Wordless Wednesday (The Sting)
Author: Janna Hill
Tuesday’s Tell-All (I’m Just Not that Good at Being Smart)
I tend to lag in technology, often years behind the rest of the civilized world. I never claimed to be tech-savvy or even civilized, okay?
Truth is I only got a “smart phone” this year for lack of choices. I went kicking and screaming into the “smart” realm with no intention of using it for more than basics.
After a few months [eight really] I installed the Facebook app. Apparently you need a second app for Messenger so I hit the okay/install that too button.
Alright. Welcome to the year 2017.
So there I was creeping Facebook on my desktop, minding my own business while the app did its thing and suddenly I am bombarded with alarms. The phone started chiming erratically, messages were rolling in with GIFs and crazy stickers and emoji’s. At the same time my cousin is texting me, asking if I just sent her something.
No! Oh hell, this demon possessed phone has a mind of its own!
To make a long [list of deleting apps] story short… My daughter explained the particularly bothersome app; how Messenger notifies your Facebook contacts with a suggestion to wave/interact.
Oh.
Well I waved bye to most of the apps and went back to using the phone as a paperweight.
Yeah.
I understand now why people are glued to their devices. Bless their hearts, I’m just not that good at being smart.
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Mad Monday (And the Grinch who Stole It)
Friday’s Free-for-all (Re-writing Rhymes & Riddles)
Taking another stab at Writing for Children
Pete and Repeat sat on a wall
Repeat fell off
Now Pete can finally move on
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TBT (Summer Blowout)
Summer Blowout
Throw Back Thursday just became Rollback Thursday.
Remember (fifty or 100 years ago) when you could buy books for .25¢ to .99¢
Well we’ve partnered with Google Books/Google Play so you can throw it back to the good ole days.
When the chief suggested these penny sales (I’m talking 25¢, 33¢, 49¢, 54¢, 78¢ and 99¢ books) I was like, Whoa. I don’t think you can do that.
When he assured me we could indeed, I was quite amused.
So it appears we are slashing prices and doing away with dollar$ for the entire month of August. I know it’s cRaZy but it also makes cents.
Now if Starbucks would follow suit…
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Wordless Wednesday (Reading People)
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Tuesday’s Tell-All (My Life is a Bad Reality Show)
In May I introduced the newest member of our family, Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam.
In July I talked about Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam wanting to be a star and the attitude that ensued.
Now I have to tell you…
Hold on, this has been a hard thing for me to understand…
[sigh]
Pretty Kitty is…
Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam (aka PKPJ) is….
Oh hell Jam is a Jim!
I know! I am so naïve… so unsophisticated!
I was also a bit distraught when I found out.
I tried to normalize the situation by calling him Jim but he refused to answer. By this point I was so flustered I threatened to have him castrated… emasculated… de-dinglized.
He snubbed the threat and mewed, Pretty Kitty Puddin Jaaam.
“No!” I argued, “You are a tom – a Jim! Girls do not have tally-whackers!”
PKPJ then he purred two words that clarified everything –
Caitlyn. Jenner.
[Blubbering sigh]
I conceded to let him keep his male genitalia but no more news rags or television AND no more pretty bows!
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Mad Monday. (I’m rooting for you, go Monday go!)
We Six Remained (from Getting Me Back)
If I should die before I wake…
Run little hamster,
I pray the Lord my soul to take
run as fast as you can.
-0-
Sister, did you see the man,
the one with the bloody stone?
Brother did you feel the pain,
when the bullet hit the bone?
-0-
Cousin did you smell the smoke,
did you lie so still and quiet?
Uncle did you hear him choke
as the flames rolled over Zion?
-0-
Father could you hear their screams,
do they haunt you late at night?
Mother did you see their dreams
before the dreadful plight?
-0-
A precious linctus to make me feel
Another to help me sleep
And if God can hear a dead man’s prayers,
I pray my soul to keep.
-0-
Now I lay me down to rest
among the torn and drained
where millions died beneath the crest
yet, we six remained.
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No Such Thing As Ghosts
Ernest Hemingway’s study in Key West, Florida.
Note the portrait in the background. Sorry, I don’t know who the artist is but I thought it meshed well with the poem No Such Thing as Ghosts. I snapped this photo last February after a long ride through the keys with Ernie. 😉
No Such Thing As Ghosts completes chapter 17 in Unjustified Favor (Clan Destiny Book III) after an ordeal forces Lawrence Jeffcoat to rethink his beliefs.
… ghosts were manifestations of irrational fears and folklore. Ghouls, phantoms, spirits – those were make-believe stories invented for campfires and fiction.
Embedded images leave their trace
Like fossil shells have marked their place
Many share this tiny space
Though each in their own time
The essence of an empty room
The hint of a gardenia’s bloom
A peek in to the sixth sense loom
All treasures of the mind
Shadows catch the outer eye
Wind railed whispers cross the sky
Nothing ever really dies
They simply pass beyond
—
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August is Hell and That’s Just Peachy
Did you know August is National Peach Month?
The first thing(s) that came to mind when I read the notification was:
Ham’s Orchard – a peach orchard not far from here that sells peach ice cream as well as a hundred other things; The Peach Orchard Ogre – a short story I wrote years ago, and August Wolf – another story.
What do these things have in common?
Nothing other than giving you a glimpse at how my mind works, a lame promo and a reason to say, “August is hell and that’s just peachy.”
Oh, and the GIF is kind of cute too.
The Real Janna Hill in 