What Are the Odds? – Friday Fictioneers

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Dale | 123 Comments

Hola my peeps! Yessiree, it’s me, participatin’ in the weekly activity known as Friday Fictioneers which starts on a Wednesday, coz that’s how we roll… Get in early, keep up with the new arrivals and Bob’s your uncle! This week, our hostess with the mostest, Rochelle, has selected a photo from Lisa Fox. Don’t ask me why I went where I did. I just did. Coz that’s how I roll 😉 Plus, OK… maybe when I first saw the image smaller, I saw something else. But since my brain went there, who am I to redirect it? If’n you come up with something more betterer, then please, by all means, click on the frog below and add the link to your 100-word story!

Click me to play

There’s the pistol! And they’re off! We can barely tell one from the other. Round the bend they go and it’s Smiley-Joe in the lead. Not too far behind is Jack-in-the-Box with Happy-Go-Lucky sneaking up. Lucky Charm is at the back of the pack and there is no way he’s gonna be a contender!

Wait! What’s going on? There he goes… he’s surging outta the pack! Holy crap! He’s past Suzie-Q, now Sweet-Cheeks. He’s closing in on Happy-Go-Lucky!

My God! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like he’s possessed! Whoa! What an upset! No one saw Lucky Charm coming!

***

K. Normally I don’t dig on explanations to stories, choosing for readers to make of it what they will. However, let me just say I thought I saw a vine climbing higher…

The Beat Must Go On

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Dale | 132 Comments

Might be more out there than I usually am. Hopefully not too far! In response to dVerse Quadrille challenge, hosted by Mish who has given us the word “Drum” to play with. I usually avoid the topics of the day but somehow, this felt like the direction to go in. I think I spent as much time creating my image as I did creating my verse!

Earth has lost her rhythm

Her drum is struggling

to keep time

So many instruments

trying to be heard

voices not melodious

Each believes it more

important than the other

cacophony

We need the backbone

that is the drum

to bring back some harmony

Lookout – Friday Fictioneers

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Dale | 158 Comments

Good Wednesday morning, my peeps! Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods coz it sure and sh*t ain’t here. Again. Rochelle was kind enough to supply us with palm trees, if no sunshine through Susan Eames’ fun photo.

Wanna join in the fun? Click on the blue frog below to add your 100-word story. Easy peasy! G’head, give us a story!

Click me to play!

Lookout

“Hear anything yet?”

“Nuthin’. But I’m keepin’ a lookout.”

“Dude, You gonna sit up there till she’s found? It’s been seventeen days already. She’s probably dead. If she’s even lost at all. Maybe she just ran off.”

“No. She’s smart. She’s a physical therapist and yoga instructor—”

“So? She left her cell in her car. How smart can she be?”

“She’s an experienced hiker. Something must have happened.”

“If you say so.”

“Hang on, just heard something. She’s been found by helicopter! Lost her shoes and broke her leg but she’s safe. See? Told you she didn’t run off.”

“Huh.”

*****

Thanks to my buddy Marc over at Sorryless who reminded me of a story in the news. Maybe you didn’t hear of it, maybe you did. Click here for more info, if’n you’re interested.

Timing is Everything

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Dale | 89 Comments

Along with millions around the world, I, too, wept in shock to see the images of the magnificent Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral burn. It is illogical to think that these things will last forever but, let’s face it, she has been standing for 800 years. We have gotten used to her existence.

I could not help but think how, if I had sold my house six months ago, I would be there right now, today, April 16. I had put my deposit on Cook in France, the newest destination cooking getaway created by Linda and George Meyers of Cook in Tuscany, a year ago, thinking my house would be sold and settled, and, even if I hadn’t moved yet, I’d be free to roam Burgundy and Paris for three weeks. Notre Dame would definitely have been on my itinerary.

And now I’ll never see her in all her glory. Even though she is badly wounded and not completely destroyed, any restoration that will take place will take years. I don’t doubt it will happen. I just don’t know if I will ever see any of it. This does sound woe-is-me-ish, doesn’t it? I don’t suppose I am alone in this one. Oh, there are those who have no desire to travel and see the world and that’s okay. I’m just not one of them.

This thought, of course, begat more thoughts and I found myself remembering those times where the fates were against me (protected me?) such as the time we left late to go to the movies, and as a result were behind an overpass crashing down as I once wrote about here. Had we left earlier… who knows?

How some people were supposed to be at the Twin Towers on that fateful day but missed their plane, slept in, whatever; while others, on a whim decided to join up for breakfast as did two sisters, only to have it be their last meal.

I could, of course list many a coulda, shoulda woulda or a couldna, wouldna, didna but they will all end up in the same place. This or that did or didn’t happen. Call it fate, call it “not your time”, call it happenstance; doesn’t matter. Whatever works for you to understand the why you missed something or not.

I’ve never been a proponent of the “why me?” mentality. The opposite holds true, as a matter of fact. Why the hell NOT me? Why should I deserve or not deserve whatever I am receiving?

Which brings me to a show I loved that sadly only lasted two seasons. “Dead Like Me”, with Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin and Jasmin Guy, who play grim reapers, working to collect souls: the names and times of death received on post-it notes. It might seem blasphemous to end this serious-starting post with a comedic-drama show but that’s how I roll.