Tag: random

#FridayFragment: 27.07.2018

Papyrus text: fragment of Hippocratic oath: verso, showing oath. Via Wkimedia Commons.

I dropped my piece of toast, butter-side down.

“What the … ?” I stared. Blinked. Stared again.

But it was really there. Without a doubt. On my pantry shelf there sat an emerald-green dragon, all of four inches long from small smoke-spouting snout to lithe, whipping tail, its scales glittering in the light that fell through the doorway from the kitchen.

“Sssss!” it hissed at me.

“Sssss to you too!” I hissed back at it.

I should have known right there that I wasn’t quite in my right mind – having a hissing contest with a miniature dragon, rather than running screaming from the pantry or at least backing out slowly and carefully and then gently soaking my head in a sinkful of cold water until the hallucinations went away.

There was a knock on the front door.

#FridayFragment: 13.07.2018

Papyrus text: fragment of Hippocratic oath: verso, showing oath. Via Wkimedia Commons.

“I really don’t know,” Liza said.

The clock ticked, slicing the silence into slivers.

“Yeah.” Crystal put her tumbler down on the glass coaster.

Its soft “clink” suddenly irritated Liza. Glass coasters! Stupid, round, pressed-“crystal” things that her Aunt Sue had given her as an engagement present!

What would happen if she picked up the whole stupid stack of the stupid things and sent them hurling into the plate glass of the picture window? One by one – Crash! Smash! Ker-chunk!

But she didn’t.

“Would you like -” No. She couldn’t chuck Aunt Sue’s stupid glass coasters into the front yard through the  picture window, but damned if she was going to sit there, politely plying Crystal with iced tea while the woman dissected Liza’s pathetic existence.

Liza stood.

“I should get going,” she said. “So if you don’t mind…”

Crystal gaped up at her for a moment, then shut her perfectly lip-sticked mouth with an audible snap.

“I thought you said you didn’t know…”

“Yes, well.” Liza picked up Crystal’s tumbler. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do and places to go.”

She didn’t – but she wasn’t going to tell her cousin that.

Snowy Day

Nothing terribly witty or profound today. Just some pictures of the snow piling up on the balcony, and Louis keeping a close eye on the birds at the feeder – you never know when somebody’ll open the door and you get a chance to try to grab one. You can always hope, right?

And that’s Life, the Universe, and a Snowy Day.

Marbleous Monday: Source of Greatness

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THE SOURCE OF GREATNESS

For one fleeting moment
This icy cold morning
The marble casts a shadow
Much longer than itself

Blue fire sparks in its depths
A comet
Blazing a trail
Across the orange peel of kitchen counter

Then the winter sunrise
Is swallowed up by clouds

And once again
There is but
A small ball of glass.

5.12.2016

This, That, and NaNoWriMo’s Over

I was going to write an erudite and contemplative post for you today. It was going to be all about why I do NaNoWriMo, even though every year I just about lose my marbles with the stress of trying to finish. Or maybe about some more editorial pontifications on Point of View and Tense (first or third? past or present?). Or about the wonders of community (which actually ties right in with point #1).

But I tried to write, and it just wasn’t coming out right – I was sounding way too preachy, or, conversely, too trite, even to my own ears. I think I might have used up most of my words on my story over the last 32 days.

So I thought, forget this nonsense; I’ll just show you a few pictures. You know, worth a thousand words, blah blah.

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That’s what it looked like, my computer.
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A marble that wasn’t lost.
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Making tracks.
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Louis watching his first snowfall.
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Steve. And my tea.

Life, the Universe, and Five Thousand Words Worth of Pictures. Happy December!

Random

Gadzooks, I haven’t posted anything here since last Sunday! Well, I been busy. Fact is, I’m still busy. It’s not that I haven’t had thoughts on stuff to write about, just didn’t get to writing it.

So, meanwhile, here’s a few pictures to tide you over:

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My seedlings on the back steps, ready to be planted out. (Yes, the spuds went out too. They were sprouting in the cupboard, so I figured they may as well put those roots to good use).
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The veg bed the seedlings went into. We call it the TIE fighter.
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The roses on the bush by the front door are just opening up…
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…and there’s a pocket panther lurking underneath it.

And that for today is Life, the Universe, and Random Stuff. Talk to you soon!