Day: June 15, 2020

Cat-astrofe

Fandango29 Comments

So my wife and I are in the midst of a competitive game Rummy 500 when our cat jumped up onto our dining room table and sat down right in the middle of the “playing field.” I went to pick up the cat to remove him from the table, but unbeknownst to me, he extended his claws and caught them on a cloth placemat upon which my iPhone happened to be sitting. DFD5765B-7610-4476-9159-14B7B0DD7B86As I lifted the cat from the table, the placemat to which his claws were attached also lifted, and my iPhone went flying across the room landing hard on the wood floor.

I dropped the cat and reached for my iPhone. I picked it up and carefully examined it. The good news: the screen and body were intact and everything looked copacetic. Phew.

But about an hour later I got an email from my son asking me why I hadn’t responded to his text message or answered the phone when he called. I called him and said I never got a text or call from him. He said that he’d text me again, and when it never showed up, I called him back to say I didn’t get it. Then I told him to call me back, hung up my iPhone, and waited. Nothing!

Anyway, the bottom line — and it’s a weird one — is that everything works on my iPhone, including its ability to make phone calls and to send text messages. Everything, that is, except its ability to receive phone calls and text messages.

Time for a new iPhone, I suppose.

Share Your World — Motivational Flavors

Fandango17 Comments

Share Your WorldMelanie brings us another edition of Share Your World. Today she wants to know our thoughts on motivational speakers, flavors, rustling in the bushes, and climate.

What do you think of professional motivational speakers? Do you think they motivate?

ProSolutions National 2006To me, it’s all a bunch of happy talk bullshit and all it motivates me to do is to vomit in my mouth. But I’m a cynical skeptic, so there’s that.

Do you have a favorite flavor?

A favorite flavor of what? To be honest, since I lost my sense of taste after middle ear surgery at the end of last year, any flavor that I could actually taste would be my favorite flavor.

While out walking, you hear a rustling in some bushes. What do you think of?

Speaking of the middle ear surgery I had late last year, I can no longer hear anything out of my left ear, so if the bushes were on my left, I wouldn’t be able to hear any rustling. If the bushes were on my right side, I’d think, Hey, I actually hear rustling in those bushes. Cool!

What’s your ideal temperature (nature-wise)? Hot, cold, temperate and mild, humid, or bone dry?

One of the things I liked best about living in San Francisco was the climate. It was temperate, rarely getting into the 80s in the summer or down into the 40s in the winter. Year round, typical daytime temperatures ranged from highs in the mid-fifties to the low-seventies. Today’s high in the section of San Francisco that we used to live in will be 66°F. Delightful.

In February we move just 35 miles away to the east side of the San Francisco Bay. In February and March, the low temperatures just before dawn occasionally dipped below freezing. And starting in May, we’ve had around a half-dozen days already where the late afternoon highs reached 100 or more. Today’s high here is projected to be in the upper 80s. Too damn hot!

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #70

Fandango16 Comments

FFFCWelcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.” Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenge bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.

The image below is from Fandango at fivedotoh.com8962495D-87C6-409B-A810-808737FC5FEDFor the visually challenged writer, the image is of passengers in a dining car on a train.

If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.

Thanks to all of you who have participated in these challenges. Your posts have been very creative. Please take a few minutes to read the other responses to this photo challenge.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Slime

Fandango19 Comments

FOWCWelcome to June 15, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “slime.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC 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.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.