Blessings and Challenges, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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The blessings and challenges have kept coming and it's Thankful Day, thus time to take stock.

Last Saturday, Grandpa started warning me to hurry and leave before the rain could start, but it was already started by then!  Instead, we were thankful to wait until the first wave was over and we only had a hard rain for part of the journey toward the end.

I'm thankful it was cloudy/raining, as Lawrence the Honda's A/C works best when you don't start the journey with it already hot as an oven.

Sunday morning, Becca and i were thankful to be able to take Mr. Cal on a slightly longer walk than usual, as there's only the one church service each Sunday this month.

Meanwhile, we did get to church to find out my Sweetie had an accident on the way.  The only damage to Slow-Moe the Pontiac is a cracked headlight and slightly dented hood.   The accident was his fault, which he admitted right away and told the police officer when he walked out of the hospital (yes, they pulled into a hospital parking lot right there where the accident was).  There's a blessing right there, we're thankful he wasn't late for choir practice since they didn't have to wait for an officer to respond.

We're thankful it was minor damage to both vehicles, both are still drivable, and no one was  hurt.

The evening with Annie was a fun one, we did get to visit with Ms. D.  Her electricity was out but thankfully came back while we were there and it was a good visit.

Ms. S let me come at 9am Monday, so thankfully i was done with work relatively early.  This meant plenty got done at home before my evening meeting.

Yes, i was thankful for yet another evening with the evening circle ladies, we went to a restaurant and had a good visit.

Tuesday with Annie we were both thankful to be able to take a walk for the first time in a while.  It had been raining some over the previous days, we had cloud cover and breeze, so we were able to walk without baking or drowning.  Also, i got to spend some time snuggling our little Ben.

The shelter is full, my Wednesday morning shift was busy, and thankfully all seems to be going well.

Ms. G was not up to doing much because of her sciatica, but thankfully she let me do a good bit before sending me on my way.

When i arrived home, a bit earlier than usual, i was thankful to see #1 Son.  He had a bit of time, so we ran an errand together which has to do with his wrecked car, the license tag on it was a personalized one and we wanted to move it to Lawrence the Honda so we could keep it in the family.  We were thankful my favorite place to go for such transactions was not incredibly busy so we got it done and he got to the work manager meeting a few minutes late, but he'd called and they were okay with it.

I'm thankful we have GusGus die Fledermaus for him to use to get to work for now, and he's ordered the parts so #2 Son will fix it next week.

Thankfully, Ms. V is still sleeping in Carl's room if she knows i'm coming to clean so i can get with it, and her house is going lickety split.  Also thankfully, i got out early enough to run errands and then come back to her house because i'd forgotten to start the cleaning cloths in the washer!  I was very thankful to get home no later than i used to when i had to wait for her to get up to clean the back part of the house.

Thursday was #1 Son's birthday!  I am very thankful for him.

On Friday, i was thankful to get Annie again so #2 Son could go to Ms. D's house and work on her list of "handyman" jobs she needed done.

I was also thankful to get her to nap after over an hour of trying to get her to settle down.

Once again, the cat shelter was buzzing with plenty of help, much needed, and we were thankful to get everything done and have people looking and adopting.

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:

Anti-Bigot Day -- doesn't seem to be sponsored by any particular group, which is good on a day to practice tolerance of all

Canada's Parks Day -- Canada (showcasing Canada's beautiful parks and historic sites, it's worth traveling to a park near you!)

Constitution Day -- Uruguay

First Sermon of Lord Buddha -- Bhutan

Mandela Day -- UN

National Caviar Day -- no one knows how it started, but even The Russian Tea Room in New York has celebrated it for years and caviar importers know all about it; pair it with ice cold vodka or a Burgundian pinot or unoaked chardonnay, but never with champagne!

National Woodie Wagon Day -- paying homage today to this great American symbol of freedom and the casual lifestyle

Ragbrai / Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa(TM) -- Iowa, US (the oldest, largest and longest bicycle touring event in the world; through the 25th)

St. Theneva's Day (Patron of Glasgow, Scotland)

Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day -- write down all the "could have" and "should have" things in your life, then toss them in the trash! Resolve from this day to live in the present, not the past.

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Vitula, goddess of exultation, joy, and life, is given the first fruits of the earth)

Wienermobile Day -- celebrating the creation, in 1936, of the now iconic vehicle by Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl

World Listening Day -- World Listening Project (this year's theme is "Listening as Practice") 

Anniversary Today:

Timothy Verner Taylor marries The Lady Helen Windsor, 1992

Bobby Brown marries Whitney Houston, 1992

Birthdays Today

Chace Crawford, 1985

Priyanka Chopra, 1982

Kristin Bell, 1980

Vin Diesel, 1967

Elizabeth McGovern, 1961

Ricky Skaggs, 1954

Richard Branson, 1950

Steve Forbes, 1947

James Brolin, 1941

Martha Reeves, 1941

Joe Torre, 1940

Dion DiMucci, 1939

Paul Verhoeven, 1938

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1932

Dick Button, 1929

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929

John Glenn, 1921

Nelson Mandela, 1918

Harriet Nelson, 1914

Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913

Hume Cronyn, 1911

Clifford Odets, 1906

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, 1906

George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895

Charles E. "Chick" Evans, Jr., 1890

Vidkun Quisling, 1887

Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867

William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811

Gilbert White, 1720

Robert Hooke, 1635

Today in History

A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390

The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64

King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290

Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801

The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870

Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898

Adoph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925

The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California, 1968

Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics  at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976

Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984

On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995

Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996

Phoenix, AZ, US, is hit by a dust storm of the kind known as a "haboob", 2011

King Jong-un, son of King Jong-il, is announced the official Supreme Leader of North Korea, 2012

The 'immediate and severe' fiscal emergency declared by the U.S. city San Bernardino, California, allows it to declare bankruptcy without negotiating with creditors, 2012

Investigators on the case of the October 2012 Kunsthal gallery theft of paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Monet, discover paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son has been charged with the crime, 2013

Detroit, Michigan files the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, 2013

PayPal is spun off from eBay as a separate publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, 2015

Google is fined a record $5.1 billion by the EU for abusing its power in the mobile phone market, 2018

The Hawai'i National Guard confirms that the current eruption of Kilauea volcano has destroyed 700 homes and added 700 acres to the size of the Big Island, 2018 

According to The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, June 2019 was the hottest June on record with average worldwide temperature of 61.6F (16.4C), 2019

The city of Phoenix, Arizona, breaks a five decade old heat record with 19 consecutive days of temperatures above 110°F (43.3°C), 2023

A stegosaurus skeleton is auctioned for $44.6 million (£34 million), the most ever paid for a fossil, 2024