A Shaky 13
1.
2. According to one of The Girl’s teachers, there is a mountain near town that is holding on by a thread. Someday it’s going to crack and fall apart.
3. When it goes, it’ll wipe out everything for miles around.
4. But that’s nothing compared to what Yellowstone will do.
5. Yellowstone is a super volcano. Someday it’s going to blow.
6. When it does, it’ll take out the entire state of Wyoming and a good chunk of Montana and Idaho.
7. The first thing that gets you in a volcanic eruption is toxic gas.
8. If the gas doesn’t kill everyone where I live, the following earthquakes will.
9. Brick does not hold up well in an earthquake. It crumbles. Wood houses hold up much better.
10. My foundation is made of brick. I’m thinking about getting a “collar” to reinforce it.
11. Last year we had five earthquakes in a hundred mile radius that I know of.
12. There may be a link between unstable weather and increases in earthquakes.
13. The eruption of Yellowstone is overdue.
For more lists of Thirteen, visit Thursday Thirteen
Suzie’s House 401 : Verbal Abuse
By the time Miranda made it home from the ad agency, she’d broken the heel of her newest Charline De Luca shoes – the red ones with the pony tail of fringe hanging off the back. Before that she’d taken a verbal beating from her boss for ordering the wrong size graphic sheets for a set of billboards, and spent hours dodging a client who wanted more than to place an order and have lunch with her. She was hungry, tired, and tense.
Time to Travel?
Jack: THAT’S a time machine?
Theodor: Yes. I need your help to set the time stream to rights. When will you be ready?
Jack: When Easter falls in May.
Theodor: That can be arranged.
Previously in Jack and Jill: Moving Violations
The theme for this week’s Jack and Jill is “When Easter falls in May” as suggested by Brian Miller
Want to see what I can do with a word or phrase? Make a suggestion.
Urban Renewal
Matt sat in his little second hand shop and cringed with every step the renters next door took on his roof. Clunk, clunk, clunk. How unfair that they should have easy access, and him none at all. It was all because these old buildings had been renovated so many times. The neighbors put something down with a thud, and little bits of ceiling plaster came filtering down. Then he had it. A great idea. If he did a little renovation himself… maybe take away the roof they liked to walk on….
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Photo credit: Lauren Moscato
Suzie’s House 400 : Bruce the Songbird
Kate and Justin were holding hands when they walked into the practice room. Tracy noticed it right away, but didn’t really think much about it until she overheard Gene’s quietly surprised “Oh.”
“So, you two are dating now?” Tracy asked mostly to get it out of the way.
“Yes!” Kate preened while Justin smiled quietly.
Windows Calling
I got a weird phone call last night. It was a man with an Indian accent who assure me he was calling from the Windows error report center who wanted to talk me through fixing my computer.
Seriously? Why would Microsoft call me? I mean, even if I did have a problem with my computer that caused it to send error reports, why call? I never gave them my phone number. When I asked, the guy claimed it was in my registration information.
OK, so I figure it’s a scam. Normally I would simply have hung up, but I got curious. Exactly how would he try to scam me? I started off by patronizingly asking if I saw and recognized the button on my keyboard next to the control button. He meant the windows button. He instructed me to press this and the letter r at the same time. This brought up a run screen. I was then to type in the letters “Event VWR”. I dutifully, and perhaps foolishly, did so. The result was a message saying there was no such event.
It occurs to me that if my computer was really infected – unlikely with my firewalls, but possible – this might have cause a Trojan to run. When it didn’t the increasingly frantic “tech” wanted my to try the same thing with the letters “Event INF”
At this stage the food I was cooking out weighed mt curiosity, so I hung up.
Later, when I had time, I googled the number. (212-456-7893) My, what a lot of complaints. Mostly people just hung up, much like myself. None of then forked over any money or seemed to take more damage than the sheer nuisance. I have yet to figure out how they make their money. Maybe that’s just as well.
Moving Violations
Mike: Seriously, Raoul, who do you think looks more like a cue ball, him or me? We whoever you pick will be the ball.
Raoul: It’s all the same to me.
Previously in Jack and Jill: Cue Ball
The theme for this week’s Jack and Jill is “moving” as suggested by Alice
Want to see what I can do with a word or phrase? Make a suggestion.
Fireworks
Jimal entered the gazebo like a warrior to battle. He had two more weeks to whip this amateur band into a Fourth of July force to be reckoned with. Twenty years ago they predicted the band’s demise. “The median age is ninety” the newspaper touted. Look at them now. Well over a dozen regular members, including two – count them – two! – tubas. Sure, they may have a little trouble with their hearing, but they gave it their best. In two weeks, They’d show them all.
“All right. On two!” Jimal waved his conductor’s wand, determined to produce magic.
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Photo credit: David Stewart
13 Things My Son Did Today
1. Watched TV
2. Played video games.
3. Smoked a cigarette
4. Surfed the internet
5. Skateboarded
6. Went on Facebook
7. Organized his stuff.
8. Ate some canned fruit.
9. Stared at wall.
10. Pet the cats
11. Paced.
12. Thought about playing guitar.
13. Cut out patches.
For more lists of Thirteen, visit Thursday Thirteen
Suzie’s House 399 : Bruce vs Emma’s Brother
Bruce felt like a total idiot carrying around his latest creation. It might be a glorious confection of feathers, lace, ribbon, beads, and satin, with an extra layer of feathers just for emphasis, but it looked silly in the hands of a rough, tough dude. Seriously. People were staring. Luckily, he caught up with Emma before he reached the square. Unluckily, her reception was chilly.
