Alexa. Turn on the living room light.
No, not the radio.
Not the TV either.
Just the goddam light, Alexa.
Written for Bulbul’s Twenty Words Tuesday prompt, where this week’s word is “light.”
TWT — Alexa
Day: February 22, 2022
The Weather
One of the first things I do after I wake up in the morning is check the weather app on my iPhone. Not only does it tell me what the current temperature is, it tells me what the high for the day is going to be, whether it’s going to be a sunny or cloudy day, if there will be any rain or high winds, what the humidity is, what the air quality is, what time the sun will be setting. And also displays the ten day forecast.
Right before my wife and I left the house this morning, I said to my Google Nest Home Hub, “Hey Google, what’s the weather today?” and “she” gave me the rundown.
I got in my electric car and the infotainment screen lit up and showed me the current temperature, humidity, and a cartoon-like drawing of the yellow sun being partially obscured by clouds.
When we got to our destination I asked my car’s infotainment system if there was any rain in the forecast in the next two hours and was assured that there wasn’t.
I looked at my wife and said, “Do you remember when, in order to know what the forecast was, we had to call the weather number on our landline phones and would get a recorded message that was updated every hour? It would tell us the current temperature and weather conditions for the next hour.”
She smiled, rolled her eyes, and said, “Yes, I remember. I even remember the number. It was 555-1212.” We both got a good laugh at that.
Truthful Tuesday — All-Consuming
Frank, aka PCGuy, has published another one of his Truthful Tuesday posts. This week Frank wants to know…
Have you ever felt that one particular activity seemed to be consuming more of your life than you were happy about? Was it work, a hobby that got out of hand, health concerns or something else? Lastly, have you managed to take back control, or does it still seem to be running the show, as it were?
The short answer is “no.” Even though I’m an old geezer who has to deal with the normal aches and pains associated with being a septuagenarian, I’m lucky to be in relatively good health and my visits to medical professionals are few and far between. That said, there is one particular activity that seems to be consuming more and more of my life, but it’s not one I’m unhappy about. That activity is blogging.
Between reading the posts of bloggers I follow and writing my own posts, blogging has become the predominant activity in my life. I even occasionally dream about it when I’m sleeping. So, to use Frank’s words, blogging does seem to be “running the show.” But I’m retired and I love blogging, so I see no need to “take back control” or to more effectively manage my blogging activity. In fact, were it not for the real world activities of daily living, I might even spend more time blogging.
Fandango’s Story Starter #34
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:
Laura dreaded hearing the alarm go off because today was the day she would have to…
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 — Mimic
It’s February 22, 2022. Welcome 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 “mimic.”
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.
This, That, and the Other 