Memorial Day Infographic. Thanks. Wordless Mammal Monday. St. Petersburg. Golden Gate Bridge.

 

For “Mammal Monday”:  Well, Almost Wordless!!

First, a sobering infographic about Memorial Day:

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Did You Lose a Cat?

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On This Day:

St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great, May 27, 1703:

“After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founds the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital.

The reign of Peter, who became sole czar in 1696, was characterized by a series of sweeping military, political, economic, and cultural reforms based on Western European models. Peter the Great, as he became known, led his country into major conflicts with Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden. Russian victories in these wars greatly expanded Peter's empire, and the defeat of Sweden won Russia direct access to the Baltic Sea, a lifelong obsession of the Russian leader. With the founding of St. Petersburg, Russia was now a major European power--politically, culturally, and geographically. In 1721, Peter abandoned the traditional Russian title of czar in favor of the European-influenced title of emperor. Four years later, he died and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine.”

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Golden Gate Bridge opens, May 27, 1937:

“On this day in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco with Marin County, California, officially opens amid citywide celebration.

Named for the narrow strait that marks the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed from January 1933 to May 1937. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, at 4,200 feet. From the beginning, the bridge's location posed challenges for its construction, not least because of its proximity to the mighty San Andreas Fault, which passes from north to south through the San Francisco Bay area. In addition, the tumultuous waters of the strait posed grave dangers for the underwater construction work necessary to build the bridge.  Still, the engineer Joseph Strauss waged a tireless 16-year campaign to convince skeptical city officials and other opponents of the controversial project.

On the bridge's opening day, he triumphantly exclaimed: "The bridge which could not and should not be built, which the War Department would not permit, which the rocky foundation of the pier base would not support, which would have no traffic to justify it, which would ruin the beauty of the Golden Gate, which could not be completed within my costs estimate of $27,165,000, stands before you in all its majestic splendor, in complete refutation of every attack made upon it."

By 6 a.m. on May 27, 18,000 people were lined up on both the San Francisco and Marin sides; in all, some 200,000 showed up that day. At the appointed hour, a foghorn blew and the toll gates opened, releasing the earliest arrivals, who rushed to be the first to cross. Many schools, offices and stores were closed, and the day was designated "Pedestrian Day." The next day, the bridge opened to vehicular traffic. Across the country in the White House, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed the bridge open to the world, and by the end of the day, more than 32,000 vehicles had paid tolls and crossed. According to the official Web site of the Golden Gate Bridge, nearly 2 billion vehicles have crossed the bridge (in both north- and southbound directions) in the 70-plus years of its operation.”

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Yesterday:

Misty and I took our walk down at Jay’s when we went to pick him up.  He is still high, but high on life and the several days of his sobriety.  He says he feels so much better, and the Lord took away the shakes when he prayed for it.   That’s great.

We loaded up the van with a cordless circular saw, big trash can, trash bags, rake, dustpan, tape measure, cold drinks, and drove to the church.

The Men’s Clean-Up team was already there, some were pressure washing the building.  Some were weed-whacking and blowing the parking lot.  Some kids were washing down the new steps and pathway from the church down to the big fenced basketball-volleyball-hopscotch-tennis court, with a water hose.  This congregation does a lot of activities together.

Jay and I just quietly started what we went to do.  Off in one corner by a pine tree, there had been a lot of trash and form lumber left by the contractors who built the new steps.  I picked up all the trash, cans, bottles and plastic, while Jay loaded some of the lumber into the van.  There were a lot of little pieces of wood that they had used to stake the boards, and I piled them into the trash can.  We knew we had to make a second trip to clean it all up.  We came back here and put a lot of it on my burn pile.  Some of the lumber can still be used, so we saved that. 

On the second trip to the church, I raked a lot of the pine needles up into the trash bags held open by the trash can.  And the dustpan?  That’s for holding the pine needles against the rake, to pick them up.  There might be snakey-poos or fire ants, and gloves won’t help then. Even tiny, baby snakes can be poisonous.

Jay loaded the rest of the lumber, and even some big globs of dried cement that had been left there.  One lump was so big that the pastor had to help Jay pick it up.  We put it in the van, as Jay has a use for it.  We left the area nice and clean so a mower won’t get damaged when they cut the grass there now.

Usually, Jay wanted to avoid the afternoon service at Willis Church, as it interfered with his beer time, so that is why he always wanted to go to the Conroe service in the mornings.  But he said that the Willis Church feels like his ‘home church’, now!

We really have to vacuum out the van today!