Tag: #Ragtag Daily Prompt

Where’s the Party?

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 8 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt for today is PARTY.

Time for summer reruns? Anyway, I’ve pulled up and tweaked a short tale I posted three years ago as THE MULTI-TASKING DRIVER.

Where’s the Party?

The policeman eyed her critically. “Are you all right, lady?”

“Of course I’m okay, officer. Just…uh…a little distracted for a moment.”

“The way you were writhing around in your seat, I thought you were having a seizure. What exactly were you doing?”

The woman took a deep breath. “This is so embarrassing, but I’m on my way to work, you see, and I noticed this huge snag my hose. I can’t show up at the office like that, especially not today when we’re having the farewell party for our manager. So I was just trying to slide them off before I get there.”

“While driving?” The officer scowled at her. “May I see your driver’s license and registration, ma’am.”

She handed them over. He went to his cruiser, spent a few minutes on his radio and returned, saying, “I hear you had another driving infraction last month?”

“Quite a minor offense, really.”

“Yeah. Blowing up balloons while driving ten kilometers over the speed limit on a main street? Now that’s funny.”

“I’m so glad you’re so understanding, officer. They were for my grand-daughter’s birthday party and I was running late. Sometimes a person just has to multi-task. ”

He handed her a ticket. “This is for driving without due care and attention. Keep on multi-tasking behind the wheel like this and you’ll be attending another party: the one your family has for you at White Lily Funeral Home.”

police-car-1889053_640
Original Image: Peggy_Marco at Pixabay

Prompt Combo

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 6 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning was VANQUISH

sun’s golden spears
vanquish moon and stars
triumphant new day

And here’s a haiku I wrote a month ago, after visiting our church’s parking lot. Call it a post- COVID verse:

once vanquished
poplar sprouts take back the land
no parking these days

The Saturday Six-Word Story Prompt was PEACE

https://thesoulsearchersite.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/20190830_001439_0000.png

So here’s a response that incorporates both:

Aggravating fly vanquished
Peace restored. Momentarily.

Deceiving Lights

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 2 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is DECEIVING

Sleep eluded me at the crack of dawn this morning; I woke up at 4:30 and my muse wouldn’t go back to sleep. I began thinking about an article I want to write soon and lines and phrases started coming to me. That for sure took my sleep away.

I wandered into the kitchen and looked out the east window, wanting to see how much daylight had conquered the darkness at this point. There was a glow on the eastern horizon, but what got my attention was the amazing sight in the heavens. I actually went outside into the driveway to get a better look.

The moon was a glowing sliver, but I could see the shadow of the whole moon. And there was this huge, brilliant star to the right of, and higher in the sky than, the moon. Was it the planet Jupiter, so brilliantly shining? Or was it a close satellite deceiving me into thinking it was a planet? Looking around I saw a larger reddish star and wondered if it was Mars. I’m familiar with the birds that fly through our skies, but have never made a special study of the planets to know one from the other on sight.

In any case, I stood outside for awhile just watching, as the glow of dawn slowly crept up to meet the moon. I had to think of the star the wise men saw announcing the birth of “the King of the Jews.” Did they actually follow it all the way, as some Bible stories say? Or was it simply a signal and they proceeded to Jerusalem because, where else would one look for the King of the Jews?” Was the star as brilliant as the one I saw this morning — or even more?

Another “natural phenomenon” I witnessed yesterday evening after I got home from doing supper at the Villa. This sight was out the west window. I noticed a lot of tiny chattering and whirring; when I glanced out I saw several humming birds whizzing around. And a couple more came. And a couple more came. Were my eyes deceiving me?

We’ve had five around our feeders lately, but some others must have come in from elsewhere. I counted for sure seven, probably eight. (Hard to count zipping whirling bids as they chase each other away from the feeders!) And they were all at the two feeders by the side door. It dawned on me the feeder by the front door must be empty, so they were all crowded around these two. At one point five little hummers settled in a circle, slurping away at the bigger feeder.

Tanking up for their long journey ahead. Oh, I will miss them!

Thinking of our birds going and seeing the crops ripening reminds me that winter will be here all too soon. So I’ve decided that this week my special project is going to be fitness & exercise. Less hit-or-miss; more proper bends & stretches; getting up early in the morning and going for a walk — hopefully before the mosquitoes wake up. 🙂

Wish me courage. I really want to do this — and I hope I’m not just deceiving myself. 😉

The Book I Chucked

~ Christine Goodnough ~ Leave a comment

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is MARTYR. I could take a lot of avenues, either religious or secular, with this one, but I’ll give you this brief rant book review.

SUMMER AT SEA, a light romance by Beth Labonte

Have you ever read a book that you were ready to toss across the room after the first chapter? I started one a few years back. This long-suffering twenty-something chick, writing in first-person, sees herself as a martyr to her parents’ bumbling stupidity. How did they ever survive before she was old enough to help them sort everything out?

Okay, I’m old. Old enough to be this girl’s mother. Old enough to find this kind of parent-bashing offensive. I will admit the story is well written and the story line draws you in; you do want to see how they made out. If you can put up with the voice of this know-it-all chick. The fact that the book won an award shows how popular chick-lit is.

Have you ever chosen a book just to see if it’s as bad as the reviews say it is? (I confess, I have — if it was free.) Maybe you’re even ready to check this one out after reading my review? Some other readers have given it five stars.

Here’s part of the blurb on Amazon:
Four jackets of varying weights, enough socks for the entire Confederate Army, three umbrellas, most of the antacid aisle from the local pharmacy, and six pairs of old people sneakers that all look exactly the same. Have you ever helped your parents pack for a week-long cruise?

No? I didn’t think so. So shut it.

So begins vacation for Summer Hartwell – twenty-six years old, living with her anxiety-ridden parents, and unwillingly booked by her brother on a cruise to Bermuda. Despite the nightmare of being trapped aboard a cruise ship with Mom and Dad, Summer sees a rare opportunity to fulfill The Prophecy – her mother’s declaration that she will live at home until she gets married. With two thousand passengers onboard, at least one of them must be husband material, right?

And now for some polite humour:

Friends + quote.Bansi Patel
Basic image by Bansi Patel

Harvest Begins on the Prairies

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 2 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning was HARVEST

For me this was a very timely prompt. Yesterday on our way to Saskatoon we passed the first field being combined in this area. A combine was chomping its way through a field of lentils. An article in the Western Producer includes a good picture of a field of lentils being harvested. And here’s another from Simpson Seeds.

Low-growing and dusty to harvest, this rusty-gold crop is a common sight in these parts. Farmers tell me lentils do best when somewhat stressed and growing conditions here — the hot, dry summers — are great at giving crops stress. 🙂

Lentils were unheard of here on the prairies when I was a girl, but now Canada is the world’s leading producer and exporter of lentils, and farmers here in Saskatchewan are producing 95% of the lentils harvested. Lentils.org, one information site, says: “Canada only began growing lentils in the 1970’s – now there are over 5,000 active lentil farmers in Canada.”