Posted in Challenges

Border Crossing

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“Jerry, how much traffic backup is there now? Can you see the statistics?” Rhonda asked..

“You don’t want to know. Hundreds of vehicles. Mostly oil trucks. Some are stuck to the road. The snow is starting to falling.”

Jerry and Rhonda were agents working at the Portal, North Dakota border crossing site. Portal is one of only three 24 hour, seven-day per week border crossings from the U.S. into Canada. It was December. Trade between the U.S. and Canada didn’t wait on the weather.

There was suddenly a break in the action. A big oil rig was stuck in the ice on the road. Some of the workers were trying to help. Jerry jumped up and went to the back room of the checkpoint. Rhonda watched the truck for a moment and then followed him.

Jerry grabbed her and said, “At least it gives me a moment alone with you.”

Posted in Challenges

The Estate

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She sat down at the end of the counter in her favorite diner. She knew she had to eat while someone else was with her very sick mother. Ruby, the waitress, came and took her order.

Her cousin, Mac, suddenly walked into the diner and sat down beside her.

“Ally, we have to talk about her estate,” he said. “She wanted the cousins to share in the estate.”

“What do you want me to do, Mac? There is no will.”

“Make a fair distribution, Ally.”

“If she wanted you to have anything, she would have made a will,” Ally said.

Posted in Challenges

The Coyote

It stared at me, its eyes never leaving mine. I slowly pulled the pistol out of the waistband of my jeans and raised my arm, aiming it. It never flinched. My left hand held my dog’s leash. My dog was what it wanted. That wasn’t going to happen. A standoff had ensued.

Posted in Challenges

One Liner Wednesday

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This is one line from the novel I’m currently working on, a psychological thriller:

“Even though she was there with him and he held her lovingly, he didn’t think about her because sociopaths don’t do that kind of thing.”

Posted in Challenges

The Accident

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Sasha drove home from town. As she passed a driveway, she almost crashed her car as something hit her in the driver’s side door. She knew instantly it was a deer. She pulled over and jumped out. There she was, by the car. She had hit hard, destroyed the door, but she was still alive. Sasha loved the deer and fed them daily. She knew she couldn’t move her and she called her neighbor to help. She seemed to have a bad chest injury.

John knew she couldn’t be saved and humanely shot her. Sasha felt her heart break.

Posted in Challenges

Garden Party

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“Dah-ling,” Veronica bellowed, as Beatrice walked into the rooftop garden above her penthouse apartment. “Is Constance with you?”

“There she is! Oh, Constance, love. Come sit, both of you. The butler will bring another chair.”

“What a beautiful place, Veronica,” Beatrice said.

There was a fine lunch for the women to eat spread out on the table. They talked as they ate.

Veronica remarked that they had to decide on an admissions policy update for their Women’s Club. She suggested that the dues be raised.

Constance said, “Veronica, if we raise the dues that high, we are pricing many women out of the market.”

“Don’t we only want women in the club who are our kind,” asked Veronica. Beatrice got up and walked over to the railing.

Constance also got up and said, “No, if that’s the kind of club this is, I quit.”

“Well, I never!” said Veronica.

Beatrice and Constance walked out.

Posted in Challenges

Murder and the Bats

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“Inspector, we know he is on a bicycle because we think we saw him on the village road, ” said the mayor of the Southern Parish of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in England.

“He may be trying to get into one of the deep dales between the Three Peaks.”

“That sounds like a good place to hide,” said the Inspector.

“What is his crime, sir?” asked the mayor.

“Murder, Mr. Mayor. He was in a pub fight with a man who disparaged his wife,” remarked the Inspector. “Since Yorkshire Dales was close, we were able to track him here fairly easily. Even though I’m new on the job, I’ve heard it was a good place to hide.”

“There are many caves in those dales. Lots of places for a murderer to hide,” the major reflected.

The suspect’s wife walked in to assist with the search.

“He won’t hide in those caves,” she said. “He is afraid of the bats!”

 

Posted in Challenges

Song Lyric Sunday: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

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Of course, given my generation, I would choose Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds since the theme this week is a song with precious gemstones in the title.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

The Beatles

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you’re gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Picture yourself…

Posted in Challenges

#SoCS – 05/06/2017

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I have friendship on my mind today as I have recently made some new friends, revived some old and cherished friendships, and continued some very valued friendships. I’ve also lost some friends. You also never know, until it’s usually too late, when you’re dealing with fake friends.

Friendship is one of the most fulfilling interactions one can have. I feel that friendship is just as important as love or marital relationships. When I decided to live a portion of each year in Florida, I worried about losing friends here in Kentucky. I could only hope that my Kentucky friends would put up with my months’ long absences. I knew that true friends would. I have some old, cherished friends in the Kentucky and Tennessee area. I’ve also been able to revive two important friendships recently. I’m thrilled that both were able to be revived as the two pjeople with whom I’m friends were and are very important to me.

I’ve also lost two friendships. I’m sad about both, but I feel that there were perhaps reasons that the loss of these friendships happened and perhaps it was for the best. Sometimes, people just aren’t meant to be close.

It seems as we get older, we don’t see our friends as much. I know I don’t. Why? In my case, life is too busy and I’m too tired. By the time I finish with each day, I am ready to fall into bed! There are some days I have time and energy to see friends but not every day. I’m still working part-time and taking care of a house. I’m writing a book which is a massive job. Don’t you wonder how we ever had time to work full time? I know I do. I would like to spend time with each and every friend every week, but that is not to be.

I tend to make long-lasting friendships. Friendships that last a lifetime. I don’t boast hundreds of friends. I think if you have a handful of real friends in your entire life, you have been very lucky indeed.

I’ve discovered that it’s difficult to make friends at my stage in life. As you get older, I think you are less open to friendship, probably more suspicious and less accepting. In my new home in Florida, I’ve met really nice people and am starting to make friends. I’m really happy about that.

Do you ever consider the concept of fake friends? People who say they are friends but they are not. People who pretend to be friends but are anything but. People who just want to mine you for information for their gossip and they are not friends at all. Watch out for these people.

I’m thankful for all my friends. My  friends who I’ve had for a lifetime. New friends I’m just starting to get to know. There is one thing about friendship. You have to cultivate it and then shelter it and take care of it like a carefully tended plant if you want it to be successful.

Friendship, to me, is one of the most fulfilling of all relationships.

Posted in Challenges, Writing

Three Things Thursday

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Three Things Thursday is just a fun little exercise about things we have been grateful  for during the past week. Here goes!

ONE

Going to the pier in Bokeelia, Florida for the last time until fall! I love the ocean and this pier is awesome. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to go to this pier, visit with the wonderful people there, see the fish and birds, and photograph the sunrises and sunsets.

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TWO

Learning about the tropical birds of South Florida. I won’t see these guys again until fall. This is an egret sitting on the banks of the lake behind our place.

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An Egret at the edge of the lake at our house

THREE

Getting back home to Kentucky after being gone for awhile to our island in the sun in Florida. This is a bur oak tree that used to be in our back yard.

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