The Funeral
It was a simple ceremony. The ashes were scattered on a nearby hill. The friends gave the next of kin – all one of her – a lifetime supply of hot dogs and weed. Even the ex showed up, though she spent the whole time in a parked car on the road. Of the friends, there were many, with not a dry eye to be found. Afterward, they all looked at their own stashes, and worried about what was cut with Fentanyl.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: Dale Rogerson
Suzie’s House 503 : Kicking It With the Home Boys
Posers, the lot of them. Still, Bruce knew better than anyone that he shouldn’t have forgotten all about his crew.
The thing was, he put that gang together after his previous band blew up – back when he hated the world and everything in it. At the time he’d thought his life was already all over. Without music, what was he? A boy with a bad attitude.
Every last man in his gang knew how to fight. They couldn’t get in if they couldn’t both take and give a punch,. Some were pretty good with knives, too. And one claimed he could get his hands on a gun, though none of them ever really saw it.
They weren’t the kind of guys you just walked away from.
Call Home
“I don’t see Mom anywhere.” Alicia stopped so suddenly that her suitcase rolled right into her. “What do we do?”
“Call her. Maybe she’s on her way.” Chloe stepped around Alicia, letting her own suitcase come to a natural stop right before the baggage claim exit.
“I can’t! My battery is dead.”
“I’m sure we can find a….”
“You’re right! There’s a pay phone right there!” Alicia ran off.
Chloe had actually been thinking about pulling a MacGyver in an airport shop, but this would do.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: J Hardy Carroll
Random Pictures of Iceland
I was originally planning on posting about Reykjavik today, as that’s where the tour started, but it looks like I will have to wade through several hours of recordings first. I ran out of time. So instead, I bring you a random assortment of pictures from the first few days of the trip.
On the Way to Iceland
Typically, my trip begins a day earlier than my mother’s. I have to drive from my place to hers. This is a 500 mile trip that typically takes me most of a day driving. Since I’m doing it alone, I generally get pretty bored.
This year I got smart. I finally succeeded in setting up the app for my public library. I was able to download a combination of five ebooks and audio books.
I listened to Fifty Shades of Grey on the way there. I enjoyed to book, but didn’t want to drag it on, so set it for 1.5 reading speed and fast forwarded through some of the more repetitious sex scenes.
The picture above was taken in Idaho, about half way from home to Mother’s place.
Suzie’s House 502 : Steps
Emma fell asleep in math class. She couldn’t remember having ever fallen asleep in school before. But then, she’d never stayed up until nearly dawn learning self defense moves either.
But that wasn’t really the thing. A year ago she would have been too uptight to fall asleep no matter how tired she got. Nor was it the self defense lessons, though they certainly didn’t hurt. It was the conversation she’d had with Trent, Sonoma, and Drew afterwards.
Iceland and Greenland
Some general impressions:
- I’ve heard it before, but it’s really true. Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. Talk about false advertising.
- It’s all Eric the Red’s fault.
- Iceland is really expensive.
- The economic crash of 2008 left a bigger impression there.
- They eat a lot of fish.
- Much of which is raw.
- They also served us stuff like shark, horse, and lava. Yeah, I’ll explain the lava, but not for a few days. 🙂
- Iceland is one huge volcanic field dotted by volcanoes.
- It’s really, really “new” land.
- It hasn’t been inhabited all that long.
- Greenland is deadly
- and desolate.
- Both places have their charms.
best laid plans
Yeah, Suzie’s House will be posting on Mondays starting NEXT Monday. Today I’ll work on dealing with the graphics issue that Photobucket just dumped on me.
Suzie’s House 501: A Hand in the Cookie Jar
“A singer! What a wonderful choice!” Sonoma beamed her approval across the kitchen table at Emma. Trent nodded agreement.
Emma knew she shouldn’t take it too personally. She had only known the old couple for a matter of hours. Still. She couldn’t help grinning under her blush. She might not need their approval – as they would be the first to say – but she sure liked it.
If it hadn’t been the middle of the night in Mrs. H’s house, she’d have burst into song to demonstrate.
Earthquake
Hi, I’m back!
It was a great trip. We went to Iceland and Greenland. I took over 8,000 pictures. I have a ton of notes. The notes are a mess. I really need to get a better microphone – something that can handle bus sounds.
I have downloaded all the pictures, but haven’t started winnowing yet. I’m hoping to have my first trip post up next Monday.
But enough about that. The exciting news is that we had an earthquake.
I’ve been in minor tremors plenty of times. Frankly, this one wasn’t all that impressive since I’m so far from the epicenter. But it sure felt different. Rather than simply going about my business then suddenly feeling the shake, then going about my business as if nothing happened, this one made my hair stand on end. Maybe not literally, but certainly emotionally.
It was 5.8 on the Richter scale at the epicenter for the first wave, 4.9 for the second wave and 4.5 on the last one. The first got me out of bed and wondering mildly if I should climb out the window of my ancient, wobbly house. It wasn’t so much the motion that got me. Frankly, my husband’s restless leg syndrome is worse. It was the feeling of pressure and tension that didn’t go away. I got the feeling something much bigger was on the way.
By the second wave my son and I were both in the kitchen talking about it, and feeling a little skittish. By the third wave I had a headache. I had gotten dressed, but still hadn’t bothered to leave the house. My son’s girlfriend didn’t even bother to get up.
I stayed up much later than normal and read while waiting to see what would come next. By one in the morning the tension levels seemed to have evened off. My hair was back in place. And I was too tired to care. I crawled back into bed.
The next day, comparing notes, my husband hadn’t felt anything. My daughter thought it was her imagination. I’m wondering if it was close enough to include in my natural disaster collection.
Gone, But Not Too Long
I’m traveling! I’ll let you know all about it in July. I’ll get back to things like Suzie’s House and Thursday Thirteen then.
Suzie’s House 500 : Rights
“When you catch yourself thinking the kind of stupid things your brother would say, tell yourself, ‘I have a right to be myself. Nothing anyone says can change that.’” He made air quotes.
“You’ll probably have to tell yourself a lot of times.” Sonoma agreed. “Along with things like, “I have a right to be here.” “I have a right to be heard.” and “I have a right to be loved.”
“But… What if I don’t?” Emma’s voice rose enough to make her throat hurt. She couldn’t think of an example right off the top of her head, but Emma was pretty there were limits. It was all kind of murky.
“Dear.” Trent patted her hand. “You always have all of those rights.”
A Car Accident. Sort Of
Jpeg
I got a mild concussion from my car. It wasn’t the kind of collision you might imagine. It was the back hatch with rotten pistons crashing down on my poor unprotected head.
It was stupid. I knew the stick holding the hatch up was vulnerable. I knew the load was too wide. I even knew just how ridiculously heavy that hatch door is. Still, I tried to get the central support for a new racking system out of the back by myself over The Boy’s protest.
The sucker clobbered me in the hairline right over my forehead. Though the goose egg that rose is still huge a week later, you can hardly see it. Maybe that’s why my family hadn’t been gentle with me at all.
Not until a few days ago when the swelling finally moved down out of my forehead and into my eyes, which promptly turned dark black with hints of blue and green.
Each day I watch the injury move down and spread. My forehead was only puffy for days. When it went down my left eye filled with black and blue then over flowed and is now wending streaks down my left cheek. My right eye took only a little color, then moved promptly to my left cheek, which swoll a little before turning colorful.
I went grocery shopping a few nights ago. I got quite the collection of horrified looks, but no one bothered to ask what was wrong.
Ok, so that’s the external. Now for the internal. The accident took place around ten pm. I made myself stay away until well after midnight, then decided that had to count as normal fatigue and went to bed.
The headache didn’t start until the next day. It’s never all that bad. Just a little nagging pain that crops up every time I move around, bend over, or press on the goose egg. The occasional vertigo isn’t all that severe either. But it’s enough to tell me to take it easy for a while.
Too bad I’m going on another big trip in a few weeks.
