***********************************
Are we there yet? Thankful Day? Yes!
A big set of thankful things surround Tuesday, when i went for the first part of my annual physical. First, i have to be fasting, which is easy, and no coffee, which is not easy, so i am thankful for the earliest appointment of the morning. Second i am thankful they will make you a cup of coffee once they've done the blood tests to help ward off that caffeine headache!
Then i am thankful for vision and hearing screening included, no need for extra appointments.
The staff there know me and are friendly and except for being poked and prodded, it is quite nice to catch up with everyone.
A quick walk downstairs afterward and i was able to set up my mammogram for later in the month, too, i am thankful it can all be under one roof.
Then there was Thursday. Sweetie's main pair of glasses finally broke. He has another pair he doesn't like so well (same prescription), but he was wanting to replace the broken one.
He went to the place that sold him the frames, as the lenses, thankfully, were in perfectly good condition, and tried to buy another frame. They don't make that one any more, there is only one pair left and it's not the same color, and it costs $300 plus sales tax. Ouch.
He went to another optical shop, and we are so thankful for several things. They went out of their way to find a good frame, the lady knew how to buff the edges of the lenses herself to get them to fit (no need to send them off for the work!) and the third and best thankful, with tax, $110. Wonderful.
Later that day, i was thankfully able to finish paying off the last of Bigger Girl's car repairs (the car that now belongs to #1 Son), and pay a little bit on Lunceford the Land Yacht. One down, one to go.
Friday evening, we had a new volunteer at the shelter. A mom came in with her teen son, he wants to be a regular volunteer so he can spend time with the cats! He's a smart one, and helped me with the cages, so i got done a bit earlier. We are always thankful for volunteers.
Also, while i was there, a nice man knocked at the door, and when i opened it, he said, "I'm here to donate some money, who can take it for me?"
Taking him to the front desk, where one of the paid staff was sitting, he handed her $120, said he did not need a receipt, and walked out! Wow. Yes, we are always thankful for cash.
Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Kristi and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.
***********************************
Today is:
Buttering-Up Semi-Finals -- Fairy Calendar
Festival of Bacchus/Dionysus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (tasting the old and new wine and celebrating the harvest)
Independence Day -- Iraq
Inter-American Water Day -- begun in 1992 by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS) and the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA)
International Frugal Fun Day -- created by Shel Horowitz, author of The Penny-Pinching Hedonist; some of his ideas for how to celebrate are here
Kae Chun Jul -- Korea (National Foundation Day, BC 2333)
Morazan Day -- Honduras (Soldier's Day, trad.)
National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day -- internet generated; celebrate these beauties today, no matter where you are
National Carmel Custard Day
Oschophoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (in honor of the return of Theseus after killing the Minotaur; deities celebrated were Dionysius and either Athena or Ariadne, depending on the source cited; date approximate)
Relief of Leiden Day -- Netherlands
Reunification Day/Unity Day-- Germany
Ruler's Birthday -- SBH, Malaysia
Sts. Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair's Day (Patrons of Westphalia)
Sukkot -- Judaism (began at sunset yesterday, through sunset on Oct. 9)
Techies' Day -- give your techies some well deserved appreciation
World Card Making Day -- Paper Crafts Magazine started it all in 2006 and suggests you have fun and make a card or two or three on the first Saturday of October each year
Birthdays Today:
Neve Campbell, 1973
Gwen Stefani, 1969
Janel Maloney, 1969
Clive Owen, 1964
Jack P. Wagner, 1959
Dennis Eckersley, 1954
Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1954
Dave Winfield, 1951
Lindsey Buckingham, 1949
Roy Horn, 1944
Chubby Checker, 1941
Erik Bruhn, 1928
Gore Vidal, 1925
James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), 1916
Harvey Kurtzman, 1902
William Crawford Gorgas, 1854
George Bancroft, 1800
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"L.A. Law"(TV), 1986
"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"(TV), 1983
"Quincy"(TV), 1976
"The Dick Van Dyke Show"(TV), 1961
"The Andy Griffith Show"(TV), 1960
"The Pat Boone Show"(TV), 1957
"The Real McCoys"(TV), 1957
"Captain Kangaroo"(TV), 1955
"The Mickey Mouse Club"(TV), 1955
"Father Knows Best"(TV), 1954
"Our Miss Brooks"(TV), 1952
"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(TV), 1952
"The Maltese Falcon(Film, NYC release), 1941
Today in History:
The state of Gojoseon (modern-day Korea) is founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese emperor Yao, BC2333
The siege and battle of Alesia is ended by the surrender of Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, to Julius Caesar, BC52
Julius Caesar's assassins suffer a decisive defeat at the First Battle of Phillipi, BC42
Jews are expelled from Eger, Bohemia, 1430
The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor, 1712
British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska, 1778
General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters, 1795
George Washington proclaims the first national Thanksgiving Day will be held on Nov. 26, 1789
American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death, 1849
J.S. Thurman patents a motor-driven vacuum cleaner, 1899
The first conference on wireless telegraphy agrees to adopt SOS as the warning signal and sign of distress, 1906
Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna, Austria, found the Pravda newspaper, 1908
Mrs. W.H. Felton, of Georgia, becomes the first woman seated in the US Senate, 1922
A V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany is the first man-made object to reach space, 1942
The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon, 1952
Germany is reunified, 1990
Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show's tigers, 2003
Archaeologists on the Egypt-Gaza border find the first evidence of a 2,000-year-old city, 2010
The Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves," 2017
The first exomoon, a moon outside of this solar system and about the size of Neptune, is discovered 8,000 light-years away by astronomers at Columbia University, 2018