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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 Lee at Kitchen Connection.
The words of the week:
cliche
eccentric
paradise
derogative
capitulate
judgment
direction
sacrifice
dispensable
consequence
outlook
principle
Like a bad CLICHE, it finally happened. It was an expected CONSEQUENCE, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Last year, Bigger Girl was driving Cicero — yes, we name the cars, no JUDGMENT, please — and had a truly spectacular accident. Bigger Girl was not harmed, but poor Cicero, well, may she rest in peace in car PARADISE as she deserves. Her crumple zones did crumple, and thus did she SACRIFICE herself and save her occupant, just as designed.
When our somewhat ECCENTRIC Bigger Girl does something, she does it in a big way usually, and this was no exception. She not only hit a car in front of her, she pushed it into the car in front of that. Not only does Bigger Girl lack a sense of DIRECTION (her words, Mom, I could get lost in a shoebox!), she sometimes lacks an attention span, a bad thing when you are driving.
The gentleman in the car directly in front of her gladly let the insurance pay for his damages and went merrily on his way. We have not heard a thing from him since, and his car did have significant damage, although not irreparable. The back door of an SUV, after all, is not DISPENSABLE but is certainly replaceable.
The lady ahead of that, well, her bumper was scratched.
She claimed significant damages to her person.
Not to be DEROGATIVE, since in fact her car did get hit, and we have CAPITULATEd to that fact, wethinks she doth claim a bit too much.
A letter was forthcoming from her attorney, asking for an amount significantly higher that what both the accident rated and the insurance will cover.
Until the recent unpleasantness that shut down society, it looked like there was a settlement that would be reached, a fair amount just under what our insurance would cover, which was a nice OUTLOOK for the whole episode, so we could put it behind us.
Then the courts shut down, the attorney started working from home and has not spoken to the adjuster since, and the PRINCIPLE that you file suit to keep your hand in the game came into play. After all, if the date to file goes past and you have not settled, the insurance company now has no reason to even consider your claim.
Suit has been filed. We know this, not because we have the papers, but because the nice sheriff’s deputy has been talking to me about how to get the papers to Bigger Girl, who has now managed to kill her cell phone so that i have to go to her apartment any time i need to speak to her.
She has agreed to meet the nice deputy here at our house on Thursday at 3pm, and get the papers so that she can give them to me and i can give them to the insurance people. Then i get to take her to buy a new phone.
Then we wait and hope the lady will settle on the amount she was talking about before, and not take this to trial.
Our lives sometimes feel like a walking daytime melodrama.
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Today is:
Adhesive Postage Stamp Day -- the first adhesive postage stamps went on sale on this date in 1840 in Great Britain
Anxiety Disorders Screening Day -- if you have symptoms, get checked, there is help
Army Day/St. George's Day -- Bulgaria
Beverage Day -- an internet holiday that encourages you to try a beverage you've never had before
Festival of Min -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (a four day festival celebrating male fertility; date approximate)
Great American Grump Out Day -- encouraging everyone to avoid grumpiness and rudeness for 24 hours; who knows, you might enjoy it so much it will stick!
International No Diet Day -- for reasons not to diet, but focus on health instead, click here
Joseph Brackett Day -- birth anniversary of Shaker author of the song "Simple Gifts"
Martyrs' Day -- Syria
Mounikhia / Munichia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Artemis, date approximate)
National Bike to School Day -- US (encouraging kids to have fun, get their exercise, and get to school under their own steam; this year, let them ride around the block a few times before settling in to homeschool)
National Crepe Suzette Day
National Nurses Day -- US, start of National Nurses Week
National School Nurse Day -- US (the school nurse is there to help!)
National Tourist Appreciation Day -- during US National Travel and Tourism Week
No Homework Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays (celebrated on Monday if it falls on a weekend)
Occupational Safety and Health Professionals Day -- US (info here)
Remembrance for Eyvind Kelve -- Asatru/Norse Pagan Calendar (pagan martyr)
St. George's Day -- Eastern Orthodox Churches (the day to visit graves and decorate, leave special food, and provide entertainment for the dearly departed) related observance:
Shepherd's and Herdsman's Day -- Bulgaria
St. Gerard of Lunel's Day (Patron of epileptics and Montesanto, Italy; against epilepsy and headaches)
Visakh Bochea Day -- Cambodia (Buddha Day)
Yale Lock Day -- the Yale lock was patented this day in 1861
Anniversaries Today:
David Duchovny marries Tia Leone, 1997
Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey (the first televised royal wedding), 1960
Birthdays Today:
Gabourey Sidibe, 1983
Leslie Hope, 1965
Roma Downey, 1964
George Clooney, 1961
Tom Bergeron, 1955
Tony Blair, 1953
Lynn Whitfield, 1953
Alan Dale, 1947
Ben Masters, 1947
Bob Seger, 1945
Willie Mays, 1931
Orson Welles, 1915
Stewart Granger, 1913
Rudolph Valentino, 1895
Gaston Leroux, 1868
Rabindranath Tagore, 1861
Sigmund Freud, 1856
Robert E. Peary, 1856
Maximilian Robespierre, 1758
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Entertaining Mr. Sloan"(Play), 1964
Today in History:
Spanish and German Imperial troops sack Rome, which many consider the end of the Renaissance, 1527
Mongol emperor Babur defeats the Afghans and Bengals, 1529
Henry VIII orders that English Bibles be placed in every church, 1536
Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles, 1682
The first African-American Masonic Lodge (African # 459) forms Prince Hall, Boston, 1787
John Deere produces the first steel plow, 1833
James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald, 1835
The Glaciarium, the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens, 1844
Dr John Gorrie patents a "refrigeration machine", 1851
Linus Yale patents the Yale lock, 1851
Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska, 1877
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1889
George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII, 1910
George Herman "Babe" Ruth, of the Boston Red Sox, slams his first home run, against the New York Yankees, 1915
The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed, 1937
John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
Bob Hope performs his first USO show, 1941
Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes, 1954
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel, 1994
Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people, 2008
The second largest intraday point swing in Dow Jones Industrial Average history occurs, 2010
Wal-Mart becomes the largest company by revenue on the Fortune 500 list, 2013
84 abducted schoolgirls released in exchange for Boko Haram suspects in Nigeria, 2017
France bans too thin fashion models and makes labeling of digitally enhanced photos mandatory, 2017