Flash Fiction

End of the Affair Before it Even Got Started

"I won't", he said,

"and you shouldn't"

and he walked away

Frustrated Human--1, Safety Cap--0 (6WS)

one screwdriver, two ratchet wrenches,  two letter openers,  a wicked looking leather awl, and a seriously sharp steak knife later...the cap, by the way, is supposed to look like that,  it looks pretty in the store but you just can't get enough "push down" to make the "turn" work.  what it really needed was a five year old.   

NOW its time to put on the storm doors

Turning Point

there comes a day in mid fall
when the wind is colder than it should be
the clouds are so low you can almost smell them

when the wind picks up
you head back to the house for a sweater
everything looks wilted,  tired,  finished

you know it will rain by evening,
if not before,
a cold slow steady rain

and its a turning point
no matter how warm the days  to follow are
there's that edgy feel to it

that even the small birds sense
and ragged flocks of them begin moving out
into the fields and south.

There's a snow feel to it all
you'd not be surprised to see
a bit of snow mixed with the rain

makes you glad you got the wood covered
and you throw another stick in the stove
just because you can

Half a Conversation Overheard

yes, yes, tomorrow

probably a week

it cant be  helped,  it's where the work is


well, you understood  when we got married
that there'd be times...

yes.  I see

one of the neighbors can take the puppy
until i get back

ill call you when I get home
we can talk then

I think summer is probably over (6WS)

this is what's left outside,  the tatty area is what we started with   this summer ...

and all of that is now in here.   When you open the kitchen door into the shed this is what you see.  Two rows to go, yessah.

and the garden now looks like rats live there, except for the nasturtiums...and one lone about-to-bloom poppy to the right of the nasturtiums...

"I just want to see you be brave"

LJ Cohen posted this at her blog, and its so much fun,  seemed  a shame not to steal it. Thanks, Lisa. 

Now and then everyone needs permission,  if only from  themselves, to dance, to sing, to be who they really are,  and not give a rip who cares.  

Well Lookit What I Just Found (6WS)

Well, silly me.  I've had this blog for four years and counting,  and i just discovered the NavBar search function at the top.  Type in  "bird" and all the posts with "bird" in them come up.  Type in "snow" and the same thing happens (with "snow", of course. Not "bird")

 She is a happy woman, yep.  A bit slow around the sharp corners sometimes, but happy.

Owl Music redux

                           some things deserve a second viewing.

Never Count The Old Tree Out (6WS)

apple trees are notorious for living apparently forever.  This one is (possibly) a  Gravenstein,  a very old very good species.   For the past decade or so we've watched this tree, which had a massive trunk,  slowly get more and more brittle, limbs came off, it looked dead.
Let's wait a bit, I said.   Put away the chain saw ("but.. but...we can use the wood.  it's DEAD")  and give it some time.

This year the few puny branches, like wisps of hair on an old man's head,  became serious foliage.

and on one side:

if you look really closely you can see apples and even the parts that look as if they could be cut off with a pair of scissors now have living branches.  Just 'cause it's old, doesn't mean it's not got value. 

Follow Up to August 10th, moving the beauty bush

                                           
                              It has sprouted in its new home
                                joy and feasting all around

Free complaint dept. day. Feel free to whine

Peeve 3,786

People who see you a half mile across the parking lot and decide to hold the door open for you
forcing you to either break into a brisk trot or let them wait until you're almost there and then they give up and let the door swing shut...

3,787
Traffic lights that try to combine right turns and  pedestrians at the same time.  As the light changes to green,  all the waiting pedestrians cross en masse,  forcing you to wait, and then the light turns red again...

3,788
Ladies' restrooms

3,789
Electric cars that cost more in energy wasted and less value per mile than they could ever hope to amortize or justify by the amount of gasoline used or not used.

3,790
Winter

This is just too cool to keep buried

http://rlavalette.blogspot.com/

My Life in the Slow Lane (6WS)

The only thing more annoying than a company who sells Five Year Planners is knowing there are people  out there who actually have a need for one, and can plan their lives so precisely that they know what will be happening five  years from now.

I am always comforted  by two things:  every morning I'm still here (if I'm not, I'll let you know so you won't worry) and that the sun and moon rise when they're supposed to.

Beyond that,  and a few predictable holidays,  it's all mostly a slow moving train with a  new view at every bend.  And if you don't know where you're headed,  you can't be disappointed when you don't get there.

Untitled, thank you for the prompt (6WS)

Untitled

now there are two trains
one heading east
the other heading into fog
we wave politely  to each other
through half open windows
as we travel on slowly diverging rails
acknowledging the need for individual trains
and the distance  that slowly separates  us
one pretending it matters
one pretending it doesnt

ooops

I lost Wednesday this week.  Maybe it got lost in the wind.  If I had been planning on Thursday it's too late,  I'll have to celebrate it in retrospect.  That does, however, bring me to Friday faster than I had planned, but hey, Im flexible.  I can adjust.

It comes out even eventually;  I'll just give Sunday a pass and that should catch me up quite nicely.

If you peer closely you can see all those little yellow Roma tomatoes waiting to ripen. I have two of these monsters, and have already pulled about 15 pounds from them. it's about 5' high and twice as wide.   My husband is scared of it, and I don't blame him.

Stayin Alive --Rita Hayworth (just for fun)

let's try this one all over (6WS)

summit

a breeze rises up from the valley floor
lifts your hair, pushes at you

and at that moment know
you're over the edge

look back the way you came
to the summit that now looms like a wall

there is no turning back;
the only way is down, moving carefully

over shale and loose stone
with the afternoon sun at your back

the valley spread out in a green welcome
and far below, someone waving,
climbing up 

Routines

I think as we get older our personal routines take on a life of their own.  They become who we are, what we are.

"Oh",  she says,  "I can't come Wednesday,  that's the day I have to bake my cookies".  Even though there may be  six perfectly good unused days left,  and the cookies take an hour out of her morning,  Wednesday is the day she bakes cookies.   It may also be an easy excuse used too often,  when she wants to get out of shopping,  or visiting a  neighbor she really doesnt like,  or just because.  

I  use Tuesdays ("oh,"  I say,  regretfully.  "I can't make  it on Tuesday,  that's the day I volunteer.") And even if  I don't go,  it's still the day I volunteer.

This, The Pause, In The Conversation--(6WS)

--while I consider what has happened, what will happen, and all that other stuff that goes into someone's  life. Nothing bad, nothing evil or even very noteworthy beyond the personal,  but right now the memory banks are on overload (which happens, heaven help us all) and I need to plow through that;  the garden needs cleanup-for-winter very soon,  the lawn needs a serious haircut,  and the eternal woodpile, while it shrinketh, doesn't shrinketh enough without some human intervention.

Sometimes intervention is necessary, but most of the time the best thing anyone can do is wait while it sorts itself out.  I  have friends who are going through difficult times right now;  much of what they are dealing with is personal,  and painful.  Hard to watch, harder to be in the middle of.   There is nothing I can do for them except listen and  love them and let them know that.

When we were kids the big thing was double-dutch jump rope.  Two jumpropes,  synchronized by the girls at either end,  and the jumper was expected to time her own entry into that swirling pair of ropes precisely--and start jumping over both ropes as they whizzed under your feet.  How we did that without garroting ourselves I have no idea.  That's what memory is like, in a way.  All of it coming at you at once, some days, and you know the only way to deal with some of the harder stuff is to just jump in and start moving through it.

Potato season

It's like eating popcorn.   You pull one plant  "just to see" and what's under there looks soooo good you think, oh, lets do the next one--then you realize pulling one exposes the potatoes under the next plant and before you know it the  whole bed is dug and you are left with what seems like--and probably is--entirely too many potatoes

this averages out to about 100 pounds so far, with one more bed to go.    These were planted in leaf mold and hay this year,  rather than straight dirt.  Id say the yield beats anything I've done so far.