Day: July 15, 2023

Saved By the Silence

Fandango13 Comments

I penned the letter in long hand using the fountain pen I inherited from my grandfather. But you complained that you had a migraine and how the scratching noises my pen-tip made on the fabric bond paper I was using was driving you crazy.

So then I broke out my old Remington typewriter and started to type the letter. But this time you complained about the ruckus from the clackety clack of the keys hitting the platen.

So then I opened up my laptop and restarted the letter, but you said you were still annoyed by the clicking sound of the laptop’s keyboard.

So then I found one of those newfangled tablets with the virtual keypad that enables you to put down your ideas in silence. And then you smiled, told me that was better, and demanded that I finish composing my letter so that we could get this whole mess over with.

But someone with my experience is a survivor, and what you didn’t realize was that when you pushed me to the tablet with the silent virtual keypad, I was no longer creating the suicide letter you demanded of me, but had started a chat session with the local police and they would be breaking down the door in about two seconds to arrest you for attempted murder. Ah, there they are now.

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (penned), Ragtag Daily Prompt (type), Your Daily Word Prompt (ruckus), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (newfangled), The Daily Spur (experience), and My Vivid Blog (survivor).

Weekend Writing Prompt — Six Months Out

Fandango39 Comments

It’s been six months since I fell off a ladder, busting my left hip and my right humerus at the shoulder and having had emergency partial hip replacement surgery.

My recuperation is progressing, albeit slowly. I’m still going to physically therapy three times a week. I still can’t walk around without a cane and I still have limited use of my right arm and shoulder without pain.

I’m feeling dejected.

(Exactly 70 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the prompt is “dejected” in exactly 70 words.

SoCS — The Soundtrack of My Life

Fandango8 Comments

For today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has given us the word “record,” and use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way we’d like.

I used to have a very large record collection. I started collecting records in high school and had a significant number of 45s. By the time I was in my twenties, most of the records I bought were albums.

At some point, maybe in the late 60s or early 70s, I started buying cassette tapes and recording my albums onto those cassettes so that I could listen to music on my car’s tape deck or in my portable Walkman cassette player. But I still bought record albums. It wasn’t until the late 80s or early 90s that I stopped buying records and started buying music CDs.

Most of the CDs I bought were actually duplicates of the records I had bought in the 60s through the early 80s and by the time Apple introduced its iPod MP3 music player, I was actually able to connect my compact disc player to my iPod and rip the songs from the CDs to my iPod. And later, from my iPod to my iPhone.

Back in 2010, when my wife and I moved to San Francisco from Massachusetts, having ripped all of the music on my CDs to my iPhone, I decided to give away my record collection, my cassette tapes, and my CDs, rather than schlep them all across country. Now, I don’t have a record turntable, a cassette player, or a CD player. The entire soundtrack of my life is on my iPhone.

And now for a different kind of record. As I was driving home from physical therapy this afternoon, I noticed that my car’s outdoor temperature gauge displayed this temperature:

This 100° temperature was not a record. Two weeks ago it reached 102°, the recorded high so far this year in my town. But I can guarantee you that, before this summer here is over, we may set some new record high temps.

FOWC with Fandango — Newfangled

Fandango17 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 “newfangled.”

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.