(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both. If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)
***********************************
Before i get into the funny stuff, i want to mention something that is on my heart a lot, and that is the idea of our freedom of worship.
It's something i cannot take for granted. After watching Andrew Brunson's case for two years, and hearing the reports from China of crackdowns on churches that is "worse than during the Cultural Revolution" as per those who lived through it, i ache for people who cannot practice their religion as they see fit. It even bothers me that some people live where they can't not practice the government enforced religion.
The day before yesterday, a young couple from a very restricted country were baptized at our church. They attend the local university, became friends with some people at our church, heard the Good News of Jesus, and believed and wanted to be baptized before going back home.
The young woman, when she asked about baptism, also asked, "Will my name be turned over to the government?"
Don't take your freedoms for granted.
***********************************
It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
This coming Friday, i have the joy of undergoing, for the second time in my life, a procedure known as a colonoscopy.
The whole situation got complicated very quickly. It seems that you cannot simply call and schedule these any more, you have to go talk to someone about scheduling, and the place you go to do that is not where you go to have the procedure, which is also different from where you go to have your anesthesia consultation.
When we did get to the step where we set it up, the nurse called in the prescription for the "cleansing fluids" as i call them. Sweetie went to pick it up as i was at work by then.
He called me and said, "It's going to be $169!"
So i asked the most obvious question -- isn't the insurance going to cover any of it? He asked, and the answer was,
The co-pay was only $29.
This morning is the anesthesia consult, before i go to work for Ms. B's son, who is still staying at her house.
By the time this whole thing is over, i think i will feel this way:
Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone!
***********************************
Today is:
Belfast International Arts Festival -- Belfast, Ireland (International arts festival; through Nov. 4th)
Boss's Day -- either celebrate, or roll your eyes, both are acceptable responses (begun by Patricia Bays Haroski in 1958 in honor of her boss, who was also her father; this date was his birthday)
Chrysanthemum Festival -- Japan ("The Festival of Happiness", various shrines; through Nov. 15)
Clean Your Bug Zapper Day -- internet generated, and we're getting a bit overboard here, aren't we?
Day of Pope John Paul II -- Poland
Dictionary Day / Learn a Word Day -- Noah Webster's birth anniversary
Dress Like A Dork Day -- does someone have it out for us with these?
Elephantine Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (several such celebrations of elephants were held around this time of year in Egypt)
Ether Day (first demonstrated use, see History)
Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) -- Baha'i
National Feral Cat Day -- US (sponsored by Alley Cat Allies)
National Liqueur Day
National Pharmacy Technician Day -- US, because pharmacy technicians "Help America Feel Better"
Niihama Drum Festival -- Niihama, Japan (three day festival with two ton drum floats)
Sennin Musha Gyoretsu -- Tochigi, Japan (procession of 1,000 warriors; through tomorrow)
St. Hedwig's Day (Patron of brides, duchesses, difficult marriages, widows; Bavaria; Berlin, Germany; Gorlitz, Germany; Silesia; against the death of children, jealousy)
Teachers' Day -- Chile
World Food Day -- UN
Anniversaries Today:
The first birth control clinic in the US is opened, 1916
Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah, 1875
Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women, 1869
Zion's Co-Operative Mercantile Institution, America's first department store, opens, 1868
The Collegiate School is established(forerunner of Yale University), 1701, Old Style Date
Birthdays Today:
John Mayer, 1977
Kellie Martin, 1975
Flea, 1962
Tim Robbins, 1958
Melissa Louise Belote, 1956
Barry Corbin, 1940
Bob Weir, 1947
Suzanne Somers, 1946
Gunter Grass, 1927
Angela Lansbury, 1925
William Orville Douglas, 1898
Eugene O'Neill, 1888
David Ben-Gurion, 1886
Oscar Wilde, 1854
Noah Webster, 1758
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"The Red Mill"(Musical), 1945
"The Man Who Came too Dinner"(Play), 1939
"Billy the Kid"(Ballet), 1938
Jane Eyre(Publication date), 1847
Today in History:
Jadwiga (yes, a she) is crowned King of Poland, 1384
Olivier van Noorts' ships reach the Philippines, 1600
George Washington takes Yorktown, 1781
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined, 1793
Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers, 1843
Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether, 1846
Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is published, 1847
John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1859
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", 1869
John Harwood takes out a patent on a self-winding watch, 1923
The Disney Company is founded, 1923
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army, 1940
Fidel Castro is sentenced in Havana to 15 years in prison, 1953
The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1964
In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, 1970
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1973
Pope John Paul II is elected after the October 1978 Papal conclave, 1978
Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1978
Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders, 1986
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated, 2002
A 1,255lb. portion of the Chelyabinsk meteor is recovered by divers in Russia, 2013
New Zealand, Malaysia, Angola, Spain and Venezuela are elected to the United Nations Security Council, 2014
Ed Whitlock, 85, becomes the oldest person to ever finish a marathon in under 4 hours, completing the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 3 hours 56 minutes, 2016