National Dog Day

 Today is National Pippen Dog Day!

This day is set aside to encourage dog ownership of all breeds.  Dogs should live a happy, safe and abuse free life.  Dogs offer companionship, keep us safe and offer aid to those in need.  Like other dog holidays, finding homes for dogs is the goal.  The main purpose for this day is to help rescue dogs (mixed breeds) find their forever home.  

How to celebrate?  

Take your dog for a walk.

If you don't have a dog, ask to walk the neighbor's dog.

Adopt a dog from a shelter.

Volunteer at your local animal shelter.

Pippen is a rescue dog.  Half human and half dog.  We aren't sure of his background but love him anyway.  Well, I love him.  I can't speak for the other people in our house.  

Now that the weather has cooled off a bit, I plan on taking the child Pippen for a nice walk and giving him some extra treats.

That Neighbor

 I walk or ride my bike daily.  There are a few neighbors who walk the trails daily as well.  

One of my neighbors walks two of his dogs several times a day.  I bump into him every once in a while.  The other day, I realized that he is the neighborhood informant.  He knows just about everything going on in our area.  He's a talker, so, he stops and talks to everyone on the trail.  If he sees you in your yard, he will stop and say hello.  During this stop and chat he passes along updates on the neighbors in the area.  Surgeries, vacations, if someone is moving, deaths.  With every conversation he gets information on how you and your family are doing, which I'm sure he passes along to others in the neighborhood.  

This walking path meet up he told me about a neighbor who is moving, another neighbor's dog is not doing well and a neighbor who suddenly passed away.  

Some people go online or watch television for the news, I just go and take a walk.

National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day

 I didn't even know this was a holiday!  All those years I was growing zucchini in my garden and didn't know what to do with all the extras!

If you have planted zucchini in your garden, you know how quickly the ripen.  You also know that you don't just get one or two of them.  It's nice to give them to friends and neighbors, but, after awhile, they know you have zucchini and stop answering your calls/texts.  

So, how to celebrate this holiday?

You have to wait until the dead of night, grab some bags filled with zucchini and quietly place them on your neighbors front porch.  Almost like a ding dong ditch, except, you don't ring the doorbell.  

If you have a huge crop of vegetables from your garden, remember you can always bring it to your local food pantry.  They will be very happy to see you.

National Underwear Day

I see London

I see France

I see someone's underpants!

Today is a day to celebrate your favorite undergarment!

Boxers

Briefs

Panties

Underwear

Thongs

Tighty Whities

"Make sure you wear clean underwear, incase you are in an accident'"

How to celebrate #NationalUnderwearDay:

watch Bob Seger's, "Old Time Rock and Roll" video

clean our your underwear drawer

buy some new underwear

tell some clean underwear jokes 

I'll leave you with some clean underwear jokes:

"Your underwear is too tight and revealing" I said to my wife.

She said, "Wear your own, then."

What do you call a mortician that steals underwear?

An undie taker.

For a second I couldn't decide what underwear to buy.  

It was a moment of brief indecision.

The best underwear jokes...

are brief.

How will you celebrate today?

Retail Problems

 Another day, another customer story.

Normally I post about the weird scary crazy customers that I encounter at work.  Today I thought I would do something a little different.

A customer came in to do some Amazon returns (that alone can be a whole discussion).  He had his wife's phone because she was in the hospital.  He had no idea how to work the phone or how to do the returns.  He's probably in his late 70's and has no idea how to work an Iphone.  I stepped in and took over the phone and went through all of the steps for the returns for each item.  As I'm finishing up, he tells me he is very grateful for my help with the phone and the returns.  He goes on to tell me that his wife is in the hospital and that he almost lost her.  I told him that it was no problem, that I was happy to help and wished his wife a speedy recovery.

Moral of the story:  Not all customer encounters are scary.

National Grab Some Nuts Day

Yea, let's see what kind of traffic that title brings to my blog.

Believe it or not, this is an actual "holiday," celebrating the health benefits of nuts.  Toss them into salads or oatmeal, add them to your baked goods or just grab a handful for a healthy snack.  

A few things I learned along the way:

Almonds and cashews are not nuts.  The almond is considered a stone fruit and the cashew is a seed.

Nuts are a great source of plant based protein, fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin E, selenium and copper). 

How to observe #NationalGrabSomeNutsDay

Grab a handful of your favorite nuts to snack on.

Fire up the oven and add some nuts to your baked sweet treats 

Toss some into your salad or a stir fry

And don't forget to post about it on social media.*

*I'm trusting you on this one.  I'm not bailing you out of social media jail.

Gasoline

 When I started driving, my parents were pretty good about lending me their car.  They trusted my driving skills.  There was only one stipulation:  I had to fill up the gas tank before I came home with the car.

Now that seems like a real easy thing to do after joy riding in their car.  Stop at the gas station and fill 'er up.  If I'm putting miles on the car, then I should be responsible to replace the fuel in the tank.  But, the majority of the time I was just driving a couple of blocks to a friend's house.  The rule was you had to fill up the tank.  And, if you got the car and it was on empty, well, there goes your money.

When my children use my car, I find they "forget" to put gas in it.  Or, they "didn't notice that the car needed gas."  Even better, "I'll put gas in it next time."  Next time never happens. 

I have taken matters into my own hands and started leaving my car close to empty, forcing whoever uses it to put some gas into the tank.  So far, my car is either filled up or the person decides to take RT's car.*

*I learned this tactic from RT.  If you keep the car on empty, no one wants to borrow your car.