Not Too Cool (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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While #2 Son, His Bride and our little Annie are living here, he is determined to pitch in and help wherever he can.

When he found out my car, GusGus (yes, we name our cars, don't judge), has no A/C in our south Louisiana swamp heat, he wanted to see if he could help as he's a fair hand at minor repairs and maintenance.

He sent me to an auto parts place for a can of the refrigerant with stop leak and dye in it, the special flashlight with a black light you need so you can see the dye if it's leaking out of the system at any point, and the nozzle/tube you use to put the refrigerant into the system.

Tuesday evening, i popped the hood and cranked the car, turning the A/C on so the compressor would draw the refrigerant out of the can and into the system and he hooked it up, waited until the can was empty, then started looking with the black light to see if there was dye showing leaks in the system.

Turns out when Ford made the Focus, they made it as hard as possible to do anything with it, putting all the hoses and wires behind a skid plate and the compressor to the A/C itself behind the firewall, so even if it was just leaking from a hose where he could see it and replace it, he'd need a lift to get to it.

We could hear the compressor kick in and while the refrigerant was in there, even if only for a short time, it should have blown cold but it never did, so while he didn't succeed in locating and fixing a small leak in my cooling system, he did give it a good try and now we know it's probably going to not be worth the money to repair it.

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

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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!

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

Unique

Funny

Odd-looking

Habitation of an

Open-Minded

Unabashed

Sassy

Eccentric

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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 a bit of vacuum surgery has Ms. G's above-the-floor-cleaning tool on her vacuum working properly again after it greedily sucked up a paper towel.

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It's International Box Day, and if you do not understand the need for this one, you do not have a cat!

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

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Today is:

Asatru Alliance Founding Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Birthday of José Gervasio Artigas / "Never Again" Day -- Uruguay (Dia del Nunca Mas)

Butterfly Day -- an ecard holiday; if you know someone who loves butterflies, send an ecard, let them know you are thinking of them

Corpus Christi -- Catholic Christian

Day of the Independent Hungary -- Hungary (a memorial day for those martyred in 1958, and for the end of Soviet occupation)

Festival for Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of arts, crafts, skill, war, and intelligence)

Festival of the Coming Ice Age -- can't find out anything about this one, but it sounds hilarious

Garfield the Cat Day (his birthday/comic strip premier)

Juneteenth -- US, celebrates the news of freedom on the day it came to slaves on Galveston Island, Texas

Labour Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association used to sponsor this day to encourage you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices    

National Martini Day -- some sites specify a dry martini

New Church Day -- Swedenborgian Christian

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!   

Rusalka's Week begins -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (week long festival to honor the divinity of rivers)

Spooky Stories Appreciation Night -- because someone thought it would be a good night to tell a few scary tales

St. Boniface of Querfurt's Day (Patron of Prussia)

St. Jude's Day (Patron of desperate situations, forgotten/impossible/lost causes, hospitals, hospital workers; Saint Petersburg, FL, US)

World Sauntering Day -- origin unknown, but perhaps begun at Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island) in Michigan during the 1970s as a response by W.T. Rabe to a growing movement toward the recreation of jogging and the idea was to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the world around them; the rules are to observe the lost art of Victorian sauntering, discouraging jogging, lollygagging, sashaying, fast walking, and trotting, but no word on meandering that i can find!

World Sickle Cell Day   

Anniversaries Today:

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999

Birthdays Today:

Zoe Saldana, 1978

Poppy Montgomery, 1972

Mia Sara, 1967

Andy Lauer, 1965

Aung San Suu Kyi, 1965

Paula Abdul, 1962

Kathleen Turner, 1954

Ann Wilson, 1951

Phylicia Rashad, 1948

Salman Rushdie, 1947

Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, 1942

Gena Rowlands, 1930

Louis Jourdan, 1919

Pauline Kael, 1919

Pat Buttram, 1915

Abe Fortas, 1910

Earl W. Bascom, 1906

Lou Gehrig, 1903

Guy Lombardo, 1902

Moe Howard, 1897

Wallis Simpson, 1896

Elbert Green Hubbard, 1856

Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834

Blaise Paschal, 1623

King James I of England and VI of Scotland, 1566

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Batman Returns(Film), 1992

"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"(Musical), 1978

"The Rocky Horror Show"(Musical), 1973

"Devil May Hare"(Cartoon short, Tasmanian Devil's premier), 1954

"I've Got a Secret"(TV), 1952

"Moon Mullins"(Comic strip), 1923

Today in History:

King Louis IX of France orders all Jews  found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres  of silver, 1269

The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, 1306

English colonists leave Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America, 1586

Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion, 1770

Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1816

The first officially recorded, organized baseball match was played under Alexander Joy Cartwright's rules on Hoboken's Elysian Fields (Hoboken, New Jersey)with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1; Cartwright umpired, 1846

Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom; the anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 35 other states as Juneteenth, 1865

Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro, 1867

After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist, 1870

The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins, 1875

The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington, 1910

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York, 1953

Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom, 1961

In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University in Beirut, is kidnapped, 1982

Norway ratifies the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989, 1990

Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway, 2006

The first full genetic study of house cats, published in "Nature Ecology and Evolution", reveals that they were domesticated about 9,000 years ago, and are all descended from one species, the African wildcat, 2017

General Electric is dropped from the Dow Jones Index, the last original member from 1907, 2018

Joy Harjo is named the first Native American US Poet Laureate, 2019

The United Nations adopts the first-ever legally binding international treaty to govern the high seas, called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty, 2023

Archaeologists and scientists reveal they've found the world's oldest wine inside a 1st century CE Roman funeral urn mixed with a man's ashes in a mausoleum in Carmona, Spain, 2024

Happiness is a New Inspection Sticker, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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Last weekend, the weather guessers had Grandpa all worked up.  He kept reminding me to check the weather and pick the best time to drive home.  The best time was any time, as all we had was a drippy drizzle all day, no storms.  I'm thankful it worked out that way.

Mr. J was away for the weekend.  Ms. A, Becca and i were thankful everything went just right anyway, i even managed to make her breakfast.

Also, i was thankful to receive good news about Becca's education.  As she is in a special class, she will graduate this May then be allowed to go back for 2 more years as a "helper" in the classroom.  In fact, she will even be paid!

Last Sunday and Monday Ms. GA and Mr. BA were out of town just overnight, but that meant i had to do cat care before getting to Carl's house at 6am.  I'm thankful i was up to it and wasn't late.

Ms. D  had a wedding invitation with something she's not had before, a QR code to scan to RSVP.  I was thankful for the built in reader in her camera on her phone, i was able to show her how to use it.

Also, i was thankful elbow grease got the hairspray gunk off the bathroom floors at her house.

Ms. JAI wanted a visit, and i was thankful to spend a while and get a bit of cleaning done while i was there.

Tuesday was a red letter day.  I'm thankful the lesson i taught at the ladies' circle meeting went well (they didn't tell me i've been exposed to too many Lysol fumes).  Also i not only got Brother-in-Law's taxes done, a huge thankful thing, i was finally able to transfer the last debt we are trying to pay to a no interest card.  We're aiming to have it almost totally paid off by the time the promotional offer ends.

Ms. G had us up, down and all around as well as under, as in under her RV.  I'm thankful she got the work under there done now, before the weather turns hot.

Thursday morning was a comedy of errors trying to get to Ms. SE's house and we will leave it at i am thankful we finally got Sweetie his coffee.

As for her house, it was a mess and we were thankful to be done with it in only 5 hours.

Kevin and Lenny came through again and by the hardest, GusGus Die Fledermaus passed inspection when i stopped on my way to the cat shelter Friday afternoon.

I was thankful for that and they allowed the inspection, i didn't know they usually shut that down at 3pm and i got there at ten after.

We had the wonderful problem of too many volunteers at the shelter Friday night.  It was grand.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Dyanne and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.   

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Today is:

Deep Blue Day -- the IBM computer defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov, the first such victory for a computer, in 1996

Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck -- Malta

Gold Record Day -- Glenn Miller is awarded the first ever Gold Record, for "Chattanoga Choo Choo", 1942

Losar/Loshar/Sonam Lhosar/Tamang New Year (Lunar New Year) -- Bhutan; Nepal; Tibet (this is Tibetan Year 2151, and it's dominant element is wood, and dominant animal is the dragon; note some years this is the same as the "Chinese New Year" and at other times, it's on a different date

Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year/Lhosar/Seol-Nal/Tet -- celebrations throughout Asia of the year of the Dragon, some before and some after this "official" Western date, some for up to a month; Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist celebrations

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe -- Italy, especially in Trieste

Plimsoll Day -- honoring Samuel Plimsoll, the "Sailor’s Friend," who persuaded Parliament to have a maximum load limit on ships.

Scout Sabbath -- BSA (Boy Scouts are encouraged to wear their uniforms to synagogue tonight or tomorrow morning and represent scouting to their congregations)

St. Scholastica's Day (Patron of children in convulsions, nuns; LeMans, France; against rain, storms)

Try to Invent a New Jell-O Flavor Day -- it can't hurt to try

Umbrella Day

Anniversaries Today:

Poland is symbolically married to the Baltic Sea by Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, celebrating the restitution of Polish access to the water, 1920

Tom Thumb marries Mercy Lavinia Warren, 1863

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saxe-Coburg, 1840

Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War (a/k/a French and Indian War), 1763

Academie Francaise forms in Paris (by Cardinal Richelieu), 1635

Birthdays Today:

Lance Berkman, 1976

Laura Dern, 1967

Glen Beck, 1964

Lenny Dykstra, 1963

Cliff Burton, 1962

George Stephanopoulos, 1961

Greg Norman, 1955

Jim Cramer, 1955

Mark Spitz, 1950

Donovan, 1946

Frances Moore Lappe, 1944

Roberta Flack, 1939

Robert Wagner, 1930

Leontyne Price, 1927

Lon Chaney, Jr., 1906

Bertolt Brecht, 1898

Frances Margaret "Dame Judith" Anderson, 1898

Jimmy Durante, 1893

William "Bill" Tilden, 1893

Boris Pasternak, 1890

Samuel Plimsoll, 1824

Charles Lamb, 1775

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My Friend Flicka"(TV), 1956

"Death of a Salesman"(Play), 1949

"Puss Gets the Boot"(Cartoon, first Tom and Jerry short), 1940

"Icebound"(Pulitzer-winning Davis' Play), 1923

"All the News That's Fit to Print"(Slogan of the New York Times), 1897

"Les Contes d'Hoffman"(Offenbach Opera), 1881  

"The Lily of Killarney"(Opera), 1862

Today in History:

St. Paul is shipwrecked on the island of Malta, 60

Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch, 1098

The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days, 1355

Wampanoag Indians under King Philip kill all the men in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1676

Edmund Halley is appointed the second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720

The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, surrendering Canada to England, 1763

Simon Bolivar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru, 1824

The first US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia, 1863

The YWCA is founded in NYC, 1870

Nathaniel Carr Goodwin becomes the first actor to perform in two different cities on the same day, in Boston for a matinee, and then in NYC for and evening performance, 1887

Nearly 11,000,000 acres of land, ceded to the US government by the Sioux Indians, is opened for settlement, 1890

The New York Times begins using the slogan, "All the news that's fit to print," 1897

Japan and Russia declare war after Japan's surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled 7 Russian warships, 1904

Britain's first modern and largest battleship "HMS Dreadnought" is launched, 1906

Baseball outlaws all pitches that involve tampering with the ball, 1920

New Delhi becomes the capital of India, 1931

The first singing telegram is delivered, by the Postal Telegram Company of NYC, 1933

Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, 1962

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party, 1989

The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time, 1996

The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both, 2009

The Venezuelan government orders more than 100 malls to close early to save electricity, due to drought caused by El Niño, 2016

More than 30 bushfires are put out by the heaviest rainfall in 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 2020

Astronomers confirm they've found the most distant planetoid in the solar system so far, four times further than planetoid Pluto, 2021

A World War II era bomb discovered in Great Yarmouth, England, detonates as a crew works to disarm it, causing no injuries, 2023