Three Things Challenge #442

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And the Three Things for today are:

Prepare
Trouble
Rules

Note that my contribution comes from the depths of Christmas bookseller heaven. The most wonderful time of the year for booksellers, as their customers remember how much their loved ones love to read 😁👀

Retail Christmas shopping

You think you’re prepared and then the race is on.

Poach the freshest vege. Pinch the fruit. Press the flesh. Pound the pavement.

Grab that bestseller!

Trouble is brewing for the unwary, retailer and customer both.

The rules of engagement are in place. The customer is always right. Correct?

Only if you’ve raised the consumer from childhood to believe he can run roughshod over the worn‑out clerk, elbow punch the passive fellow shopper and grumble and complain his way from shop, to crumbling shop.

Retail Christmas shopping

Carry good cheer on your shoulder, spread joy wherever you wander.

Good tidings to all, and to all happy shopping.

Remember the magic of the Christmas season, and the reason you’re shopping is about the giving.

Treat yourself and others with kindness, let somebody else in front of you.

Warm someone’s heart, offer charity and celebrate the true meaning of the season.

While snapping up that bargain, grin at your achievement, and look forward to Christmas day and the joy you’ll be spreading.

Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #440

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The three things today are:
MOUTH
TIRESOME
LONG

To participate, go to:
https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/three-things-challenge-440/

Sometimes, people should just keep their mouths shut!

How tiresome to listen to people go on and on about their pet hates, political or religious belief systems, how amazing their life is, how amazing they are.

We are the best. We lead the way. Follow us 
 on the long way down to hell!

Trump does it best!

Three Things Challenge #426

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Three Things Challenge #426 words for today are:

INTRICATE
UNJUST
CENTRE

The man I love. Light of my life.

A dimming light.

Lost to the wilderness of drink, drugs, fear.

I tried to be his CENTRE, to hold him fast.

To encourage and remind him of all we had.

I cry UNJUST. Life is cruel, unfair.

Love, comfort, companionship could not beat his demons.

The INTRICACIES of life, marriage, responsibility, overwhelmed.

The man I lost.  Light diminished.

Surrendered to night.

Three Things Challenge

Fibbing Friday 20th November 2020

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Hosted by Di at pensitivity101: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/11/20/fibbing-friday-my-response-for-20th-november/comment-page-1/?

  1. What is Kapok?

A testing device for the tensile strength of car panels.

  1. Where will you find a kernel?

In a hospital, being treated for fuel inhalation.

  1. If you didn’t know a door as a door, what would you call it?

The go-through.

  1. What’s the difference between a yolk and a yoke?

You can’t harness a yolk; the yoke will just slip through it.

  1. What does E R N I E do?

Everything Ramses and Nefertiti instructed Ernie to do.

  1. What is meant by sunny side up?

The opposite of Mooning?

  1.   What could you wear on your head that would make people think you were awesome?

At a writer’s convention? A deerstalker.

  1.   What is meant by cattywampus?

A glamping tent for cats.

  1. What is an erf?

What Santa’s elves call ‘the fat one’.

  1. What is a mouse potato?

The droppings of a rodent from the age of dinosaurs!

Three Thing Challenge #424

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Three Things Challenge #424 by pensitivity101. Three things today are:

BEAUTIFUL
GLOW
REAL

I watch him reverse the car into our driveway, with a modest nonchalance. That simply beautiful, man‑skill he flourishes every day. His hands loose, yet confident on the wheel.

At the beginning, I fell in love with his hands. Graceful, long fingers, slightly tanned, not too hirsute. They somehow spoke of real strength, and gentleness. Not heavily calloused, but not effeminate either. They confirmed my impressions of the man I’d often observed.

He wasn’t overly refined. He was just solid. He was in his early 20s when we met, carefree it seemed, easy-going, friendly and dedicated to his work. Quick to praise his co-workers, modest about his own achievements.

He was boyishly handsome, not classically. There was something about him though. Dark features, tall and lean, well sculpted biceps but not from the gym, from manual labour. So, an office boy, but used to physical work. As it turned out, his was a farming background and he’d supported his university studies in the real world, during seeding and harvest.

A fair and caring man, but practical. Not gushing, not sentimental, but reliable, interested, spontaneous, and nurturing.

A man, yet still a boy. A professional, yet somehow still a bumpkin. Detached, yet still engaged. Looking. Searching. Although he didn’t realise it.

The man I met, fell in love with, married and gave children to. A man that took on my first child as his own, supported us all with joy and hard work.

The man I glowingly love.

My husband.

Eric Mauritius 2010

Friday Fictioneers – Grandma’s Garden

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sarah-potter-pic

Photo @ Sarah Potter

Grandma’s garden.

So many wonderful hours, working the earth. Every year, new plantings. Sweet-talking Grandad for the muscle work.

When her children brought their children, she was so happy. And to us, her grandkids, this was our magical playground.

Grandma would create Easter treasure hunts, decorate for Halloween, lights for Christmas, and oh boy, summertime.

4th of July was the best, cousins visiting, neighbours dropping by, barbeque, mouths watering, and sunburned faces. It was manic chaos, and awesome.

Grandma’s special place then, and for always.

Why I’ve never been surprised to see her shadow, still gently checking in. Working it. (100 words)

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a story in response to a photo prompt – in 100 words or less. You can find other stories here.

Three Things Challenge #421

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Three Things Challenge

Crispy critters round for tea

On the eve of Christmas

Better cut the biscuits up

Need some offset sweetness

Who the hell invited them

Something from a nightmare

Not our fault their boiler blew

Spoiled our Christmas di-in-ner

(To the tune of Good King Wenceslas)

Three Things Challenge set by pensitivity101. Today’s three words were: better, crisp and cut

Weekend Writing Prompt #183 – Wrangle

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Weekend Writing Prompt 183

Weekend Writing Prompt #183

We call her the kid-wrangler
We watch, she smiles, as she gathers her class
Thirty-plus students, not one smart-arse
We watch with pride, swallow envy
Our own cattle prods, held at the ready

A word prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend.  How you use the prompt is up to you.  Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel
anything you like.  Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise.  If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in Sammi’s Comment Section.

Friday Fictioneers – Let go

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Dale Rogerson magic-door

Photo @ Dale Rogerson

Each day before I break my fast, I spend some time before this glass

A window gaily framed by green, by lights both festive and obscene

When I do turn and look behind, a melancholy scene I find

Look forward, Christmas and good cheer

Look backward, desolation, heartbreak, fear

Ode to Joy does not play here, tinsel, glitter, nowhere near

No winter booties, gloves, or miffs. No food … no hope

I gaze upon the scene and pray, let Christmas ‘20 fear allay

Look forward, Christmas, love, goodwill

Look backward, fear and panic, still

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a story in response to a photo prompt – in 100 words or less. You can find other stories here.

The Monday Peeve: Cheerful People

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Through her The Monday Peeve prompt, Paula Light invites us to vent, to let off some stream, to get something off our chests. This week, my peeve is Cheerful People.

Cheerful People

They’re noisy.
They smile too loudly.
They say irritating things, like “Happy Wednesday”, which is marginally more tolerable than “Happy Friday!”. 
They don’t get why I don’t respond cheerily. Are peeved when I don’t participate.
They’re oblivious to sarcasm.
There should be a special room at work to retreat to, when faced with their sickly saccharine enthusiasm.
They aggravate accidentally, causing me guilt at not enjoying their cheerfulness, giving them something to worry about; marring their cheeriness.
Cheerful people, peeve me.

#TMP #HappyFriday