Day: July 22, 2021

Time For a Change

Fandango19 Comments

“Screw him,” Rebecca said. “I’m not going to let that stubborn old coot stymie me for one more day. First thing tomorrow morning I’m going to tear out that ugly, circa 1960s, burnt orange shag rug and replace it with hardwood flooring.”

“Good for you, Becky,” her brother, Jim, said. “It’s almost surreal how he’s refused to consider replacing that ratty old rug.”

“Well, I’m sure it reminds him of Mom,” Rebecca said. “They picked it out together when they first bought the place.”

“That was like sixty years ago,” Jim said. “Who knows what crap is lurking within the threads of that rug. Gross!”

“Yes, it’s for his own good,” Rebecca rationalized. “I’m sure he’ll warm up to the wood floor eventually.”

Jim smiled. “Yeah, right. He’s Dad, remember. He’ll never forgive us.”

Written for these prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (screw), Your Daily Word Prompt (stymie), Jim Adams’ Thursday Inspiration (tomorrow), Ragtag Daily Prompt (shag), Word of the Day Challenge (surreal), and The Daily Spur (warm).

Am I Feeling Vulnerable?

Fandango30 Comments

I usually don’t respond to my own Provocative Question prompts, but this week I’m making an exception. Especially when Melanie, over at Sparks from a Combustible Mind, commented, “This is one question I hope YOU write an answer to, too. It’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on the matter.”

My Provocative Question post yesterday referenced Pegasus, the latest kind of spyware that can spy on almost any device and any social media networks and messaging apps without the victim having any knowledge that it’s happening.

When I first learned about Pegasus, it freaked me out that hackers could access my iPhone, monitor my keystrokes, track my location, and hijack both the microphone and camera. I use my iPhone all the time. It’s always on. It has all of my credit card information on it, my bank account information, my retirement account information, my investments information. I use it to talk and text with my kids. If some evil doer can get at all of my information and see me through my phone’s camera and hear me through the phone’s microphone, I’m in deep doo doo.

I told my wife about it and started to have a panic attack. You know what she did? She started laughing at me and said “get over yourself.” She asked, “Are you an activist, an important business executive, a high powered lawyer, a senior government official, a journalist?”

I said, “No, but I am a blogger who has been quite outspoken about….”

She held up her hand to stop me and said, “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but you’re a nobody. I don’t think you need to worry about anyone wasting their time trying to track your every move.”

So now I feel much more at ease about the prospect of being victimized by this spyware.

At the same time, though, I’m pretty bummed that my wife of more than 40 years thinks of me as a nobody.

FOWC with Fandango — Screw

Fandango17 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 22, 2021 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 “screw.”

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.