Day: October 10, 2018

Solitary Man

Fandango8 Comments

Today’s Daily Addictions one-word prompt is “solitary.” When I saw that prompt, I knew that I would do what I’m about to do, and that is to post one of my favorite songs by Neil Diamond.

I didn’t get married until I was 32 because I wanted to wait until I could find me a girl who’d stay and wouldn’t play games behind me. Until I did, I would stay what I was: a solitary man. And then I met the future Mrs. Fandango.

So many prompts, so little time

I wasn’t able to get around to writing a post today that used all of the other daily prompts, including my own, “parking.” Hopefully I’ll get back on track tomorrow.

MLMM Photo Challenge — The Ugly Reality

Fandango14 Comments

E44E6FAD-2C57-4B60-B142-B735C4F0D11D“Oh my God, Samantha,” Eric said. “Your Halloween costume is amazing.”

“Thanks, Eric,” Samantha said. “I’m so glad you like it.”

“How long did it take you to put on that makeup? And how did you get your eyes to look that way?” Eric asked.

“To be honest with you, Eric,” Samantha said, “I didn’t put on this makeup. I took off the makeup I usually wear.”

“I don’t understand what you mean, Sam,” Eric said.

“It’s really quite simple, Eric,” Samantha said. “This, what you see, is who I really am. We are all phantoms who put on a totally different face for all the world to see. We all put on our masks so that others can see us as we want them to see us. None of us is, deep down inside, who we appear to be.”

“That’s not true, Samantha, Eric said. “I’m a what you see is what you get kind of a guy. Now please stop this nonsense. You’re kinda freaking me out here.”

“Oh, Eric, are you really that naive?” Samantha asked. “Do you actually think you’re the person inside that you try so hard to get others to see?”

“Yes, of course,” Eric said. “I am who I am, nothing more, nothing less.”

Samantha reached out and grabbed Eric’s hand and led him inside the house to a large mirror in her bedroom. “Take a hard look in the mirror and tell me what you see,” she commanded.

“What the hell are you talking about, Sam?” Eric asked. “I see my reflection.”

“Close your eyes and open up to your true soul,” Samantha commanded. Eric felt a strange sensation overwhelm his body. “Now open your eyes,” she said, “and see who you really are under your mask.”

Eric slowly opened his eyes, looked in the mirror, and began to scream.29E4B2C2-0176-424C-903C-DFC75FE58224

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Top photo credit: Kaia Pieters. Bottom photo credit: Google Images.

100WW — Fury

Fandango12 Comments

7C46E17C-34FA-4185-9BCE-94D2FAC75D4DLet’s take the boat out into the middle of the lake,” Christine suggested. Then, with a wink, she added, “And we can go skinny dipping.”

Brett started up the powerboat’s motor and headed toward the lake’s center. He shut down the motor, dropped the anchor, and eagerly stripped out of his clothes. But before jumping into the water, he admitted, “I don’t know how to swim.”

“Go ahead and jump in,” Christine said. “I’ll toss you the life preserver.”

As Brett thrashed about and was about to go down for the third time, Christine shouted, “Hell hath no fury, Brett.”

(100 words)

Written for Bikurgurl’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt. Photo credit: Alex Iby.

Happy Thirteenth Anniversary

Fandango28 Comments

No, it’s not my thirteenth wedding anniversary. I’ve been married for way more than 13 years. But it was exactly thirteen years ago today, on October 10, 2005, when I published my very first post on my very first blog.

It was on Blogger or Blogspot, which may be the same thing (I think my URL had a “blogspot.com” domain name), but it (or they) are now part of the Google family, which they weren’t at the time I started that blog.

Anyway, I named my first blog “They Took an X-Ray of My Head and Found Nothing.” It was based on something Dizzy Dean, a professional baseball pitcher in the 1930s, said. In game four of the 1934 World Series, Dean attempted to break up a double play on a ground ball. The second baseman’s throw ended up hitting Dean in the head, knocking him unconscious. Dean’s x-ray at the hospital came back negative, and Dean was quoted as saying, “The doctors x-rayed my head and found nothing.”

But I digress. The tagline of my blog was “All the news, views, and commentary that I think are important…to me, anyway, because, after all, it’s all about me!” Hmm. Not much has changed in 13 years, has it?

My first post was a whiny lament about how the second basement for the Boston Red Sox made an error that cost the Red Sox the game. And it was a playoff game, too! I used to blog about sports a lot back then because politics at the time was, you know, boring. Oh how I wish that were still the case.

My “X-Ray” blog was up and running for more than three years, until December 6, 2008. It was replaced a month later, on January 6, 2009, with my second blog, which only lasted until June 9, 2009. For my third blog, which I started a month later, on July 6, 2009, I moved it from Blogger to TypePad. Then, in July of 2013, I started blog number four on WordPress.

For personal reasons, in mid-April of 2015, I took a two-year hiatus from blogging. Until May of 2017, when I started this blog, blog number five (hence, “Fivedotoh”). I realized that I couldn’t stay quiet with Donald Trump as POTUS and with all of the chaos he was creating and the damage he was doing.

I also decided that, in order to maintain my own mental health, I would dabble in flash fiction to serve as a distraction from the insanity in Washington.

And here we are, thirteen years later. So happy thirteenth blogging anniversary to me. Thank you for sharing this auspicious anniversary with me.

One-Liner Wednesday — That Never Occurred To Me

Fandango19 Comments

0862ADFE-62D2-4AA2-A290-3BA2B17D73B8

“One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.”

Economist Thomas Schelling

Think about it. It makes perfect sense.

It also makes me wonder about those who are strict constitutional constructionists, who believe that a judge should apply the text within the United States Constitution only and precisely as it was written in 1787, when there were 13 states and the population of the mostly rural country was around four million people.

I wonder if it ever occurs to those who favor strict constructionism that maybe, just maybe, not everything that exists in 2018 — a country with 50 states and 325 million people living in a global economy with technologies and challenges unimaginable 231 years ago — occurred to our country’s Founding Fathers when they drafted the Constitution.

What do you think?

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