Day: December 27, 2021

Flurries in the Forecast

Fandango9 Comments

Andrea gleeful let out a cheer when she saw the first snowflake fall. “Yippee, no school tomorrow.”

Michael looked out the window and didn’t see any snow in the air. “Don’t count on it sweetie,” he said to his eleven year old daughter. “One snowflake won’t result in a snow day off from school.”

“Oh Daddy,” she said, “you never know. Even the most stupendous of snow storms start with one little snowflake.”

Michael smiled. He picked up his iPhone and said, “Let me check my weather app. Maybe it will have some information in the forecast about snow accumulations tonight.” After checking, he said, “Sorry, honey, but the weather app says there may be light flurries tonight, but no accumulation.”

Andrea began to coil a length of hair around one of her fingers, as she was wont to do when she was disappointed or upset about something. Her eyes started to well up and her father handed her a tissue. “Don’t cry, sweetie. Maybe the forecast is wrong.”

“Don’t patronize me, Daddy,” Andrea said in a caustic tone. “I’m not stupid.”

“No, you’re not, Andrea, but winter is here and even if it doesn’t snow tonight, I’m sure it will soon.”

The next morning, just after the crack of dawn, Andrea ran into her father and mother’s bedroom. “Daddy!” she screamed excitedly, “it’s a freakin’ blizzard outside.”

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (cheer), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (snowflake), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (stupendous), My Vivid Blog (information), Ragtag Daily Prompt (coil), The Daily Spur (tissue), and Your Daily Word Prompt (caustic).

Share Your World — 12/27/2021

Fandango11 Comments

For this week’s Share Your World, Melanie wants to know how we’re feeling as 2021 comes to a close and we are about to embark on 2022. To that end, she wants to know…

At 12 a.m. on December 31st/Jan 1st, what will you be doing? (Use your own time zone please.)

If all goes according to plan, I’ll be sound asleep.

Is there a tradition you have for New Year’s Eve?

Our family tradition used to be for all of us to get together for a family game night, but since the pandemic, we’ve been using Zoom to play some multiplayer online games from our respective homes.

Do you have any hope or reason you find that next year will be better?

I was sure that 2021 would be better than 2020, but then, only six days after the year began, Trump’s mad MAGA lemmings stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an effort, at the behest of their megalomaniacal leader, to overturn the 2020 election, and that pretty much set the tone for 2021. About the best thing I can say about 2021 was that it was marginally better than 2020.

As to 2022, I hope it will better than 2021, but unless something can be done about the Republican efforts to limit or to take away voting rights from minority populations, to ban abortions, or to refuse to address climate change, I’m not confident that 2022 will be any better than 2021.

What’s the biggest personal lesson you learned during 2021?

Two lessons. One, don’t take American democracy for granted. Two, close to half of all Americans are morons.

Describe in 1-3 words how you feel going into 2022.

Cautiously pessimistic.

Sorry if I am coming across like a Debbie Downer in this post. I’m just not feeling very upbeat at the moment. Maybe my outlook will turn around in 2022.

Blogging Insights — My Expert Opinion

Fandango9 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 is unattributed.

“The expert in everything was once a beginner.”

Perhaps I’m being a bit picayune, but I have an issue with the phrase “expert in everything.” An expert is a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area. No one can be an “expert in everything.” So let’s alter the quote to be:

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”

With that out of the way, I agree that no one starts out as an expert in anything. We all start out as beginners and for those who do become experts — and not all beginners become “experts” — they acquire the requisite knowledge, learn their craft, hone their skills, and eventually may develop an expertise in a specific field.

In the context of blogging, one doesn’t have to be an expert to be a good blogger. But one must know how to use basic grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation. Nor does one have to be a computer expert. Blog hosting sites like WordPress make it relatively easy to set up and maintain a blog.

But even being a good technical writer and leveraging the best blogging technology isn’t enough. Being a good blogger requires imagination, creativity, wit, and an ability to weave a story, be it fiction or non-fiction.

And that is my “expert” opinion on today’s quote..

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #149

Fandango8 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 iStock.com.

For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows a little girl with a magnifying glass looking at a bug.

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 — Stupendous

Fandango17 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to December 27, 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 “stupendous.”

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.