Day: September 18, 2019

FFfPP — The Antiques Fair

Fandango11 Comments

7B230036-852B-434F-B059-0BFD15FC962CI hate going to antique fairs. Why? Because there are so many booths and I can’t tell the good stuff from the crap. And because my wife likes to browse, and if she sees something she wants, she makes me buy it, whether we need it or not.

But my wife and I just bought a 100-year-old craftsman-style home in Connecticut and she wants to fill it with period pieces. Of course she does. So when she said that she wanted us to go to the annual antiques fair, what choice did I have?

I told her we had to limit our purchases to a specific list of items and not just buy things willy-nilly. “So what’s on your list?” I asked her.

“We need a bed and a lamp for the guest room,” she said.

“Okay,” I said. “A bed and a lamp. That’s it, right?”

“Yes sir,” she said, and gave me a mock salute.

By midday we had the items on her list. I was feeling good until my wife dragged me to a tent and insisted we make one more purchase.

When we left the fair, we had a bed, a lamp, and a new cat.

(200 words)

Written for Roger Shipp’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner. Photo: GaborfromHungary at Morguefile.com. Also for the Three Things Challenge from Di at Pensitivity101, where the three things are “bed,” “lamp,” and “cat.”

We Need To Act…Now!

Fandango31 Comments

Note: this video contains graphic content relative to school shootings. The subject matter may be difficult to watch. It was for me. It brought tears to my eyes.

This is not just an ad, this is reality for America’s school children. How can one watch this and not be affected by it?

This must stop!

#writephoto — A New Dawn

Fandango13 Comments

D7D80597-4590-4CF5-B600-A6A36F50150FAfter what seemed like the darkest hour
The sun finally broke through the clouds
Where we used to hide and cower
We could finally shed our heavy shrouds

We thanked the powers that be
That our prayers were finally heard
And now we could very clearly see
That a true miracle had occurred

No doubt it won’t take that long
For the grass to grow and the trees to bud
And in his name we sang our song
Because we knew that we were once again loved

This very un-Fandango-like poem was written for this past week’s Thursday Photo Prompt from Sue Vincent and her inspirational photo.

One-Liner Wednesday — The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

Fandango13 Comments

2A782570-2E3A-45F6-9C39-949A1A93D97D

“When it rains it pours, and right after it pours, the sun always comes out.”

Unknown

I’m trying hard, as Donald Trump rains down his insanity upon us, to be optimistic. I’m trying to believe that once his shitstorm has passed, hopefully no later than shortly after the next presidential election in November 2020, the sun will come out and shine brightly upon us once again.

Yeah, right.

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

Fandango’s Provocative Question #41

Fandango29 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week I came upon a quote from Zadie Smith, an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer.48F9BB42-DD80-4A1C-BEED-1D12CC1DB85EI was originally going to use her quote for my response to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt today, but the more I thought about the quote, I decided that it would be better suited for this week’s provocative question. Here’s her quote:

“The past is always tense, the future perfect.”

I love this quote. It’s a play on words with respect to verb tenses (past tense and future perfect tense). But it’s also more than that, isn’t it?

Our pasts are filled with many moments and memories, both good ones and bad ones. Yet when many of us think about our pasts, we often tend to focus on the negative moments, those times and events that we may regret or where we wish we’d done or said something different.

But our pasts are what made us who we are today and because of what we have learned — hopefully — from our pasts, we have a chance to make our futures better and brighter. And maybe even perfect.

So this week’s question is for you to discuss what you think about Zadie Smith’s quote. Do you believe that the past is always tense, the future perfect?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.