Saturday Centus: Birthday Edition

It's time for another Saturday Centus here in Geekville.  This one is in honor of Sophisticated Lunacy's author, Tom, as his birthday is this week. 

The Centus originates from Jenny Matlocks' blog and the instructions are to write about 100 words using a prompt as part of the story.  This week's prompt is "He never dreamed when he blew out the candles on his cake...".

I hope that Tom, being a blogging buddy and a good sport, appreciates this story I wrote this week.

Hee Hee.

Wake-Up, Fate Awaits

 

Tom was thinking about how tired he was from his crazy day with his impossible-to-please boss.  He liked his project team, though.  He was still clutching the unopened envelope his team had given to him for his birthday.  They had laughed as they handed it to him, joking that this could be his lucky day.

"Happy Birthday, Tom", his friends sang, snapping him back from his thoughts, the envelope forgotten.  His buddies were making up silly words to the song and were starting to stagger. 
 
He never dreamed when he blew out the candles on his cake...

Actually, he never dreamed at all.  It all seemed so pointless sometimes...

Later, Tom finished cleaning up from the party halfway listening to the TV in the next room.  The winning lottery numbers were being announced.

If you'd like to read more short stories with this prompt, check Jenny's blog for the links.

Have a great week!

 

The Little Things That May or May Not Amuse Me..

While on our vacation in Montana, we were driving on a road that was part of open ranch.  Two freezers full of steaks and six smaller milk trucks were blocking the road. I was amused by a young couple going the opposite direction on the road, holding the camera outside their open car window, taking photos. I guess they've never seen livestock.

Snort.

I got another summons for jury duty in my city.  This is traffic court, folks, and my city actually has bored officers and no convenient donut shops so plenty of speeding citations are issued.    I was just called for duty back in May so I called my city to see if they would reschedule me.   I've done this before (at least I thought I had) so I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.  Apparently, it was.  I was asked to fax in the affidavit with my reasons for the request.  The court clerk wasn't rude but she wasn't overly pleasant about it.

It occurred to me that I live on the wrong side of the tracks.  If I lived in the sub-division with the rocket scientists, brain surgeons,  and ex-football stars, maybe I would have been treated differently? 

Hum.....

Fax?  Yeah, right.  I don't have a fax machine and time was a factor so I couldn't wait to send it to work with Hubby the next day.  I live 10 minutes from the court.  I drove it over there.

While I was waiting to see a clerk, a man was yelling at the clerk I spoke with on the phone.  YIKES!  If this is her life, maybe it explains her mood.   He had obviously requested a trial and was furious about his citations.  I think most of the issue was his inability to prepare his case for trial in a timely manner and he was trying to pass the blame to the court clerk.  I tried not to listen and stare but I wanted to make sure he didn't pop a blood vessel.  If he did, I didn't want to get hit by spewing liquids.

Mom had her shoulder surgery.  She is doing ok but is not very comfortable, as expected.  I've been driving her to her doctor visits.    Yesterday, her surgeon's office felt like a morgue.  We waited at least an hour in the cold room with putrid lighting to see the doctor.   I kept leaving the room to walk around looking to see if the doctor was really there.  He was but we found out that he was on call and had to squeeze in several ER patients.  I'm sure these folks broke bones just to inconvenience us, right?

Snicker.

We had a near flood last week.   Fortunately, I did not have water in the house.  My garden is in heaven with a few late summer blooms:

Everything's just peachy.

That little hole under the overgrown shrub is the door to the 

lizard community. I'm afraid to trim these shrubs.  

I don't want to disturb the slithering critters.

Hibiscus and Lantanas:  Hummingbird snacking area.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, Those Montana Summers!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation  

A "poetic" description of our trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.

A Montana summer is like a Texas winter.

Snow at the mountain pass on Sunday

Bright sunshine, shorts and flip-flops, on Monday.

 Hidden Lake, near Logan Pass

Reffie DID NOT skinny dip.

Bighorn sheep and furry mountain goats

Bambis, Chipmunks, and Marmots

Hummingbirds and Drangonflies

Assorted wildlife amused as the Japanese toured in the little red buses.

Cute little tour buses run on propane.  

Historical reference to the original method of touring the park.

Huckleberry Pie and Rocky Mountain Trout filled my belly

While long day hikes turned our legs into jelly.

The sky amazed us with storm clouds and rainbows

Avoiding hail storms and flying cows kept us on our toes.

Double rainbow at sunset, Whitefish, MT

Jesus may be able to walk on water but I can walk thru trees.

Fit to be tied or harnessed for safety

Bet you haven't done anything like this lately.

Our guides test the ropes and call the first team to the boardwalk.

The grizzlies were out and about but not for geeky homosapiens 

They weren't even "oot" and "aboot" because they weren't Canadians.

Some folks we talked to peed their pants on their hike.

Teeth and paws close, they feared for their life.

Momma Bear decided the human porridge looked too hot

She continued on, little cubs on her heels, moving at quite a fast trot.

The glaciers are shrinking so get close to them now

After a 1200 foot climb, though, our calves were screaming YEE-OW!

 Yes, that little snowfield is what remains of Grinnell Glacier.

I hope you enjoyed my vacation.

Photo credits:  Redbus and Glacier Lodge: bruce_fulton on flickr.com, Creative Commons license (see sidebar), all others:  Reffie and Hubby

Sleepless in Seattle....

Yeah, I know that is the title of a movie but it fits my day Saturday thru Sunday morning perfectly.

That's right.  Hubby and I are back from Montana and we did not get eaten by bears or mountain lions.  We weren't even asked to play with them.  Sheesh!  Evil Twin was very disappointed.

We had a great time and I will post some photos soon but I thought I would share our sleepless story today.

Yesterday (Saturday), as we were attempting to fly from Small-Town, Montana, to Seattle, Washington to pick up our connecting flight to Texas, our plane had a mechanical problem.  The plane was a prop plane seating about 50 people. The "mechanical problem" occurred after we were all loaded and buckled, and had watched the flight attendants show us how to buckle our seat belts and how to find the lavatories.  Don't you think it's funny that they show you how to buckle your seat belt after they tell you to sit down and buckle your seat belt?    

They let us off the plane and back into the terminal while they attempted to contact a mechanic on a holiday weekend.  They were estimating about an hour delay.    Hubby and I knew better.  

About an hour later, they unloaded our bags and started re-booking passengers.  It was obvious that nearly everyone was going to miss their connecting flight in Seattle.  At least we had some sunshine and beautiful mountains to look at while we waited.

Apparently, no mechanic certified to work on our aircraft was available so they had to fly in a couple of guys from Seattle.  They were placed on a flight that was headed to Another-Small-Town, Montana but had to be diverted to Small-Town so they could work on our plane. 

Back in the terminal, several hours later, we were bored and our bellies were full from our airline-provided pizza.  Burp.

Excuse me.

We giggled as we saw a plane land and a couple of guys with plumber's crack hop off and make a beeline for our plane. We supervised them making a repair somewhere deep in the plane's belly, hoping that since they had re-loaded our bags onto the aircraft that the plane was repairable and we would soon be on our way. 

We made it to Seattle with the mechanics in tow.  Hubby and I were fortunate that there was a redeye flight to Texas.  Most of the other folks were sleepless in Seattle, having to find lodging with their hotel vouchers and continue their travel early on Sunday.  We were sleepless, too, sitting in the terminal waiting for our connecting flight listening to some jerk play videos on his laptop for over an hour.  What IS it with some people?    Evil Twin was about ready to make this guy have a "mechanical problem".

That's all for now.  I need a power nap.

Have a great holiday!