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Today, a little story about the picture posted for Wordless Wednesday yesterday, as i do gently tease her about it, but i know Ms. V has a great reason for what she does.
Before the Flood of 2016, Mr. L and Ms. V had a drainage system installed in their yard to help prevent flooding, as their yard regularly turned into a swamp during heavy rains.
It would turn out to be one of the smartest moves they've made, as far as home maintenance and upkeep go.
They were visiting family out-of-state during the Flood, so they weren't here to see it firsthand, but the drainage system worked, the water came to within 6 inches of their door, then receded, leaving them high and dry and able to move Carl into the spare bedroom and give his apartment to Ms. S and Mr. D across the street for 3 months while they repaired their place.
Thus they are meticulous about maintaining that system, it syphoned water away from their yard when the rains first started which prevented a buildup in their yard before the creeks all backed up, which was probably what kept water from rising quite high enough to get into their house.
It looks funny, but Ms. V regularly takes the broom and sweeps leaves and grass clippings away from the drainage ports in the yard to keep everything flowing, it's very important even if i do tell her watching her sweep the yard means now i've seen everything.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Turn.
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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Life's kinda scary
See it as an adventure
Look admire the view
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I've crossed this bridge
all of my life
I don't think it's dangerous
it causes no strife.
My mother taught me how
when I was just a tot
it's part of my day
I don't think of it a lot.
I just get up and cross it
every single day,
and later when it's time,
I go back the other way.
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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 i am thankful Kevin and Lenny honor their warranties, every time. More details will follow on Thankful Day (Saturday), but for the moment we're grateful GusGus Die Fledermaus is back up.
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Today is:
All Souls' Day -- Christian (celebrations in Ecuador are among the most colorful; 2nd of the Dias de los Muertos in Mexico) related observances:
Dead Relatives' Day -- Sicily
Dia de Finados -- Brazil; Portugal
Aztec Day of the Dead -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (date approximate)
Balfour Declaration Day -- Israel
Cookie Monster's Birthday -- go have a cookie to celebrate! (but only after your dinner, as Cookie Monster now points out; boy, things have changed)
Coronation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafarian
Dveselu Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (day for families to gather with the spirits of their ancestors at the graveyard to celebrate the continuity of life)
Festival of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)
Indian Arrival Day / Arrival of Indentured Laborers' Day -- Mauritius
International Day to End Impunity -- International (calling for the ending impunity for crimes against journalists and media workers)
Karatsu Kunchi -- Karatsu and Saga, Japan
Look for Circles Day -- internet generated, and we run in circles looking for who created it and why!
Men Make Dinner Day -- BBQ is not allowed, but you can go to menmakedinnerday.com for ideas
National Deviled Egg Day
Potting-Shed Investitures -- Fairy Calendar (Garden Fairies)
Plan Your Epitaph Day -- sponsored by Dead or Alive of Arcata, CA, because a forgettable epitaph is almost a fate worse than death, so make plans to do yours right!
Practice Being Psychic Day -- but you already knew that, didn't you?
Refuse to Capitalize the First Letters in Your Name Day -- k.d.lang's birth anniversary
Soulcaker's Play -- Cheshire, UK
St Eustachius' Day (Patron of difficult situations, fire prevention, firefighters, hunters and hunting, torture victims, trappers; Madrid, Spain; Poli, Italy; against fire and torture)
Thanksgiving Day -- Liberia
Anniversaries Today:
North Dakota becomes the 39th US State, 1889
South Dakota becomes the 40th US State, 1889
Birthdays Today:
k.d. lang, 1961
Shere Hite, 1942
Stephanie Powers, 1942
Pat Buchanan, 1938
Ray Walston, 1914
Burt Lancaster, 1913
Paul Ford, 1901
Warren G. Harding, 1865
James K. Polk, 1795
Marie Antionette, 1755
Daniel Boone, 1734
Debuting/Premiering Today:
The Spruce Goose makes its first (only) flight, 1947
KDKA Radio Pittsburgh, PA, US makes the first scheduled radio broadcast, of election results, 1920
Today in History:
The African Free School, the first free school in NYC, opens, 1787
The popular vote for US president is first recorded and Andrew "By God" Jackson (a/k/a Old Hickory) defeats John Quincy Adams, 1824
New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally, 1868
Johnny Campbell officially leads the crowd in cheering at a University of Minnesota football game, the official birth of cheerleading, 1898
The British newspaper the "Daily Mirror" begins publication, 1903
The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities", 1917
Charlotte Woodward, who attended the historic Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention of 1848, becomes the only one of the women who attended to live long enough to cast a vote in a national election, 1920
Australia's Qantas Airways begins service, 1922
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established, 1936
In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built, 1947
Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case, 1960
The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT, 1988
The International Space Station becomes permanently staffed, 2000
China makes its first orbital docking as its unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft successfully docks with the orbiting Tiangong 1 space station module, 2011
The New York Marathon is cancelled due to the damage from Hurricane Sandy, 2012
Separatists in Eastern Ukraine hold elections in Donetsk and Luhansk; Russia will recognize the elected leaders, but Ukraine and Western nations declare the elections illegitimate, 2014
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull scraps Knights and Dames from Australia's honours system, 2015
The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest MLB championship drought at 108 years, 2016
The government of Ethiopia and Tigrayan authorities reach a peace agreement after two years of talks in South Africa, 2021