Month: January 2022

The Crazy Cat Lady

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“You’re being facetious, right?” Debbie said to me. “How can you not like cats? They’re so adorable and lovable, and whenever you come over here, you always make a fuss over my three cats, Princess, Chester, and Isadora.”

“I never said that I don’t like cats,” I said defensively. “It’s just that I’m not an ailurophile, like you. I don’t flaunt my feelings about cats in the same way you do. You’re a bit over-the-top, you know?”

“I get the distinct impression that there’s more to this discussion than meets the eye. So let’s just drop the bullshit and probe a bit deeper, shall we?” Debbie said.

“Fine, let’s do that, Debbie,” I said. “You have an unhealthy obsession with cats. Look at this place. All of the art on your walls are cat drawings, paintings, photos. You have porcelain cat figurines on every hard surface. You have cat wallpaper in your bedroom, a cat quilt on your bed, which is on top of cat sheets. Your throw pillows all have cute little cats on them. You have a designer litter box and you spend more on cat food than you do on your own food. Your favorite earrings are those stupid cats sitting on crescent moons. There’s cat fur all over everything in your apartment. And to be brutally honest, your apartment stinks of cat urine.”

Debbie started sobbing. “If that’s the way you feel, you can just get your coat and leave. I never want to see you again.

“Fine,” I said, “I’m out of here. I just hope you come to your senses, Debbie, before you end up being called the crazy, old cat lady in apartment 3B.”

Written for these daily prompts: JusJoJan (facetious), My Vivid Blog (ailurophile), Word of the Day Challenge (flaunt), Your Daily Word Prompt (distinct), The Daily Spur (drop), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (probe), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (crescent), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (coat). Earrings photo from Pinterest.

It’s been a week since we put our beloved cat down. I’m not an ailurophile, like Debbie in this story, but I so miss my cute and cuddly (most of the time) little rescue cat.

Share Your World — 1/31/22

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It’s already the last day of the first month of the new year. Can you believe that? Anyway, it’s time for another edition of Share Your World from the lovely and talented Melanie. She’s tossed us some interesting ones today. Here goes…

What is one topic you love to talk about?

Just one topic? Where’s the fun in that? Let’s see, how about myself? No, that’s a bit too narcissistic. Okay then, sex, religion, and politics. Oh wait, those are the three things you’re not supposed to talk about in “polite” company. Okay, fine. Let me bore you to death talking about my young grandchildren. Hey, I’ve got thousands of pictures of them on my iPhone, too. Wanna see?

Suppose there was a magical wizard standing right in front of you and you could turn your life into anything you wanted, what would you do?

I’d say to this so-called magical wizard, “My life is just fine right now the way it is, thank you very much. Now please step out of my way.”

Could you adjust to life without any internet?

I somehow managed to live the first 40+ years of my life without the World Wide Web. So I think I could also manage to live the relatively few remaining years of my life without the internet if I had to. In fact, my life might be more peaceful without it.

What do you think is unique about the human ‘animal’ (homo sapien)?

Humans are more dangerous to each other and destructive to our environment than any other animal.

Share some encouraging words that you’d say to someone who was feeling down.

Would you like to try one of my magic marshmallows?

Blogging Insights — Just Do It

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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 from Ron Dawson, a Special Educational Needs educator, psychologist, researcher, and author.

“The first thing you need to decide when you build your blog is what you want to accomplish with it, and what it can do if successful.”

I started my first blog in 2005 and I had no idea of what I wanted to accomplish with it or what it could do if successful. I just jumped right in and started writing and posting what I wrote. When I started This, That, and the Other, my fifth blog, in 2017, I still had no specific accomplishment goal or goals in mind. I just wanted a platform — or maybe a soapbox — on which to express myself.

I’m very happy with my blog and I feel that, based upon the number of visitors, views, likes, and comments my posts generate each day, it is relatively successful. What that “success” has enabled me to do is to be a part of a wonderful community of other bloggers, where we can share our stories, our poems, our photographs, our beliefs, our perspectives, our opinions, our passions, our experiences, our frustrations, and our lives with one another. And that truly brings me joy.

What Ron Dawson said about needing to decide what you want to accomplish with your blog before you start it may be good advice for some, especially if there’s a definitive niche you’re focusing on or a specific audience you wish to reach.

I don’t think, however, it’s essential for those of us who are “casual” bloggers. I say that, if you love to write and you wish to share what you write with a community of others who also love to write, you should just do it.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #154

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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 was provided by fellow blogger Deb @ Nope, Not Pam. Thanks, Deb

For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows a man walking on a paved path at a park holding a snake that is draped over his shoulders.

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 — Probe

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FOWC

Welcome to January 31, 2022 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 “probe.”

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.