Sunday Poser — Unfinished Projects

Fandango14 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser jit, Sadje wants to know…

Do you have any unfinished projects hanging around the house? Do you finish all the projects you start or do they suffer delays or are abandoned midway?

Funny you should ask. This has been a week for projects, primarily outdoor projects. We started three and finished two, but we have stalled on the third one.

Here is what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done:

Here is what it looks like right now:

This is a shed kit I bought on Amazon. The instructions look straightforward and I watched a YouTube video on putting it together. Seemed simple enough. I gathered all of the right tools, put all of the pieces, each labeled with a part number, and laid them out on the ground. And my wife and I, working hand in hand, started putting the shed together.

The different pieces are supposed to fit together, each piece designed to slide into another. But that’s easier said than done. Either they don’t easily slide into the other or we cannot manage to make them slide into one another.

We worked on it for a few hours on Friday, but we’ve had other commitments this weekend. So we’re going to be back at it tomorrow. I told my wife that if we can’t make significant progress putting the shed together by the end of the day tomorrow, I may just advertise on the local community site for a reliable, competent handyman to help get this shed all put together.

Cellpic Sunday — The Future of Transportation

Fandango6 Comments

John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. He invites us to participate in this cellphone photo prompt by creating our own CellPic Sunday post and linking it back to his.

John is in Arizona sharing photographs of purple Porsches and classic Cadillacs. That reminded me of an evening last year when I was in downtown Oakland on my way to meet some friends at a restaurant there. Apparently the East Bay Bicycle Club has a different perspective on cars, whether purple or vintage or any and all other types gas-powered vehicles (and maybe even EVs for all I know).

I took this photo of what was projected over the entrance to a municipal building in Oakland. Phone: iPhone 12 Pro Max. The photo has been resize for posting on my blog.

Song Lyric Sunday — Boy Toy

Fandango11 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song about toys, suggested by Barbara from teleportingweena ghostmmnc. The song I’m going with is “I’m Your Puppet,” recorded by James & Bobby Purify.

The song “I’m Your Puppet” was written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. The most well-known version was recorded by James & Bobby Purify, and it reached number 5 on the U.S. R&B chart and number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1967. The song was featured on the 1967 album James & Bobby Purify.

James & Bobby Purify was an R&B duo that originally comprised of cousins James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey. It was these two who recorded this 1966 release. Dickey retired because of health problems at the end of the decade and James Purify re-recorded the song with a new “Bobby Purify,” Ben Moore in 1976. The 1976 re-record was a hit in the UK, peaking at number 12 and also charting highly in The Netherlands.

According to writer Dan Penn, the song came out of nowhere. “We ate dinner at this barbecue place across from Fame studio and then went back. I broke out this cheap 12–string, cooked up the rhythm, Spooner got behind the piano and the magic happened,” Penn said. “Who knows where it came from, but I was walking around singing, ‘The Puppet,’ and we cut the demo right then and there.”

The song is about a boy who will do anything and everything for his girlfriend. All she has to do is pull his strings.

Here are the lyrics to “I’m Your Puppet.”

Pull the string and I'll wink at you, I'm your puppet
I'll do funny things if you want me to, I'm your puppet

I'm yours to have and to hold
Darling you've got full control of your puppet

Pull another string and I'll kiss your lips, I'm your puppet
Snap your finger and I'll turn you some flips, I'm your puppet

Listen, your every wish is my command
All you gotta do is wiggle your little hand
I'm your puppet, I'm your puppet

I'm just a toy, just a funny boy
That makes you laugh when you're blue
I'll be wonderful, do just what I'm told
I'll do anything for you
I'm your puppet, I'm your puppet

Pull them little strings and I'll sing you a song, I'm your puppet
Make me do right or make me do wrong, I'm your puppet

Treat me good and I'll do anything
I'm just a puppet and you hold my string, I'm your puppet

Darling, darling, pull the strings, let me sing you a song any day
I'm your puppet baby, you can sing for me all night long

Honey, yeah

FOWC with Fandango — Fuel

Fandango11 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 “fuel.”

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, ÿplease 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.

MLMM — Story Starter — This Option is Off the Table

Fandango10 Comments

She threw back the glass of wine and stormed out of the room.

“Sharon wait!” Nick called out as he ran after her. He finally caught up with her on the street just outside the restaurant and touched her shoulder.

Sharon spun around so she was facing Nick. Looking directly into his eyes, she said, “What? There’s nothing left to say, is there, Nick?” Sharon tried not to cry but her eyes started to well over. “We’ve been together for almost a year and a half and I was expecting an engagement ring. I was not prepared for you to announce that we need to take a break from each other.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you,” Nick said. “I do with all my heart. But I think the prudent thing for us to do as a couple is to take a few months off so we can make sure this is what we both want.”

“The prudent thing to do? Are you serious, Nick?” Sharon said. “Well, if you’re not sure whether or not you want to marry me, then by all means, take as much time as you need to consider your options. But just so you know, this option,” Sharon said, pointing to herself with her thumb, “is off the table.” And for the second time in five minutes, Sharon turned around and stormed away.

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Story Starter Saturday Mix. Photo credit: inspirationalblog.com