Suzie’s House 213 : Big Idea
“Humph!” The idiot. How hard could it be to sit down and write a story? Lisa stomped her way down the hall, feeling awkward for being in Ben’s house after saying something she knew would make him mad, as if the house itself were telling her she didn’t belong here.
“Hey, Lisa.” Tracy came out of Gene’s room. She had a rosy look to her cheeks, and Lisa suspected she and Gene had been kissing.
Gene came to the doorway, looking a little rumbled.
“Goodbye, my sweet darling,” Tracy said over-grandly. “See you tomorrow?”
55 – To a Stranger
Yep, random, unrelated picture again. I’m glad you guys let me get away with this.
“Now where has it gone?”
Passport, driver’s license, lipstick, coins… she digs through her purse, bringing out too much information with the bottle of medicine, the movie ticket stub, and the used tissues.
“No, no, don’t go anywhere. I’m sure it’s here.”
At last, iPod found, she calls them up. Baby pictures.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Flash Fiction 55 is hosted by the G-man, a host with the most.
13 Housing Stories.
Last week I talked about steps involved in buying a house. Some of the comments inspired me to tell a few stories about buying, owning, and renting.
1. The first place I lived once I moved out on my own was the dorms. I was a transfer student, had just spent a month in China, and chose the dorms because it saved me the hassle of looking for a place from hundreds of miles away when I was short on time. I lasted two whole terms before I got fed up with not being able to eat when I pleased, simi-public bathrooms, and curfews.
2. Over the next five years I moved ten times, culminating in my first home purchase.
3. Renting a place that was already furnished turned out to be easy.
4. Renting one once I got a cat became hard, and forced me into more unfurnished places.
5. The worst of the lot was the landlord who was trying to sell the building. They were supposed to give me 24 hours notice before showings, but typically pinned a note to my door the night before. “Hilarity” ensued.
6. Landlords might talk a hard line, but I never had my deposit deducted for painting a place, even when I picked ghastly colors, and none ever noticed the nail holes I added. I didn’t even have to pay for the scorch marks, though the manager and I had a long talk about fire extinguishers and how to get all the dust from one out. But go more than a month without paying the rent and you’re in serious trouble.
7. Every house I have purchased has been a fixer-upper older than the house my great grandfather built.
8. My first house had a leaky roof. We’re talking the kind that requires the pulling out of buckets to catch the water. It took $10,000 to get it squared away, but we took the opportunity to put in a dormer that increased the houses overall size by 400 square feet. It was worth it.
9. I sold that house in a yard sale. Well, almost. I had a For Sale By Owner sign on the porch and was running a yard sale, and the people who eventually bought it asked if the house was part of the yard sale. We showed it to them right then. Took about three months for the resulting paperwork to complete.
10. It was almost better before we started buying our homes. Then I could get Mr. Al to prune some of his pack-rat additions with each move.
11. Our first move as a couple involved traveling from Montana to Wisconsin. Everything fit into the back of a Toyota pickup.
12. Thirteen years later we moved from Wisconsin to Montana. We literally had eleven tons of belongings packed into a Ryder truck (the biggest they had) towing a trailer. There were boxes in the car on the trailer.
13. The longest, hairiest, most paperwork intensive purchase I’ve ever endured is the one I’m trying to do now.
For more lists of Thirteen, visit Thursday Thirteen
Fwd: WD-40
I haven’t verified most of this, but I do know that some of it works. It does wonders for rusty locks and grimy bicycles.
>Stock up on WD-40!
>
>A lady got up very early one morning and went outside to pickup the Sunday
>paper, she noticed someone had sprayed red paint all around the sides of the
>neighbors brand new beige truck. She went over and woke him up and gave him
>the bad news. He was, of course extremely upset.
>And they stood there trying to figure out what could be done about the
>problem. They decided there wasn’t much recourse but to wait until Monday,
>since nothing was open. Just then another neighbor came out of his house,
>surveyed the situation and immediately went to get his WD-40 out and cleaned
>the red paint off with it. Guess What! It cleaned up that paint without
>harming the original paint on the truck! I’m impressed!!
>
160- The Wind Talks
The wind chatters at the windowsill
thunders through the trellis
moans around the corners
and roars over the roof.
I cower under the covers
while the house shakes, and the wind laughs.
Monkey Man hosts the 160 Character Challenge. See what you can write in 160 characters or less, spaces included.
Missing
Today’s theme is Missing/Missed
Previously in Jack and Jill: Fingers Are Digits Too
Be sure to visit the home page.
Suzie’s House 212 : Waving Around
Lisa laughed harder than Ben thought she should, but he couldn’t say anything because he meant for her to laugh when he told her about fighting Gene over who got to do the dishes, so… yeah.
Suzie’s House
is running late. Sorry, but I’m at one of those points where I have half a dozen choices for where to go from last week, and I can’t seem to decide. So, I’ll figure it out in the morning (it’s 12:14 am as I write this. but I still count that as night). Hopefully I’ll have it posted by noon.
55 – True Romantic
She held the shell to her ear and thought about all the time’s she’d done it while he was gone. “This make me think of you.”
He smiled, eating the last bite of yogurt. “Did you know it also works with an empty yogurt cup?” He held it up to her ear.
“It sounds the same!”
“Works better than my cell phone.”
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Flash Fiction 55 is hosted by the G-man, a host with the most.
13 Things I Look for in a Serialist.
You may have noticed that I started a new thing in the sidebar of my blog. It’s the Serialist corner. I want to raise awareness in readers that there is some great stuff out there available for reading, so I’m linking to people besides me who do serials.
Who do I pick?
Guess Who’s Got Writer’s Block?
Yep. This is about how original my work has been lately. I’ve hit a plot hole and can’t seem to claw my way out. Makes me feel a bit like this:
Fwd: AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES
>
> THESE REALLY WORK!! I checked this out on Snopes and it’s for real!
>
>
>
> AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:
>
> 1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.
>
> 2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.
>
> 3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER..
>
> 4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
>
> 5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU’LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
>
> 6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE – WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN’T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN’T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
>
> 7. IF YOU CAN’T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU’VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
>
>
>
> DAILY THOUGHT:
>
> SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES – NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.
>
