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If the phone is ringing at 11pm, and it's a number you don't recognize, leave it be, unless they call a second time, and then take note: it's important, at least in my world, and it probably means trouble.
"Mom," said #1 Son, "you're not going to like this, I'm with the police, and don't worry, I'm not in trouble and I'm okay, but I got robbed at gunpoint a little while ago walking home from work, and the guy stole my phone and made me give him the passcode."
Once i got my breath, of course i questioned how he could be okay, and i'm sure on some level he's not okay, it's a scary thing to have a gun stuck in your face for any reason.
As soon as i got off the phone with him, i called the phone company to suspend that number (all of the kids have the same phone number they've had since they got their first phones years ago, and all are on my account, they pay me and it's easier that way).
The next morning i got on the horn with the phone company rep to make sure nothing unusual had appeared on my account, start the insurance claim and make sure the phone is locked out, so the thief can't get anything for selling it, it's as useless as a brick.
#1 Son now has the unenviable task of trying to figure out how to put together his contacts again (why these kids don't save the list somehow like mine does to my email i do not understand) and how to walk carefully yet without overwhelming fear from a crime that will be a mere footnote in the long list of how people treat each other badly at times, this one among many so significant to us.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Note.
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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.
These three fences are all right next to each other at adjacent houses, showing how different people's taste is:
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| Some like their privacy. |
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| Yes, there's a fence under there somehwere, i promise. |
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| The fence color does contrast oddly with the house and garage color, at least to me. |
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Sitting in respectful silence i watch
As people continue their traditions
As meaningful to them as
My own are to me
Beautiful and ancient and yet fresh
Every time they perform it
Grateful to be allowed such a view
Sitting in respectful silence i watch
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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 we are thankful first and foremost that #1 Son was not harmed the other night in the robbery. Then we are thankful that the thief didn't get into his bank account or Apple Pay account and the phone got suspended before that could happen. We are thankful for the insurance that is replacing it for a deductible that we can spread over a couple of payments.
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Today is:
Alex Kivi Day a/k/a Kivi Day -- Finland (The Day of Finnish Literature)
Arbor Day -- Poland
Bonza Bottler Day
Buffalo Racing Festival -- Chonburi, Thailand (lots of water buffalo contests, including fancy dress!; through Oct. 12, which is the day of the big race)
Cephalopod Awareness Days: Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, celebrate the tentacular species
Curacao Day -- Curacao
Double Tenth Day/National Day -- China; Taiwan (In remembrance of the revolution against the Imperial Manchu Dynasty.)
Festival for Juno Moneta -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno as goddess of money)
Independence Day / Deed of Cession Day -- Fiji(1970)
Journee Nationale de la Femme Marocaine -- Morocco (National Women's Day)
Kruger Day -- South Africa
KWP Foundation Day -- North Korea (1945)
Maroons Day -- Suriname (celebration of indigenous peoples)
Moi Day -- Kenya
National Angel Food Cake Day
National Cake Decorating Day -- some websites say today, some say the 17th
National Depression Screening Day® 2019 -- US (find out how to help spread the word)
National Handbag Day -- started by www.PurseBlog.com
Naval Academy Day -- US
Rockport Seafair -- Rockport, TX, US (fresh-from-the-bay seafood, entertainment, crab races, and more; through Sunday)
St. Francis Borgia's Day (Patron of Portugal; Rota, Marianas; against earthquakes)
St. Paulinus of York's Day (Patron of Rochester, England)
Tag der Volksabstimmung -- Austria (Referendum Day)
War of Independence Anniversary -- Cuba
World Day Against the Death Penalty -- International
World Homeless Day -- no one should be homeless
World Mental Health Day -- International
World Porridge Day -- celebrating Scotland's traditional national dish
World Sight Day -- International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (This year's Call To Action is "Vision First")
Anniversaries Today:
Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., marries Katherine Anne "Kiki" Gershman, 1993
Richard Burton marries Elizabeth Taylor, 1975 (second time)
The United States Naval Academy opened with 50 midshipmen and 7 professors, 1845
Birthdays Today:
Adrian Grenier, 1976
Bob Burnquist, 1976
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 1974
Mario Lopez, 1973
Brett Favre, 1969
Daniel Pearl, 1963
Tanya Tucker, 1958
David Lee Roth, 1955
Nora Roberts, 1950
Jessica Harper, 1949
Charles Dance, 1946
Ben Vereen, 1946
Harold Pinter, 1930
Richard Jaeckel, 1926
Thelonious Monk, 1917
Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1924
Helen Hayes, 1900
Giuseppe Verdi, 1813
Henry Cavendish, 1731 (discovered hydrogen)
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Upstairs, Downstairs"(TV), 1971
"The Bob Newhart Show"(TV), 1962
"Milk and Honey"(Musical), 1961
"Porgy and Bess"(Folk opera), 1935
"Die Chinesische Mauer/The Great Wall of China"(Play), 1946
The Tuxedo, 1886 (introduced at The Tuxedo Club in New York)
Today in History:
The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in the Carribean, 1780
The first non-Native American settlement is founded in Oklahoma, 1802
William Lassell discovers Neptune's moon Triton, 1846
The first "Dinner Jacket" is worn to the Autumn Ball at Tuxedo Park, NY, 1886
President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal, 1913
Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after the French pull out of the city, 1954
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant, 1957
The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K. is the world's first major nuclear accident, 1957
The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite, 1964
The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force, 1967
In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group, 1970
Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, 1971
After having closed borders for about two hundred years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI adds Arabic to the languages in which the weekly Vatican address is broadcast, 2012
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi for their work in advocating children's rights; 17-year-old Yousafzai, who was shot by Taliban in retaliation for her activism, is the youngest recipient in history, 2014