Today is Sunday, June 12 and there are only 147 until Daylight Savings ends, we fall back and start coming home from work in the dark.  Today we remember the birthdays of Cosmos de Medici, David Rockefeller and Anne Frank.  On this day in 1665 the English renamed New Amsterdam New York after the Dutch pulled out, in 1849 the gas mask was patented by Lewis Haslett and in 1967 the Supreme Court unanimously ended laws against interracial marriages.  In Finland it is Helsinki Day, in the Philippines it is Independence Day, on Turk and Caicos Island it is Constitution Day and in the US it is National Jerky Day and National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.

This coming Tuesday, June 14, is National Flag Day.  The idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the US Flag is believed to have originated in 1885.  BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of the Stars and Stripes) as Flag Birthday!

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York.  On June 14, 1891 the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.

Inspired by three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916.  While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after the proclamation, it was not until August 3, 1949, that President Truman signed an act of congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.  So that should fill the Flag Day useless information folder.

I feel that I should mention that I was feeling rather rebellious the other day, so I had a sandwich and cookies for breakfast.  When I took my shower, I wet my hair, lathered, rinsed and then did not repeat.  The final straw was when I was driving – I got behind a construction vehicle and followed it for about 15 minutes.  I have to confess that I felt like a real renegade.  I will also say that I still have no idea why construction vehicles do not want you to follow them.  Having done it, I can see no reason or benefit to the practice.  I will say that if you are so inclined, go ahead and follow one.  It will help dispel the mystery for you.

I was down visiting Pat the other day and it occurred to me that I had not shared an experience I had a few weeks ago.  I am going to rectify that omission now.  My son has had a shed in his yard since the family moved in.  The shed was not in the best of shape to begin with and over the years it has not improved.  I have often suggested that he get rid of the thing.  It was a good visual definition of the word ramshackle.  Finally a plan was made to take the thing down.  A dumpster was ordered and we planned to take it down on a Saturday morning.

My two grandsons were thrilled and could not wait to start destroying something without getting into trouble.  The day of the tear down, the boys donned work gloves and got ready to get to work.  First, we had to empty the shed.  It turned out that most of the things in it ended up in the dumpster, too.  Finally, the time came to take down the shed.  Each of them had a short-handled sledge hammer to work with and they got busy.  My son and I directed their efforts and they had a ball.  What amazed me was that they worked hard and didn’t complain.  They seemed to enjoy the noise the debris made as we threw it into the dumpster as much as they did destroying the shed.  I felt the need to take a break once or twice and they had a hard time stopping for 10 minutes or so each time.  In a relatively short time, we had everything done but the floor.

I suggested that we flip the floor over so we could dismantle it easily.  My son got on one corner, I got in the middle and the older grandson was next to me.  We lifted the floor up and all of a sudden my grandson said, “Oh (expletive deleted)” and took off.  I have to admit that I have never seen him move that fast before.  I looked down and saw the object of his consternation was a skunk.  It took off running.  Fortunately it ran away from us, even more fortunately, it did not spray as it ran.  I was a mere five feet away from it and would probably still stink if it had.  It ran until it hit the fence around the pool hard enough for us to hear it, bounced off and then turned and kept going.

It left behind a number of recently born babies.  Animal control told us that once we left the area the mother would come and relocate the family.  We quickly finished taking the floor apart.  Surprisingly, the boys had suddenly lost their interest in destruction.  We were away from the area for only a few minutes, when momma came and got the kids.  We don’t know where they went, but we know they are nowhere near the house, so who cares.

This week our fact tells us that during his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair.  As we age the hair becomes more obvious because of its location.  For women it is in the form of dark hairs on the chin.  For men it grows out of their nose, ears and eyebrows.

Now go have some jerky and some peanut butter cookies.  And don’t forget to fly your flag on Tuesday!