55Flash Fiction Friday

It was a dark and stormy night
The sky was filled with
mother natures fireworks.

Suddenly a clap of thunder was heard
and the large maple tree
comes crashing through the ceiling.

You were pinned, life threatened
but it was your best day of your life
for today your met your future mate,
the paramedic.




The above is a Flash Fiction. It contains 55 word as they all do. Why don't you give it a go. It actually can be fun. Just write a little mini story in 55 words. Include a plot and a character and there you have it. Once you are done and posted go visit G-Man and tell him you posted a 55 flash fiction. He will be sure to stop by as will others. Go visit their 55s and enjoy all the wonderfully talented people we have out there. I hope you join us.


I had the strangest thing happen this morning. I think I lost an entire week, or was that I gained a weekend?

Works continues to be challenging and kind of draining. When I get home I tend to do very little and time just seems to be flying by as a result. When my alarm went off this morning I thought it was Monday morning. I quickly thought I could not even remember what I did over the weekend and thought there went another wasted weekend. Then the guy doing the news said it was Friday and I thought I can not believe he made a mistake like that. It was then that it dawned on me that it actually was Friday and a weekend was almost here.

Looks like a whole lot of thinking going on in a short period of time with no coffee and a brain that obviously was still asleep. I sure hope the day goes uphill from here. Either was it is almost the WEEKEND and ... AND March is just around the corner. You know what that means? Only about 3 weeks from spring and lately the weather has started to feel like spring. I am sure we will get a ton of snow yet but somehow I can make it knowing there is an end in sight.

So have a wonderful weekend, I know I will. I get a bonus weekend... YEA.

Enough of This Crap Already

The other day I saw a headline that caught my attention so I decided to click and see what it was all about. The article was talking about the fleet of helicopters for the President that were way over budget. I think the 28 helicopters that were ordered 7 years ago were suppose to cost somewhere around 5.4 billion dollars. Now they are coming in at 11.2 billion dollars. After the President talked about going through the budget to remove waist John McCain asked him about the helicopters. I think McCain was being serious about trimming waste in the government but I am sure it was a dig at the new President too.

What really got me however were the comments made by the readers. There were those people blaming Obama. Now Obama has already broken some promises but is that surprising? There was not way he could deliver on what he campaigned on. But to blame him for the helicopters is insane. Now if he allows this to go on then you have something to talk about.

Of course there were those people that were attacking Bush for ordering them to begin with. OK, lets look at that. The fleet of helicopters are at least 30 years old. Even with the most careful maintenance there comes a time when they will no long be safe. That and I am sure they do not have the latest in counter measures to help keep the President safe. So I think the helicopters are probably needed but not at the original 186 million each and certainly not at the current 400 million. And why on earth do we need 28 helicopters. Now I know they need a more than one or two helicopter but couldn’t we make do with maybe 20 or even 14? And why on earth the over-runs? Was it the White House changing the specks? Was it the White House delaying decisions? Was it the fault of the contractors? Regardless of what, common guys.

Was there waste? You bet there was. Was there a need? Again you bet there was and still is. Did Obama have anything to do with this? Well no unless he does not do something about it now that it is out in the open. By the way, when McCain asked him about it, Obama said he had already asked someone to check into it and also said he does not see why he needs new helicopters. Is Obama all about getting rid of pork? Common, did you hear about half the stuff that was included in the latest rescue package? I am sure he could have vetoed portions of the bill or pushed Congress to pass a better bill but he needed this victory bad. Heck we needed this victory bad ... if it actually works.

We need to stop this stupid partisanship in Congress and in the entire United States. Obama is trying hard to do the best for the United States. Regardless if you voted for him or not, he is OUR President now. We need to Congress to do what they were voted into office for, to represent the best interest of the people ... not the best interest of their party. And more importantly, we the people need to get over this Republican vs Democrat, Black vs White, even Man vs Woman and just do what we can do to help out... not make things worse. Aren’t things bad enough already. Don’t we need to need to dig out, not keep burring ourselves even deeper?


I can not believe it. My blackberry has been slowly dying since Monday. I have been so busy at work I could not do anything about it. I have been working late and when I get home I am not even able to do much of anything. I have had that phone just short of 2 months and ... I missed my phone so much. It became even more highlighted today when I was trying to get together with a few people. I did not get my email that we were trying to get together. I also discovered that my phone was not really working so I would not be able to make or receive calls from people. Once we got the phone reloaded and everything was working again I still managed to miss a call because the ringer tone I had selected was now missing after the reload. Anyway now everything is working just fine once again. Of course trying to get people together is about impossible so that still is not happening yet. But at least now when I get a phone call, an email, an IM, or Text Message I can get right back with them. I was not this connected a few months ago. Why on earth do I need all this stuff?


I do not watch the award shows anymore. Most of them are just worthless. The golden globes over the weekend were no different. Now don’t get me wrong I really liked Slumdog Millionaire but did it really deserve 8 awards? I have not seen what the awards were but my bet is no they did not. Once a movie gets on the roll it seems like they sweep everything and those other deserving movies go unrecognized. Now after saying that, congratulations to Slumbdog Millionaire on doing so well. I am so glad I read what Susie had to say about the movie. If she had not I probably would not have went to see it.


Tuesday was fat Tuesday and I brought in Paczki into work. I was bad and had 2. I should not have had any. I must say the Ricotta Cheese one I had was awesome. But now it is time to start being good again and get that exercise in too. With today being dirty forehead day (Ash Wednesday) and the start of lent I guess this works out perfect. I did have one thing funny happen today. I had one of the people I work with tell me I had grease on my forehead. Now some people tease me but I think this person was serious as they tend to fix stuff around the facilities and I would not be surprised if they get themselves into greasy situations all the time. I guess you had to be there.


I had my first veggie max burger today at Subways. Not bad at all. If I am going to forgo meat then I still think I enjoy the seafood sub better however. Of course it is time for me to pick another sub as they did away with the my favorite. Did I mention that when ever I have a favorite TV show it goes off the air. Favorite thing to do, it stops. And now favorite food, it goes away too. I am surprised Slumdog did well as I actually liked it. That should have been the kiss of death.

Well enough pointless banter. We are over the hump. Only 2 more days to the weekend.

55 Flash Fiction Friday

You have admired her
from afar
all your life

It is finally time
you make your move

As you approach
you notice that
Latika and Jimmie
are holding hands

Your whole life is ruined

After a while your
kindergarten teacher,
Miss Kendra,
comes over
and asks you what is wrong

You are in love again

Boy kids are growing up way to early. I found out my niece is on her second, or is that third boyfriend and she is only 13. I know, I need to get with the times.

There was a line above... "Your whole life is ruined". Funny thing about that. Several years back I was listening to a conversation between a child and their parent. Apparently the child had done something wrong and the parent said the child was grounded. It was then that the child said their whole life was ruined. That particular moment stuck in my head. Compared to being worried about a job, paying bills, that child on the way, and oh so many more things happening to people every day this whole grounding seems to be such high melodrama.


I am in such a rut. Every time I do a 55, even when I try and change it up... they all seem to look the same. I would love to be able to write wonderful masterpieces like some of the others I have read but it all seems to escape me. Still it is fun to do and enjoyable to visit everyone's 55's for the week.

I hope you do give this a try. It really is not that hard to do. What I find the most challenging is to develop a little story in 55 words but it can be done. James, Mona, and G-man are three people that come to mind right off that do wonderful things with just 55 words. There are so many more talented people out there too. If you decided to participate just put together a 55 word story with at least one character and a plot. If I can do it I know you can too. Once you post your 55 then go visit G-Man and let him know you have participated so others know to come visit your 55 too. Then take a gander at some of the other wonderful 55ers that participated that week. You won't regret it.

Oh one last thing. I just fell in love with the name Latika when I watched Slumdog Millionaire so I just had to use it here. I guess it just rolls off my tongue so well.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend everyone.

I am Going to be an Uncle

I just found out over the weekend that my brother and his wife are expecting their first child. They are not due until October 1. Right now they do not know the sex but when the time comes they will not only be finding out the sex but they will be sharing too. I guess no yellow clothing for them.

One of the things I was struck by is how much things are going to change for them. I mean you start out life single where it is all about me. Then when you get married you now have a spouse and now it is about us. But once you have a child as far as I can tell it is all about the child. Before you may not have cared to much about if what happens if something happens to you. Now you have a child that completely depends on you. You need to plan for their future. You want to do good by them. You worry if you are being a good parent as no child comes with an owners manual. You would like to see your child do even better than you.

Well my brother and his wife have been about me for a while. It will be interesting to see how much things change for them. I feel sorry for the poor puppy. Well Dragon is no puppy but still it will be a major change for him. He is a big dog and could easily hurt the child. He is going to go through a major change as he got all the attention. That will all change when the noisy bundle of joy arrives home next fall.

So time to pick a name. Someone I work with keeps pushing for Jebediah. Somehow I can not see that name flying. It seems to me however that no matter how much you think you know what you may name your child it seems like it is often a last minute thing. It was for me at least. My Mom shared her room with Glenna Bryan. That is where my name came from. For me I have had a thing for the name Dawn and more recently Jennifer for a girl. Funny, I have not thought to much about names for boys but I suppose Bruce would be in there and possibly Jacob.

Other than that excitement we did three birthdays over the weekend. I was helping out (at least I think I was helping) my brother in law put together a slide show of my nieces basketball season. He does such a great job with these slide shows. One of my contributions was possibly the final slide of the show. We took a score board and modified it. Of course the home team won but what we did was make the score 20 to 09 or 2009. Probably no one will get it but I will know that it is there.

I missed my niece playing basketball this past weekend but then she did not play much. They are down to their last few games in the regular season and the coaches are playing the first string and once in a great while they toss in the second string when the first string is all but dead. That means my niece will not see much playing time at all but they will probably win like they did on Saturday. What do I know but I think the coaches should have build a strong second string too so they did not have to kill the first string. But of course the three coaches each have a child in the first string so...

Over the weekend I also got some visiting in with a friend and spent some time over my parents. It seems like they both are doing better. My Mom is far from well but she is doing better. Hopefully she can get over this and get past the next couple of months. She does much better when the weather breaks.

Well that was my extended weekend. Hopefully everyone had a great weekend.

My plate is full but I am not sure with what

Boy, in a weeks time I went from being pretty buried by snow, to all of the snow being melted and at least one day where the temperatures hit 60, to now we have 2 inches or so on the ground again. I just hope it gets it out of its system. I would really love to see a nice warm day for probably March 14. That is probably when this little town near me does a St Patricks Day parade and other things including a Irish Judging contest. If found the Irish Stew last year and might I say yum. You vote on the stew you like the most by giving them a buck. The one with the most money wins. Actually everyone wins because I believe that money goes to charity anyway.



Today is Valentines Day. So lets see, first just a little history from Wikipedia.

(Saint) Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The day was originally a pagan festival that was renamed after two Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Is everything a PAGAN FESTIVAL? Well at least being Catholic it seems most things that are celebrated by the church are Pagan in nature. Even the mass for the most part seems to have pegan origins to some extent.

Now I just have to know. Where are my Valentines? I checked my mail box and there were none. My and Charlie Brown, that darn mail box never is filled with even one Valentines card. Actually that is not true. I think I have seen a couple a while ago.



Work continues to kill me. Just when I think I have dug myself out, I run into another problem. It seems like I am always in the put out the fire mode and it is not always something I can do anything about. That continues to leave me drained when I do get out of work meaning very few visits and no posts. I does not help that I am trying to take a photo of a picture I recently had framed. The glass really makes it a challenge to do with the reflections of the camera and what ever I use to light the combination. I finally did get an OK picture but I have more to do. Luckily this also gets me set up to try and do portrait photography, something I have always wanted to play with. Of course I am going to do this on a shoe string. The photo lights are daylight compact florescent bulbs. I am using clamp on lights and attaching them to two touche lights I have. The backdrop will be sheets attached to a extension pole. At the moment I do not know how I will hole up the pole.

Once I play with this a little with me as the victim subject and learn what I am doing, I think it might be time to get just a little bit of real live equipment. I think either a backdrop stand or light stands might be nice. Then I will move on from that to family. Soon no one will be safe! Run now while you still can.



I had bad news and good news happen in the last couple of weeks. First bad news, I received a Err 99 from my camera. I believe this is an error caused by the one lens I have. Now the good news, the lens is a year and a half old and I have a 6 year limited warranty on it. For the cost of postage and insurance I can probably get the lens repaired. Yea.

The bad news, my Mom, with her degenerative lung disease she has a hard time with winters. Last week she spent a day in the hospital and a afternoon in the emergency room a few days later. Then she was had problems with the medication and ended up back with the doctor. It might be that she was being over medicated and he took her off one of the medicines. I think she is doing better but we will see. None the less she is not in the hospital so this is good news indeed.

Work has been bad news this week but the weekend is here and I get a little break which is good news.

So I guess I have had a balanced week.



Well I am off to celebrate three birthdays. My brothers wife who had a birthday on December 26, my Brother who had a birthday on January 26, and my Sisters who’s birthday will be February 26. Would you look at that. Maybe I should go play the lottery and pick 26 or 026.

Have a nice weekend and a wonderful Valentines Day.

55Flash Fiction Friday

Last month
I was the Villain.
This week
I am the Hero.

In a few months
I will certainly be
man of the hour.

People will
continue to
make jokes about
my profession.

All I am doing
is my job.

Maybe next time
there’s a severe storm
I will not
give you
an early warning

That was a 55 word flash fiction about a weather man. If you would like to give it a try just come up with a topic, have at least one character and put together a fun little story. Many people do amazing things with just 55 words. It is incredible. Once you have posted one go visit G-Man and let him know so others may come to visit then take a minute to visit the others. You will be amazed.

Yesterday was interesting. I was eating out, something I should not have done but oh well. Anyway the waitress was doing well. With me that is saying a little. I have a drinking problem. I almost always get water and I drink lots of it. I usually result in several trips to refill my glass. Now I tip decent but probably not as well as I should. But this little blurb is about the table next to me.

There was a table of three guys. They were fooling around a little. I was not really sure what was going on with them but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. But then one of them took charge and said the other two owed him $10 and he was going to pay the bill. That gave the waitress an OK tip but still I could imagine there was better than she might have got. Anyway what I saw happen next was what I found interesting. The one guy stopped her and said you gave us great service. She did not seem to understand so said it again just a little different. Personally I think she was in shock. Does anyone ever thank people like that? I know I rarely do and that is a shame. Anyway his buddies gave him a hard time and he said he, I have done so and so and I know it makes a difference when someone appreciates what you do.

He is so right. Now if he could only work on a little better tip then he would be a hero.

Have a nice weekend everyone.