Saturday, July 29, 2017

The Shape of Things


Ten Things of Thankful

This week, the shape of things has come to mind in composing my list of thankfuls.

Round standard analog clock faces make me thankful that i taught my children to read standard clocks, and that i have standard clocks here.  At my annual check-up every year, one thing my doctor has me do is draw a clock with the hands pointing to three o'clock.  (One sign of dementia/Alzheimers is you can't remember how to properly draw a clock.)  When i asked him what he would do with a young patient who had never had to bother learning an analog clock face, and he showed me a pair of interlocking pentagons that are an alternative.  My children should be able to use the standard clock face.

Cylinders full of cold liquid make me grateful on hot summer days.  It's especially nice when the liquid is pineapple-coconut juice Grandma bought me.

The rectangular shapes of windows make me thankful for the light they let in, and the view they afford.

Make those rectangles three-dimensional and i am reminded of our garbage and recycling bins.  There are some places where trash pick-up is expensive, or complicated, or even non-existent.  We get the standard garbage can picked up from in front of our house twice a week, a recycle bin picked up once a week, yard waste and other trash picked up once a week, and we can even throw away up to 4 tires and one white goods item (refrigerator/washer/dryer/dishwasher/etc.) each year at no extra charge, picked up where we can pile up yard waste.  When i imagine what would happen around here if i had to haul my own stuff to the dump, i am beyond thankful that we have such a great service here for a low monthly fee collected with the water bill.

Flower shapes in many colors and varieties make me grateful for the beauty and joy they add to my life.

Cat shapes of all sizes make me happy and frustrate me and keep me on my toes, and i am so thankful i have cats in my life.

When some of the men in my life look at automobiles, they see makes, models and years.  When i look, all i can identify are the shapes: sedan, SUV, minivan, big van, truck, sports car.  No matter the shape, though, i am very thankful for our vehicles that get us where we need to go.

The shape and size of a vase matters, especially when Sweetie accidentally knocks one off a shelf when we are cleaning a house.  Finding one of the same size and shape and near the same color and design, and having Ms. GA be perfectly happy with it is nearly a miracle, especially since it was at a place that only sells to retailers and they knew Sweetie was desperate and one person in line used his license to let us buy it.  You know i am thankful they still make that shape vase and over the moon grateful to the person who was willing to help and the cashier who looked the other way as he did.

Tube shapes full of insecticide might seem a strange thing to be thankful for, until you live down where the ugh! bugs run rampant (some called them palmetto bugs and i don't like to say their name).  Trust me when i say that i am thankful for #1 Son finding a product online that comes in a tube and kills those suckers within 20 minutes.

Finally, i am thankful for houses of every shape and design and variety that i clean to make a living.

The final shape of things is that i am very, very thankful for the shapes in my life, and the shape my life is in.

Get your own thankfulness muscles in shape by coming up with a list of thankful things and linking up to Ten Things of Thankful.  No one will count and fuss if you don't list ten, any amount of gratitude is acceptable and celebrated.


Today is:

Carousel Day -- Johnson City, NY, US (Kids won't want to miss all the fun at this family event, and grown-ups, come be a kid again for a day!)

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Chicken Wings Day -- Buffalo, NY, US (they want it to be a national day, and maybe someday it will be)

Cowes Week begins -- Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK (the largest, longest-running and most prestigious international sailing regatta in the world; through August 5)

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, inkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travellers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

Hanover Dutch Festival -- Hanover, PA, US (celebrating the area and it's heritage)

International Tiger Day

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Dance Day -- US (begun by Nigel Lythgoe, now a congressionally recognized day to encourage dance education and physical fitness, so go out and bust a move on a Saturday night, but don't bust you, please)

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

"Paddle for Perthes" Disease Awareness Day -- to promote awareness of the children's condition called Legg-Calve-Perthes disease 

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Quilt Exhibition -- Billings Farm, Woodstock, VT, US (a juried show, demonstrations and other activities; through Sept. 17)

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 114 out of the 143 observances of this festival on this date) 

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; pPtron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway)related observances
     Olavsokadagur -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)
     Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)
     sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Sumidagawa River Fireworks Festival -- Tokyo, Japan (one of Japan's largest fireworks festivals, held almost every year since 1733, making it also one of the world's oldest continuously held fireworks displays)

Taylor Horse Fest -- Taylor, ND, US (big enough to be fun, small enough to get you lots of time with the stars of the show, the horses! through tomorrow)

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman


Anniversaries Today

Andy Taylor marries Tracey Wilson, 1982
Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981
Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565


Birthdays Today

Danger Mouse, 1977
Josh Radnor, 1974
Wanya Morris, 1973
Wil Wheaton, 1972
Julian McMahon, 1968
Martina McBride, 1966
Alexandra Paul, 1963
Patty Scialfa, 1956
Ken Burns, 1953
Tim Gunn, 1953
Marilyn Quayle, 1949
David Warner, 1941
Peter Jennings, 1938
Elizabeth Dole, 1936
Paul Taylor, 1930
Chester Bomar Himes, 1909
Melvin Belli, 1907
Clara Bow, 1905
Dag Hammarskjold, 1905
Stanley Kunitz, 1905
Benito Mussolini, 1883
Newton Booth Tarkington, 1869
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1861
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friday Night Videos"(TV), 1983
Help(Film), 1965
"Steamboat Willie"(Animated short, first appearance of Mickey Mouse), 1928


Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030
James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567
English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588
John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793
Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836
In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848
The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899
Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907
The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987
The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988
Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005
South Sudan becomes the 54th member of the African Union, 2011
Scientists reveal new research identifying a mechanism by which Earth-warming carbon is pulled deep into the Southern Ocean, and locked away, and scientists claim this process may be threatened by climate change, 2012

15 comments:

  1. I am grateful for family members and friends. I am also grateful to the friend who taught me how to blog. I am hopeful with automobiles because I always mixed them up. Hahaha!

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  2. Thankful I can still draw a clock.

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  3. That is a wonderful list of things to be thankful for. I am so impressed at how often your trash gets picked up plus that you can toss an appliance. Around here, trash removal is so expensive that people dump mattresses and things like that on the side of country roads. It really bugs me when they leave them at clothes drop off bins like they are doing them a favor. Have a great weekend!

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  4. You work so very hard and volunteer so much, but you are the most thankful person I know.

    Have a blessed weekend. ☺

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  5. You know Mimi, this section I really enjoy.As I read your blog, I thought about my own life and began think about everything. As I thought about my own ideas, it me thought about life and how lucky I am. Thanks my friend for writing this blog. See ya.

    Cruisin Paul

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  6. I love colourful flowers in the summer too

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  7. What a wonderful and creative way to approach thankfuls this week, Mimi, you always help me to see beyond the obvious!

    I have often thought too how sad it is that there are so many things our children, or theirs, will have no idea about... analog clocks is one of them. I remember my excitement when visiting my dad's shop and seeing an electric clock with digits that rolled over instead of hands turning round!

    I totally agree about the cold drink cylinders, I live on iced tea in the summertime. Pineapple coconut juice sounds good!

    Windows, do so much, letting in light and giving us a view out, and protecting us from the elements. Stained glass ones are magical!

    Wow, you have great trash pickup service there! I wish it was that organized and helpful here. People often leave large items laying around their yards because they are too cumbersome to haul off.

    Flowers! Truly amazing the variety of shapes and sizes, and colors. I could look at flower photos all day long and never get bored! Do you have a favorite kind?

    You already know how I feel about cats, next to family and friends they are the joy of my life! And yes, a lot of work and worry, but so worth it! I enjoy how unique their individual personalities are!

    I am like you when it comes to vehicles, though Papa Bear could name you the make, model and year of nearly everyone we see! I like pretty ones (which is why it's not good for me to shop for a vehicle alone :-)

    I am so thankful for you that you were able to find a suitable replacement vase for the broken one that please Ms. GA! I know how bad Sweetie must have felt when he broke hers.

    I detest those "palmetto bugs" too! The ones in military housing were even larger as they originated in cargo sent on ships. They are creepy and dirty and into everything! I'm glad you found a treatment that works well.

    You are truly blessed that you have been able to make a good living by helping people take care of their homes, and I know they are grateful not only for your work but also for your kindness and caring.

    I love your conclusion, to be thankful for the shape your life is in is the best blessing of all, we have enough and we are doing ok! Thank you for coming to share your thankfuls at TToT each week, I appreciate you so much! XOXO

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  8. Fun list with some intriguing shapes! The only thing I notice about my own car is whether it runs. Your observations on clocks is interesting. I work with middle schoolers. I can't tell you how many times they are in my office facing the clock and asking me what time it is. I know everything is digital now, but that skill helps strengthen others--such as understanding fractions. Sigh. Progress, right?!

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  9. Josie said it better, but, what an excellent (and creative) approach to the TToT.
    very cool

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  10. You've reminded me of the difficulty our son had learning how to read a regular clock as opposed to digital ones. He used to say to us things like, "In seven minutes it will be a quarter til two.

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  11. Mimi, you are an inspiration, always. I am thankful for you. I am also thankful for those like you that I have in my life. I hope that I can inspire others in the way I see things and approach life, too. We each have something to offer. When we accept others, we gift them, and ourselves, too. Hugs.

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  12. Interesting fact about the three o'clock deal. I can do that. Yay. Great things to be thankful for. We are thankful for a roof over our heads.

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  13. What?! National Lazagna Day?! Whoop! whoop! :D
    I'm with Josie - your 10 is very creative. I love how you worked it from the very first:)
    You cite some very good reminders of the smaller things, things sometimes taken for granted in life that we should be thankful for.
    Having lived in Florida, I can relate to finding a good insecticide! lol

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  14. Only you can have a great quote about CHEESE!

    You are lucky to have the services to pick up so much. People move here and ASSUME that we do, and stuff stays at the curbs FOREVER!

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  15. Shapes and shape of things. I love your theme for this week Mimi.

    :-)

    I love to watch young children, just learning about shapes. My nephew is just turning five next week and he is already so good at telling time the way you mention, in this all digital age. That is a skill he is going to be lucky to have, like you say.

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