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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Last time i was at Ms. V's on a Thursday, Carl wasn't working and had an appointment with his therapist. He either drives up the road to the office, or he is allowed to do a Facetime call, but Ms. V told me before she left for exercise to make sure he was up before 11am when the appointment is set.
He popped into the kitchen right at 10:30 and i reminded him of the appointment, and he said that's why he was up so early. When i asked if he was going to drive over or do Facetime, he said, "If I do Facetime, I can stay in my jammies!" with his huge, kid-like Carl grin.
Facetime does have its advantages, and knowing how Carl works, his therapist is totally good with him being in his jammies on a call, scarfing his breakfast.
Of course, he needs a nap after, and gets it. After all, no work.
When i arrived yesterday the house was dark and his light flipped on as soon as i shut the car door. He was heading for his sleep chair when i got in and sleepily said yes, he did have work.
The laundry room door wouldn't open from the hall so i followed him into the main house and got in there -- and once again, like an old dream haunting me, the light in the laundry room wouldn't turn on.
It hasn't been fixed, it turns out, it's just Carl hasn't left the light on all night in a long time so the ballast hasn't been acting up.
 |
| Up against the inside of the door. |
I used my flashlight on the phone and realized, oh, yes, the day after Easter.
Ms. V hosts Easter in the family gatherings, and everything she doesn't want anyone to see in the kitchen gets stuffed in the tiny laundry room.
Job #1, empty the laundry room so it can be used for laundry again.
Job #2, open the washer.
Carl and Ms. V wanted the washer at the same time, i see, so the kitchen linens were in with his clothes. At least they all smelled clean so the linens got hung up to dry and the clothes went to the dryer. We still have five dryer balls in our count, it has to be a record for this house to hold on to so many for so long.
Then on to Carl's room.
Where's the actual business end of the floss, on which side of the wall? Under all the clothes on top of the dresser, of course.
Ms. V made him take out the trash and told him to put in a new bag. She didn't specify how he should put it in, however.
One leftover breakfast, one bag with an apple core in it, his fridge continues to be bachelor typical.
He finally has gloves to take to work! Maybe he won't lose these before he turns in his notice in a couple of weeks.
Every sheet in his room was off the shelf, including one still folded but in the laundry hamper. Because if a sheet falls off the shelf into the dirty clothes, what's a Carl supposed to do? Wash it again, of course, or leave it for me to wash it again.
While i was putting his apron where i'd remember to hand it to him when the time came, Carl walked in to brush his teeth and announced it was shower time.
It's a little early, i told him, don't you want to sleep more?
"Shower first, sleep after," he said, something he's never done before while i was there. Oh, well, it's up to him.
"So much garbage to deal with at work..." he trailed off and then headed for the shower, and once done, went to lie down for 42 more minutes by the timer.
No one but Carl knows his formula for figuring out how long to put on the timer, and he's not talking, at least about that.
Once he's up and we are in the kitchen, him getting breakfast and me packing his lunch, he's talking up a storm.
"My friend Rob had to work Easter," he said.
Rob works at the hospital, in the cafeteria. People get sick even at Easter, i told him, and someone has to be there.
Carl nodded and then grabbed the white bread he has to have bought himself, as his mother only buys whole grain. "This is the good stuff!" he said with a grin. After helping himself to a couple of slices, he started perusing his cereal choices.
"Should I eat Total or Wheaties?" he asked, then without waiting for an answer, grabbed both and mixed them, along with granola and chopped dates and heaven knows what else. He makes it his own, whatever it is.
He talked about the war, and terrorism, and there wasn't much i could say about it, as he follows the news and is concerned, as are all of us. He did brighten up when he mentioned how good his mom's Easter dinner was.
As we were preparing him to leave, he asked for a water bottle in his cooler (all the styrofoam ice chests have been relegated to the trash after severe use). As i have the past two weeks, i told him he needs to buy more water bottles.
"A thermos, then," he said, searching his cabinets.
All your thermoses disappeared long ago, i told him, and he grabbed his hat, glasses and gloves instead.
Put them on top of your cooler so you'll remember to take them with you, i suggested but to no avail. He walked them into the kitchen and set them on the table, and i snagged them and put them on the cooler.
He came rushing back into his room to say, "I need freshener!"
What kind? i asked. Air freshener? Upholstery freshener?
Carl gave me a pained look and grabbed a clothes hanger out of his closet.
What's the hanger for? i asked.
He looked at it confused and said, "I don't know," and then set it down for me to put back in the closet.
Then it took 3 tries to get him out the door, but it finally happened.
How about some funnies.
Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!
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It's my month to provide the prompts for Words for Wednesday. Since it becomes Wednesday in some parts of the world while it is still Tuesday here, i am providing the prompts early, so you can work on them and post them when it's Wednesday where you are.
This week’s prompts are:
elegant
limited
spontaneous
bother
list
pin
and/or the following phrases
don’t count your chickens before they hatch (meaning do not rely on something you are not sure of)
par for the course (meaning what you would expect to happen)
a piece of cake (meaning a task which is easy to accomplish)
Charlotte's colour of the month is Sea Green.
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Today is:
Act of Self Determination Day -- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Easter Tuesday -- TAS, Australia; Cyprus; Nauru
Genocide Memorial Day -- Rwanda
Goddess Karna's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (goddess of crying and wailing)
International Beaver Day -- celebrating the species that restores valuable wetlands
International Snailpaper Day -- relax today with a hard copy of a regular, old-fashioned newspaper
Metric System Day -- officially adopted in France on this day in 1795
Motherhood and Beauty Day -- Armenia (day the Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated the Annunciation; it is the only Church to celebrate it on this day, which is also observed as Mother's Day in this country)
National Beer Day -- US (unofficial, the celebration of the end of Prohibition)
National Coffee Cake Day
National Health Day -- Kiribati
No Housework Day/Let Someone Else Clean Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, enjoy this one!
Pandia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a festival of Zeus; date approximate)
Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume Day -- Tanzania
Southland Provincial Anniversary Day -- Southland, NZ
St. John Baptist de La Salle's Day (Patron of educators, school principals, teachers)
Women's Day -- Mozambique
World Health Day -- UN
Anniversaries Today:
World Health Organization is founded, 1948
Prague University is chartered by Charles IV, the first university in central Europe, 1348
Birthdays Today:
Russell Crowe, 1964
Anthony Drew "Tony" Dorsett, 1954
Jackie Chan, 1954
Janis Ian, 1951
John Oates, 1948
Gerhard Schroeder, 1944
Francis Coppola, 1939
David Frost, 1939
William Hodding Carter III, 1935
Wayne Rogers, 1933
Daniel Ellsberg, 1931
James Garner, 1928
Ravi Shankar, 1920
Billie Holiday, 1915
Walter Winchell, 1897
Bronislaw Malinowski, 1884
John Joseph McGraw, 1873
David Grandison Fairchild, 1869
W.K. Kellogg, 1860
Walter Camp, 1859
William Ellery Channing, 1780
William Wordsworth, 1770
St. Francis Xavier, 1506
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"South Pacific"(Musical), 1949
"Monsieur Beaucaire"(Operetta), 1919
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major,"Eroica"(Beethoven Op. 55), 1805
Today in History:
Attila's Huns plunder Metz, in northern France, 451
Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I issues the first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the basis for much civil law even today, 529
A crowd in Florence, Italy, storms the Convent of San Marco, demanding Fra Savonarola be turned over as they rebelled against his Bonfires of the Vanities and interference with trade, 1498
Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu, 1521
Michael Cardozo becomes the first Jewish lawyer in Brazil, 1645
American pioneers found Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent settlement of the new Northwest Territory, 1788
France adopts the meter as the standard measure of length, 1795
The Mississippi Territory is established, 1798
English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches, 1827
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician, 1868
Nebraska establishes an 8 hour work day, 1891
Texas Oil Company (Texaco) is formed, 1902
An eruption of Mt. Vesuvius devastates Naples, 1906
Dr. K. Winfield Ney performs the first brain tumor operation under a local anesthesia, at Beth Israel Hospital, 1923
Using phone lines, the first long distance television image is sent, of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, from Washington, D.C. to NYC, 1927
Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American depicted on a postage stamp in the US, 1940
Syria is officially recognized as independent from France, 1946
Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, 1954
Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco, 1956
IBM announces the System/360, 1964
The publication of RFC1 marks the symbolic birth of the Internet, 1969
Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter, 1978
During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk, 1983
Mars Odyssey is launched, 2001
Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent, 2009
Following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi, 2012
The longest python ever documented is found on Penang in Malaysia (26ft/8m), 2016
Action Comics #1, which introduced Superman, sells at auction for a record price of $3.25 million (USD), 2021
Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first black woman to be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, 2022
British charity fundraiser Russ Cook, nicknamed the "Hardest Geezer," completes his Project Africa charity run of the length of Africa, arriving at Ras Angela, Tunisia, almost a year after setting off from Cape Agulhas, South Africa, 2024
