Day: January 1, 2022

Weekend Writing Prompt — Good Intentions

Fandango17 Comments

At the stroke of midnight
I said goodnight
To yet another less than fulfilling year
But today is a new beginning
A harbinger of what could be
And I will commit
To looking ahead
To finding the light
To fighting off dissent
Until dinner tonight

(Exactly 45 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “goodnight.”

Also for these daily prompts: Scott’s Daily Prompt (stroke of midnight), Word of the Day Challenge (beginning), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (harbinger), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (commit), My Vivid Blog (ahead), Ragtag Daily Prompt (light), Your Daily Word Prompt (dissent), and The Daily Spur (dinner).

SoCS — Hairball

Fandango11 Comments

I woke up this morning to find that my cat had coughed up a large hairball on our area rug in the family room. It’s not his fault. He’s a cat, and that’s what cats do.

So I went to the cabinet in the laundry room, pulled out my spray bottle of Resolve and, after removing the “solid” part of the hairball with a paper towel, I sprayed the dark stain remaining on the light gray rug. I waited three minutes for Resolve to do its magic and then took a sponge and blotted the spot. Viola! Stain gone. Problem resolved.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where we are to use the word “resolve.” Done and done!

My Last Photo — December ‘21

Fandango20 Comments
  • Post the last photo from our camera’s SD card or the last photo from our phone taken in December.
  • No editing — who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like, or the subject matter didn’t cooperate?
  • No explanations needed — just the photo will do.
  • Create a pingback to Brian’s post or link in the comments.
  • Tag “The Last Photo.”

So here’s the last photo I took on my iPhone in December.

This was taken while in my car lined up to take a COVID-19 test, given that I recently visited with my daughter and her live-in boyfriend, each of whom tested positive to the virus a few days after I visited them. The good news is that the test result was negative!

And So It Ends, And So It Begins

Fandango19 Comments

I was originally planning to write a post about what a disappointment 2021 was, but when I read the Editor’s Letter in the latest issue of The Week magazine, written by the magazine’s editor-in-chief, William Falk, I decided that he expressed far better than I ever could how disappointing of a year 2021 was. So I thought I’d share with you what he wrote.

This is a dark time in a dark year. It began horribly, with a violent assault on the Capitol intended to stop the peaceful transfer of power — a first for our nation. The climate showed us where we’re headed, as biblical droughts baked the West and sucked reservoirs dry, 115-degree heat waves paralyzed Portland and Seattle, and a polar cold snap froze Texas solid. Forests in the Western U.S. and the world exploded into flames. Monstrous tornadoes — almost never seen in December — erased communities across Kentucky and the Midwest. The pandemic we thought we’d beaten in the spring roared back twice, through Greek-lettered, mutation-disguised variants that have filled hospitals and morgues with the voluntarily unvaccinated. In this season of renewal and of hope, it takes real effort to find optimism about the future in our sore, beleaguered hearts.

We can reasonably hope the pandemic will wane this year at last, after holding humanity hostage for more than two years. But there’s no reason to expect an end to another viral epidemic — of misinformation and tribal hatred — that endangers our democracy. Americans no longer share common facts, information, or trusted sources and experts; a virtual secession has already occurred. Extremists are pushing the parties further apart, and on the Right, a radical, anti-democracy movement is gaining momentum. Three retired U.S. generals warned this week that a disputed presidential election in 2024 could cause “a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines” — and actual civil war. If that sounds nuts, remember that two years ago, an insurrection and a pandemic were just as unimaginable.

In the face of so many troubles and sorrows, what do we do? For perspective, I often think back to what my parents’ generation faced, and how dark it must have felt as 1941 gave way to 1942. Then, as now, surrender was not an option. Curse the darkness. Fight. Persist. The light is coming. Eventually.

The only area on which I may differ with Mr. Falk is where he believes, “The light is coming. Eventually.” I’m not that optimistic. I sincerely hope that he is right and that I am wrong.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Image credit: LemonBox@zazzle.com.

FOWC with Fandango — Harbinger

Fandango22 Comments
FOWC

Happy New Year and welcome to January 1, 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 “harbinger.”

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.