Day: July 11, 2023

Twiglet: Flip the Switch

Fandango14 Comments

Edgar stumbled over something in his path from the bedroom to the bathroom. He couldn’t imagine what it was, since he lived alone and he was a bit of an obsessive-compulsive neatnick. “A place for everything and everything in its place,” he would say when people commented on how tidy his house was.

Fortunately Edgar didn’t fall and hurt himself, but he hesitated to walk further, feeling a bit vulnerable about something not being where it ought to be. Should he head back toward his bedroom, flip the switch to the hallway light to see what caused him to stumble? Or should he hug the hallway wall in the few remaining steps toward the bathroom and flip the switch there?

Not a complicated decision, by any stretch. One of two ways to go. So why was Edgar frozen with indecision? How did something get out of place and cause him to stumble and almost fall? “Please,” Edgar said. “Is someone else here in my house?” Of course there was no response to his inquiry.

The urge to use the toilet got to him, and he decided to hug the wall and move to the bathroom. Once he got there, he turned on the bathroom light, looked back down the hallway to see what it was that caused him to stumble, only to find that there was nothing between his bedroom and the bathroom that seemed capable of causing him to stumble. But his urge to pee exceeded his need to solve the stumble puzzle, so he closed the bathroom door, peed, flushed the toilet, opened the bathroom door, peered down the hallway toward his bedroom, and saw that there was nothing out of place there.

Satisfied that his journey back to the bedroom should be unimpeded, Edgar turned off the bathroom light, and began cautiously walking back to his bedroom. And that’s when he stubbed his toe. “Fuck!” Edgar yelled, as he hopped toward his bedroom.

He flipped the switch on the hall light just in time to see something that made Edgar question his sanity. It was his prized Bonsai tree that his daughter gave him for his birthday scurrying down the hall using two roots sticking out of the bottom of the planter to propel itself down the hall.

Edgar walked back to his bedroom, sat down on his bed, picked up his cellphone, and texted his daughter. The text read:

Call me when you wake up. Either I’m having a serious acid flashback or the Bonsai tree you gave me is sentient.

Written for Misky’s Twiglet, “flip the switch.” And for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One Word Challenge (stumble), Your Daily Word Prompt (hesitate), Word of the Day Challenge (vulnerable), My Vivid Blog (please), The Daily Spur (tree), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (sentient).

In the Groove

Fandango47 Comments

In her In the Groove post today, Nancy (aka the Sicilian Storyteller) focused on one of the most classic of classic rock songs, Chicago’s “25 or 26 to 4.” In her post she explained why Chicago, which had been invited to perform at Woodstock, did not. And then Nancy asked us this question:

Did you attend Woodstock or any other similar musical event? Tell us something about your experience.

No, I did not attend Woodstock, but I did attend the May 1, 1971 concert in Washington, D.C. A crowd estimated at 35-50,000 showed up to watch and listen to rock bands at West Potomac Park on the opening day of planned Mayday demonstrations designed to shut down the government in protest of the Vietnam War.

Three of my friends and I packed up one cooler with sandwiches and snacks, another cooler with beer, and backpacks with nickel bags of Acapulco Gold pot and rolling papers. We arrived early enough on that Saturday to be able to spread our blanket and stake our claim maybe about 30 feet from the stage. And precisely at noon, the opening act, The Beach Boys, kicked things off.

My friends and I spent most of the day chilling out, getting stoned, drinking beer, and listening to the concert performances. Included among those we saw, in addition to The Beach Boys, were Linda Ronstadt, Mitch Ryder, Phil Oaks, Country Joe and the Fish, Mother Earth, Charlie Mingus, and others that in my state of mind, I can’t recall.

I know that the music stopped at around 1 am and I crawled into my sleeping bag and crashed. But at around 5 am, we were rudely awakened by a swarm of D.C. cops and National Guard troops demanding that we leave the park immediately. People protested that we had permits for the concert and to use the area for the entire weekend, and that we were there for the music, not the protest. But when the cops deployed tear gas canisters into the crowd, my friends and I hightailed it outta there.

Apparently the large number that gathered caused concern at the Nixon White House, which quickly mobilized thousands of troops to assist police in breaking up the demonstrations. By the time the mass arrests started on May 2nd, I was safely at home, sleeping it off.

May 3rd marked the largest single day arrests in U.S. history, as over 7,000 demonstrators were rounded up. The four day total from May 2nd through the 5th was over 12,000 attests.

And all I wanted to do was get stoned and listen to rock and roll.

Truthful Tuesday — Progeny

Fandango9 Comments

Di, of Pensitivity101, is our host for Truthful Tuesday. This week Di is asking about what we consider to be our greatest achievement Here’s what Di wants to know:

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement in life todate?

One thing that comes to mind, given the somewhat reckless way I lived my life in my youth, is that I’m still alive in the middle of my seventh decade. There were some close calls along the way that could have ended things a lot earlier.

But my crowning achievements are my two children. They have both grown into fine adults, and in the case of my son, an excellent father. I am proud of both of them.

Fandango’s Story Starter #105

Fandango7 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 or sentence fragment and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence/fragment. 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 unlocked the door as quietly as I could and slipped into the dark kitchen when my wife suddenly flicked on the lights, temporarily blinding me.

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 — Stumble

Fandango24 Comments
FOWC

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 “stumble.”

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.