Must Be (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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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, River is providing the prompts on her blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.shipwreck  

2.hook  

3.unexpected  

4.buttermilk  

5.white-knuckled  

6.buggy

Charlotte's colour of the month is Beauty Berry Purple if you wish to include it.

It was as UNEXPECTED as getting a mouthful of BUTTERMILK when you put the cup to your lips and were expecting sweet milk instead.

I was in the RV taking care of our little Annie and I'd set my phone on the couch next to me on one side, by the cabinet, while stretching her out on the other side of me to get her to settle in for a nap.

As i leaned nearer to pat her back and sing to her, i heard the thunk which could mean the modern equipment equivalent of an old time SHIPWRECK.  It was the sound of my phone slipping past the couch cushions with their swirly pattern in lovely blues and Beauty Berry Purple on a beige background, and hitting the floor under the built-in couch.

Built-in, as in, can't be moved.

Yes, you can fold the bottom of the couch up a short distance to pull it out and lower the whole couch into a bed, but would it come up far enough to be able to reach under and grab the phone?

And, of course, the  baby is now asleep, so it has to wait for her to wake, and meanwhile, daughter-in-law is at an appointment so i am stuck in the RV with the baby, no phone and no way to get it or to reach out in case of an emergency.

I WHITE-KNUCKLED the time until daughter-in-law got back, knowing by HOOK or crook i had to get the phone back.  I even wondered if i was going to have to fashion some kind of hooking device to get it.

The baby woke just about 3 minutes before her mama walked in and after she hugged her little bundle of delight, i explained what happened.

"I did the same thing this morning!" she told me.

She opened the cabinet next to the couch as it seems there's a sizable gap you can reach through.

Turning on her phone flashlight, she said, "Yes, I see it, mine was even further in and it's a little BUGGY up under there, but not really bad.  Here!"

She had indeed fished the modern lifeline of our technology out and handed it to me, no worse for wear on anything but my nerves.

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Today is:

Dia del Nino -- Honduras (Children's Day)

National Day -- Gibraltar

Saint George's Caye Day -- Belize (National Day)

Sewing Machine Day -- date of issuance of an early sewing machine patent, to Elias Howe; some sites call this "Sew Be It! Day"

Swap Ideas Day -- Robert L. Birch of Puns Corp wants people to explore ways in which their ideas can be put to work to benefit all humanity and develop incentives to encourage using our creative imaginations

St. Finian's Day (Patron of Ulster, Irland)

St. Nicholas of Tolentino's Day (Patron of animals, baby, dying people, mariners/sailors, sick animals; Albi, Italy; Cabanatuan, Philippines; Guimbai, Philippines; Lambuna, Philippines; Mati, Philippines; Tandag, Philippines; Toentino, Italy)

Teacher's Day -- China

TV Dinner Day

World Suicide Prevention Day -- a great resource is here www.stopasuicide.org

Birthdays Today:

Clark Johnson, 1964

Randy Johnson, 1963

Colin Firth, 1960

Amy Irving, 1953

Joe Perry, 1950

Judy Geeson, 1948

Jose Feliciano, 1945

Stephen Jay Gould, 1941

Karl Lagerfeld, 1938

Charles Kuralt, 1934

Roger Maris, 1934

Arnold Palmer, 1929

Rin Tin Tin, 1918

Fay Wray, 1907

Adele Astaire, 1896

Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890

Franz Werfel, 1890

Ian Fleming, 1888

Isaac Kauffman Funk, 1839

Marie Laveau, 1801

Carter Braxton, 1736

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The X Files"(TV), 1993

"Gentle Ben"(TV), 1967

"The Road Runner Show"(TV), 1966

"Gunsmoke"(TV), 1955

"Benvenuto Cellini(Berlioz opera), 1838

Today in History:

The Battle of Marathon takes places between the forces of the Persian Empire and those of Athens, BC490*

An earthquake known as "The Lesser Judgment Day" hits Istanbul, 1509

John Smith is elected president of Jamestown, Va., Colony Council, 1608

Nathan Hale answers the call of George Washington for a volunteer spy, 1776

Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru, 1823

Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine, 1846

George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora, 1858

Lincoln Highway, the first paved coast-to-coast road in the US, opens, 1913

Austria and the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, 1919

20 African-American students enter public schools in Alabama, 1963

Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France, 1977

Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations, 2002

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, 2008

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres makes an urgent call for a climate change conference saying "climate change is moving faster than we are," 2018

Researcher Martin Hairer wins Breakthrough prize for mathematics for work on stochastic analysis, 2020

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visits and calls for global support for flood-ravaged Pakistan, where 33 million people are displaced, 2022

The Shem Tov Bible, completed by Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Gaon in Soria, Spain, in 1312 and which combines Jewish, Christian, and Islamic artistic traditions, sells at auction for $6.9 million, 2024

*actual date disputed, but it was the 9th day of the 9th moon on their calendar

A Friend’s Friendly Back Yard (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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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 words/prompts are:

1. stupefied

2. collector

3. arrange

4. reflections

5. fashion

6. slate

and/or:

1. hesitate

2. adjusted 

3. hat

4. segment

5. coffeemaker

6. dessert

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

For some time now, Sweetie has been coming to me on occasion, handing me the phone he's had for about 6 years, and saying, "Make it behave!"

Some may remember my phone, a twin of his, went dead just at the start of vacation last year and i ended up getting a new one before we could even get well on our way.  Since then, i've been telling him he needs a new one also, but it's such a pain for him to learn a new phone (for both of us) that we HESITATE and we've put it off.

When it came to an impasse the other day, him versus the phone and the phone winning, i was not STUPEFIED by it.  In fact, a SEGMENT of our savings for the past little while has been set aside because i expected this.

We looked at the schedule to ARRANGE a good time to go to the branded phone outlet which is our carrier.  Then he ended up getting called by The Big Boss unexpectedly so we ended up going later in the day than i like, but it could not be put off any longer.

The traffic was thick but not impassible and we arrived at the store in a reasonable amount of time.  It's the FASHION there for a representative, if they are not all busy, to meet you at the door and open it for you, walk in with you and ask what you need.  Telling him we were in the market for a replacement phone, he led us to a desk and got the initial items out of the way, name, account number, which phone line, and so on.

Then came actually trying to find a phone.  Usually these stores have a whole SLATE of possible candidates, but it seems the tech market has been badly hit by much of what is ailing all of us, supply chain issues.  Since Sweetie is a COLLECTOR of photographs, what he really wants is a camera with a reasonably good phone instead of the other way around.

This left us, if we kept to Android which is what we are going to do because i am not going to die on the hill of trying to teach him Apple when he's never spoken it before, not after what i went through just trying to teach him how to use a new COFFEEMAKER, with getting him a twin of my current phone.

My current phone is the best of the mid-priced Samsung phones:  expensive enough that i'm going to buy the warranty, not expensive enough that i'm going to have to mortgage one of the kids, as i used to say.

Our branded phone carrier store was out of that, and no way he's getting one of those foldable screen phones that cost more than the car i was brought home from the hospital in.

The day is moving on, and the nice man at the store looked up and found the phone we wanted at Best Buy -- across town.  Does the slightly nearer one have it?  Yes?  Thank you, we'll do that.  Off to my least favorite but most centrally located place, the mall.

In my REFLECTIONS on our experience, i should always get all of our new phones at Best Buy.  After a short wait, a nice gentleman who was manager of the department took care of us.  Not only did he have the phone in stock, he was able to do what the carrier brand store couldn't do for me when i got my phone -- transfer everything from the old phone to the new one.

Once at home, it only took me a short time to get all the apps to update and get it going.

The hardest part will be over the next few days as i put on my admittedly limited tech HAT and try to get Sweetie ADJUSTED to using a new phone.

It's going to cost him a DESSERT for me every time he loses his temper, bought out of his guitar string money (not really, but telling him that helps him be more patient).

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Today is:

Armored Warships Day -- the first battle between armored warships, the Monitor and the Merrimac, was this day in 1862

Baron Bliss Day -- Belize

Celebrate Your Name Week -- Wednesday:  Learn What Your Name Means Day, go look it up, it's probably very interesting

Day to Mourn Slavery -- commemorates the day slavery was outlawed worldwide in 1927, and to mourn that it still exists

Eid Al Moalim -- Lebanon (Teacher's Day)

Get Over It Day™ -- halfway between Valentines and April Fools, a day to just get over something or someone that is bugging you 

National Crabmeat Day

National Decoration Day -- Liberia

National Meatball Day

Panic Day -- a day in which to run around in a panic and tell everyone you can't take it any more, to get it all out of your system, i guess; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day -- US   

Saitousai -- Kashima-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan (festival to pray for good harvest that dates back to the Nara period of 710-794, and still includes traditional dress)

Second Day of No Interest to Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

St. Catherine of Bologna's Day (Patron of art, artists, Bologna Academy of Art, liberal arts, painters; against temptation)

St. Dominic Savio's Day (Patron of boys, children's choirs, choir boys, choirs, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents, and Pueri Cantores)

St. Frances of Rome's Day (Patron of automobile drivers/motorists, cabbies/taxi drivers, lay people, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, widows)

Strinennia -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (festival to call birds and spring to come back)

Takaosan Hiwatari Matsuri -- Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan  (fire walking festival, usually on this date but can vary)

Anniversaries Today:

Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, 1796

Gustav Mahler marries Alma Schindler, 1902

Birthdays Today:

Emmanuel Lewis, 1971

Juliette Binoche, 1964

Terence John "Terry" Mulholland, 1963

Linda Fiorentino, 1960

Jeffrey Osborne, 1948

David Hume Kennerly, 1947

Bobby Fischer, 1943

Trish Van Devere, 1943

Raul Julia, 1940

Marty Ingels, 1936

Mickey Gilley, 1936

Joyce Van Patten, 1934

Yuri Gagarin, 1934

Keely Smith, 1932

Ornette Coleman, 1930

Wally Bronner, 1927

Irene Papas, 1926

Mickey Spillane, 1918

Samuel Barber, 1910

Will Greer, 1902

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, 1890

Amerigo Vespucci, 1454

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Family"(TV), 1976

"Rising of the Moon"(Play), 1907

"Hamlet"(Opera), 1868

"Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor/The Merry Wives of Windsor"(Opera), 1849 

"Ernani"(Opera), 1844

"Nabucco"(Opera), 1842

"Horace"(Play), 1640

Today in History:

Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China, BC141

First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg, 1009

Jews are expelled from Carintha Austria, 1496

Nicolaus Copernicus makes his first recorded astronomical observation, 1497

Marten Luther preaches his first Invocavit sermon, 1522

Kissing in public is banned in Naples, punishable by death, 1562

Publication of the economics book The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, 1776

Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours, 1839

The Amistad Ruling:  The US Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally, and were to be set free, 1841

The first documented discovery of gold in California occurred at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush, 1842

Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox, 1858

The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners 

represented by the United Mine Workers, begins, 1910

Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, 1916

Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins, 1925

President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the Congress, the first of his New Deal policies, 1932

CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly, in which Edward R. Murrow criticizes the senator, 1954

The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York, 1959

Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position, 1990

Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Comet Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day, 1997

Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights, 2011

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft transmits images that for the very first time, allow scientists to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the surface of Mars, 2013

Asteroid 2013 ET comes within 960,000 km from the Earth’s surface, 2013

Italy announces it is locking down the whole country due to a spike in Covid19 cases, 2020