late.")   

National Stress Awareness Day -- sponsored by the Health Resource Network (always on the first workday after paying taxes)

Offering to Demeter Khloe -- Ancient Greek Calendar (honoring Demeter as goddess of green shoots; date approximate)

St. Bernadette of Lourdes' Day (Patron of people ridiculed for their piety, poor people, shepherdesses, shepherds, sick people; Lourdes, France; against bodily ills, poverty, sickness)

St. Padarn's Day (Celtic peoples traditionally begin weeding crops on this saint's day)

Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day -- US (the day after you pay your taxes, bring the comforts of home to the office; sponsored by PajamaGram) 

World Elephant Day/Save the Elephant Day -- created by the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand

World Entrepreneurship Day

World Voice Day -- if you've ever had laryngitis, you know how important it is to protect your voice   

Anniversaries Today:

Harry Connick, Jr. marries Jill Goodare, 1994

Founding of the University of Queensland, 1910

Birthdays Today:

Lilliana Mumy, 1994

Lucas Haas, 1976

Selena Quintanilla, 1971

Martin Lawrence, 1965

Jon Cryer, 1965

Ellen Barkin, 1955

Jay O. Sanders, 1953

Kareem Adbud-Jabbar, 1947

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, 1940

Dusty Springfield, 1939

Bobby Vinton, 1935

Herbie Mann, 1930

Edie Adams, 1929

Pope Benedict XVI, 1927

Henry Mancini, 1924

Kingsley Amis, 1922

Peter Ustinov, 1921

Barry Nelson, 1920

Merce Cunningham, 1919

Charlie Chaplin, 1889

John Millington Synge, 1871

Wilbur Wright, 1867

Jose De Diego, 1866

Anatole France, 1844

John Franklin, 1786

Hans Sloane, 1660

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Brown Sugar"(Rolling Stones single release), 1971

"Fibber McGee and Molly"(Radio), 1935

"Mazeppa"(Symphonic poem, Liszt' S 100), 1854

"The Contrast"(Comedy), 1787 (First play by an American author, Royall Tyler, to be professionally produced on stage)

Today in History:

Calculated date of the return of Odysseus from the Trojan War, BC1178

The Jewish fortress of Masada falls to the Roman Army, ending the Jewish revolt, 73

Martin Luther is called before the Diet of Worms, 1521

Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina, 1582

The United States Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot Treaty, establishing the border with Canada, 1880

The first passenger rail opens in India, 1853

Ebenezer Bassett, the first African-American diplomat, begins his service in Haiti, 1869

US Marshal Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle, in Dodge City, 1881

Harriet Quimby becomes the first female pilot to cross the English Channel, 1912

Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by the British, 1919

Annie Oakley shoots a record 100 clay targets in a row, 1922

Dr. Albert Hofmann first ingests LSD, thus discovering its effects, 1943

Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1947

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation, 1963

The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean, 1992

The Queen Mary II embarks on her first transatlantic voyage, 2004

President of Côte d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo declares the First Ivorian Civil War to be over, 2007

Elizabeth Holmes, American entrepreneur, inventor, and founder and CEO of Theranos, is named one of TIME's "100 Most Influential People" of 2015, 2015

Kendrick Lamar is the first rapper and non-classical or jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music with his album "Damn", 2018

The journal Science publishes a new study which claims a multi-year megadrought is already underway in the Western US, 2020

Raul Castro confirms he is resigning, ending his family's six decade rule of Cuba, 2021

As part of a social isolation experiment, Spanish extreme athlete Beatriz Flamini exits a deep cave in Granada, Spain, after spending 500 days isolated underground, 2023

For the first time since 2002, Mount Ruang Volcano in North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, erupts. 2024

A juvenile colossal squid (11.8 inches long) is filmed in its natural environment in the South Atlantic Ocean at 1,968 feet deep for the first time since its discovery in 1925, 2025

Chinese chess grandmaster Ju Wenjun wins her 5th consecutive Women's World Chess Championship, 2025