Day: December 6, 2021

Should You Be Interested…

Fandango57 Comments

For those of you who read my blog from time to time, I have a few updates to share with you. If you don’t regularly read my blog, this post will have no context, so you might want to move on. Or, you can click on the three subheadings below to link to the relevant posts.

Electric Car

We’ve had our electric car for nearly four months and I love it. It handles great, it’s fun to drive, it’s quiet, and, given the price of a gallon of gas where I live…

…I love smiling as I pass by all these gas stations and never have to fill up my tank.

Electric Bikes

The electric bikes I ordered online were delivered and I dropped them off at a bike shop to be fully assembled by professionals. This week I’m having a hitch installed on our electric car and later in the week my bicycle rack capable of carrying two electric bikes should be delivered. If all goes well, my wife and should be taking our first e-bike rides this coming weekend.

Prostate Cancer

I had an appointment with a urologist last week, and after reviewing my blood work and the MRI, he concluded that I probably do have prostate cancer. He said the next step would be for me to have a biopsy to confirm that. However, because (1) my PSA blood test showed levels only slightly above the high end of the range, (2) the mass is a relatively small one, and (3) cancer of the prostate is generally slow growing and men of my age are likely to die from something else before succumbing to prostate cancer, I said I’d prefer to take a “watch & wait” approach. So he agreed to wait for six more months and to take another blood test to see if my PSA number has increased enough to make it concerning.

Share Your World — 12/6/2021

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It’s the first Share Your World of December and that means 2021 is nearing its end. Looking back, I probably won’t miss it much. Anyway, let’s see what Melanie wants us to share this week.

What really turns your stomach? (Politicians aside.)

Yes, I know that Melanie said “politicians aside,” but what really turns my stomach has its roots in politics and it’s all of the people (mostly Republicans and far-right conservatives) who are bound and determined to destroy the American democracy, who refuse to get vaccinated and wear face masks to combat COVID, and who have no qualms about taking away women’s rights to manage their own health decisions.

What would YOU do with the immense amount of ‘garbage’ in the world, if there weren’t dumps or barges where it was taken to be processed?

What would I do? I’m just some grumpy old fart who complains about the problem but has no grand solutions to offer. Personally, I do my small part by recycling, composting, and minimizing what goes in my landfill trash bin. I also try to avoid purchasing products that are packaged in plastic and other non-sustainable packaging. I also purchase mostly organic foods. Do my actions do much to address the problem? Probably not, but it makes me feel better.

What’s the oddest container you’ve ever gotten a gift in?

Whoa, I guess I’ve lived a very sheltered life because I can’t think of any container of a gift I’ve ever received that I would describe as “odd.”


Holiday themed question:

Do people behave differently during Christmas (insert your own holiday or festive season)?
Do they try to be better?
Do you donate something (e.g., money, clothes) to charities?
Do you give something to homeless people?

No, no, and no. (Just call me Scrooge McFandango.)

This is an allegedly joyful time of year. How do you, personally, FEEL?

Continuing with the Scrooge McFandango theme, I’m looking forward to this “joyful time of year” being over.

Blogging Insights — Good, Better, Best

Fandango13 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote, like last week’s, is unattributed.

“Don’t be the same, be better.”

And, like last week’s, this trite quote also sounds like something you might find inside a fortune cookie.

I know that the message is attempting to motivate the writer to change things up, to dare to be different, or to at least try something different. The quote honestly reminded me of the almost meaningless slogan that Melania Trump came up with when she was the First Lady:

I’m going to suggest three alternative quotes that I think offer the same essential message but in more provocative ways. This first one is from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

This next quote that is often mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein:

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

And this last quote is attributed to Henry Ford:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

I think any one of these quotes says it better than “Don’t be the same, be different.” Don’t you agree? Which one is your favorite?

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #146

Fandango11 Comments

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

The photo below is from Erean @ Morguefile.com.

For the visually challenged writer, the image shows the silhouette of a woman on a stage, provocatively posed sitting on a chair with the starry night sky behind her and also reflected on the stage floor.

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.

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

FOWC with Fandango — Lanai

Fandango12 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to December 6, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “lanai.”

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.