Visits and Preventive Maintenance, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Sometimes when i get to Thankful Day i wonder if i could do with a little less "excitement" in my life, but then i think, what would i have to be thankful for if not for all the excitement?

Thankfully Uncle J and i fixed the collapsed bed boards and restored the bed to its proper working order when i was there last Saturday.  He has said if it happens again, he's going to screw them in place.

Mr. Cal was once again thankful for a good walk Sunday morning before Becca and i went to church.  Her mama is out of town for the birth of the third grandchild and i was thankful the handoff to another friend to take her home went well.

Because of my new schedule of going to NOLA on Mondays as well as Saturdays, i arranged with Ms. D to clean her house Sunday afternoon.  I'm thankful she agreed i could do it then, and thankful we got everything done, then i went home to relax a bit.  Later, i was thankful to go back and watch the program 60 Minutes with her.

We were both thankful #2 Son, Daughter-in-Law, Annie and Little Ben came by also (they'd been at a birthday party for a cousin).

Monday, i was thankful to get to NOLA in decent time for a weekday.  Grandma was thankful for a bath and i spent the day there.

As difficult as it is, i'm thankful Grandpa has finally gotten Grandma's doctor to agree to try to call for hospice care at home.

I'm thankful one of her friends brought a sampling of salad fixings from a farmer's market, all of it was very good.

That evening was supposed to be a ladies' circle meeting, but the lady who was hosting at her house was not quite over a very nasty stomach bug.  She'd hoped to be well enough to still have us, but didn't like to take the chance.  I was very sad it was cancelled but thankful she was considerate enough to make sure none of us got it.

With Ms. G out of town this week, my Tuesday morning started with a visit to her house to take care of April and Sassy and the semi-feral Mr. Gray.  I'm thankful i saw the problem with one of the containers of dry cat food, and got the pantry moth infested bin out of the house before all of it could be affected.

Then it was showtime, my annual poke and prod with Dr BowTie.  I'm thankful all of my tests are normal or, if a tiny bit out of range, not enough to worry with.  He reassured me i am not losing muscle mass as i age, thankfully, and asked how i'm preserving it so well.  I told him a bit about my schedule and the work i do, which is keeping me strong and healthy.  I was thankful to make him laugh when i said, i keep moving, i figure death has a harder time hitting a moving target.  He agrees this is probably true.

Let me stop here to put in a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for an annual physical.  It's better to find the problems early, i promise you.

Once home, i was thankful for a lovely day with Annie.  She's becoming quite the little conversationalist.

Wednesday was odd as i did not go to work or to a shift at the cat shelter as i'd told them ahead i would be unavailable.  I was very thankful Bigger Girl, our elder daughter, had made it in safely from Seattle the day before and was at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and thankful we could go down there.  (This is also another reason i'm thankful Uncle J and i got the bed fixed, she was using it while in town.)

She and i ran two errands, she was thankful to get her defective debit card replaced at the bank where she's had an account since she was a tot as well as get her address in Seattle set as her new address with them, as now they can mail such things directly to her instead of sending them here and i have to resend them there.

Then we went grocery shopping and she bought everything needed for her to good a good meal for which we were all thankful.  Even #2 Son and crew showed up.  Bigger Girl was thankful to finally meet her nephew and see her niece for the first time since the child was 2 months old.

We were thankful to get back home even in the traffic and i was thankful to still make it to Bible study.

Thursday morning, i was thankful to get Ms. G's cats done again and get back to pack  our cleaning supplies so my Sweetie and i could do our double Thursday.  

Then a minor miracle occurred.  Ms. G sent me a text while we were on our way to work, asking if i could call her.  I texted back it might take a little while and she, instead of insisting on a phone call which would have been at least 10 minutes long (as hers usually are, even just to tell you one thing), texted me back and we handled it that way!  I was very thankful as a double cleaning Thursday is no joke and i have very little time for chatting.

Then both my Sweetie and i were thankful and amazed we got both houses done in 7 hours!  When Ms. GA called me that evening to ask if i’d seen her can opener while cleaning the kitchen (i had not, which i thought at the time was unusual as it’s always in the same spot), we’re both thankful a quick search found it barely poking out from under the microwave oven.

I woke up around 3am Friday morning to texts from Bigger Girl stating she was in Phoenix, Arizona with a dying phone and not sure when they were going to get her on a connecting flight as the airline had made her miss her connection.  I was thankful she got my return texts authorizing her to use my credit card if needed (she has the number in a code on her phone) to simply book another flight.

We're thankful she didn't need to do so, the airline caused the problem so gave her food vouchers and managed to get her on the next available connection.  

Bigger Girl is thankful she always plans to go home one day early before she has to go back to work just in case something like this happens.

Once i was up properly for Friday, i was thankful for more preventive medicine in the form of my yearly glamour shots for the twins (my mammogram).  Here is my second PSA, get the tests your doc prescribes, don't put them off.  Mammograms, colonoscopies, body checks for suspicious moles, and prostate exams may not be fun, but these can save your life.

Annie and i were thankful to spend a fun Friday together.

Friday evening at the cat shelter went very well, we were thankful for adoptions going on, people in there looking to adopt, and a fun shift feeding and giving fresh water to all the cats.

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  Or meow or woof or squawk, or whatever noise your pet makes, give it a pirate flair and have fun.

Another suggestion, especially if you have children and you expect them to use their very good manners at the table all the time (you do, don't you?), tonight have Pirate Supper.  Cover the table with newspaper or a throw-away plastic tablecloth and have dinner pirate style -- no plates, no utensils, no napkins, all fun!

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.        

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Today is:

America's Day For Kids -- sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America  

Armed Forces Day -- Chile

Constitution Day/National Day -- Nepal

Cosmetic Bridge Day -- seems internet generated, but i'm sure your dentist will approve

Day of the First Appearance of the Slovak National Council -- Slovakia

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 9, Freedom (sponsored by We, the World) 

Fall Astronomy Day -- Bringing Astronomy to the People (local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums and observatories sponsor public viewings, presentation, workshops, etc., to increase public awareness of astronomy and our amazing universe; on the Saturday at or before the first quarter moon between mid-September and mid-October and sponsored by The Astronomical League; find out what your local astronomy society is doing today, and go enjoy)     

Feast of the Ingathering -- UK traditional (also called Harvest Home; in Scotland, Kirn; in northern England, Mell-Supper.  Celebrations will be held in rural areas for the next few weekends, celebrating the end of the harvest.)

Idaho Spud Day 2026 -- Idaho, US, wants the 3rd Saturday of September as a day to celebrate their favorite crop

Independence Day -- St. Kitts and Nevis(1983)

International Eat An Apple Day -- a celebration of the fruit of the season, on the third Saturday of every September

International Talk Like a Pirate Day  

National Butterscotch Pudding Day

National Gymnastics Day -- US (sponsored by USA Gymnastics)      

St. Januarius of Naples' Day (a/k/a Gennaro of Naples; Patron of blood banks; Naples, Italy; against volcanic eruption) related observance

     Feast of San Gennaro -- NYC, NY, US (began on the 13th, continues to the 23rd; one of the highlights of the festival is this, the actual Saint's day)

Women's Suffrage Day -- New Zealand

Birthdays Today:

Alison Sweeney, 1976

Jimmy Fallon, 1974

Jim Abbot, 1967

Soledad 'Brien, 1966

Trisha Yearwood, 1964

Kevin Hooks, 1958

Joan Lunden, 1950

Leslie "Twiggy" Lawson, 1949

Jeremy Irons, 1948

Randolph Mantooth, 1945

Jooe Morgan, 1943

"Mama" Cass Elliot, 1941

Bill Medley, 1940

Paul Williams, 1940

David McCallum, 1933

Mike Royko, 1932

Adam West, 1928

Duke Snider, 1926

Sir William Golding, 1911

Lewis F. Powell, Jr., 1907

Joseph Pasternak, 1901

Henry Peter Brougham, 1778

Charles Carroll, 1737

Jan Luyts, 1655

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Skylight"(Play), 1996

"ER"(TV), 1994

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show"(TV), 1970

Funny Girl(Film), 1968

"Flipper"(TV), 1964

"The Virginian"(TV), 1962

Today in History:

Edward, the Black Prince, commands the forces which defeat the French army and capture France's King John II, 1356

Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem Witch Trials, 1692

The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the US, 1778

Ephraim Morris patents the railroad brake, 1838

Bond and Lassell discover Hyperion, moon of Saturn, 1848

New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all of its women the right to vote, 1893

Funeral of assassinated President William McKinley, 1901

Mickey Mouse makes his screen debut as Steamboat Willie, at the Colony Theater in NYC, 1928

The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich, 1946

Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland, 1959

Betty and Barney Hill claim that they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them, 1961

The Solomon Islands join the United Nations, 1978

Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System, 1982

Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by German tourists, 1991

The BP oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico was declared “effectively dead” by retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the blowout disaster, 2010

A joint summit between North and South Korea ends with an agreement from North Korea to limit its nuclear program and South Korea to cooperate economically, 2018

According to a study published in the journal "Science," since 1970 the number of birds in North America has declined by 30%, 2019

British monarch Queen Elizabeth II is interned at Windsor Castle, 2022

Scientists announce the discovery of the site of the Amazon's tallest tree, an angelim vermelho at 88.5 meters (290 feet) tall and 9.9 meters (32 feet) wide, at the Iratapuru River Nature Reserve in northern Brazil, 2022

Japanese two-way phenomenon Shohei Ohtani becomes the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, 2024