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A few days ago, our feline friend Purrseidon reported that cousin Winston, the dog, was found on the kitchen counter at his home; no one knew how he'd gotten up there, and he appeared to be afraid to get down.
My explanation for the mystery is simple, and you can think of it in terms of the high dive board at the pool you faced as a young person, the one you climbed and were ready to jump off of, but once you got up there, you changed your mind.
If we use round numbers, and your eyes are five feet from the ground when you are standing, and the high dive board is a ten footer, when you look up from where you are standing, you are only looking up five feet to that board, which is not that far a distance in your mind.
When you climb the ten feet up, and your eyes are five feet above that, you are now looking down 15 feet to the pool below, which scares the bejabbers out of you and makes you climb right back down that ladder.
The same goes for what it looks like once you get up on the roof to clean the gutters, or if you are dog, what it looks like when you climb the kitchen counter.
Marvel no longer at the phenomenon, and please have someone spot you on the ladder, appearances are deceiving and you do not want to fall because it's farther than it looked at first glance.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Marvel.
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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.
Spotted these wreaths on a fence just yesterday:
photo
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Just call us Moe, Larry, and Curly,
'Cause they were like us, very squirrely.
We pull plenty of funny stunts
And yes, we are completely nuts.
It is our aim to entertain,
Of your bird feeder we're the bane.
We'll chew up stuff in your attic,
Make such noise and cause a panic.
Remember, though, we mean no real harm,
Just watch as we turn on the charm!
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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.
We had a spare fan in the house, and i'm thankful because the one we use as a "white noise" machine to sleep with decided to quit on us yesterday. Having a spare in the house meant not having to run right out and spend money on another.
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Today is:
Anniversary of the Elf Wars -- Fairy Calendar
Celtic Tree Month Luis (Rowan) begins
Errol Barrow Day -- Barbados
International Bon Jovi Day -- they released their first album this date in 1983
Lady of Altagracia Day -- Dominican Republic
National Hugging Day™ -- includes the announcements of the Most Huggable People of the Year
New England Clam Chowder Day
Quebec Flag Day -- Quebec, Canada
Squirrel Appreciation Day -- sponsored by Christy Hargrove of the Western North Carolina Nature Center
St. Agnes' Day (Patron of betrothed couples, bodily purity/chastity, crops, gardeners, Girl Scouts, girls, rape victims, virgins; the Colegio Capranica of Rome; Manresa, Spain; Rockville Centre, NY)
St. Meinrad of Einsiedeln's Day (Patron of hospitality; Einsiedeln, Switzerland; Swabia, Germany)
Women's Healthy Weight Day -- on the Thursday of Healthy Weight Week, encouraging women to strive for a healthy weight and lifestyle
Anniversary Today:
Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, 1915
Birthdays Today:
Robby Benson, 1956
Geena Davis, 1956
Billy Ocean, 1960
Jill Eikenberry, 1947
Mac Davis, 1942
Placido Domingo, 1941
Jack Nicklaus, 1940
Wolfman Jack, 1939
Benny Hill, 1925
Telly Savalas, 1924
Benny Hill, 1924
Paul Scofield, 1922
Barney Clark, 1921
Karl Wallenda, 1905
Christian Dior, 1905
Roger Nash Baldwin, 1884
John M. Browning, 1855
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, 1824
Ethan Allen, 1738
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"The Kid"(Film), 1921
"The Daily News"(first issue, edited by Charles Dickens), 1848
"Power of Sympathy"(publication date of WH Brown's novel, considered the first American novel), 1789
Today in History:
Philip II, Henry II, and Richard the Lionheart initiate the 3rd Crusade, 1189
The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded, 1525
The first American novel, WH Brown's "Power of Sympathy," is published, 1789
After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine, 1793
Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced, 1799
The envelope-folding machine is patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1853
The first US sewage disposal system that is separate from storm drains opens in Memphis, Tennessee, 1880
The first slalom ski race is run in Murren, Switzerland, 1922
The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec, 1948
A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete, 1968
The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts, 1971
Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes, 1976
Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, 1981
NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Eart, 2004
Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 11 September 2001, and Asian stocks drop as much as 14%, 2008
The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies, 2008
LA Lakers forward Kobe Bryant becomes the youngest NBA player to reach 25,000 career points at 31 years, 151 days, beating Wilt Chamberlain by 35 days, 2010
Gambian Dictator Yahya Jammeh finally concedes office and leaves Gambia 2 months after losing the presidential election, 2018
The journal Nature Communications reports a study of the world's oldest known meteor impact from an estimated 2.2 billion years ago in Yarrububba, Western Australia, implicating the impact in the ending of an ice age at that time, 2020