Zip It Up (Six Sentence Story), Accommodating (Good Fences), Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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"Are you ready for me to mail that letter?"

"Just a sec, I have to look up the Zip Code."

"They didn't give it to you?"

"They did, but I wrote it in such a hurry, I'm not sure I got it right, and it has to be right."

"Why is it so important?"

"As they say at the Post Office, 'No Zip, slow trip; wrong Zip, long trip'!"

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

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Gosia at Looking for Identity has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit other blogs to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.     

A very accommodating fence:

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

Here you go, 

human pup

I brought the ball,

I'll help you up.

Then we'll play,

It will be

Me for you,

And you for me.

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful Sweetie took out the garbage and recycle yesterday, and i am very thankful those things get picked up for us.

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Today is:

Celebration of the First Week of Moonhopper -- Fairy Calendar

Fasching Carnival -- Munich, Germany (through Shrove Tuesday)

Festa del Tricolore -- Italy (Tricolour or Flag Day)

Harlem Globetrotters' Day -- anniversary of their first game in 1927

I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day -- declared by Bob O'Brien, Consumer Advocate, who encourages us to fight back

Nanakusa no Sekku -- Japan (Festival of Seven Herbs, dates back to the 7th century and recalls the medicinal herbs that were traditionally served to the emperor)

National Tempura Day

Nativity of Christ / Orthodox Christmas / Coptic Christmas -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians still using the Julian Calendar.

Old Rock Day -- a/k/a "St. Distaff's Day" or simply Distaff Day(the distaff, for spinning yarn, was also called a "rock"; today was the day women went back to spinning after the Christmas holidays)

St. Raymond of Penyafort's Day (Patron of attornies, barristers, canonists, lawyers, and medical record librarians)

Ultimate Fishing Show -- Detroit, MI, US (through Sunday)

Usokae -- Kameido Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (Bullfinch Exchange Day, Uso also means "lie" so when exchanging carved birds, it is considered a way of exchanging lies for the truth)

Victory Day over the Genocidal Regime -- Cambodia

Anniversary Today:

Princess Juliana of Netherlands weds Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 1937

Birthdays Today:

Dustin Diamond, 1977

Jeremy Renner, 1971

Nick Cleg, 1967

Nicholas Cage, 1964

Katie Couric, 1957

David Caruso, 1956

Erin Gray, 1950

Kenny Loggins, 1948

Jann Wenner, 1947

Paul Revere, 1938

William Peter Blatty, 1928

Jean-Pierre Rampal, 1922

Vincent Gardenia, 1922

Charles Addams, 1912

Butterfly McQueen, 1911

Aristotle Onassis, 1906

Zora Neale Hurston, 1891

St Bernadette, 1844

Millard Fillmore, 1800

Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, 1745

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Video-Telephone, 1992 (US$1,499)

"Fame"(TV), 1982

"Flash Gordon"(comic strip), 1934

"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D."(comic strip), 1929

"Tarzan of the Apes"(comic strip), 1929

Transatlantic telephone service, 1927 (US$75 for 5 minutes)

Today in History:

Calais, the last English possession in France, is taken back by the French, 1558

Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne upon the death of Feodore I, 1598

Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia, 1608

Galileo discovers the first 3 moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), 1610

Francis Bacon becomes the English Lord Chancellor, 1618

A prototype typewriter is patented by Englishman Henry Mill, 1714

Battle at Panipat India: the Afghan army beats Mahratten, 1761

The Bank of North America opens in Philadelphia, the first US commercial bank, 1782

The first gas balloon flight across the English channel, by Blanchard and Jeffries, 1785

The modern Italian flag is first used, 1797

Liberia is colonized by Americans, 1822

The first railroad station in the US, in Baltimore, opens, 1830

Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, 1896

The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS", 1904

The first steamboat passage through the Panama Canal, 1914

The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927

The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London, 1927

"Buck Rogers", the first sci-fi comic strip, and "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, premier, 1929

Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast, 1931

The "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts, 1934

President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb, 1952

The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM, 1954

Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met (NYC), 1955

The Polaris missile is test launched, 1960

Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off, 1968

Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1984

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union, 1985

The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns, 1990

U.S. President Clinton goes on trial before the U.S. Senate for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, 1999

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics estimates at least 17 billion planets exist that are comparable to the size of the Earth, 2013

A terrorist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris kills 12 and injures 11, 2015

It snows in the Sahara desert - up to 15 inches as reported in Aïn Séfra, Northwest Algeria, 2018

Insurance, Candy, and Other Random Tuesday Stuff

And now, a bit of random news and some happenings from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Ms. JAI, my sometimes Monday (but not yesterday) client, is having an argument with her long term health care company again.  They pay for me to clean her house.  She writes me a check, and they reimburse her.

They review the time sheets on the 15th if you sent them in by the 10th.  If they get it after the 10th, they review it the next month.

She sends it in on the first, so their own records show they are getting it on the 6th/7th, but they are still telling her she gets it in too late to review and delaying it until the next month every time.

They give her the money, they just delay it.  She is not happy.  The plan is for me to start logging my hours on the website, but i have to teach her how to get on the website so she can let me do that.

In fact, i believe the delay tactic is because they want everyone, even elderly people who have trouble with this stuff, to do it all online.  If you don't, they penalize you.  Not very good customer service if you ask me.

Speaking of customer service, i received spectacular and fast service yesterday at the Post Office, of all places.  The line was short, the postal employee was pleasant and pointed me to a cheaper option to send the book i was mailing to a friend, and everyone in the office was in a good mood.  It was quite a change from having to wait for the one and only worker manning the desk to spend half an hour looking for one person's package and then snarl at you when it's finally your turn.

As is usual this time of year, i am buying candy for The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange (a/k/a Halloween) one small bag at a time every time i am at the store.  It's a lot less painful that way.  As is also usual, i am hiding the candy and have lost the first bag i hid.  The biggest problem is that, after all these years, i've run out of reliable hiding places that the rest of the family cannot find, and now i'm having to go further afield, so i lose track.

Bigger Girl had some candy yesterday to take to her friend she's picking up from the airport.  Bigger Girl believes everyone needs cheering up with candy when being picked up at an airport, and with flying the way it is these days, she's probably right.  When i asked her where she got the candy (which is not the brand i'd bought, so i knew she hadn't found my stash), she said she picked it up at the football game this past weekend.  (Grandpa's tickets are in a section where the food is included in the ticket price and they have candy at all of the tables.)

"My friend Jon has cargo pockets sewn into the inside of his kilt!" she said.  Apparently that's where he carries his wallet and keys, and stashes candy.  Yes, that was the friend she invited to the game, and any time he's not on duty as a fire fighter, he wears his kilt, even to football games.

#1 Son and Friend Chris are doing okay so far both working for the same restaurant.  They are friends, but they have their moments.  So far, so good, and i hope it stays that way.

Little Girl showed me her favorite website for making memes, so i turned a Buff photo into one:

The problem is, half othe pictures i upload to the generator come out upside down, and i cannot figure out why.

Today is:

Buttering-Up Semi-Finals -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Bacchus/Dionysus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (tasting the old and new wine and celebrating the harvest)

Independence Day -- Iraq

Kae Chun Jul -- Korea (National Foundation Day, BC 2333)

Morazan Day -- Honduras (Soldier's Day)

National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day -- internet generated; celebrate these beauties today, no matter where you are

National Carmel Custard Day

Nobel Conference 53 -- Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, US (annual two-day symposium, this year In Search of Economic Balance)

Oschophoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (in honor of the return of Theseus after killing the Minotaur; deities celebrated were Dionysius and either Athena or Ariadne, depending on the source cited; date approximate)

Relief of Leiden Day -- Netherlands

Reunification Day / Unity Day-- Germany

Sts. Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair's Day (Patrons of Westphalia)

Techies' Day -- give your techies some well deserved appreciation

World Dairy Expo -- Madison, WI, US ("Discover New Dairy Worlds" is this year's theme; through Saturday)

Birthdays Today:

Neve Campbell, 1973

Gwen Stefani, 1969

Janel Maloney, 1969

Clive Owen, 1964

Jack P. Wagner, 1959

Dennis Eckersley, 1954

Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1954

Dave Winfield, 1951

Lindsey Buckingham, 1949

Roy Horn, 1944

Chubby Checker, 1941

Erik Bruhn, 1928

Gore Vidal, 1925

James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), 1916

Harvey Kurtzman, 1902

William Crawford Gorgas, 1854

George Bancroft, 1800

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"L.A. Law"(TV), 1986

"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"(TV), 1983

"Quincy"(TV), 1976

"The Dick Van Dyke Show"(TV), 1961

"The Andy Griffith Show"(TV), 1960

"The Pat Boone Show"(TV), 1957

"The Real McCoys"(TV), 1957

"Captain Kangaroo"(TV), 1955

"The Mickey Mouse Club"(TV), 1955

"Father Knows Best"(TV), 1954

"Our Miss Brooks"(TV), 1952

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(TV), 1952

The Maltese Falcon(Film, NYC release), 1941

Today in History:

The state of Gojoseon (modern-day Korea) is founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese emperor Yao, BC2333

The siege and battle of Alesia is ended by the surrender of Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, to Julius Caesar, BC52

Julius Caesar's assassins suffer a decisive defeat at the First Battle of Phillipi, BC42

Jews are expelled from Eger, Bohemia, 1430

The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor, 1712

British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska, 1778

General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters, 1795

George Washington proclaims the first national Thanksgiving Day will be held on Nov. 26, 1789

American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death, 1849

J.S. Thurman patents a motor-driven vacuum cleaner, 1899

The first conference on wireless telegraphy agrees to adopt SOS as the warning signal and sign of distress, 1906

Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna, Austria, found the Pravda newspaper, 1908

Mrs. W.H. Felton, of Georgia, becomes the first woman seated in the US Senate, 1922

A V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany is the first man-made object to reach space, 1942

The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon, 1952

Germany is reunified, 1990

Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show's tigers, 2003

Archaeologists on the Egypt-Gaza border find the first evidence of a 2,000-year-old city, 2010

Cats and Post Office Random Tuesday

And now, a bit of random discussion of topics or bits of news from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Last Wednesday, on a Wordless Wednesday post about a neighbor's cat, Stephen Hayes asked a question about cats and how long they can live.  

The average feral cat, meaning a cat living on its own on the streets, lives about 2 years.  If it is part of a managed feral colony, it will be trapped, spayed/neutered and given a rabies shot, and some food provided to it, and it might live closer to five years.  Feral cats have it tough.

A well cared for house cat can live, on average, 12-16 years, and over 20 is not unheard of, especially if it is given high quality food and taken to the vet at least yearly.

Butch, the neighbor's cat, has been an indoor-outdoor cat his whole life.  He wears a collar, looks both ways before crossing streets, never gets in fights with other cats, and is a pure Siamese, a breed known for longevity.  He has lost some weight in the last year or so, but he still loves to make his daily rounds.  It's the exercise and the fact that he is fed good food and taken to the vet regularly that has kept him healthy and happy for so long.

Our cats, on the other hand, are mostly overweight.  We've had cats live to be in their late teens, but they were not nearly so healthy looking as Butch.

One reason our cats stay overweight is the cat food wars, which are raging right now.  When we have foster kittens, they need kitten food.  Our adult cats do not need the high fat/high calorie food kittens get, but you cannot convince them, and you cannot spend all day every day monitoring who is eating what.  The kittens will go to the shelter to be put up for adoption tomorrow, so there will be no more kitten food in the house, and peace will prevail as our adult cats have no choice but to return to their boring diet food.

No, i don't feel sorry for them, not one bit.

Our cats also only go outside under strict supervision, if at all.  Most of them were raised indoors and are not street smart enough to do what Butch does.  This limits their exercise, of course.

On a totally different topic, a friend of mine recently pointed out that the United States Postal Service will, if you sign up for it and prove you are who you say you are, send you a daily email showing you pictures of what mail you can expect to be in your box that day.  Because we sometimes don't get our mail until after 7pm, and we've had mail stolen from our box before, i decided to do this.  It eliminates the, "are we going to get anything today" game, as well as the "did we just not get mail today, or did someone take it" game.

First i had to register for an online account with the USPS.  Yes, i already had one, no i could not remember which email account it went to.  So i started a new one and signed up for Informed Delivery, as it is called.

At that point, you can try to prove your identity and right to have this information online, but i wish you much better luck than i had.  Instead, i had to choose to let them send me an email with a bar code, which i then had to take to a post office to have scanned, and show my ID.  The nice lady at the post office had no clue what i was talking about, she had to go in the back and get another worker, who showed her how to do it.

Since then, if we are getting any letters (they don't do it with circulars and large junk mail), i get a picture of them in an email by about 10am.  It's good to know what is supposed to show up, so that if it does not, we know it.  Much better than the old system whereby the USPS expected you to know and report if you didn't get mail, how they expected you to know what you didn't get i have yet to understand.

That's okay, i have yet to understand how it can take until after 7pm to get the mail to our house, too.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Poland

Asuncion Foundation Day -- Paraguay

Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary -- Catholic Christian Holy Day of Obligation

     Related Observances

          Coeur d'Alene Indian Pilgrimage -- Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park, Cataldo, ID, US

          Dormition of the Theotokos -- Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Christian

          Ferragosto -- Italy (During the Roman Empire, a festival to Diana and a fertility and ripening celebration)

          Mother's Day -- Antwerp; Costa Rica

          National Acadians Day -- Acadians

          Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the Canary Islands -- Tenrife, Spain

          Irmandade da Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte Fiesta -- Bahia, Brazil (Festival of the Order of Our Lady of the Good Death)

          Festival of the Outremeuse -- Liege, Belgium

          Public Holiday or Publicly Observed -- Andorra; Austria; Belgium; Benin; Bosnia; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chile; Colombia; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cyprus; East Timor; France; French Guiana; French Polynesia; Gabon; Gambia; Germany; Greece; Guadelupe; Guatemala; Guinea; Holy See; Hungary; Italy; Lebanon; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia; Madagascar; Malta; Martinique; Mauritius; Mayotte; Monaco; New Caledonia; Paraguay; Poland; Portugal; Reunion; Romania; Rwanda; Saint Barthelemy; Saint Martin; Saint Pierre et Miquelon; San Marino; Senegal; Seychelles; Slovenia; Spain; Switzerland; Togo; Vanuatu; Wallis and Fortuna     

Best Friend's Day -- sponsored by Thema Martin

Bon/Obon Festival -- Japan (biggest day of the festival in most parts of Japan)

Carnival Tuesday -- Granada

Chauvin Day -- observed on Napoleon's birthday because his is unknown, the day is named for Nicholas Chauvin, whose blind devotion to Napoleon was immortalized in his name's use for absurdly intense attachments to any cause

Check the Chip Day -- the American Veterinary Medical Association reminds you to check your pet's microchip and make sure it is still working correctly and that the registration information is up to date 

Defence Forces Day -- Zimbabwe

Dia de la Ley Fundamental -- Equatorial Guinea (Constitution Day)

Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (through the 18th, dates approximate)

Festival of Vesta -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of the hearth)

Fete Nationale -- Republic of the Congo (National Day/Independence Day)

Fool's Dance -- Japan (part of the Awa Dance Festival)

Independence Day -- India(1947)

Liberation Day -- both Koreas

     Gwangbokjeol -- South Korea

     Jogukhaebangui nal -- North Korea

Maras Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (celebration of the goddess Mara, cognate of Mary)

National Day -- Lichtenstein (a/k/a Liberation Day [1945])

National Failures Day -- some websites say the 16th, and may i suggest a book called "Fail Better", a small quotations book about how failure is just the beginning.

National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

National Mourning Day -- Bangladesh

National Relaxation Day -- sponsored by Sean Moeller of Clio, Michigan; if you call in sick to stay home and relax, blame him

Panama La Vieja Day -- Panama (Founding of Panama City)

Shoro Nagashi Nagasaki -- Nagasaki, Japan (floating lanterns are released into the harbor in honor of the ancestors)

Sproshinki -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (end of the hay harvest festival)

St. Tarcisius' Day (Patron of altar servers, first communicants)

Tuva Republic Day -- Tos-Bulak fields south of Kyzuk, Tuva, Russia (celebration of the Tuva Republic, a Naadam festival of Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery; held by the Tuva people, the closest genetic relatives to the North and South American Native Peoples)

Wafaa El-Nil -- Egypt and Coptic Church ("Fidelity of the Nile", celebration of the annual of Flooding of the Nile)

Anniversaries Today:

Woodstock, 1969

Buddy Holly marries Maria Elena Santiago, 1958

Panama Canal opens, 1914

Transcontinental US railway is completed at Promontory Point, UT, US, 1870

Birthdays Today:

Joe Jonas, 1989

Kerri Walsh, 1978

Ben Affleck, 1972

Debra Messing, 1968

Melinda Gates, 1964

Zeljko Ivanek, 1957

Princess Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, 1950

Jimmy Webb, 1946

Kathryn Whitmire, 1946

Linda Ellerbee, 1944

Stephen G. Breyer, 1938

Vernon Jordan, Jr, 1935

Phyllis Stewart Schlafly, 1924

Mike Connors, 1925

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, 1925

Rose Marie, 1925

Huntz Hall, 1919

Oscar Romero, 1917

Julia Child, 1912

Elizabeth Bolden, American Supercentenarian, 1890 (d. 2006)

Edna Ferber, 1885

Ethel Barrymore, 1879

Charles Albert "The Old Roman" Comiskey, 1859

E. Nesbit, 1858

Sir Walter Scott, 1771

Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Mainz Psalter(Publication date; first book with the publication date printed on the colophon), 1457

Today in History:

Battle of Roncevaux Pass, the Basques defeat Charles the Great (Charlemagne) and Roland is killed, 778

Macbeth defeats his cousin and rival King Duncan I, who is killed in the battle, and becomes king of Scotland, 1040

Battle of Lumphanan, in which King Macbeth is killed by the forces of Mael Coluim MacDonnchada, 1057

The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia, 1185

The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of 

the Three Wise Men, is laid, 1248*

The "Mainz Psalter" is completed, the earliest dated book, 1457

Founding of Panama City, 1519

Jesuit priest St. Francis Xaverius land in Kagoshima, Japan, 1549

Joseph Haydn departs England, never to return, 1795

Country of Liberia is founded by freed American former slaves, 1824

Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1842

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawai'i, is dedicated; it is the oldest continuously used Roman Catholic Cathedral in the US, 1843

San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed, 1891

A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home, 1914

The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon, 1914

Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed in a plane crash, 1935

The birth of stadium rock:  The Beatles play Shae Stadium, 1965

President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard, 1971

The "Wow! signal":  The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space, 1977

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090, 2007

The olinguito becomes the first mammal to be discovered in the past 35 years, 2013

*Yes, we just noted the other day the date of completion in 1880!