It is Sunday, June 21 and there are only 187 days until Christmas.  Start shopping now, but leave yourself notes so that you remember what you bought, who you bought it for and where you hid it.  Today we remember the birthdays of Martha Washington, John- Paul Sartre and Prince William of Wales.  On this day in 1607 the first Protestant Episcopal parish in America was established, in Jamestown, in 1893 the first Ferris wheel premiered at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition and in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that it is okay to burn the US flag as a political expression.  In Hong Kong and Taiwan it is the Dragon Boat Festival, it is Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Father’s Day in the US.

I don’t want to repeat too much information regarding Father’s Day, but I did want to give it some recognition.  Father's Day started in the early 20th century in the United States to celebrate fatherhood and to complement Mother's Day. It was first celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA by Sonora Smart Dodd. She heard about Mother's Day in 1909 and told her pastor she thought fathers should have a similar holiday. Her father raised six children as a single parent. The local clergymen agreed with the idea and the first Father's Day sermon was given on June 19, 1910. 

Father's Day is a time to recognize fathers and father figures who have influenced a person's life. It is celebrated through cards, dining out, gifts such as electronic gadgets, sports attire, household tools or time spent together.  You can keep the sports attire, dining out and household tools, but I will gladly take one of each of the remaining ideas.  No pressure on my family, you understand.  Besides, by now I hope they have already shopped.  There are a couple tidbits for the Father’s Day file.

We were traveling to the house we are purchasing for the house inspection the other morning when we ran into a traffic delay that went on for at least six miles.  There had been an accident and we saw the two cars involved.  They were a mess.  I noticed two things of interest as a result of the accident.  As I said, the cars involved were both wrecked.  It was apparent that the accident was caused by speeding and careless driving.  However, once we got passed the scene, most of the cars took off at speeds far in excess of the limit, I guess to make up for the time lost sitting in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Apparently they did not learn anything from the two smashed cars and the ambulance at the scene.  It must be nice to be so oblivious.

The other thing I observed is that accidents draw state police cars like moths to a flame.  There had to be six or seven cruisers at the scene.  There was also a DOT Service truck on site.  The official cars all had their lights going and they were spread out all over the median.  The DOT truck was in the road with an arrow flashing to push the cars over one lane.  The two cars from the accident had already been loaded onto a flat bed and were off the road, so they were no longer an issue.  I can only surmise that the cars were being pushed over to keep the traffic moving slowly and to keep them from hitting all the police cars.

I wonder if anyone in charge realizes that if all these cars were on the road patrolling, there would be less chance of accidents like that happening.  Don’t misunderstand me.  I realize that people, generally, drive like idiots.  They are not paying attention to where they are going or what is ahead of them.  The new cars are designed so that drivers don’t have to pay attention.  They alert you if there is a car coming next to you, if there is something behind you and will even put on the brakes for you if there is a vehicle ahead of you that, for some reason, you did not notice.  This leaves you free to text, put on makeup, finish getting dressed, or any of the other chores you need to deal with.  Also, far too many people mistake cruise control for auto pilot.

Having said that, it still does not absolve the state police from doing their job.  I have noticed, recently, that our state has spent a considerable amount of money building several new State Police barracks.  Each of those facilities has a parking lot full of new cruisers and SUV’s.  Unfortunately, they did not allow enough money in the budget to hire people to drive those vehicles.  Either that or the people they hired do not know how to drive.  Too bad, but all the vehicles will look good in the publicity photos taken to announce the new facilities.

Recently my older grandson and I had a discussion regarding the English language.  He and I both agree that we do not know how people learn to speak English.  The chat was started when we walked by a restaurant that had a sign stating that Patio Dining was now available.  He saw the sign and said, “Look, pay-she-o dining is available.”  He went on to say that if r-a-t-i-o is pronounced ray-she-o then his pronunciation  of patio is correct; or, ratio should be pronounced rat- ee-o.  I agreed and we talked about a number of different problems with the language.  We discussed homonyms and felt that they were a problem.  I gave the example, “Two times are too many trips to a store.”  Someone learning the language would not be sure which to (two, too) to use. 

We also discussed how a word pronunciation changes when a letter is added.  I pointed out one of my favorites – laughter (laff-ter) becomes slaughter (slaw-ter) just by adding the “s” at the beginning.  Why?  It is difficult to learn a language with so many different rules.  Things like “i before e  except after c.”  What is that all about?  What makes the letter “c” so important that it changes the standard rule?  As I said to him, “You iether know the language or you don’t.  It is all two confusing for me too explain.” 

This week our fact tell us that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.  So how do you make a hormone?  Don’t pay her (ba-dum- bum).  Come on, laugh.  You know you want to.  It’s an oldie but a goodie and will lower the level of your stress hormones.

To all for which the greeting is appropriate – Happy Father’s Day!