Day: October 27, 2022

The Forever Journey

Fandango14 Comments

“Let’s go over some of the details of your upcoming intergalactic journey, Mr. Andrews,” the woman behind the counter said. “First, because of the length and inherent risks of such a trip, we must receive payment in full up front. Installment payments are not accepted.”

Mr. Andrews grumbled, but nodded in the affirmative.

“As you can imagine, there’s no cellular, WiFi, or satellite service during the trip, so we can offer you an unconnected tablet computer or a loose leaf binder to record your thoughts and observations during the journey,” she said. “What is your preference?”

“I cannot believe that you’re able to offer intergalactic travel, but no outside world connectivity,” Mr. Andrews said. “That’s ridiculous. It’s barbaric. I’ll take the tablet.”

“Your obstinacy on this matter is regrettable, Mr. Andrews,” the woman said, “but the motivation for most who embark on this journey is to escape and to get away from it all. This lack of connectivity supports that escape from all the noise.” The woman got a gleam in her eye. “We are proud that our mission is produce an environment where our clients can let go of all that and can truly relax and find themselves.”

Mr. Andrews looked at his watch, looked around nervously, and said, “Fine, I’ll sign the damn papers.” The woman handed them to him, he signed them, and then asked where the departure gate was.

The woman smiled, pointed to her right, and said, “You’d better hurry, Mr. Andrews. The journey starts in ten minutes and I believe the police, who are looking for you, are on there way here. But if you hurry, you’ll disappear and they’ll never apprehend you.”

A few minutes later the police arrived. “Mr. Andrew is in the module, officers, ready to start his journey,” the woman said.

“Thank you, Donna,” Officer Krenshaw said. “He’s the third one just this week. How stupid are these guys to fall for the intergalactic escape entrapment? Won’t Mr. Andrews be surprised when he sees us walk into the module?”

Written for these daily prompts: E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (intergalactic), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (payment), My Vivid Blog (loose leaf), Word of the Day Challenge (obstinacy), The Daily Spur (motivation), Ragtag Daily Prompt (gleam), and Your Daily Word Prompt (produce).

Thursday Inspiration — Clouds

Fandango8 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration post from Jim Adams, he gave us the image above and the word “clouds.” I hope Jim doesn’t mind, but I’m taking a shortcut by reposting what I think is a relevant post I wrote on August 17, 2017.

Both Sides Now

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“Look at the one on the right. It looks like a flag about to unfurl,” said Jenny, pointing toward the sky. She and her best friend Liz were taking a much needed break from their hike through the scenic, rocky terrain.

“It reminds me of that whirling Tasmanian devil cartoon character,” said Liz. “The one to its left looks like a firework after it exploded and the breeze has picked up the residual and is starting to blow it away.”

Staring at these clouds brings to mind that old Joni Mitchell song,” said Jenny. “Damn, I can’t think of the name of that song.”

“It’s ‘Both Sides Now’ I think,” Liz responded.

“Oh right,” Jenny said. The lyrics talk about looking at clouds.

Liz said, “Yes, I know.” She then softly sang some of the lyrics from the song.

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

“That’s beautiful,” said.

Both women sat in silence for a while, marveling at the ever-changing, wispy cloud formations as they traversed the skyscape.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “unfurl,” and for this week’s writing challenge from Sue Vincent for #writephoto. It’s a twofer!

And, as a bonus, here’s Joni’s song.

Throwback Thursday — Costumes

Fandango12 Comments

Maggie, at From Cave Walls, and Lauren, at LSS Attitude of Gratitude, alternate hosting Throwback Thursday. The idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Maggie wrote, “With Halloween coming up, I thought we should do something surrounding that. I know everyone does not celebrate Halloween, so I thought we could address costumes in general.

Here are Maggie’s questions.

1. Did you celebrate Halloween? If so, what was your most memorable costume?

I wouldn’t say my family “celebrated” Halloween, but I was allowed to go trick or treating and my parents would hand out candy to trick or treaters who came to our door on Halloween. As to costumes I wore, I know I did wear costumes, but they were always the cheap ones you buy at the pop-up Halloween stores or at other toy stores and apparently none were particularly memorable because I can remember even one costume I wore as a kid.

2. When was the last time you dressed in a costume? What was the reason?

It wasn’t a Halloween party. It was actually a work function in maybe 2005 and I dressed as a carnival barker with a red and white vertically striped sport coat, a straw hat, and a bamboo cane with a hook at the end, similar to the pictured below. And no, that’s not me in the photo.

3. As a child, did you like pretending you were someone else? Did you create costumes with things around the house?

I had convinced my best friend that I had a secret identity, Power Boy (like Super Boy). My only “costume” was wearing a bath towel pinned to my sweatshirt when I pretended to fly.

4. Did you ever attend Mardi Gras, Carnival, or any other festival with masks or costumes? Did you wear a mask or costume?

Nope.

5. Were you ever in a play (school or otherwise) that required a costume? If so, who were you?

Nope.

6. Do you participate in cosplay or go to Comic Conventions?

Nope.

7. What character from movies, comics, or plays has the best costume?

I’m sort of partial to Batman’s costume, the Dark Knight edition.

8. Think of scary or horror movies. Which character’s costume and/or make up was the most frightening? Was it the costume alone, or the movie itself which made it frightening?

Linda Blair’s make-up in the movie “The Exorcist” scared the crap out of me. Actually, the whole movie did, as well. It’s been decades since I last saw the movie, so I can’t really comment on how well it’s stood the test of time.

9. Have you ever visited historic places where the staff wears period costumes? If so, where was it??

I’ve been to a few Renaissance Fairs, to Medieval Times, and to Colonial Williamsburg.

10. Have you ever attended a Broadway or Off Broadway or Community Theatre production with great costumes? Leave a clip or photo here of your favorite.

Don’t most theater productions have great costumes? Well, to respond to this question, I’m just going with my favorite Broadway musical of all-time, Les Misérables.

FOWC with Fandango — Payment

Fandango28 Comments
FOWC

It’s October 27, 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 “payment.”

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.