Day: January 26, 2022

Too Literal

Fandango20 Comments

“You’ve had a glow about you ever since you came home from the hospital,” Diana said to her best friend, Grace, as they were catching up over coffee.

“Yes,” Grace said. “Thank you, Diana. I feel so much better now.”

“So what was the issue?” Diana asked.

“Well, to be honest, it was your fault,” Grace said, in a cool, matter of fact manner.

“My fault?” a stunned Diana asked. “How was it my fault?”

“I followed your advice to add more fiber to my diet,” Grace said. “You assured me that there is an abundance of things to choose from that are rich in fiber. But it didn’t help. I just kept getting worse and I ended up in the emergency room having to have my stomach pumped.”

“Oh my God, Grace,” Diana said. “What did your doctor say?”

“He wanted to carefully review my dietary habits with me,” Grace said. “When I went through it with him, he said that he was positive that a change in my diet would be beneficial.”

“So what did he suggest?”

“First of all,” Grace said, “he told me to stop being so literal and advised that, while curtains, slipcovers, sheets, and towels are, indeed, made from fibers, they are not edible. So he insisted that I stop going to the home goods store for my groceries.”

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (glow), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (hospital), Word of the Day Challenge (fiber), Ragtag Daily Prompt (abundance), My Vivid Blog (review), and Tuesday Use It In a Sentence (positive).

5 Things — Lost Skills

Fandango19 Comments

Dr. Tanya says that, “Life as we knew it changed a great deal with the pandemic. We humans, being an adaptable species, changed with it. Certain behaviours were reinforced while others were lost.” With that in mind, she has asked us, in this week’s 5 Things, to enumerate some of the things we no longer do or do less frequently.

  1. I no loner shower daily. Every other day will do. And I used to trim my beard and mustache weekly. But now I probably only do that monthly.
  2. I no longer eat out at restaurants or shop at stores, other than occasional trips to the grocery store or drug store. Instead I leverage meal delivery services like DoorDash, grocery delivery services, and, of course, Amazon.
  3. I don’t drive my car as much. Other than two or three trips a week (30 miles round trip) to see my grandkids, I rarely get in the car. No going out for a long drive or heading into town to a restaurant or to a movie or go to the ocean.
  4. I don’t get dressed up. I’m retired and don’t have to dress for work. And unless I’m going out somewhere, which is rare, I usually end up all day wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants, and slippers. If it’s a cool day, I may put on a sweatshirt over my t-shirt. I do put on jeans and sneakers when I go to my son’s place to see my grandkids.
  5. I rarely interact face-to-face with other people, including my neighbors, as most, like us, stay inside their own homes.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #154

Fandango24 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I don’t think I’d get too much pushback when I say that we are living in stressful times. Between COVID, political upheavals, being at the brink of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential ramifications of that, Trump’s Big Lie and the potential fall of democracy in America, racial tensions, climate change, inflation, and, well, everything, people are on edge. Couple that with a significant drop in the stock market just this month and the adverse impact that’s having on my retirement account, I know I’m feeling stressed out.

So my provocative question this week is…

What do you do to reduce or relieve stress in your life?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Hospital

Fandango21 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to January 26, 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 “hospital.”

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.