perfect

Five Word Weekly Challenge — Exotic, Not Erotic

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Calvin put his index finger in his mouth, ran his tongue over it, removed it from his mouth, and stuck it in the air. “Ah, a light zephyr breeze coming in from the west,” he said almost to himself, “Perfect.”

The always flirtatious Amanda, Calvin’s girlfriend, grabbed Calvin’s left butt cheek, squeezed it a little, and in her youthful exuberance, said “Perfect, indeed.”

“Okay,” Calvin said, “I’m going to launch the drone, and with any luck we’ll get some amazing photos of the more exotic plants in the Botanical Gardens, which we can use for our class botany project.”

Amanda once again squeezed Calvin’s left butt cheek and said, “And speaking about erotic plants.”

“Exotic, not erotic,” Calvin corrected her.

“Whatever,” Amanda said, giving his butt cheek yet another squeeze, whereupon Calvin’s drone crashed into a tree.

Written for Greg’s Five Word Weekly Challenge, where the words are botanical, flirtatious, zephyr, youthful, and drone. Image credit: Bing Image Creator.

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Perfect Woman

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Todd was very pleased with the outcome. The 3D printer cost him a bundle, but its value was hard to quantify. What price can you assign to creating the perfect woman?

She had the beauty of his dream girl, but without the constant hassle of a living, breathing female. He could finally possess a woman and still live in peace. He needn’t worry about saying the wrong thing and facing a bitter harangue. What could possibly be better than a lifelike foam and rubber mannequin?

(Exactly 85 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “mannequin.”

Also for Word of the Day Challenge (quantify), Ragtag Daily Prompt (peace), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (harangue). Photo credit: KatTraill @ DeviantArt.com. Image stylized using Prisma.

And, before anyone jumps all over me for this rather misogynistic post, I am nothing like Todd. I much prefer a flesh and blood woman to a mannequin, even if that means suffering through a harangue every once in a while.

Blogging Insights — A Perfect Moment

Fandango11 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is unattributed. Dr. Tanya wrote “…blogger Fandango will probably call it another ‘fortune cookie statement.’” Not wanting to disappoint Tanya…

When I see this quote in makes me think of the old adage, “There’s no time like the present.” That essentially means that the best time to do something is right now. Don’t procrastinate, don’t put off until tomorrow what you should do today. Who can argue with that?

But being the nit-picker that I am, I’m going to focus on the work “perfect.” For something to be perfect, it must be free from faults or defects. I, for one, don’t seek perfection in my life because I’d be setting myself up for disappointment. Call me jaded, but I truly believe that nothing in this world is free from faults or defects. Not people, not things, not lives.

Right now I’m in bed with a bad cold and I’m tapping this out on my iPhone. The conditions are far from perfect, but I feel that the best time to respond to Dr. Tanya’s prompt is right now because I’m awake, although as soon as I finish posting this, I’ll probably close my eyes and try to get some much needed sleep.

Of course I may come back and read this later and think I must have been delirious with fever when I wrote it. But maybe that’s what people think when they read most of my posts.

50 Word Thursday — The Flip

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He backed carefully into the room, turned, and stared. Perfect, he thought. He marveled at the arched ceiling in the entryway, the beautiful windows, and the thick walls. All it would take is a little TLC, and some sweat equity, and he could make a hefty bundle flipping this property.

(50 words)

Written for the 50 Word Thursday prompt from Debbie Whittam at Twenty Four. The idea is to the photo above and the line, “He backed carefully into the room, turned, and stared,” from Darcie Wilde’s Lord of The Rakes as our muse. Our story must be between 50 and 250 words, in 50 word increments.

#writephoto — The Perfect Tree

Fandango24 Comments

2B5433D4-9F88-4FF7-9F71-C0ABFC709848”Dad, let’s go. I’m cold,” Doug said.

“Yeah, me too, Dad,” Dana said, echoing her older brother.

“Steve please,” Arlene said. “We’ve been out here for hours and you still haven’t found your ‘perfect’ tree. It’s going to be dark soon, the kids are tired and, quite frankly, so am I.”

“Just a little while longer, hon,” Craig said. “I don’t want to have to come all the way back out here again. I’ll know it when I see it.”

Arlene looked at her watch. “Kids, let’s give Dad another 15 minutes,” she said. “If he hasn’t found his perfect tree by then, we’ll go.”

“Aw Mom!” the kids said in unison.

After about five minutes of walking deeper into the woods, Steve stopped abruptly. “Look,” he said excitedly. “Look at the way the late afternoon sun is shining directly through the branches of that tree and down upon us. It’s a sign from the heavens that this tree, this perfect tree, was meant to be our family’s Christmas tree this year.”

Steve took his portable, gas-powered chain saw out of its sack, and went to work on the base of the tree. It was almost dark by the time he had the tree down and was able to maneuver it onto the large sled. He hauled the tree-laden sled back to where they had parked the family’s pickup truck.

The drive back to town would take a few hours, and both of kids and Arlene had fallen asleep shortly after Steve started driving. Despite having poured himself a cup of lukewarm coffee from the thermos he almost always had with him, Steve, himself, was struggling to keep his eyes open.

*****
It wasn’t until mid-morning the next day when the park rangers discovered the overturned pickup truck at the bottom of the steep ravine.

Written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt. Sorry about the dark turn this story took. I didn’t expect it to go in that direction, but that’s where it went.