Life – Facts, Fictions & Fantasies

W is for Worry

April 27, 2026April 26, 2026Fandango7 Comments

I am trying not to worry so much anymore, but with everything that is going on these days, the air feels thicker, heavier, more acidic than it used to.

I move through rooms as if they are half‑remembered dreams, each one holding a question I’m not ready to answer.

Some days I pretend the world is only what I can touch. The warm mug of hot coffee in my hands, the soft hum of the refrigerator, the way light gathers on the floor like a small, patient animal.

Other days, the noise outside seeps in, a slow tide rising against the edges of my calm, shattering my nerves like Memorex shatters glass.

Still, I keep walking, keep breathing, keep placing one thought gently after another, as if arranging fragile objects on a shelf.

I tell myself that steadiness is a kind of hope.
And try to convince myself that even now
Something quiet and unbroken
Waits beneath the surface of all this trembling.

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Sunday Poser — Back in the Day

April 26, 2026Fandango7 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know:

Do you like to tackle challenges or like things to be easy?

You know, I think I use the phrase “back in the day” a lot when responding to Sadje’s Sunday Poser questions. That’s because people change a lot over time — at least I know I have. What I do, how I spend my time, what I think, my views, perspectives, and opinions have changed over time. I see the world and my life differently than I did in my youth, when I was a young adult, when I became and middle ager, and now that I’m a senior citizen.

And that certainly applies to my answer to today’s Sunday Poser question. Back in the day I would not only accept challenges, I would seek them out. Whether it was in school, at home (taking on a lot of DYI projects), and at work (looking for better, more efficient, more effective ways of doing things).

I have to admit that I was not very good at sports, but I did challenge myself to competitive events when I was going through my British roadster phase by competing in weekend road rallies.

I retired nine years ago and that’s pretty much when I decided to seek out the easy way. My new challenge was (and is) to keep my mind sharp, and I do that through blogging. I challenge my creativity and imagination by crafting short fiction based upon words or pictures that other bloggers have offered up as writing challenges. I also keep up my research and investigation chops when I write opinion pieces and want to make sure I have my facts and circumstances correct.

I have taken on the challenge of being more descriptive and, dare I say, more poetic in my writing and have attempted to write over the past few years in new genres, including film noir and old west styles. And I have embraced a new skill of describing in detail my instructions to AI-image generation apps to create the perfect, custom illustrations for the words I’ve written in my posts.

And doing it all on my iPhone, by the way!

So these days the challenges I tackle are more cerebral than physical or competitive. And I am very happy stepping up and taki g a swing at such challenges now that I have reached “the golden years.”

V is for Volunteer

April 25, 2026April 25, 2026Fandango13 Comments

I am not the kind of man who volunteers. When others’ hands go up, mine stay folded in my lap. I prefer sitting in the back row, where expectations of being picked are dim.

I have my reasons, though I rarely share them. I tell people that my time is already spoken for. I have people to see, places to be, and things to do, though that may not always be true.

I have simply reached the age, and the stage in life, that I prefer to let others raise their hands. I am selfish with my time and how I spend it, and volunteering is not what I choose.

And yet, there is one activity I am always ready to volunteer for: time with my grandkids. Yes, their boundless energy can wear me out, but their curiosity, their imagination, their spontaneous laughter, their appreciation for the time we spend with them, and the hugs and kisses when it comes time to say goodbye make it worth it.

Would I volunteer to do it daily? Yes, if I could. But this old fart needs at least a couple of days to recharge between visits.

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SoCS — The Anagram

April 25, 2026April 24, 2026Fandango2 Comments

For this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has asked us to use the words tan, ten, tin, ton, and/or tun in our posts. This is what I came up with.

Tan light spilled across the old workshop as Walter pushed open the warped door, dust rising in a soft tun‑tun rhythm beneath his boots. He’d come searching for one thing — his grandfather’s mysterious tin box, rumored to hold the truth about life.

He found it on a shelf, surprisingly light for something with such a grand reputation. The lid resisted at first, then gave way with a soft ting. Inside lay ten small wooden tokens, each carved with a single letter. Walter frowned. This was no treasure, no revelation — just a puzzle left behind by a man who loved riddles more than rest.

Walter arranged the letters on the workbench, sliding them around until they formed a phrase that at least had some meaning: “TON OF TRUTH.”

Only then did he notice the underside of the tin lid, where a message had been scratched in a shaky hand: “Carry what matters, let go of what doesn’t.”

Walter stood in the tan glow, the workshop suddenly feeling lighter, as if someone had quietly lifted a burden he didn’t realize he’d been hauling.

Image conjured using Gemini.

U is for Ultra Lightweight

April 24, 2026April 23, 2026Fandango18 Comments

I mentioned in my “M” post for this year’s A to Z Challenge that I was going to be buying an “ultra lightweight” mobility scooter as a birthday present for myself.

Well, my kids decided they were going to buy one for me and I just found out that they did, in fact, order one for me and it’s scheduled to be delivered on Sunday. The picture below is the model they ordered.

These mobility scooters also come in red, but I guess my children thought that might be too racy for me, so the one that they got for me is gray/silver.

Mobility scooters that are labeled “Ultra Lightweight,” in the marketplace range from 36 to 43 pounds. There are some scooters that come in at around 27 to 30 pounds, but they either are three-wheelers or have low ground clearance, meaning that they are only good for indoor or paved surfaces. I need one that I can also use on grass, gravel, and packed dirt paths, which requires around 4 inch ground clearance. The model they got me weighs around 38 pounds without the battery, which adds about four pounds to the total weight.

The other important aspect of these ultra lightweight scooters is that they are easily foldable and can fit into the trunks of even small cars.

And that is the first test I am going to run when I get my new scooter on Sunday. Can I lift it by myself and fit it into the trunk of my car? If so, then keep your eyes out for an octogenarian zooming around the neighborhood streets at a blazingly fast five miles per hour. Woo hoo!

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T is for Tattoos

April 23, 2026April 22, 2026Fandango19 Comments

This past Saturday, at the party my family and friends threw for my 80th birthday, my 47 year old daughter showed up and immediately showed off her latest tattoo.

It was a large, colorful parrot on her upper left arm. There were a lot of oohs and aahs and positive comments from the attendees. Even I had to admit that it was a well-done tattoo.

My daughter has about a half a dozen tattoos on her body (that I know of, anyway). She has a cat, a butterfly, a leafy vine around her neck, and a few others, mostly smaller ones. She also has multiple piercings in each ear.

I have chosen to have no tattoos or piercings on my body. It’s just not my thing. My wife doesn’t have any tattoos, nor does my son. My daughter’s husband and my son’s wife both have a few tattoos.

I don’t mind others who have chosen to tattoo or pierce their bodies. Hey, whatever floats your boat, right?

Personally speaking, I have no regrets about not having any tattoos. Or perhaps I should say that I have no regerts.

What about you? How do you feel about tattoos and body piercings? Do you have any tattoos or body piercings yourself?

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S is for Streaming

April 22, 2026April 22, 2026Fandango14 Comments

My wife and I rarely watch what I would call “regular” TV or what used to be called “broadcast” TV. Most of what we watch on TV is via streaming.

As you can see from the photo I took of my TV screen, we have a lot of streaming channels.

When we’re not actually watching TV, we stream music via Sirius XM, which serves as background music for us around our house. And when we do want to sit down and watch a show or a movie, we have plenty of streaming apps to choose from.

Some streaming channels, like Netflix, will release all episodes of a new or returning series at the same time, enabling being able to binge-watch an entire season of a show across two or three nights. Other streaming channels, like HBO/Max and Apple TV spread out their episodes by releasing episodes weekly.

Since my wife and I prefer binge-watching to weekly watching, we wait until all episodes of a show have been released before watching any of them. For example, season 2 of “The Pitt” on HBO/Max premiered on January 15th and the last episode of this second season was released on April 16th. My wife and I will probably start watching the season 2 episodes this coming weekend and by sometime next week will have binge-watched all 15 episodes.

What about you? Do you stream what you watch on TV or are you mainly watching the traditional broadcast networks? And do you prefer to binge-watch or do you patiently wait a week between each episode you watch?

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R is for Rain

April 21, 2026April 20, 2026Fandango10 Comments

It’s raining out. Again. So what is the big deal, you ask. Well, let me tell you.

So far this month, more than three-inches of rain has fallen where I live. And another two inches of rain is expected to fall through Wednesday. That’s five+ inches and there are still ten days left in the month.

This is very unusual for April around here. April rainfall is fairly modest, with typical monthly rainfall averaging not even two inches, and historically, most of that falls in the earlier part of the month.

But the early part of April this year was unusually hot and dry, so the fact that we have had this much rain this late in the month is not such a bad thing. Typically we have almost no rain in this area between early April and mid October. So maybe April showers will keep the hills greener a little while longer before the green gives way to what looks like parched straw.

Anyway, it could be worse. It could be earthquakes and wildfires instead of a few extra inches of rain for me to whine about.

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WDP — I Don’t

April 20, 2026Fandango4 Comments

Daily writing prompt

How do you use social media?

View all responses

The short answer to this question is that I don’t use social media at all.

Despite the image I selected to use at the top of this post, I’m not opposed to social media or the people who use it. Hey, if you’re into social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, Bluesky, or TikTok, that’s fine. Whatever floats your boat. Me, though, I am not active on any of those social media sites.

My wife used to have a Twitter account — she deleted it after Elon Musk ruined it — and now she is on Bluesky. I remember how she almost always got angry or upset when she read the Twitter tweets. Who needs that?

My kids have Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts where they post a lot of photos and videos, but they also send those same photos to us via email or texts because they know we aren’t on those social media sites anymore.

Some might argue that WordPress is a social media site, but I disagree. It does have a social aspect to it via the exchange of comments. But it’s primarily a blog hosting site that allows us to express ourselves through our posts. The community aspect of WordPress is icing on the cake.