Happier This Way (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G, like any of us, can be a puzzle.

She claims she wants to be able to stay home and take care of some of her own many projects, and wants to be able to move out to her retirement place in the country soon enough to still have the health to enjoy it.

She has invested in both a pontoon boat and an RV with the stated intent of being able to get away and just go fish and enjoy herself.

She has a house and now a storage unit full of things she says she wants to post online and sell to make money so she will have extra toward her retirement.

Instead most of her time is taken up with anything and everything else, her real estate business, tracking down the provenience on some stained glass she has acquired so she can give it to someone who is restoring an older building if it's appropriate to the era, keeping track of every neighbor and how they are doing and what they need, volunteering, being available to many family members and friends any time they call and helping them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

When i showed up yesterday to work she "wanted to get a good bit done" and instead, after we'd gone to the car wash and Cramco, then done a few quick chores around the house, she went rushing off to yet another appointment; i think she says she wants to be home tending her own things, but really gets a kick out of being busy and being needed and isn't going to actually slow down any time soon, she’s happier this way.

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

(Editor's note:  Last week, someone asked about the car the pastor gave us, if it had a name.  At the time, i had not yet "met" the car or driven it.  Now i have, and its name is Lawrence, after Brother Lawrence who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God.  After all, it belonged to a pastor and it feels steeped in peace and prayer.)

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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!

If i'd had a fence like this when my kids were little, they'd have used it as a ladder and been out of the yard in no time!

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

I always wished to be able to fly

reach right out and touch the sky

and now I'm up here I have found

from now on my feet stay on the ground!

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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 the paperwork is done on Lawrence the Honda and i was able to read the eye chart and get the "needs glasses" endorsement taken off my driving license.

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Today is:

Ascension Day/Feast of the Ascension -- Western Christian; related observances

     Procession of the Holy Blood -- Belgium (religious historical procession recalling the adventurous crusaders, especially Count Thierry of Alsace, who was supposed to have carried back relics of the Holy Blood)

Carabao Festival -- Pulilan, Philippines (to honor their patron, St. Isidro [St. Isadore the Farmer], hundreds of carabaos [water buffalo] are dressed up and paraded, and eventually blessed in front of the church; through tomorrow)

Dance Like a Chicken Day -- no idea why today, but i'm waiting for wedding season

Drunk Driving Memorial Day -- not sponsored by MADD, or anyone else i can find, but let's all work and pray for the day drunk driving by anyone is just a bad memory    

Gesta de Independencia -- Paraguay

Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival -- Izumo-taisha, Japan (through tomorrow)

King Father Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Marshmallow Fluff Day -- Mr. Durkee and Mr. Mower announced, on this day in 1920, that they were in business producing this sweet confection

Mars Invictus Festival -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Midnight Sun at North Cape -- Norway (the sun will not set until July 30)

National Buttermilk Biscuit Day

National Unification Day -- Liberia

President Kamuzu Banda's Birthday -- Malawi

Runic Half-Month Ing (expansive energy) commences

"Stars and Stripes Forever" Day -- first public performance of the composition was this day in 1897

St. Bonifatius' Day (4th Ice Saint)

St. Matthias the Apostle's Day (Patron of carpenters, reformed alcoholics, tailors; Gary, Indiana; Great Falls-Billings, Montana; against alcoholism and smallpox)

Underground America Day -- Malcolm Wells wants us to imagine what our landscapes would look like if more of our buildings were under ground

Yom Yerushalayim -- Israel (Jerusalem Day; begins at sunset)

Anniversaries Today:

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark marries Mary Donaldson, 2004

Carlsbad Caverns National Park established, NM, US, 1930

Birthdays Today:

Miranda Cosgrove, 1993

Amber Tamblyn, 1983

Dan Auerbach, 1979

Martine McCutdcheon, 1976

Cate Blanchett, 1969

Danny Wood, 1969

Jose Da Silveira, 1965

Suzy Kolber, 1964

Tim Roth, 1961

Valerie Still, 1961

Ronan Tynan, 1960

David Byrne, 1952

Robert Zemechis, 1951

Meg Foster, 1948

George Lucas, 1944

Jack Bruce, 1943

Atanasio "Tony" Perez, 1942

Bobby Darin, 1936

Laszlo Kovacs, 1933

Patrice Munsel, 1925

Otto Klemperer, 1885

Robert Owen, 1771

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727

Gabrile Daniel Fahrenheit, 1686

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Kids Are Alright"(Documentary), 1979

“It’s Time for Ernie"(Ernie Kovacs' TV premier), 1951

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love"(Hindemith composition), 1946

"Die Hebriden/The Hebrides"(Mendelssohn Op. 26), 1832

Today in History:

Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony, 1607

Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox  vaccination, 1796

The Lewis and Clark expedition sets out, 1804

Paraguay  gains independence from Spain, 1811

The first edition of the London Illustrated Times is published, 1842

Gail Borden patents her process for condensed milk, 1853

Vaseline, the first petroleum jelly, is marketed, 1878

Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five, 1939

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established; immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 1948

Kuwait joins the United Nations, 1963

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched, 1973

The Institute for War documents publishes Anne Franks complete diary, 1986

The last episode of Seinfeld airs, with commercials going for $2M per 30 seconds, 1998

Scientists at Stanford University invent a working bionic eye the is powered only by focused light; the eye could eventually restore the sight of millions of people suffering from macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa, 2012

Gabriel Medina becomes the first surfer ever to land the move called a "Backflip" in competition, 2016

The successful transfer of memory in snails as achieved by scientists from University of California is published in the journal "eNeuro", 2018

Chinese mountain climber and double amputee Xia Boyu reaches the summit of Mt Everest, 2018

Wikipedia confirms that the Republic of China has banned all versions of its site, 2019

Surrealist artist Man Ray's photograph "Le Violon d'Ingres" becomes the most expensive ever sold at auction when it goes for $12.4 million, 2022

Cyclone Mocha makes landfall on Rakhine coast, Myanmar, near southern border of Bangladesh, the second strongest storm ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, 2023

Thailand's military-backed government loses out to other parties in their General Election with the Move Forward Party securing 36% of the vote, 2023