Sometimes a Friend Comes Through in the Clutch, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

 ***********************************

Years may come and years may go, but thankfulness lasts forever!

That's a thankful in itself, isn't it.

We're still thankful to have Coda.  #2 Son has been taking her on occasion to spend the night with him, he loves that dog.

Coda has a good friend in the neighborhood, Jazzie.  They play every afternoon and wear each other out.  It certainly looks to me like they are thankful for each other.

Most Sundays i go get Becca and take her to church, but this past Sunday her mother was very, very worried about the recent Covid surge.  She asked me to keep Becca at home, and so we had an extra long walk with Mr. Cal.  He was thankful for that, and i was thankful Becca and i had a good time doing that and playing games and reading when we got home.

Sunday i also had a visit with Ms. S.  As it turned out, it was my last one at her place here in town, and i'm thankful i got to go.  We knew she was moving, we didn't know her son was coming to move her on Monday.  As sad as i am that she's further away from her friends here, i am very glad she's able to get the care she needs and her son/daughter-in-law are just up the street, ready and willing to make sure she's okay.

Ms. PA is also going to be moving soon, and i got to have a good talk with her daughter-in-law.  They don't have a date yet, but it's soon, so it was a bittersweet thankful thing when i cleaned her house Monday.  

For the past two weeks i've been reminding all of my clients that i have Jury Duty coming up, and that i might not be available for a week or maybe even longer (Heaven forbid!).  When i told Ms. G, my Wednesday lady, she said, "You don't need to be down there with this virus surge!  You have too many vulnerable people you tend, especially your parents."

When i rhetorically replied, Sure, but whatcha gonna to do? she responded with, "I'm going to call someone."

She called someone, and my Jury Duty has been postponed, we don't know until when but it's not right now, and i'm thankful.

The bonus in my Duty being postponed comes from the fact that i've managed to do something to my back again.  It seems i should be sliding furniture and not really picking it up so much any longer.  By Friday morning i was just about immobile and when i sneezed i thought i'd pass out from the pain.  Thankfully the doc could see me, and i'm on medicine that seems to be working.

Finally, my tablet that died because the battery finally bit the dust is back in action, thanks to a very good shop that does that sort of thing for a reasonable price.

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.   

***********************************

Today is:

Bikaner Camel Festival -- Bikaner, India (colorful camel activities, including a beauty competition, and fun for people also in this gorgeous, fortified desert town; through tomorrow)

Bubble Bath Day -- remember how much fun it was as a kid?  enjoy that again today

Children's Day -- Thailand

Day Sacred to Justicia -- Ancient Roman Empire (personification of justice)

Emperor Norton Day -- E. Clampus Vitus Society puts on a party in San Francisco's Chinatown in honor of the passing on this day of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Feast of Hathor and Sekhmet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of St. Gudula (Patron of single laywomen; Brussels, Belgium)

Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (a/k/a Babin Den; celebrating Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (fertility festival of Demeter and Dionysos called after the halos, or threshing floor; date approximate)

     Rural Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the fertility festival of the countryside)

It All Adds Up Day -- anniversary of Hollerith's tabulating machine patent

Kim Jong-un's Birthday -- North Korea

Male Watcher's Day -- often listed as a day for the females to get even and do a little guy ogling, but no site gives any reason behind why this day was chosen

Midwife's Day / Women's Day -- Greece (women get out and go to a cafe or shopping, and the men must stay home and do the chores and care for the children, and in some areas, men caught shirking will be stripped and drenched in cold water; on the approximate date of an ancient Greek celebration of midwives)

     Gynaecocratia -- Macedonia

Milk Carton Day -- Sheffield Farms began packaging milk in parafin lined paper cartons on this day in 1929

National Eat Something Raw Day 

National English Toffee Day

National Joygerm Day -- a day to infect others with joy; begun by Joygerm Joan, whose motto is "The only thing Joygerms allow to get depressed are their tongues!"

Old Hickory Day -- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson leads the victory in the Battle of New Orleans

Rock 'n' Roll Day -- on Elvis' birth anniversary, of course

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another Wellcat Holiday to observe carefully if at all

St. Severinus' Day (Patron of Austria and of San Severo, Italy)

Toka Ebisu Matsuri -- Osaka, Japan (Festival of Ebisu, god of business and prosperity; through the 11th)

Birthdays Today:

Ami Dolenz, 1969

Vladimir Feltsman, 1952

Don Bendell, 1947

David Bowie, 1947

Robbie Krieger, 1946

Kathleen Noone, 1946

Stephen Hawking, 1942

Yvette Mimieux, 1939

Bob Eubanks, 1938

Shirley Bassey, 1937

Elvis Presley, 1935

Charles Osgood, 1933

Soupy Sales, 1926

Ron Moody, 1924

Larry Storch, 1923

Jose Ferrer, 1912

Galina Ulanova, 1910

Wilkie Collins, 1824

James Longstreet, 1821

Nicholas Biddle, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Symphony No. 15 in A major (Opus 141, Dmitri Shostakovich), 1972

"Almira"(Handel's first opera), 1705

Today in History:

Monaco gains its independence, 1297

Genoa, Italy expels Jews, 1598

The oldest surviving commerial newspaper begins in Haarlem, Netherlands, 1675

The New York Fishing Company is the first American commercial corporation chartered, 1675

Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1734

US President George Washington delivers the first "State of the Union" address, 1790

Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, emerges voluntarily from the wild in southern France (he had been captured and escaped before), 1800

The Battle of New Orleans, 1815

The first US music school, the Boston Academy of Music, is established, 1833

The US national debt hits $0 for the first and only time, 1835

Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code), 1836

French physicist Jean Foucault proves, using his "Foucault's pendulum," that the Earth rotates on its axis, 1851

Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain in Montana Territory, 1877

Dr. Herman Hollerith receives the first US patent for a tabulating machine, considered by some to be the earliest computer, 1889

The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system, 1904

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963

Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched, 1973

The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, 2004

Some scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded, 2013

The previous year, 2017, is declared a record year for cost of natural disasters, coming in at $306 billion, 2018

Success, Wordless Wednesday and Words for Wednesday

 ***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

***********************************

Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week's prompts are:

amber

alabaster

bow-legged

extensive

seesaw

kill

and/or

lighthouse

market

cloudy

pigeonhole

goldmine

mute

Last Friday, as noted, i received something in the mail i was not happy to see, a jury duty notice.

The summons was for the Monday after we get back from vacation.  That means i got a notice on June 4 to report on June 21.  Not an EXTENSIVE notice, is it?

It was about a half hour before the jury office would close for the weekend, so i called right away, asking why the notices are coming so late.  The nice lady informed me that a notice for June 21 would have been mailed out by May 6.  That's right, it took the USPS a month to deliver the notice, and these notices are ugly orange and huge, so it's not like the postal workers don't know they are important.

Did someone PIGEONHOLE it for 3+ weeks before sending it on its way?

Well, whatever the reason, i sent in my request for a delay in service until the end of the summer, outlining several reasons for the request, and knowing i wouldn't hear back from them before Monday afternoon at the earliest, i spent the intervening time on a SEESAW between hope and concern.

It's a good thing i have plenty of work to KILL time.

Monday i am always hopping with Carl and Ms. PA's house and then going to see Ms. S.  While i did check my email a couple of times, i really did not expect to hear anything before Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was CLOUDY, then clear, then cloudy again, then clear again.  There was only Ms. S on this particular Tuesday, and i was to go to the MARKET to get her shopping done, with the plan being that i would get enough to last her until i came back from vacation.  Also, of course, the laundry and changing the bed and all of the other stuff.

When i arrived, Ms. S was looking at me with such sadness, her eyes full of MUTE appeal.  After a few minutes, she finally said, "I think Kiki has died." The tears started to fall.

Peeking under the bed, i saw Kiki's AMBER eyes staring at me.  Her once ALABASTER white paws are now a bit yellowed, and she sometimes seems to have arthritis pain that makes her walk a little BOW-LEGGED, but she is still full of spunk.  Although she no longer runs away from me, and she knows to come to me for food and to be let outside, she glared at me and pulled back a bit when i reached under there to pet her.

She's fine, i told Ms. S.  She stifled a sob.  "I really thought she had gone under the bed to die," she told me.  "She sleeps so much more now, and the only reason I let her outside is because I know she would be miserable if I didn't, but every time I let her out, I'm afraid she will go off to die somewhere and I'll never see her again."

Well, i told her, today she is just fine, and we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Kiki chose that moment to come out from under the bed and make Ms. S very happy by demanding food and then asking to be let outside.

Within a few hours, the shopping was done, the bed was remade, the laundry done, and miracle of miracles, Ms. S agreed to take a walk outdoors.  It wasn't a long walk, but if she will walk a bit every day, i think it will be good for her.

Miss Puss, as Kiki is also called, came and went in her usual fashion.  She's 19, and i am sure her days are numbered, but for right now, she's still her own cat.

Right before i left, i checked my email, and there it was.  This must be what it feels like for a sailor trying to find the port in the storm when the LIGHTHOUSE finally comes into view.  The jury manager has given me a delay of service, and not just until the end of summer, but until January of next year.  That's like handing me a GOLDMINE in terms of being able to prepare ahead, get clients ready for me to be gone, save up for a week with no income, etc.

Now we just have to get through the rest of this week.

***********************************

Today is:

Accession Day -- Jordan (King Abdullah's accession to the throne in 1999)

Community Day -- LO, MU, Spain

Donald Duck Day -- his screen debut was today in 1934

La Rioja Day -- La Rioja, Spain

Meezer's Colors Day -- celebrating the many colors of "meezer" (Siamese) cats

National Heroes Day -- Uganda

National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day

National Time Out Day -- US, sponsored by The Association of Operating Room Nurses, which wants everyone involved in surgeries to take time out before the procedure to verify the surgery site, type, and patient and decrease OR errors  

Profess Your Love Day -- promoted by ecard companies which think you need to say "I love you" more often

Purple People Eater Day -- Sheb Wooley's hit reached #1 this date in 1958

Remembrance for Sigurd the Dragonslayer -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (in some traditions called Siegfried)

Sjalvstyrelsedagen -- Aland Islands (Self-Governing Day)

St. Columbia of Iona's -- Celtic Christian, today is one of the luckiest days of the year to superstitious Highland Scots, especially propitious if it's a Thursday (Apostle to the Picts; Patron of bookbinders, poets; Ireland; Scotland; Pemboke, Ontario, Canada; against floods)

St. Ephraem's Day (creator of hymns; Patron of spiritual directors, spiritual leaders; Syria)

World APS Day -- spreading awareness of Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome   

Anniversaries Today:

Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito marries Masako Owada, 1993

Nero marries Claudia Octavia, 53

Birthdays Today:

Natalie Portman, 1981

Johnny Depp, 1963

Michael J. Fox, 1961

Dick Vitale, 1940

Jackie Mason, 1928

Les Paul, 1915

Robert Cummings, 1910

Cole Porter, 1891

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Congo(Film), 1995

What's Love Got To Do With It(Film), 1993

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier(Film), 1989

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, 68

Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse, 721

Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River, 1534

The Harvard Corporation is established as the first corporation in the Americas, 1650

James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia, 1732

The Congress of Vienna, forerunner of the League of Nations and the UN, ends with much of Europe's borders redrawn and settled, Switzerland's neutrality confirmed, and free navigation guaranteed on many rivers, 1815

Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts, 1856

Alexandra Palace in London burns down after being open for only 16 days, 1873

China agrees to lease Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years, 1898

Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States, 1909

Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport, 1958

Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria, 1967

Secretariat wins the Triple Crown, 1973

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) opens its priesthood to black males after 148 years, 1978

The British lease of Hong Kong expires, 1997

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty, 1999

In Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, six women were arrested for practicing driving in an empty car lot; women are banned from driving on the road, 2011

The World Health Organization suggests women delay pregnancy in areas where the Zika virus is very active, 2016

In the largest ever protest in the city of Hong Kong, over one million people gather to take a stand against new laws regarding extradition to mainland China, 2019 

General Charles Q. Brown becomes the first African American to lead a US Armed Forces branch when the US Senate confirms him as the Air Force Chief of Staff, 2020