Day: December 28, 2021

FFfPP — Tree Hugger

Fandango5 Comments

Allison thrust her arms around the trunk of the tree. “Trees are integral to our survival,” she said. “You can’t cut them down willy-nilly and expect it to not affect climate change, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a host of other problems.”

“You’re such an innocent young lady it’s almost cute,” the man with the chainsaw said, a smirk on his face. “We have a permit to clear-cut this forest to make way for luxury condominiums. So do you seriously believe that one naïve tree hugger will stop us?”

Allison called out to other like-minded individuals who emerged from within the forest and who all wrapped their arms around other tree trunks. “No, I don’t believe that one person can defer your plans to pave paradise, but perhaps dozens can.”

“You people are twisted,” the man grumbled. “You can’t stand in the way of progress.”

“Progress?” Allison said. “You think destroying Mother Nature is progress? You think making our home planet inhospitable for human life is progress. Now who is being naïve?”

The man took out his cellphone and spoke with someone. Then he yelled back to his crew, “Pack it up boys, we’re done for the day.” He looked at Allison and said, “This ain’t over, bitch,” and then he and his crew left.

“Break out the bubbly,” Allison jubilantly called out to her friends. “We won today’s battle. Maybe tomorrow we’ll win the war.”

Using the genre of environmental fiction, this post was written for Roger Shipp’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner. Photo credit: Eberhard Grossgasteiger on Unsplash. Also for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (thrust), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (integral), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (innocent), Your Daily Word Prompt (defer), Ragtag Daily Prompt (twist), Word of the Day Challenge (bubbly), and My Vivid Blog (genre).

Truthful Tuesday — Substitute Teacher

Fandango9 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuy, usually publishes his Truthful Tuesday posts, but he’s taking a short hiatus and Melanie from Sparks from a Combustible Mind is sitting in for Frank. This week, Melanie wants to know…

Truthfully, how much faith do you have in the new versions of Covid that keep appearing?

I’m not sure I would use the word “faith” when talking about COVID variants continuing to appear. However, I am concerned that, as long as there are significant numbers of anti-vaxxers and anti-facemaskers around, new variations of COVID will keep appearing.

Do you think they’ll eventually become something we accept just like we do influenza?

I don’t know, but one can only hope that if we can’t find a cure, the virus can at least become manageable through annual vaccines. Of course, why would those idiots who refuse to get vaccinated for COVID now get vaccinated for COVID if it’s managed through a flu-like vaccine?

Or do you think there’s possible a real cure ‘out there’?

Unfortunately, just as there’s no “cure” for the flu, I don’t believe there will be a “cure” for COVID. I’d be happy with annual vaccines or boosters that reduce the likelihood of getting COVID and lessen the severity for those who do get infected.

Alternatively if you think Covid is a lot of tosh, feel free to share your opinion and reasons why.

I want to thank Donald Trump, who claimed that COVID was a Chinese hoax, and the Republicans who still claim that it’s a liberal plot. But with more than 800,000 COVID deaths in America alone and millions infected, I don’t know how anyone can honestly consider COVID to be “a lot of tosh.”

Fandango’s Story Starter #26

Fandango14 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you an incomplete “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that partial sentence. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

At first, I thought it was only the dog making noise, but it was…

If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and to tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Integral

Fandango22 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to December 28, 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 “integral.”

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.