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| January 22, 2012 Day 22 The Blog Prompt: "In what way/ways does blogging fulfill you?" Possible Mispelling: Blog - Go to First Occurence | Google Word Possibilities: Bog Log Blag Bloc Biog Bldg Blow Blob Blot Clog Flog Slog Possible Mispelling: blogging - Go to First Occurence | Google Word Possibilities: blagging bogging logging clogging flogging slogging blocking bulging boggling belonging bagging begging bugging lagging legging lugging Blogging, (or blagging as spell check dictates) until now, has done nothing for me except for discourage, frustrate and depress me. BUT  (You know it's going to be a good blog, or Bog as per spell check, when you see my big but come out)BUT, since beginning this 30 Day Blogging (aka Flogging) Challenge, that has all changed. I am now encouraged, inspired, and enjoying the experience. I honestly did not expect this challenge to be as much fun as it has been. I expected I would be posting daily snooze reports to nobody. something like.....It was cold here today, not unusual it's January and we're on the Canadian Prairie. We went out for a walk anyway. I cooked all day, really I did. I made 45 fatayers and wrote a recipe. I made some spinach filling, but I decided to refrigerate it until tomorrow. Leslie had a shower this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going to make some spanakopita. The Jets lost in a shoot out to the Panthers. I wished the Moose would come back and send these NHLers over to Quebec Let them watch hockey players skate as fast as they can into the boards until they all have brain damage, for all I care. BUT, I haven't done that though, have I? No. I think I've turned out some fairly entertaining ventures into creative writing. This Challenge has tripled the visits to my blog/blob. I've met some new friends. My facebook friends and family have been reading and commenting (positively). It's all good. BUT, Are we truly blogging/slogging here? If you google the question, what is a blog? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog You might conclude, as I have, No. Note: This is my third re-writing of this. I will NOW change my answer to the above question to YES, then delete the rest of my work and re-write it. NO! I'll keep it in. change the text color to green and color my re-written text blue. Most of us, (myself for sure) are just writing a theme based on a daily prompt. I imagine that is what they do over at the "daily writing prompt group" Writing on a daily prompt in this group IS blogging, because regardless of what we write, we are opening up a dialog, we are expressing personal feelings and sharing comments, ideas, generating interest in ourselves our lives and our group. There were no rules set out here as to how we had to format our entries, know what I mean? No one said we had to include journalling, or tell about our day, what we ate for lunch, how many people were on the bus. report on the baby's progress with potty training......Yawn. I like the creative challenge to spin a tale off a random prompt, both writing and reading, then it gets even better when others share their opinions or just let you know they read your piece and enjoyed it. But that's not technically blogging, so I guess I fail. I don't fail I pass, and pass with flying fricken colors I might add At this point one of my friends would say to me, Hey! Joel, I don't have time for your $#!T. Then we would laugh. It's good to have friends. My friends will still say this no matter what my opinion is, my closer friends would say, shut the fuck up. Strike that swear I want to keep my 13+ rating. Blogging/Boggling as it is described http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Is not very appealing to me.,BUT, I think I can work with it and make Blogging/lagging what I want it to be. color me 100% fulfilled, but not sure of what. Nice prompt fivesixer, it rattled around in my head for a good long while. Now I'm off to celebrate my WDC birthday. It's my first one. Is there going to be cake? Joel aka Brother Nature Made in Canada   ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group |
| January 21, 2012 Day 21 Today's Prompt: Lots of people on WDC seem to have a special affinity for animals: tell us about your animal/pet experiences. Include 1 silly animal story and 1 sad animal story. If you don't feel you do have an affinity for animals (ie. You don't like 'em) feel free to tell us why and include examples of animals in your life that have reenforced your dislike. Puuuuur- fect. It's looking like if I mention my mother in an entry it is well received. So I asked my mom, "can I have a dog?" Like my brothers before me I heard the same answer we always heard when any one of us asked for a dog, cat, budgie, hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, rat, or any other pet everyone of my friends seemed to have. Here's mom's standard answer...You can't have a dog! I have six kids, we don't have enough money to buy food for six kids never mind including a dog, I have to make six beds, I do laundry for eight people, pick up after you all, wake you all up in the morning and make sure you go to bed at night. I don't have time to take care of a dog. who is going to feed this dog? Who is going to take the dog for walks? who is going to pay for a license for this dog? who is going to pay the vet bills when the dog is sick or injured? Who is going to clean dog hair off the floor and furniture? Do you know what your grandma told me when I asked for a dog? She said, I don't like dogs. I don't want a dog living in my house. If you want a dog ,then when you have your own house then you can get a dog. My mom could go on and on fifteen twenty minutes, but it's best to just walk away. The message was clear, I wasn't getting a dog. We never had pets in the house growing up, mom had a thing about that! That's my sad story about animals. It's sad because I really do love animals. I got my fix for sharing friendships with house pets by spending time with friends who had pets. I had many friends both on two legs and four. Now for my silly story. Mom was right to a certain degree, and I found that having a pet wasn't for me in my lifestyle. Then Leslie and I were asked to provide a place to live for Brutus. Brutus is a tan Chihuahua. Brutus had to come live with us because Leslie's Daughter moved into an apartment that did not allow pets. Brutus came from the lower mainland in Vancouver, to live with us in the heart of the Canadian Prairie in Winnipeg Manitoba. Brutus arrived in the fall, and nearly did not make it through his first winter. -40 and Chihuahuas don't mix. Especially for a west coast Chihuahua. I sure loved little Brutus in fact everyone did. Brutus and I spent our winter making little picture stories. I want to reproduce one for you here. so...... Brutus was sad, because he missed Jen, so I made Brutus a new house, that made Brutus happy. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Brutus made friends easily and started hanging out with Kool Kat. Brutus and Kool Kat were in a band. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Brutus was pretty cool he started to dress cool and even had a girlfriend, Black Troll. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Things were pretty good until one day I noticed Brutus and Black Troll were drinking a little too often. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Sad to say,"things got worse when Brutus got addicted to chewing stick." ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** The drinking got worse, the party went 24/7, and Brutus chewed stick daily ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** We tried to get Brutus to stop we even tried an intervention, but Brutus just stayed in his house. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Finally Brutus was arrested and sent to the DOG HOUSE ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Don't worry...Brutus had a good lawyer and successfully completed rehab. He now lives on Vancouver Island with his Grandma. Joel aka Brother Nature Made in Canada ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group |
| January 20, 2012 Day 20 Today's Prompt: Post a link to your favorite entry in the challenge thus far. Then write a review for it. Review of :Day 3 Prompt - When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer? For Evertrap "Invalid Entry"  Hello Evertrap I would like to share with you my review of your blog entry - When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer? Your entry was a treat to read. from your bold opening statement through to your last line. It was a pleasure to join you on your trip into the virtues of the mighty pencil. The entry was very well written. You expressed your feelings and knowledge for your writing implement of choice with a very bold and captivating style. I felt the passion and values you have for the simple things in life. I'm not sure if you researched the history of the pencil, or if you were sharing some personal knowledge, I simply accepted every word you wrote as fact. Your entry is an excellent sample of technical writing. If I were to be marketing a product I would want to have a testimonial as good as the one you wrote. well done!! One of my favorite parts was: The point, when properly shaped, has just the right amount of drag on the paper, preventing slippage that can mar the meaning of the written word, as the lowly ballpoint has too many times been guilty of. I also liked the line: There is no doubt, the pencil is the Rembrandt of words. As far as spelling, punctuation, and grammar are concerned I could find no fault. You are truly a gifted and talented writer. I liked the fact that you dismissed the prompt question in one word Neither, then wrote about what your actual preference for a writing tool is. The only element I found missing was that you did not make mention of the other choice the prompt offered, computers. Thank you for sharing with us this fine bit of writing. |
| January 19,2012 Day 19 Today's Prompt: tell me your favorite birthday story! My mother still reminds me about the time I threw myself a birthday party. I was in grade three or four. I had received a Birthday party invitation, I have no idea from who, or even if I went to the party. The invite may not have even been for me. The thing was ...I really liked that invitation. it had a colorful clown holding a balloon bouquet on the front cover. Inside was written... What is it? It's a Birthday party for:________________ When is it?_____________ Where is it?_____________ I loved that invite...I studied it for hours. (these days they put kids like me on medications.)...... (just saying.) "Hey mom, I said, I bet I can make these invitations for my birthday party." Mom said something like, "sure you can your good at making stuff." With paper and crayons, and blunt scissors I re-produced about a dozen invites after all I am..... Creeeee - A - Tivity Maaaaan!!!! With five school age children and a new born, mom didn't have time to keep tabs on everything us kids were doing. She had no idea that I...... took my hand made invites to school a few days before my birthday and passed them out to my best-est friends. My birthday fell on a week-day. On that day I came home from school with a sizable group of kids all set to party, with birthday gifts in hand. We filled the living room before mom even knew we were in the house. I went into the kitchen to see where my mom was at, as far as putting out the party snacks. Talk about a birthday surprise....for my mom that is. She could not believe I made my own party with-out her knowledge. My mom is pretty cool though! She tossed me a football and told me to take my guests outside to play. Then she cooked up some hot-dogs and sent someone to the corner store for some buns, chips and candies. Later she called us all in for a fine birthday party. One that she'll remember, that's for certain. BTW... January 22 is my 1st WDC Birthday. I might just throw myself a party. Happy 1st WDC Birthday to Jonas...Writer of today's prompt. Joel aka Brother Nature  Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
| January 18, 2012 Day 18 Today's Prompt: "Who is the person (living or dead) that has had the greatest influence on you & your life? How have they influenced you?" I have been asked this question before. In a way, it's much like the, "What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?" question. What I mean is: I can invent a much better answer if I were to lie, but I find it a more difficult question to answer truthfully. Like always, I will endeavor to be truthful. I can honestly say there is NOT ONE person who has had any influence on me, or my life, that is any greater than the countless people, who all contributed in small ways to help me and guide me to become the person I am today. (love me, or don't love me as much.) In the spirit of prompt responding I will attempt to reference as many people who have influenced, inspired, guided and motivated me through out my life. My Mother and Grandmother (Grandma especially) taught me the importance of having good manners and being respectful of others. Being too young to understand the importance of learning these lessons, I had to ask, and was given this reason....Because we want people to like you! So I took these lessons to heart. Several teachers advised me (all of us) ...Just be Yourself. I took that advice to heart. A certain teacher, who I shared an outside of school activity with said to me, at an event, after I got out of my seat to go get a snack at the canteen, with out saying anything to anyone. The teacher asked where I was going. When I told him, he said, "Why don't you say something like, "I'm going to the canteen , would anybody like anything? If you start saying things like that, then people will start saying things about you like...That Joel is a real good kid, he's always helpful and considerate, what a good guy." I took that advice to heart. I could write about the earlier mentioned three people and be done with this, but there are so many more people in my life including sports figures, entertainers and authors whom I never met that have had profound affects on the very fiber of my being. Thank you to so many family members, friends, teachers, priests and parishioners, employers and co-workers, acquaintances, entertainers, professional athletes, authors and anyone else I missed that have influenced me and my life by providing a positive, wholesome example of excellence. I also owe a debt of gratitude to many family members, friends, teachers, priests and parishioners, employers and co-workers, acquaintances, entertainers, professional athletes, authors and anyone else I missed for providing an example of what NOT to be like. You lot are much easier to learn from. For the joy of writing and my enjoyment of the Writing.com site and it's community, I will list some authors that have influenced my style and vision in writing. These authors encourage me to pursue the art of writing. I only hope I can, some day, turn out one piece that is half as good, as what they have shared with me through their books. John Steinbeck Farley Mowat Douglas Adams Steve Martin Woody Allen J.D. salinger Leslie Nielson Theodor Seuss Geisel and the guy who wrote,"Make the poor work" over top of the, "Make the rich pay" graffiti on the Main St. underpass at Logan Ave. several others Joel aka Brother Nature Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
| January 17, 2012 Day 17 Today's Prompt: If you have five (5) days left to spend together with your love one how would you spend those days? I will assume that the prompt should have been written to say, If you have five (5) days left to spend together with your loved ones. How would you spend those days? With the exception of being terminally ill and being given an estimate of your life expectancy, none of us know when our days living on earth will end. I have no idea when my time will end. My last medical check up was a waste of health care funding. I'm blessed to be in good health. Knowing that means, that my passing would come as a complete surprise. Many of my friends, family, as well as personal heroes (example: Dale Earnhardt Sr.) have passed suddenly . This has lead me to think, if it can happen to them it can happen to me. I'm not the type to live in fear of dying. I will accept what ever end I meet when I meet it. I've learned that we must always be prepared. I believe that, If you are not prepared to die today, then five (5) days will not be enough time for you to get prepared. With that in mind I am comfortable in saying, If I have five (5) days left to spend with my loved ones...I would do NOTHING differently than I already do every day now. I would however make certain that I'm able pass on my worldly possessions to the people who I want to have them. I don't think I would even tell people. Whats the point? It's not like there is anything they can do to prevent it. Let them enjoy the last days. One last point...If I left all my worldly possessions to one (1) person and they added about $1.50 to it, they would be able to get themselves a coffee and maybe a donut, if there's a sale. Joel aka Brother Nature Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
| January 16, 2012 Day 16 The blog prompt: When you went to sleep last night, it was in your own bed or familiar surroundings. You wake up this morning in a strange bed and unfamiliar surroundings. You recognize your reflection with some differences, the face in the mirror is an older/younger version of you. Everyone you meet knows you, but by a different name. Where are you? What is your name? How do you believe you arrived in your present location? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I woke up in a strange place. That's not unusual because I went to sleep in a strange place. This morning everything is different. Leslie is gone! I'm not in the same place I was when I fell asleep. The strangest thing, though, is: I'm not the same person today, as I was yesterday. The only memory I have of my life is of killing the Sunset Bay zombies last night. I must have entered into some sort of mental illness portal in my sleep. I heard about those things, they have them in bingo halls across the country...and beyond. Oh well I'm not going to get stressed about it. It's better that I just go with it. When I looked in the mirror, I was surprised to see that I have a fine set of breasts now. A little bit older than I prefer but....sweet! My brain is wired a little differently. A thought just came to mind, "I believe the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the nature and purpose of life and of the future of society." I best get started then. Maybe I should go have a look around. There was a nice older woman in the outer room, I had a strong emotional attachment to her and made certain she had everything she needed to be content, before I left my new home. On my way out the door I noticed a huge stack of written work. Perhaps a clue. Wow! Was all this really written by me? There were "141Contest Submissions" I don't feel like reading all this now, I'll have to get back to it. I must really like entering contests! I went outside and to my surprise and dread, I was in Las Vegas, USA. Oh well! What ever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. An older gentleman approached me, He greeted me warmly and enthusiastically, and wouldn't you know it, he couldn't remember my name. He said that we grew up together in Blackwell, Oklahoma. He told me that he also knew my two brothers and my sister. Too bad the fella couldn't remember my name because, I was curious to know it myself. I told the man, that he probably had the wrong person and if he didn't get out of my way I would call the cops. I looked around Las Vegas for a while because: I have an interest in anything that catches my imagination. Soon after I decided to go back to where I started, and spend some time with that nice lady, I love so dearly. Who am I? post your answer in comments Joel aka Brother Nature Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
| January 15, 2012 Day 15 Today's Prompt: The situation is grim, the undead are coming for the brains of the living and you must protect yourself and your loved ones. What would you use to protect yourself if ZA occurred right this second? This means that you are limited to what is in your place of residence/work/education/wherever you are. Be realistic- you probably don't own an assault rifle, machine gun, flamethrower, or a bazooka, or some other such weapon. Be practical- do you really want to lug around a 10lb chainsaw, especially when it attracts more undead through noise, gets stuck, and more than likely you don't know how to use? Less is more- Limit yourself to as few weapons as possible, which will help you out at all ranges of combat- Far range, Medium Range, Close range, and Intimate range. It's nice and quiet on the Bay during the winter. Of all the homes and cottages, less than one third of the people live here year round. This winter it seems like we're the only ones here. Just Leslie and I, and the family at the top of the road. I noticed something odd about the family at the top of our road from our very first meeting. They seem normal enough, Mom and Dad and two young boys, but I always got a queasy un-easy feeling when ever I was in their presence. We met the boys during our first winter here. That was a few years back. I was looking out our living room window, when I saw the boys walking up our driveway on a cold January morning. The first thing I noticed was that they walked sluggishly without lifting their feet. Instinctively I imagined them to be ghost kids or ghouls something out of the imagination of Stephen King. That is what I named them in fact, "The Stephen King Kids". They moved too slow to be considered anything other than spookishly odd. I hollered to Leslie, "we have visitors coming to the back door. Looks like a couple zombie kids. I'll get the door." I know that my imagination sometimes gets the best of me, so I planned to greet the boys with as warm a welcome, as I could, and invite them in out of the cold. "Hi boys! Was sup? Come on in out of the cold, I said with a big friendly smile on my face. Leslie, was now standing a few feet behind me in our large open entrance way. As the boys entered our home the older, notably larger boy, slowly presented some paperwork while mumbling, "were collecting pledges" I turned to Leslie and asked if we had a few bucks handy. They were good looking young fellas, well dressed, but they both had expressionless faces and cold starring eyes. "What are you collecting pledges for", I inquired. While keeping a friendly, welcoming tone. The older boy mumbled, "It's for our bowl ling." The younger boy busied himself fishing his paperwork out of his Jacket. "My name's, Joel, and that fine lady is, Leslie. What are your names", I said, still maintaining a friendly tone. The older, bigger boy slowly and nervously stammered, I'm Jordan and he ees Mike" The little guy just stood there, starring steadily at the floor and tried to make some sort of hand gestures in lieu of speaking. I nodded towards the little guys paperwork and asked him if he bowled as well. The little guy nodded his head in the affirmative and made some sort of slurping sounds. There was an awkward moment of silence, that Leslie thankfully broke by asking, "is five bucks each okay?" After Leslie fixed the boys up with a little donation to their cause we bid them farewell. I asked them, before they left, where they lived. Jordan said, "at the corner the house with the trailer." They both pointed in general, and opposite directions. Little Mikey made his slurping sounds and pointed with both hands in several different directions, not bothering to stop starring at the floor. After they left Leslie and I talked about how odd they appeared. I insisted they were some sort of Stephen King kids. Leslie reminded me that I was being silly and remarked about how cute she thought they were. Soon after that day we met the boys parents, Alex and Dawn. Alex a holic and Dawn of the Dead I re-named them. The whole family had that slow movement, glassy eye stare, mumbling, Zombie thing going on. Dawn rarely spoke and Alex only said either, "want some rum?, or you got any rum?" They pretty much kept to themselves. We exchanged friendly neighborly waves as we passed each other in our travels. In conversations with our other neighbors, we found out that everyone else held the same feelings about them. They were odd. Nobody challenged my description of, "Zombie like." Where is everyone I wondered as we walked the circle drive around the bay. It seems like every week-end there are less and less people coming out. It was quiet, too quiet. Even the zombie family seemed too quiet. On the rare occasion we saw them outdoors, I noticed their friendly neighborly waves became more of a forced arm lift followed by an immediate look in the opposite direction. It was as if they had something to hide. The feeling that something terrible has happened was growing stronger each day in my gut. The feeling that something even more terrible was about to happen grew more stronger each day. Leslie reminded me constantly that I had an over active imagination and advised, "I should find more constructive things to occupy my mind with." Leslie and I were enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon in Sunset Bay. I was writing blog entries for a 30 Day blogging Challenge on the website Writing.com, while Leslie crocheted a Dale Earnhardt Sr. Pillow for me. I happened to look up and saw out the window, Jordan and Mike drive by doubled up on what looked like a new snow mobile. That wasn't unusual, the whole Zombie family sure enjoyed their off road vehicles, and boats. I decided to go out for a walk and some fresh air. Leslie opted to stay indoors and crochet. The sun was just setting as I walked. A light snow was gently falling. I got an odd chill as I walked, and it wasn't due to the temperature. Although I love the feeling of tranquility offered by Sunset Bay's winter, this was too quiet. Where is everyone? It seemed like nobody was out this week-end. Where were the snow mobilers? Where were the ice fishing enthusiasts? Yes, it was too quiet. Dead quiet! Funny!! I thought: Why are there no foot prints in the snow other than my own? Just vehicle tracks. If there is no sign of people out, where are all these vehicle tracks coming from? As I rounded turn four on Sunset Drive which leads me back home and past the house at the top of our road, I noticed the Zombie family were out standing in their yard. It appeared that they had a couple added guests too. Instead of four of them it looked like there were six or eight people there. As I got closer I noticed that their yard was filled with vehicles. Many more vehicles than the few additional people in the yard would warrant. I saw that Alex was stumbling down his driveway to meet me as I passed by his house. Oh great!!, he looks positively hammered I thought. When I was a few feet from Alex he gestured to the vehicles in his yard and slurred, "wha dya think about my new toys." I saw dozens of snow mobiles in one area, several cars and trucks, as well as, twenty or more quads. "Purdy good huh? I have over a million dollars worth of toys in my yard." "Yeah, Pretty good Al. Isn't that Larry's truck? "Hey I'm having a few drinks. Hey, look I have four golf carts. Are those all boats behind your garage Al? "Hey, I'll tell you what we're having a party. Come have a drink. Leslie is expecting at home right away. "Hey come have a drink. I'm having a few drinks. See my snowmobiles? The boys will go get Leslie Got any rum? Just then, one of their guests came running down the driveway followed by Dawn and the boys. Before this guy made it ten yards, Dawn of the Dead jumped on his back and I think started biting into the back of his neck. The boys each grabbed one of his legs and started dragging him back towards the house with Dawn still gnawing on his back. "Hey, Joel, did I tell you we're zombies? The peace and quiet was interrupted by the screams of Al's guests/victims. Al started heading back towards his house shouting all the way. "Leave your mom alone, she doesn't need your help, go out and find us more gas, and rum." I heard one of the boys ask, are Joel and Leslie coming to join us? Al shouted to them never mind that! get going and find more gas and booze we're partying tonight. By this time I was running flat out. my heart was racing. I was planning a quick exit from Sunset Bay as I ran. My main focus was getting Leslie and myself somewhere safe. I rushed through the door, shouting to Leslie, "get your boots and coat on, we have to get out of here. "What's the matter? What are you talking about? Out of here??? Tell me what's going on!!! The Zombies are killing and eating people, then stealing their toys. They're coming for us next. Come on we gotta get outta here!!! Have you lost your mind? I'm not going anywhere. Listen to yourself. Your not making any sense. I tried to calmly describe the scene I witnessed down the road. I told her about how they had all the ATV's, boats, trucks and snow machines. I warned her that would be coming for us. Leslie wasn't buying any of it. She insisted instead that I was out of my mind and probably had something to smoke while out on my walk. Leslie suggested that I calm down and announced she was going to go lie down for a bit, because she had a headache. With Leslie deciding to stay put, I was left to conclude that I would have to stay put as well, and plan to defend the home front. I knew the Zombie horde would be coming, looking for gas for their toys, booze, and finally human flesh to feed on. I knew they would head straight to the garage when they got here. I hatched a plan to set a Zombie trap in the garage. I yelled to Leslie okay fine you go and lie down, enjoy your nap while I kill zombies. Don't blame me if you wake up with your brains eaten. Think you have a headache now! I went to the garage and went about quickly setting up my trap. I had three containers of gas. "They want gas", I said to myself I"'ll give them gas." I poured one container of gas all over the interior of the car and left both car doors open. With the second container of gas I soaked down the quad and wooden trailer deck. I opened to gas tank of the quad and stuffed a rag half way in for extra measure. The gas fumes were getting strong in the garage it was time open the overhead door. I went back into the house and cut the end of an extension cord off and bared and separated the wires. I shut the breaker to the power in the garage off. I went back out to the garage. I poured the third container of gas on the floor, then plugged the extension cord into the out let and placed the bared wire end in the center of the puddle of gas. I headed back into the house, just as I saw Jordan pulling a sleigh load of zombies with a snowmobile towards our house. I made a quick check on Leslie. She was sleeping. How can anyone sleep through a zombie invasion ? I watched out the front window as Jordan drove his zombie sleigh up our driveway towards the garage. I moved into position next to the breaker box near the back window. I was right, they were going straight to the garage to search for gas. There was Jordan and four others, Alex, Dawn, and little Mikey were not among this wave. My heart was pounding in my chest as I watched Jordan lead the group of zombies into the garage. When the last zombie was inside I threw the power switch to on. I saw a few bright sparks then "ka-boom" the garage exploded in a huge fire ball. I heard the screams of roasting zombies, as the fire trap fried them straight to hell. One of the zombies burst out of the walk-in door. He was completely engulfed in flames. He flailed around dripping burning wads of zombie flesh all over my neatly shoveled driveway. Finally he collapsed in a heap of smoldering dead zombie corpse. No time to celebrate the success of my zombie trap. I knew there were at least three zombies left and I knew they were going to be mad. I had to develop another line of defense and I had to do it now. First I wanted to go check in on Leslie. When I opened the bedroom door Leslie was sitting up in bed reading. "What's that smell", Leslie asked. "Most likely burning zombie.I just smeltered the first wave in the garage." "Are you still going on about that zombie thing? It's getting a little stale." This is real! Go look out back! The garage is on fire and there is a burnt out zombie corpse laying in our driveway. There are more zombies on their way and i could really use you help in defending our home." "The only thing burnt out around here is you. Would you mind closing the bedroom door on your way out something smells out there." I didn't have time to argue with Leslie right now. I held the belief that she would thank me later. I had an idea for a weapon I would use to eradicate the remaining zombies. I went out to the shed where I keep some tools. The burning garage provided a nice glow of light. In the shed I found my nail gun and two old hockey stick shafts from the days when hockey sticks were made of good old fashioned wood. As I turned to go back to the house I was startled by little Mikey, who was standing right behind me. Mikey was standing there looking at the ground. He lifted his eyes with out lifting his head to look at me. His eyes were flaming red.He looked satanically evil. "Hi Joel, did you know your garage is on fire? "Uh, yeah, Mike. I noticed that. sure. "Have you seen Jordan?" "Umm No Mike, I haven't seen him for a while now." "Okay, Is Leslie home?" Yeah, She's inside reading." Okay, My dad wanted me to ask if you have any rum, he's having a few drinks." "No I'm all out of rum right now.' What are you doing right now? Are you going to come and party with us?" The whole time I was talking with little Mikey his eyes grew increasingly redder his voice became gravelly and he began drooling some sort of zombie slime.I felt real bad for what I was about to do , but I had to do, what I had to do. I'm trying to fix my nail gun Mike. It seems to be jammed. Here look in here and tell me if you see anything plugging it up. When Mike lifted his head up to look into the gun, I fired two, inch and a half long nails straight through his little zombie skull killing him instantly. Sorry Mikey. I got zombies to kill. I headed back towards the house. Dawn was stumbling down our driveway and moving pretty slow. I could see Alex too. He was still a ways down the road and moving even slower. There wasn't much time. I would have to hurry. I took the nail gun and hockey sticks inside. I started down the hall to the bedroom grabbing a roll of duct tape along the way. Leslie was still sitting up reading when I entered the room. I tossed my apparatus on the bed. Leslie looked up and rolled her eyes."Now what are you doing", she asked. I'm saving us from becoming zombie feed that's what I'm doing, I'm going to make a long gun out of these hockey stick shafts and the nail gun. Your really starting to piss me off with this zombie crap, will you please just stop. If you don't believe me about the zombies, then look out the window, you'll see zombie Alex heading this way. As I spoke I worked on attaching the nail gun to the end of a hockey shaft with duct tape. I used the second stick to activate the trigger. It was like a pump action riffle. Who's the dead zombie now, I mused. Leslie went to the window and looked out. Even in the darkness she could make out the figure Al, who was now stumble - staggering at the top of our driveway. Leslie turn to me and said, "that,s just Al, please tell me you didn't offend him by calling him a zombie." He is a zombie, look at how he's walking. He's just drunk! Joel, your being ridiculous. Before I could respond we heard a crash coming from the back door. You wait in here while I go see whats going on. I grabbed my nail riffle and hurried towards the back door. When I got to the back entrance way, Dawn of the dead, was coming through the door which she had broke open. I lunged at her and placing the shaft of my nail riffle into her belly I pumped several shots into her torso. The nails backed her up, but she grabbed the nail riffle and pulled it out of my hands. She fell back through the doorway and onto the steps. The nail riffle flew further back into the yard. I made a move to get to the nail riffle by trying to hurdle over, Dawn of the dead. She caught me by the ankle and tripped me up. The riffle was just out of my reach and Dawn was increasing her hold on me. I kicked at her head and face, two, three, four kicks. I pulled. She pulled me back. She bit into my leg, but before she could break the skin on my leg, I was able to break free, and get hold of the nail riffle. She lunged at me and was completely on top of me. Luckily the nail riffle had the business end planted right in her mouth. I fired nail after nail into her throat. I seemed like an eternity but finally, after making horrible gurgling sounds, she fell dead. I crawled out from under her. I was going to go back inside, but Alex was now making his way through our back door. The nail gun was out of nails. I had to warn Leslie. I raced around to the front of the house. Good thing Al was moving so slow. The front of the house has three windows and a door. The living room window is on the north side, then the front door, then the two bedroom windows. Leslie was in the bedroom on the extreme south of the house. I stood in front of the bedroom window and yelled so Leslie would hear me. "You have to get out of the house, Al is inside. I'm out of nails, we have to run." Leslie believed me now, being soaked in blood and zombie slime may have been pretty convincing."How do I get out of the house," Leslie asked. Open the window and jump. I can't get the window open, it's frozen shut, what should I do? Hang on! I'll go look in the living room window, I'll check where Al is, maybe you can make it out the front door. I ran to the living room window and looked inside. Al was at the fridge, he was opening can after can of, Coors Light, and pouring them down his throat. I ran back to the bedroom window and yelled to Leslie. Okay Al is in the kitchen, if you hurry I think you can slip by him out the front door. Leslie said, In the kitchen, what's he doing in my kitchen? He's drinking all the beer, never mind hurry up you have to get out of there. It was then that Leslie's expression changed. I heard her say as she exited the bedroom. "I got me some zombies to kill" I ran back to the living room window and looked in. I saw Leslie enter the room. Alex turned and made some sort of drunken zombie growling sounds. It was going to be close. Leslie had to move fast in order to get to the front door get it opened and get out before Al could get a hold of her. Leslie made her move, but instead of going for the door she moved to the sofa and picked up her crocheting hook. Al took a run at her. Leslie poised herself to stab him with the hook. I couldn't bear to watch. I turned my head away. I heard a scuffle and some horrific screams. Then as fast as it started all fell silent. I looked back in the window, but saw nothing. Several minutes passed before the front door flung open and Leslie came out and fell into my arms. I killed a zombie Joel, can you believe it? I'm pretty impressed with you. You did fine, My love, you did fine. But what took you so long to open that front door? I was scared to death that you didn't make it. "Oh",....Leslie, said with a little blush on her face, " I stopped to grab what was left of the beer in the fridge. Want one?" Sure, Why not? Now what will we do? Well.....Alex and Dawn of the dead have a pretty nice house, lets go hang there for the night and we'll figure things out in the morning. The End Joel aka Brother Nature Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
| January 14, 2012 Day 14 Today's blog prompt: Explain something or someone that you feel is widely misunderstood. There are so many things, as well as people, including myself that are misunderstood. Writing about misunderstood people and or things would be so easy, if you didn't have to explain any reasons in detail. Today's blog prompt presents a bit of a challenge to me, when I consider the number of misunderstood friends and family members I could write about. Yes, Myself included. The challenge I have is... writing about somebody who may read this, and then become offended that I wrote about them. I already feel a bit mean, for calling my mother a "nut job" in Yesterday's entry. I believe I'm taking the easy way out by choosing CRITICISM as my topic of examination. Criticism is very widely misunderstood, because it can be delivered as an intentionally hurtful insult, as well as, constructive advice, intended to show a genuine contribution in an effort to help. The bearer of criticism always runs the risk of how their comment will be received. A person receiving criticism always has to discern both the comment and the commentator to determine the bearers intent. Another facet of criticism is that, even an intentionally hurtful and rude comment can be beneficial, if the receiver is motivated to implement positive change. As a reviewer on WDC I always look for the opportunity to offer at least one point of criticism in my reviews. My intention is that it will help the writer to improve the piece or inspire the writer to improve on future writings. As a writer, receiving reviews, I find that a review with no criticism is missing a key component, and does not help me to improve on my writing skills. Of course a review full of criticism was written by some jerk. Just kidding with that last sentence. I was getting too serious for my style. Joel aka Brother Nature Member of :The Showering acts of Joy Group. "Showering Acts of Joy Group"
Made in Canada |
Today's blog entry is a re-submit of an earlier written piece. (It's a valid entry...I DID write it myself. Not like I copy and pasted a dictionary.com entry or anything like that.) I think this entry was a popular one among my blogging community peers. (among my peers who read and comment of the work of their fellow bloggers). The reason for this re-submit is because I want to try out the newly created "BLUG" Page. It's fantastic to have another option, another place to post, more exposure for our entries. Thank you goes out to Thundersbeard 30DBC JULY HOST   "The Detailed Writing Prompt Comp" who successfully lobbied WDC to add such a page for us all to use. Mr. Thundersbeard your contribution to this group, WDC, and all bloggers, is a gift. It's been my pleasure and honor to read, write, and laugh with you.Enjoy reading or re-reading Friday the 13 th in 1D January 13, 2012 Day 13 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Friday the 13th Today's blog Prompt: "Do you believe that bad things happen on Friday the 13th? Give us the reasons why you do or don't. Are there any other superstitions you believe (or don't believe) in?" I first learned of superstitions when I was a young boy. I did not know that I was learning about superstitions, I thought I was learning proper etiquette, or survival skills. As a young boy I would never had thought that my mother was a nut job. It was my mother who instructed me to throw some salt over my left shoulder after she noticed that I had spilled a small amount on the dinner table. "Why do I have to do that", I inquired with interest. "It's bad luck to spill salt. Throwing some over your left shoulder will cancel out the bad luck", my mother explained. "Why do you have a penny in your shoe mom? It's good luck son. One day I was playing with an umbrella, I was "The Penguin" from my favorite TV program "Batman". My mother had a fit. Joel!!!! No!!!! Stop!!! don't open that umbrella!! It's bad luck to open an umbrella in the house. One morning my mom cautioned me to be very careful this day. She explained that it was Friday the 13th the unluckiest day on the calender. They even spoke about it on the radio. "Oh my god. She's right", I thought. What should I do ? Just be extra careful today. To this day, my mother does not go outside her home on Friday the 13th. There was the time, I recall, when my dad and my uncle dropped a dresser while moving it. The dresser mirror fell to the floor and was smashed to pieces. Mom had another fit. It was then that I learned the ugly truth about this strange unlucky life I was born into. Breaking a mirror is an automatic "seven years bad luck" that is a life sentence to a seven year old boy. I recall being aware of that mirror breakage through-out my entire childhood. Wouldn't you know it, just before the seven years had passed, I was playing with a hand held mirror of my sister's, and I dropped it, and it broke. It wasn't until I was a teenager and shared some of my mothers survival strategies with my friends that I learned they are only superstitions (and my mother is a nut job). Finally I was able to take the penny out of my shoe and spill all the salt I wanted. I was comfortable with, "my form of luck". "My form of luck" is...Hey Joel, lucky you weren't killed when that brick hit you on the head. Instead of feeling unluckily born into a poor family from the wrong side of the tracks, and not being born an only child of wealthy amusement park owners. I felt lucky to not be born in a third world country, where there is no food, and you're constantly surrounded by flies. Friday the 13th is just another day, like any other day. Good things and bad things happen with no respect for our calendar. Mom has survived two bouts with cancer and continues to win at bingo. Most people think she's pretty lucky. I affectionately describe her as a nut job, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I think I'll give the old doll a call. I know she'll be home. It's Friday the 13th after all. Joel aka Brother Nature Member of The Showering acts of Joy Group "Showering Acts of Joy Group" Rising Stars "Retired Founder, Rising Stars Program" Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
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