Friday the 13th, 2nd ed.

This entry comes to blogspot.com from a post on a different blog (also mine) that has long since gone by the wayside. I don't post there anymore, but I thought this particular musing was appropriate, since my last post here was a rant on the negative "luck" I experienced in 2008.

February 2009 brings us yet another Friday the 13th, as does March and November. There was only one Friday the 13th in 2008 - it occurred in June. There will be only one Friday the 13th in 2010 and 2011, and it will occur in August and May, respectively.

Depending on the superstition, the day may be considered "lucky" or "unlucky." The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, estimates 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day. In Scandinavia, Friday the 13th was at one point considered the luckiest day of the year. (Thank you for the info, Wikipedia.)

Some arm themselves with protective amulets for this particular day. Perhaps carrying a lucky coin or a four-leafed clover. Personally, I think the 13th is as good as any other day.

My mom was born on the 13th day of November. Sometimes her birthday falls on a Friday. I'd say the simple fact that she was born makes me pretty lucky. Having her born on the 13th just makes it better.

What's so scary about the 13th anyway? Just because some Hollywood moviemakers decided to put together some adrenaline-pumping entertainment and call it "Friday the 13th" (2, 3, 4-ever), doesn't make the day bad. In fact, the date has done so well for that franchise, they plan to release a remake of the original Friday the 12th movie on February 13, 2009.

Here are some historic 13th's - whether or not the day happened to be Friday, well, my research didn't go that far...:

Januray 13, 1930: The comic strip "Mickey Mouse" made its debut in American newspapers.

February 13, 1966: The Rolling Stones appear for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show.

March 13, 1881: Alexander II, emperor of Russia, is assassinated by a bomb thrown into his carriage by a member of a revolutionary group, the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will). (Ok, so this wasn't so good for Alexander II, but then again, he probably wasn't carrying his four-leafed clover that day, either.)

April 13, 1964: Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American actor to win an Academy Award, for his performance in Lilies of the Field.

May 13, 1918: The first U.S. airmail stamps, with a picture of an airplane and costing 24 cents, are introduced.

June 13, 1983: U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 passes Neptune, becoming the first human-made object to leave the solar system.

July 13, 1865: Edward Whymper, an English artist and pioneering mountaineer, becomes the first person to climb the Matterhorn, in the Alps. On the descent, four of his companions fall to their deaths. (Ok, It wasn't so easy finding good things that happened the 13th of July...)

August 13, 1942: Bambi, Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, opens at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

September 13, 1916, Roald Dahl was born. He is the author of children's classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

October 13, 1792: In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the White House is laid.

November 13: My mom was born, and (quite a few years later) my second cousin Abigail was born.

December 13, 1642: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovers New Zealand. (Was it uninhabited at the time? Seems like the folks who lived there might have had an idea it existed. I'm thinking they didn't call it New Zealand, though.)

Thought for the day:
Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun.

Goodbye, 2008! (Don't let the door hit you)

I wave goodbye to 2008, and embrace 2009 with hope and high expectations. Touching briefly on the low points, my job of 14 years at the newspaper was eliminated in October, 2007. Now I work for our local cable company as a clerk. I still get to write advertising copy and do some of the other things I really enjoy, but essentially I was knocked down to the bottom again and have to work my way back up. I'm grateful to have a job, but I'm still a little bitter. Bruce was laid off in August. That hasn't been horrible so far, because he has been doing contract work for them. Unfortunately, the plant is closing December 24, and nobody knows how long it will stay closed. That's a little scary, but nothing as scary as what happened in October. Bruce hadn't been feeling well, and was off work. He called me because the carbon monoxide alarm was going off. He checked the battery (which was fine), and noticed he could smell natural gas. I came home from work, and we called the gas company. The gas company man came out, and his electronic gas sniffer registered levels of carbon monoxide and natural gas that were too high to be normal. He couldn't find a problem, and asked me to open the basement door. (Our basement door is like a trap door in the floor.) I did, and saw there was 8-10" of water standing on the basement floor. "Please don't tell my husband," I said to the man. Unfortunately, a pipe had burst over our water heater, filled up the basement with water and ruined the water heater. This issue, of course, required informing the husband. We had to replace the water heater. Yeah. A couple weeks later, it got chilly outside and we turned on the heat. Rather, we turned on the furnace. There was no heat. The water had gotten into the furnace, so we had to replace it, too. While all this was going on, Bruce still wasn't feeling well, and hadn't been feeling well for about six weeks. He went to the doctor several times, but the morning of October 19 he couldn't breathe. We went to the emergency room, and a chest x-ray showed a nasty case of pneumonia and a CT scan showed he had blood clots in his lungs. He couldn't breathe because he was suffering a pulmonary embolism. I was very fortunate to be able to bring him home October 29. He's much better now, and I am grateful every day to have him with me.
Bruce had been home for a couple days, and was feeling better. He had just done the dishes (Yes he does that horrible chore for me. Envy me. He's awesome.) We were both standing in the kitchen and heard a horrible noise. A joint in the hot water pipe under the sink had blown out. We opened the cabinet door under the sink and water sprayed everywhere. Naturally, it was just below the shutoff for the sink, so we had to shut the water off for the whole house for a day, until our angels of mercy, Bruce's sister Diana and her husband S.W. came to St. Joseph from Warrensburg to rescue us. S.W. is a plumber and fixed the problem (he's awesome, too).
As bad as the last part of 2008 has been, we made it through with the help of our amazing families. I'm pretty sure we couldn't have faced all of that without divine intervention, plus Mom and Dad, Judy, Diana and S.W., and many others.
There. I've said it. The past year has been really hard. I appreciate the lessons learned, but it can't be over soon enough for me.
Goodbye, 2008! Hello, bright 2009!