Tag Archive for Day

Dog-Day Afternon and All Day

On this National Dog Day (AKA International Dog Day and National Dog Appreciation Day) I celebrate my dog, Riley.  Here she’s pictured resting up after going to the polls to drop off our family’s ballots last election (notice the “I Voted” sticker on her forehead).

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Dogs do a lot for us mere humans, from helping people with disabilities, to guarding our homes (except when resting up from voting), to giving unconditional love, to (for you older TV fans) saving Jimmy from the well…again. It’s right to have a day to honor them.

So, thank you, Riley, and all your canine predecessors in my life.

 

 

 

A Reason to Party Today

Another ho-hum Friday?  I think not!  Celebrate the day!  If you can’t think of anything to celebrate, here are five “Days” you can grab hold of, all of which are set for today, Aug. 15.  For a full explanation of any, use the link to go to the appropriate website.

Chauvin Day (Napolean’s follower and source of “chauvinism”): http://every-day-is-special.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-15-2012-chauvin-day.html

Best Friends Day (Frederick News Post): http://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/best-friends-day-august/article_03e46574-1bcb-5bfd-9cf9-30b5f2c7c4e2.html?mode=story 

Check the Chip Day (Those implanted in our pets): https://www.avma.org/Events/pethealth/Pages/Check-the-Chip-Day.aspx

National Relaxation Dayhttp://nationaldaycalendar.com/2014/08/15/august-15-2014-national-relaxation-day-national-lemon-meringue-pie-day/

[My favorite] Men’s Grooming Day: http://www.dates.abouttravelingtheworld.com/special-holidays/grooming-day/

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Interesting D-Day Facts

D-Day was the largest-scale over-water attack in the world’s history.  Today is its 70th anniversary.  Read other interesting facts about this historical event by going to an article in the Constitution Daily.

 

 

A Remembrance for Today

A few years ago I experienced the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii.  The visit began with a film showing the horrors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  My eyes blurred with tears.  Then there was the choppy boat trip to the monument, a short distance from other coffin-ships which suffered the same fate as the Arizona.  So many names filled the wall behind the altar-like steps, and the hush of the crowd echoed the silent voices trapped deep beneath us.  Little was said on the trip back to land, but one absurd, disturbing comment shocked me into  realizing that we’ve learned so little since then: “At least we got even when we hit Hiroshima.”

This Veterans Day I’m thinking the Canadians are right to call it “Remembrance Day.”  It’s important to remember and honor our veterans, those who fought for our way of life.  It’s even more important to remember that, as a human family, we should work toward a time when the reason for such occasions, and comments like that woman’s, are only adistant bad memory.

Hug a veteran, and pray for peace.

 

 

Don’t Be a Drug-Hoarder

Stop accumulating those drugs!  Today is National Drug Take-Back Day.  Gather all your left-over prescriptions, drugs that you don’t need, and ones that are outdated (no needles/injectable pens, aerosols, or liquids). Take them to a local collection site to be disposed of properly.  Call your local police department to find a location.

Medications don’t have to be in their original containers.  Also, you just drop them off–no questions about who you are or where you got them.

This cleans out your medicine cabinet, safeguards young children in your family, and prevents the drugs from pollution and poisoning, which happens when drugs are flushed down the toilet or tossed into the garbage.

Do this as soon as you read this, because collections are only from 10:00 am to 2 pm today.

And mark your calendar for this day next year.

 

 

How About “Earth Month”?

April is a very earthy month, with Earth Day (today) and National Arbor Day (Friday the 25th).  PLUS, we’re in the midst of the season of renewed life, Easter.  It’s a marvelous time to think about what we can do for our home, the Earth.  No room in your yard for another tree?  In my area we have Our City Forest—you probably have such an organization in your area, too.  Sign up with them to help with planting projects in your city.  Stroll along the banks of a local river, lake, or pond, carrying tools to pick up trash.  Spend time around your home, building a birdhouse, creating a habitat in that unused corner of the yard, or planting non-thirsty plants.  Take your family to an Earth Day event, or follow up on an eco-activity you learned at one.  This month, begin a new habit: at least once a day get out of the house and smell the roses and the fresh air, listen to birdsongs, feel cool clean lake water on your toes, bite into a mouth-pleasing, messy orange, watch cloud-swans glide through clear, blue skies.  Then, determine to keep all these available for future generations.

 

Happy Happy Day–How to Spend It

A hint about how to spend the U.N. International Day of Happiness (today):

 

 

Let’s Create a Fitting Memorial

 

On this day, I pause to remember the men and women who died fighting America’s wars, including all those “wars,” “police actions,” “peace-keeping missions,” or whatever.  Their goal was to liberate different parts of the world from tyrants and regimes that treated people like insignificant, disposable, unworthy, non-humans.  This was their contribution to upholding the dignity of man and working toward peace.

A fitting memorial to these people would be to carry on their mission. Not by running off to a far-away land and fighting, but by living our daily lives as though those around us and those foreign to us both near and far, those with different skin colors, religions, socio-economic status–everyone–were human beings made in the image of God.  Such a peaceful, tolerant attitude must start with us individually, in our homes, schools, and workplaces and spread to our cities, states, nation, and, ultimately, the world.  Maybe such a global attitude will prevent tyrants and hate-groups from getting a foothold.

I know this is idealistic, but so were all those who died fighting our battles.  Carrying on their idealism is an appropriate way to honor them.  Even if we succeed only in making a more peaceful, tolerant piece of the world in our own lives, that, too, is a fit memorial to them.  Today is an excellent day to begin!

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Why God Made Moms

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

 

Why did God make mothers?                                                                                        1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.                                                       2. Mostly to clean the house.                                                                                        3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

 

How did God make mothers?                                                                                        1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.                                                                           2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.                                                                3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

 

What ingredients are mothers made of?                                                                              1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world — and one dab of mean.                                                                                     2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

 

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?                                1. We’re related.                                                                                                              2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s mom like me.

 

What kind of a little girl was your mom?                                                                                 1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.                                2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.          3. They say she used to be nice.

 

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?                               1. His last name.                                                                                                              2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?                                                                                                   3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

 

Why did your mom marry your dad?                                                                           1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.               2. She got too old to do anything else with him.                                                         3. My grandma says that mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.

 

Who’s the boss at your house?                                                                                       1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.        2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.             3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

 

What’s the difference between moms and dads?                                                          1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.                   2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.                                                3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.                                                          4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

 

What does your mom do in her spare time?                                                               1. Mothers don’t do spare time.                                                                                               2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

 

What would it take to make your mom perfect?                                                         1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.                                                                                                          2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.

 

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?                                1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.     2. I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.                                                                                                                            3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

 

[Thanks to my friend Linda Younts for sending me this. Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms and women who have been like a mother to someone.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughtful Thursday: Day, Evil, & Civilization

“To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.”  —  Dorothy Day

[Talk about a whole lot to think about in one short sentence! Read it several times and you’ll get more and more to chew on.]