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For economic reasons which are way too complicated to discuss here, my Sweetie and i, as well as our #1 Son, are working stiffs who never manage to sock away quite enough for emergencies and retirement and all the things and still pay the bills, although we do mostly get by.
Buying a new car is a foreign thing in our world, we drive old "clunkers, beaters and hoopties," the kind of car which, if it would quit needing repair so often, would possibly allow you to save up for a bit better of a "clunker, beater or hooptie."
Meanwhile, though, you have to get to work to earn grocery (and car repair) money, and the saving for something better never quite adds up as fast as you'd hoped it would, so you patch and patch and patch again, feeling like you are holding it together with chicken wire and bubble gum.
Slow-Moe is our best car between my Sweetie and i (yes, we name our cars, don't judge) as it has air conditioning, driving without it in my GusGus die Fledermaus is torture down here in the swamps, and poor Slow-Moe went down last week when some kind of seal broke; they played havoc getting the part but at least it was available.
Meanwhile, #1 Son's car, High Dudgeon (don't even ask), which also had no A/C, started to make a high-pitched squeal so he took it in to our regular shop where they told him he has to fix the A/C or the belt which runs the engine, which runs through the now broken A/C compressor, would shred and tear the engine apart and he'd lose the whole engine.
Thus we and he start again to work to pay off yet another repair to our various clunker/beater/hooptie cars, and hope they hold together a little bit longer.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Patch.
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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:
I know the camper was eating cookies last night
I'll sneak in while he's out and just snitch a bite
I promise I'll take two or three and it'll be enough,
oh, here they are, um, well just one more, um, um, umph...
Well, that took out the package and they sure were good,
if the camper had been here he would have understood,
once a bear gets going, he's pro'lly not gonna stop,
oh, and here's his ice chest, can I pry off the top?
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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 mechanics at Kevin and Lenny's were able to fix our cars once again.
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It's International Mutt Day! Because mutts deserve a day just as much as the purebred dogs do.
Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.
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Today is:
Always Live Better Than Yesterday Day
Cotton Candy Day
Emancipation Day -- Bermuda (first day of the Cup Match)
Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola -- (Founder of the Jesuits, especially revered in Spain; Patron of retreats, soldiers, and the Society of Jesus which he founded; Basque country; Bilbao, Spain; Bizkaia, Spain; Gipuzkoa, Spain; Guipuscoa, Spain; Guipúzcoa, Spain; Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI); Vizcaya, Spain)
Hachinohe Sansha Taisai -- Hachinohe City, Japan (one of the most elaborate neputa festivals, through Aug. 4)
Jump for Jellybeans Day
Ka Hae Hawai'i Day -- Hawai'i (State Flag Day)
Lammas Eve / Lughnassad Eve
Lithasblot -- Norse harvest festival with a "blot", or offering, to the gods, celebrated through tomorrow
Loki and Sigyn's Day - Asatru / Norse Pagan (aka Devoted Couples Day)
Make Homemade Ice Cream and Invite the Neighbors Over Day -- summer's almost over, make the most of the days we have left!
Moby Dick Marathon -- aboard the last US wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, US (through tomorrow, from noon to noon, a marathon reading of Moby Dick in honor of Melville's birthday)
National Chili Dog Day
National Raspberry Cake Day
St. Germanus' Day (Patron of Auxerre, France)
St. Joseph of Arimathea's Day -- Eastern Orthodox Church (Patron of funeral directors)
World Ranger Day -- the International Ranger Federation wants us to honor wildlife rangers around the world as they work to protect the world's natural and cultural treasures, and remember those killed in the line of duty
Birthdays Today
Eric Lively, 1981
Dean Cain, 1966
J.K. Rowling, 1965
Jim Corr, 1964
Wesley Snipes, 1962
Bill Berry, 1958
Michael Biehn, 1956
Barry Van Dyke, 1951
Evonne Goolagong, 1951
Gary Lewis, 1946
Geraldine Chaplin, 1944
Susan Flannery, 1943
France Nuyen, 1939
Ted Cassidy, 1932
Don Murray, 1929
Curt Gowdy, 1919
Milton Friedman, 1912
Debuting/Premiering Today:
The Living Daylights(Film), 1987
"The Shadow"(Radio), 1930
Today in History
Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide, BC30
The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji, 781
Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city, 904
The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect, 1492
On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus
becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad, 1498
Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India, 1658
The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1667
Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers, 1703
The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States," 1777
First U.S. patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process, 1790
Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city, 1856
The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia, 1865
The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time, 1930
Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis, 1938
First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, 1954
At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain, 1961
The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy, 1970
Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover, 1971
NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, 1976
A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage, 1987
Georgia joins the United Nations, 1992
Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro, 2006
Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end, 2007
U.S. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps wins a record 19th Olympic medal, with gold in the 4x200metres freestyle relay, 2012
Facebook discloses and removes a Russian-linked network of site pages that are attempting to interfere in American politics, 2018
American swimming superstar Katie Ledecky wins the women's 800m gold for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympics in Tokyo, 2021
The McKinney fire at Klamath National Forest, becomes California's largest fire of the year, 2022
The exact location of Fort Kormantine, built in 1631 by the English as their first slave fort in Africa, is found in Fort Amsterdam, Ghana, 2023
A 5,000-year-old large-scale farming settlement is discovered at Oued Beht, Morocco, confirming North Africa's significance during the Neolithic Age, 2024
