Day: August 30, 2022

Mothers, Daughters, and Ponies

Fandango14 Comments

“Mom, stop the car,” Adele shouted.

Concerned, Dorothy quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road. Before she could ask her daughter what was wrong, Adele had opened the car door, hopped out, and ran over to the fence at the edge of the field. Dorothy called out to her daughter, “Adele, what are you doing?”

“I want that,” Adele said, pointing to the ponies standing in the field.

“You want a pony?” Dorothy asked.

“Yes, I want the second one, the short, squatty one. It’s so cute and it has long blonde hair just like my Barbie,” Adele said.

“I’m sorry, honey,” Dorothy said, “but you can’t have a pony.”

“Why not?” Adele said, stomping her right foot on the ground. “I want it. I want it.”

“It belongs to someone and I’m sure it’s not for sale,” Dorothy said.

“But Dad always says that everything is for sale,” Adele said.

“That’s because your father is a salesman,” Dorothy said.

“I don’t care. I want that pony.”

“Well, sweetie, as The Rolling Stones sang, ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want.’”

“The who?”

“No, not The Who, The Rolling Stones.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Adele said. “Can I have that pony?”

“No, you cannot.”

“I hate you!”

Mothers and daughters, Dorothy thought.

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Free images on Google.

Toe the Line

Fandango40 Comments

Yes, these are my toes. I hope this photo isn’t grossing you out too much.

Notice a few things about my toes:

  • My second toe is slightly longer than my big toe
  • There is a gap between my big toe and the second toe
  • I could really use a pedicure

Are your toes anything like mine? Which toe is longer, your big toe or the one next to it? Is there a gap between those two toes? Do you get regular pedicures?

So here’s what I want you to do if you dare! Take a photo of your toes on one foot (or both, if you want to) and post it on your blog. Then tell us something interesting about your toes.

Go ahead. I dare you!

Truthful Tuesday — Money Matters

Fandango16 Comments

Di, host of Pensivity101, is once again standing in for Melanie, of Sparks from a Combustible Mind, for today’s Truthful Tuesday prompt. This week Di wants to know about how we’re dealing with energy prices and inflation. She wants to know…

With energy prices and inflation going mad, what changes will you be able to make to save money? Do you think there is anything you can do in respect of voicing your concerns?

I wish I could say I’m making major changes to save money, but I’m not. I have hired a landscaper to tear out my water-hungry front lawn and replace it with a dry creek bed design and drought friendly plantings. I’m doing it mostly because we’re experiencing a severe drought in northern California and I want to be a responsible citizen by cutting back on my use of water just to keep my grass green. But based upon what I’ll end up spending on this project, it will probably take about ten years to recoup my costs through reduced water bills.

Also, related to water usage, my wife and are both taking showers every other day, rather than daily. Given the drought situation, that is the least we can do.

I would turn the thermostat up 78° to save the on the electric bills for air conditioning, but my wife frequently has hot flashes, and I’d much rather spend more money to keep our house nice and cool on these very hot summer days than deal with a woman in heat (i.e., experiencing hot flashes).

Is there anything I can do to voice my concerns? Yeah. I can grumble and groan and piss and moan.

Fandango’s Story Starter #61

Fandango11 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 a “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that 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:

I turned on the evening news only to see one of the biggest secrets of my life playing out before my eyes.

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 — Prior

Fandango22 Comments
FOWC

It’s August 30, 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 “prior.”

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. Show them some love.