Day: July 9, 2020

Thursday Inspiration — Summer

Fandango10 Comments

E2C410E3-915D-4A64-9840-AAC65091E5B1Paula Light’s Thursday Inspiration theme this week is “summer.” As I stepped out to walk my dog this afternoon, I was assaulted by the very hot summer air, which inspired me to share this true life tale.

Back in February my wife and I moved from “the big city” to a small suburb out in the country. We only moved about 35 miles to the east, but now that summer is here, we are realizing that, climate-wise, it’s a whole different world.

The “big city” we lived in was San Francisco. Mark Twain was alleged to have said of that city, “The coldest winter I’ve ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” While that is a slight exaggeration, the fact is that San Francisco does have relatively cool summers, and it’s a whole lot hotter where we live now than it is in San Francisco. For example, right now it’s 62°F in San Francisco.7241691F-0A57-4C66-A20D-AC882CD5167EAnd it’s 94°F where we live now.FEA3DF5B-AE41-4769-B471-F60057BD31C6That’s almost one degree hotter for each mile east that we moved!

Well, even though it’s a lot hotter in the suburbs than it is in the city, Paula’s Prompt also inspired me to post this song by the Lovin’ Spoonful. Enjoy your hot summer!

Tale Weaver — Second Nature

Fandango22 Comments

612DE07C-44F3-4B33-A3A2-1916715087FD“Oh shirt!” she exclaimed when she looked up at me from her smartphone as I walked into her office.

I looked down at my shirt. It was buttoned properly, tucked in neatly, and I couldn’t see any visible stains. “What about it?” I asked.

“Excuse me?” she said.

“My shirt,” I responded.

She looked puzzled. “What about your shirt?” she asked.

“That’s what I want to know,” I said.

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

I was getting pissed. “What am I talking about? I want to know what you’re talking about!”

“Let’s take a step back,” she suggested. “What are we talking about because I have no clue.”

I shook my head from side to side. “I walk into your office and as soon as you see me you say something about my shirt. I want to know what your problem is with my shirt.”

“I don’t have a problem with your goddam shirt,” she practically screamed. “What makes you think….”

She stopped before completing her sentence when her smartphone, which she had put down on her desk when I walked into her office, vibrated. She picked it up, looked at it and said, “Shirt, shirt, shirt!”

“There!” I said, pointing a finger at her. “You just said ‘shirt’ again, three times. So I ask you one more time, what’s wrong with my shirt?”

“Oh my God, Tom,” she said, “there’s nothing wrong with your shirt. I got a text from my son who was sent to the principal’s office at his middle school for getting into a fight with one of his classmates and now they want me to come in and meet with him and the principal. I don’t have time for that shirt.”

“What do you mean you don’t have time for that shirt? What shirt?”

A look of understanding graced her face and she actually started to smile. “My husband and I are trying hard to watch our language around our kids. So we substitute innocuous words for curse words, like ‘fudge’ for ‘fuck’ and, yes, ‘shirt’ for ‘shit.’ I guess it’s become second nature for me.”

“So you weren’t criticizing my shirt before?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes and, still smiling, said, “No, I wasn’t, so you can go fudge yourself.”

Written for the Tale Weaver prompt from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, where we are asked to write a response to the word “shirt.”

FOWC with Fandango — Acquire

Fandango20 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 9, 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 “acquire.”

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. Please 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.