Image: Pixabay
Life got to me —
So did rainy days and Mondays,
That’s why I’m now weaving baskets.
Just for a spell,
Until I can think of a story.
Then, I’ll call myself a story weaver.
“Ho, ho, ho!” Santa’s laugh greets those who enter the toy store. Glenn Murdoch, the shop owner’s son, has cleverly hooked up the recorded cheery greeting so it will play each time someone opens the door. Glenn is also responsible for the Christmas music that flows outdoors, as he has installed a horn to work as a speaker to funnel music from inside the adjoining hardware store to the outside. Much merriment is in the air in Olde Towne, a little place the locals sometimes refer to as “Seattle” due to it being in a different worldly dimension yet parallel to the Seattle that exists in the Pacific northwest of the good ole U.S. of A.
During the Christmas holiday season, the atmosphere in Olde Towne is akin to that in the North Pole, where elves busily build toys to get ready for distribution. Everyone in Olde Towne is baking and decorating for the holiday. With all the goodwill and high spirits, no one would ever believe the decapitation of Will’s head. Though one may argue, as did Will’s disheartened wife, that it had been due to Elmer Hadley being drunk from spirits that caused Will to lose his head.
The fateful day occurs one afternoon, when the locals are gathered outside in the town center to decorate the evergreen fir tree. Tables are spread around, replete with Christmas cookies and pitchers of eggnog, both spiked and unspiked. Elmer Hadley, the consummate tree and shrub clipper, unknowingly drinks the spiked eggnog, gulping more cups than he usually does, as his secret crush, Mary Weathers, makes him nervous. So much so that he picks up his prized sharp shears to impress her and proceeds to demonstrate his prowess. By sheer inches, he misses trimming the tall shrub next to Will and instead, cleanly, clips off Will’s head. Thinking fast as a nearby witness, Glenn immediately retrieves Will’s head and places it in the nearest icebox.
Despite Elmer’s faulty judgment, his talent as a superb clipper did result in a smooth cut. (This will later allow the town surgeon to easily stitch Will’s head back on, although the re-attachment will happen after Christmas since the surgeon is currently away for the holidays.) Meanwhile, Will works headless, though heedless, in Seattle, confident in the eventual reunion with his head. Though Olde Towne is in parallel dimension to Seattle, it operates under different rules of physics and physiques.
As for Elmer, he has sworn off eggnog for the rest of the holiday season. His polished work on Will, though most unintentional, had strangely impressed Mary, who is now sleeping well for her secret crush on Elmer is reciprocated. Who knew Elmer would make the cut?
[Based on actual figurines displayed in a winery north of Seattle]
Falls Testimony
Never ending gush—
I love this Seattle site,
So open and green.
A Falls Witness
Through no fault of mine,
Proud to be a falls witness,
Understand my awe.
Falls Memory
I remember now,
As a Snoqualmie* native,
I’m a waterfall.
*Taken in Snoqualmie, WA, while I visited Seattle last week.
Grateful for my friends,
Grateful for my family,
And other blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Image: Pixabay
It is a given —
A baby takes all you give,
And gives you back joy.
Image: Pixabay
Loaded and ready to go,
Appeared to have a good start,
Then flashed a code E3,
Thus began my woe;
The washer required a $600 part
Plus labor expenses charged hourly.
Instead of wasting my dough,
I took an old go-cart,
Piled in all my dirty laundry,
Like a furious bat,
I raced to the local laundromat,
STAT . . .
I’ll be parked here for a while,
Feeling like I’m in exile,
Until there’s no more unwashed pile.
Image: Pixabay
Meghan sighs as she sees the night slipping away too soon. Almost ten in the evening and she still has no date. She swipes the photo to the left, but soon changes her mind and swipes it to the right. She reads the brief profile of the guy she decides to pursue: “Enjoys anything that rocks — rock candy, rock climbing, and hard rock. Rock me hard!” She snickers at the last sentence.
“Oh yeah, baby,” she thinks to herself.
She texts him: “What flavor rock candy you like?”
Seconds later a response comes back: “Cherry”
She texts back: “I’ve got on cherry lip gloss.”
“Yum,” flashes on Meghan’s iPhone screen.
“I wish I was somewhere listening to hard rock now,” she types in, hoping to get something going soon.
“You’re playing my tune. Want to hang out?”
Meghan likes that and keys in, “Sure . . . when?”
“Let’s face time,” he messages back and adds his number for her to call.
“Cool,” Meghan thinks as she punches in his number.
A toothy grin dominates Meghan’s phone screen. She catches her breath as her eyes rake over the green cast of the face with bulging eyeballs and stained teeth that seems to take on a countenance that doesn’t look human at all. As soon as her brain registers the freaky visage, a scream escapes through her lips, now quivering from repulsion. Laughter from the screen erupts just as instantaneously.
She throws the phone across the room, screaming and hearing the laughter. She realizes she’s just been goblined*.
*Goblined – when a person gets startled, surprised, or freaked out by a goblin; usually occurs when a person least expects it. These are Halloween times . . . the countdown begins . . .
