Day: April 11, 2018

#100WW — Jurassic Park

Fandango10 Comments

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“Are you sure we can be here all by ourselves” Betsy asked her big sister, Eileen.

“Of course we can,” Eileen reassured Betsy. “It’s just a tropical forest.”

“This place reminds me of that movie about the dinosaur island,” Betsy said.”There may be dinosaurs here.”

“You mean Jurassic Park?” Eileen asked. “That was just a movie. Those dinosaurs weren’t real.”

“Are you sure? I think I hear something coming toward us,” Betsy said, looking around frantically.

“Shh,” Eileen said. “I hear something, too.”

“Run!” shouted Betsy when she saw the large, green eyes staring at them through the palm leaves.

(100 words)

Written for this week’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt from Bikurgurl.

WPC — Orchid Awakening

Fandango7 Comments

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, we’ve been task with showing, in the spirit of rebirth in the spring season, an image of an awakening.

Where I live (San Francisco, CA), we don’t really have a old, snowy, freezing winters, so many plants (and other living things) continue to grow and bloom year round.

My wife loves orchids and we have a bunch growing in our garden and five or six potted orchids inside our home. During most of the year, some of them are in bloom. Right now, though, there’s only one that seems to be “awakening.” And so I decided to take this picture (with my iPhone 8 Plus) of the new buds that my wife assures me will be opening up over the coming few days.

No Froth On My Beer, Please

Fandango8 Comments

Mike Baker was the best bartender ever.

He worked at a joint called Fricky’s in Washington, DC. When I was going to graduate school at night while working full-time during the day, I’d head over to Fricky’s for a cold one after my last class of the night.

Mike worked nights and he was always behind the bar when I got there. As soon as he saw me walk into the place, he’d head to the tap and expertly draw me a draught beer. But what made Mike special was the way he’d hold the mug under the tap at just the right angle to minimize the froth that typically bubbled up to the top of the liquid gold.

The very first time I went to Fricky’s and asked for a draught beer, the bartender served me up one that had three inches of froth on top. I told the bartender that I didn’t like froth on my beer. I had a mustache at the time and hated when it got coated by beer froth.

The bartender looked at me like I was crazy, and just when I was ready to lay into him, Mike, the other bartender, saved the day. He came over, removed the froth-covered beer that the other bartender had placed in front of me, and set down a frothless beer in its place.

Then this rotund bartender with the extravagant handlebar mustache smiled and winked at me and I knew that I had found my new home away from home.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “froth.”

One-Liner Wednesday

Fandango6 Comments

“My get up and go must’ve got up and went.”

This line came right out of the Aerosmith song, “Sweet Emotion,” written by Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton.

My post today, though, has absolutely nothing to do with that Aerosmith song. It has to do with those days when you wake up in the morning and just don’t seem to have the energy to get up and face the day. You just feel depleted and like your battery needs charging.

You’ve had days like that, right?

Fortunately, those days are kinda rare for me, even at my ripe old age. I am generally a rise and shine kinda guy. When I wake up each morning, I usually have a lot of get up and go.

But every once in a while, I feel as if my get up go must’ve got up and went. Today seems to be one of those days. That said, I’ll just have to drag myself out of bed and get myself going.

I can’t wait to take a nap later today.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.

J is for Juggling

Fandango12 Comments

I’ve spent most of my life juggling stuff. I don’t mean literally juggling objects, as in throwing three or more plates, bowling pins, or flaming batons up into the air and catching them. I mean juggling everyday activities of daily living like school, sports, work, family, social life, reading, writing, and the like.

I had to work my way through college. So for most of the time during my undergraduate school, I was working at least part-time and going to school full-time. Once I got into graduate school, my time was spent working a full-time job during the day and going to classes at nights and on weekends. And for my own sanity and well being, I also tried to squeeze in some kind of social life.

After I got married and had kids, I found myself juggling my time between my job, my wife, and my kids. After my kids grew up and moved out of the house, I was still doing that delicate balancing act between keeping my wife happy and my boss happy.

(Actually, upon review, that last sentence seems kinda kinky. What I meant was keeping my wife happy with respect to my duties as her husband and my boss happy with respect to my job duties. There was funny business going on at work.)

And now that I’m retired and have taken up blogging, it’s a matter of juggling my waking hours between spending quality time with my wife, walking our dog, reading books, watching TV, and writing and reading blog posts.

I suppose that juggling is something that all of us do most of our lives and will continue to do until that inevitable time when there is no longer a need to juggle.