For Friday Faithfuls this week, Jim Adams has reminded us that we are approaching the annual A to Z Blogging Challenge. I’ve formally enrolled and participated in this challenge each year since 2018. But this year I’m not “officially” participating. I post daily, anyway, with or without the A to Z Challenge.
My A to Z Challenge theme in my five previous years has always been Miscellaneous/Other. In 2018 and 2019 I winged it, picking a miscellaneous, unrelated topic each day that started with the applicable day’s letter. In 2020, I focused on old sayings. In 2021, on TV shows. In 2022, on movies. I may yet pick a theme for my unofficial A to Z Challenge participation this year. We shall see.
But I’m still recuperating from my busted hip and broken arm and will be undergoing physical therapy three times weekly throughout the month. My energy level hasn’t yet returned to what it was and I tire easily. So I’m not ready to commit to a daily A to Z Challenge post, much less to a specific theme.
How’s that for an unequivocal noncommittal to this year’s A to Z Challenge?
Paula Light, at Light Motifs II, has this prompt she calls TGIF. She encourages us to take this opportunity to openly chat or jabber about anything we want.
Every year around this time I start stressing about filing my income taxes, both federal and state. They are normally due on April 15th, but this year that falls on a Saturday, so the tax filing date this year is now on April 18.
Usually I’m on top of this. I’m well organized, have all of my tax forms from my retirement accounts, social security, investments, etc. together, and I sit in front of my laptop using TurboTax and get it done in a few days. And by this time in past years, I’ve already sent in my forms electronically.
But this year, with my busted hip and arm, my surgery, my physical therapy, and all that shit, I haven’t had any time at all to focus on getting my shit together for filing my tax returns. So my stress levels were starting to reach new heights.
But lo and behold, earlier this month, the federal Internet Revenue Service (IRS) announced that Californians in 44 counties — including the one I live in — that were part of the Federal Emergency Management Agencies emergency declaration due to severe winter storms between Dec. 27 and Jan. 31, are getting a filing extension. The deadline for filing returns for those who owe taxes to the federal or the state government has been pushed by six months to October 16!
So now I can continue to focus on my recovery and not fret about a fast approaching tax filing deadline. Woohoo!
Di (aka Pensitivity101) hosts Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. For this week’s Fibbing Friday, Di has once again tapped into the originator of Fibbing Friday, Teresa Grabs, when she was known as The Haunted Wordsmith here on WordPress. Di has picked some more gems from Teresa’s archives.
1. What was the first thing you saw when you looked out the window? — My reflection. 2. What is your favorite way to prepare hot dogs? — Using a blow dryer. 3. What is one thing you covet more than anything else? — Ben & Jerry’s Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream ice cream.
4. You see the wishing star…what is your wish? — I wish I could actually see the wishing star, but there’s too much light and air pollution. 5. You don’t want the leprechaun’s gold…what do you want? — His Lucky Charms.
6. What is the first thing you order at a vegan diner? — A steak from the restaurant next door. 7. Where would you like to visit next? — Fly me to the moon. 8. What is actually in the Doomsday Seed Vault? — Enriched uranium. 9. Who killed J.R.? — Sheriff John Brown. 10. What is yellow snow? — Frozen acid rain.
Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 10th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.
This was originally posted on March 10, 2018.
SoCS — So Far, So Good
When I first read Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “so far,” I was simply going to post two music videos, both with songs titled “So Far Away.” One by Carole King and the other by Dire Straits.
But then I thought that posting two music videos is not exactly a stream of consciousness post, is it? Besides, the prompt is “so far,” not “so far away.”
So getting back on point, I’m a senior citizen who has many more years behind me than I have ahead of me. Some might say I’m in my twilight years, but there are times when it feels more like I’m in the Twilight Zone.
But I digress. Sometimes I think about how my life has been going so far. I’m retired now and I have somehow managed to squirrel away enough to not have to worry that much about outliving my retirement nest egg. Well, as long as I don’t live as long as Methuselah, that is.
My wife and I have no debt. Our house is all paid off, so there are no mortgage payments. No car payments either, and I’m not in the market for a new car. I think I can say with a fair degree of confidence that my wife and I still love one another. Or at least that we’re willing to put up with each other. So far, anyway.
And both of us are healthy. No major maladies or worrisome health issues so far. So that’s good.
We have two grown kids who are great and are doing well for themselves. So far we don’t have any grandkids, but we’re hoping that before too long we’ll have a few.
All things considered, life has been good so far. Sure, there have been ups and downs and bumps in the road. But who hasn’t experienced such things?
Bottom line, then, I’d say so far, so good.
And just for fun, here are those two aforementioned music videos.
2023 update: Just for grins and giggles, I’m adding another song. This one is from Joe Walsh titled “Life’s Been Good” and repeated throughout the song is the refrain, “Life’s been good to me so far.”
It’s March 10, 2023. 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 “toothbrush.”
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.
This, That, and the Other 