WDYS — The Milky Way

Brad received the bad news rather well, all thinks considered. The prognosis wasn’t good. Hopeless, actually. His cancer had metastasized and there was nothing they could do anymore. he was given only three or four months. So Brad decided he would start working through the items he’d put on his bucket list eighteen months ago when he was first diagnosed.

Brad had always been a city boy and recently he had started getting interested in the stars and planets in the night sky. But living in the city, light pollution made it all but impossible to see the majesty of a night sky. So the first item on his bucket list was to find someplace way out of the range of light pollution so he could see a magnificent starry night.

He immediately thought about Montana, known as “big sky country,” and going to Montana and being able to see our galaxy, the Milky Way, was number one on his list. A week later, with his pup tent, sleeping bag, a lantern, and not much else, Brad was in the middle of nowhere in Montana.

The night was cold and crisp and beautifully clear. As the sun was setting, Brad looked up and saw what must have been billions of stars, and as it got darker and darker, the giant swath of milky haze in the sky became visible. It was an awesome sight to behold.

Brad spent a few hours looking up at the Milky Way, until he made his way back to his tent. He had to get some sleep and prepare for the second item on this bucket list. He’d be heading to the tundra in Alaska so he could experience seeing the shimmering aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights.


Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: EvgeniT @ Pixabay.

MLMM Lucky Dip Saturday Mix — Mistaken Identity

I telephoned the airline to buy a plane ticket to Egypt so I could visit the land of the pyramids. On the way to the airport, I was pulled over by a police car with a flashing red light and siren. The cops claimed that my car was used as the getaway car in a bank robbery and they took me to the police station and locked me up in a cell.

After about an hour, a cop came to my cell, put a key in the keyhole of the cell door, and told me to follow the arrow to the room where I was to appear in a lineup. Of course, no one could identify me, and it turned out that while I was in the lineup room, the police arrested the actual getaway car driver.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 4:00. “Dammit,” I said, “there’s no way, without some sort of magic wand, that I’ll be able to make my flight.”

The sheriff heard me and apparently felt bad about detaining me in a clear case of mistaken identity. He offered to have one of his officers take me to the airport in a squad car so that I could get there in time.


Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Lucky Dip Saturday Mix.

SoCS — A Sinking Feeling

“Look, Chet, I know that you sank a lot of money into that stock I recommended to you earlier this year,” Roger, Chet’s stock broker said, “but the market is in a downturn, so, yeah, you’re a little underwater at the moment. But let me assure that this is a temporary situation. Yes, stock prices are way down, but they’re going to rebound and now would be the ideal time to buy more shares when prices are low.”

“So are you telling me that you’re recommending I sink even more money into that same stock that I have already sunk most of my life’s saving into?” Chet asked Roger.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying, Chet,” Roger said. “Because when the market rebounds, and it will rebound, every penny you will have sunk into that stock will be recovered and because you bought low and can sell high, you’ll realize a significant profit.”

“Roger, let me ask you a question,” Chet said. Without waiting for Roger to answer, Chet continued. “You earn a commission on each transaction you make for me, right? So you earned a commission when you initially bought those shares for me, and even though the market value of the shares is in the toilet, you haven’t lost anything. Now you want me to sink even more money into that company and you’ll earn a commission from that transaction, too. Am I right so far, Roger?”

“Um, yes, that’s correct,” Roger said.

“And when I sell these shares in the future,” Chet said, “regardless of whether I made or lost money on my investment in this company that you recommended to me, you’ll get a commission then, too, right?”

“Yes, that’s how it works.”

“I’m glad that works for you, Roger,” Chet said, “but it doesn’t work for me. You’re fired, Roger.”


Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where Linda has asked us to use the words “sink, sank, and/or sunk in our posts.

MLMM Friday Faithfuls — May 26th

For Jim Adams’ Mindlovemisery’s Friday Faithfuls, Jim has asked us to respond to his prompt by writing anything about about May 26th.

To me, other than today being the last Friday in May and for some, a day to take off from work in order to have a four-day Memorial Day weekend (if you live in the U.S.), there’s nothing special or noteworthy about May 26th.

I went back in my archives and discovered a prompt post from last year on May 26th that Jim introduced called “Wednesday Thoughts.” So, I thought that for today’s Friday Faithfuls I’d repost what I posted one year ago today for Jim’s Wednesday Thoughts prompt.


Wednesday Thoughts — Keep the Mother Rolling

Jim Adams has a new prompt he’s calling Wednesday Thoughts. (Yes, I know it’s Thursday and I’m a day late. Sue me.)

In this prompt, Jim is giving us a title to his post and then is asking us to share what we think about the title, which this week is “Keep the Mother Rolling.”

Here’s what I came up with:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Their mother went with them
Because she felt she oughta

She didn’t trust her kids
To ever do anything right
So she followed them
Never letting them out of her sight

Jack and Jill grew very resentful
Of being under the watchful eye
Of their overbearing mother
They decided that they had to try

To stop being oppressed by that woman
And being punished for all of their toiling
So at the top of the hill they did her in
And down the hill they had to
Keep their mother rolling