Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike and Book Promo

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Book Promo

*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog.  Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so.  As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste.  If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. I ALSO WISH TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT IF THEY WANT TO TIP THE BLOGGER WITHOUT SPENDING EXTRA MONEY, CLICKING TO AMAZON THROUGH ONE OF THE BOOK LINKS ON THE RIGHT, WILL GIVE US SOME AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR PURCHASES MADE IN THE NEXT 24HOURS, OR UNTIL YOU CLICK ANOTHER ASSOCIATE’S LINK. PLEASE CONSIDER CLICKING THROUGH ONE OF THOSE LINKS BEFORE SEARCHING FOR THAT SHED, BIG SCREEN TV, GAMING COMPUTER OR CONSERVATORY YOU WISH TO BUY. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*

I’M IN THIS ANTHOLOGY: Divided we Fall: One Possible Future.

Political upheavals can be a very dangerous time, especially when ideologies are as far apart as they are now. Divided we Fall presents one possible future, one where powerful forces act behind the scenes to effect the change they’ve wished to create for decades, and have largely been held back. What happens when a nation is sharply divided, anarchistic forces allowed to run wild, and the police are held at bay or even defunded? Add in a presidential assassination, and you have all the potential for a world changing situation. In this world, Divided we Fall.

A collection of talented veteran bestselling authors and several new ones join together to paint a picture of the post 2020 election that none of us hope to see come about. But the more we watch events unfold, the more anything seems possible.

(*MY story involves the founding of the USAian religion. – SAH)

FROM MARY CATELLI: Crow Curse

An ancestor’s folly, stealing from a dead wizard, left them all turning to crows daily and bitterly attacking any of their number who stole from the dead.

Yet a dying wizard may hold the key of escape. . . .

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON: The Groundskeeper: Raking Up the Dead.

The ghouls, wraiths, and ghosties had not been part of the job description. Or maybe they had, just not in so many words. The neatly printed sign next to the ornate gates had simply read “Cemetery groundskeeper and caretaker needed. Inquire within.”

Now Chloe’s trying to calm an irascible ghoul, help a lost ghost find his way back to his grave, and get the mowing done before she needs to break out the bush hog instead… Who knew being a groundskeeper meant trying to keep things in the ground?

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: ROT

97 thoughts on “Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike and Book Promo”

  2. “Why aren’t these zombies rotting” cried out Fred as he flamed them.

    “Because they aren’t the Walking Dead” replied Alfred as he smashed them with a log. “Some idiot LifeMage mutated the rabies virus to create these “living” zombies”.

    “You mean I’m killing living humans”!

    “Nope, they may be alive but mentally they’re animals not humans”.

    “I hope somebody catches that idiot”.

    [Tip of the Hat to John Ringo and his “living” zombies.]

    1. Could it be the Democrat politicians all got a mild version of that?

      Never get into an elevator with a potential zombie.
      Everybody is a potential zombie.
      Everybody is potential zombie chow.
      — (Rules For A Zombie Apocalypse)

  3. He looked at the tree, and the pile of fallen branches. A sixth of the total canopy, by his estimate.

    “It’s perfectly sound!” the tree’s owner was wringing his hands, distress and panic clear in his voice. “It’s just that the leaves aren’t off, and the snow was too heavy!”

    1. Get off of my lawn – and take my dead branches with you. (Because that’s exactly what hit the Panhandles and Oklahoma this week.)

  4. I’m going to riff off a classic:

    “This is a can of rotting garbage, and it stinks!”
    “I’m told that it’s a compost pail, with a terrible smell.”
    “I’ve been told that it’s fertilizer, with a strong odor.”
    “The report says that it aids plant growth and had a powerful fragrance.”
    “Studies show that it promotes growth and is very powerful.”
    “We must implement this powerful growth-promoting policy!”

  7. Meanwhile in the drinking establishment next to the OK graveyard,
    The Lone Zombie Ranger fell, struck by the silver bullet.
    The body began to putrefy, the smell of rot filling the bar.
    Taunter, his Faithful Native American Companion said: “I tried to tell you, some things are better left undead.”

      1. That’s good. If true. My 4×8 foot Trump Pence sign is still up. I’ve distributed all but a couple of hand bills for the state reps in my town. About a third of the small signs for Trump and other GOP candidates are still up around town, the others stolen by those who are no longer our countrymen. I have plans for Tuesday, to bring coffee to the sign holders and candidates in attendance at the polls, and to take a time share holding signs myself with them. And of course, to vote.

      2. Hillary won by about 2500 votes. If the “…6500 people registered to vote in New Hampshire on Nov. 8 using out-of-state driver’s licenses, and since then the vast majority have neither obtained an in-state license nor registered a motor vehicle” that pretty much means Hillary won by fraud.

          1. If Mitch McConnell had been one tenth as conservative as he pretends, he would have refused to seat that Senator until every one of those ballots were proven genuine.

    2. That’s good. If true. My 4×8 foot Trump Pence sign is still up. I’ve distributed all but a couple of hand bills for the state reps in my town. About a third of the small signs for Trump and other GOP candidates are still up around town, the others stolen by those who are no longer our countrymen. I have plans for Tuesday, to bring coffee to the sign holders and candidates in attendance at the polls, and to take a time share holding signs myself with them. And of course, to vote.

  9. Tangent:

    Our hostess loves to re remind us our opponents are so divorced from reality that they lose and we win.

    As the black dog of the gang, I like to remind her them losibg is not the same as us winning. I might have had a bit of the black dog the past week.

    Today I read this by Mark Steyn about a man dead 30 years and a Yalie who demonstrated if we remain true to ourselves we may have already won.

    https://www.steynonline.com/10710/the-hilarious-house-of-frightenstein

    “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10

    3. Herb! Yay! You’re back! Hope you feel better soon!

      I’m kinda manic and kinda exhausted. Had co-workers call in sick two days in a row, so yeah, it was me and my managers versus the Halloween hordes. Everybody seems pretty nice and happy. A fair number of Trump people. Continued sarcastic maskwearing with exposed nose.

      Every day, up at the Board of Elections, there have been hour and a half waits to do early voting. My little brother helps with the voting machines sometimes, and is openly wondering who in the county will be left to vote on Election Day. We’ll see, I guess!

      Finally got to see the first ep of season two of The Mandalorian. Really enjoying it.

          1. This kind of domination of the political space — by the side that is usually very quiet — implies a margin that is too large to fraud and get away with it.

            The DNC has almost completely walked away from mail in after the courts stepped in, so that line of attack is gone. “Normal” fraud can’t make up the difference.

          2. I’ve been having these crazy thoughts.

            Like what if the rank-and-file folks who actually carry out the fraud decide that they prefer Trump & the Republicans.

            “Oh, you want to fire us for not carrying out the illegal activities that you wanted up to do”? 😈

          3. That’s Nadler’s district but I just can’t see it unless diBlassio has really had an effect. There are republican districts in NYC, I grew up in one, but only at the periphery.

          1. I’ve heard rumblings that there might well be ⅓ of the black vote going to Trump. If close to true, that puts a lot of places well in trump likelihood, and others in play for him. It’s getting muddier, but some of the leftoids are acting panicked

              1. Actually, Sarah, that IS new. Trump has gotten more open black support than anyone I can remember.

                2. It is different this time but perhaps not different enough. Remember that the polls are a weapon to be used to make your opponents stay home and your people come out. The difference is that the media was just a little too obvious. This time I answered a poll, I usually don’t answer or I hang up, I lied comprehensively. I’m a Republican voting for Biden on that poll and so is my wife and all three of my children. I’m dismayed by his vulgarity or some such BS. I don’t know whose poll it was and I don’t care. Every little bit helps and the first thing you do is blind the b-stards I suspect I’m not the only one to deliberately lie. That shy Trump voter thing is condescending BS.

                  I’ve also been spending more time on looking at the poll internals. national polls are useless and you’re better off not bothering. Still, the party bias has been off the charts, way more than last time. Somehow, the democrat party grew by 10% while the Republican Party shrunk by a similar amount. There’s nothing in any reality that gives you that, even the midterms, and what data are available show exactly the opposite. Local polling is all over the place but have the same problem. Even if your honest, which they’re not, if you don’t have a representative sample your poll is useless, which is why the 95% confidence interval polls are wrong 60-70% of the time.

                  At the end of the day it’ll come down to turnout and the margin of fraud like it always does. What seems to have happened is that the donkey’s internal polling might be as bad as the public polling and they miscalculated how much fraud was needed. It wouldn’t be the first time they lied to themselves, there are limits to how much they can get away with, and they won’t have wanted it to be too obvious.

                  Trump got only 8% of the black vote last time, turnout was down a bit. If he gets 12% he wins, if he gets a third you’re looking at a historic blowout. Romney and McCain only got 6% but they ran against Obama. Trump’s approval rates among black voters are around 1/3 so maybe just maybe. Rasmussen has him much higher and black people have been the ones paying the price for the fascisti. Hispanic vote is about what it was last time, which was much higher than the media gave him credit for. narratives rule.

  12. Wendy panted and sweat stuck the back of her cotton nightgown to her heaving chest, even in Lord Worthington’s cold “study” under the main house. She could smell the rapidly-increasing rot as the re-vitrification chemicals came out of Lord Worthington, the smell of mustard and unripe apples filling her nose over the rotten-pork smell. Some of chemicals has touched her skin, and there wasn’t any strength in her to brush them off. If anything, she was leaning up against the axe handle like a crutch, her lungs clawing for breath.

    “Congratulations, Lady Worthington,” an all-too-familiar woman’s voice said behind her, raw fury and adrenaline causing Wendy to drag up the axe and spin around, green eyes blazing with rage. From the doorway to the study, Rose waited in her immaculate black governess outfit, not a single blonde hair or hemline out of place. She stepped across the blood-and-chemical soaked carpet without pause and with the same careful steps as she taught the “blossoms” under her care to walk and dance. Her porcelain white face flushed with some unknown emotion as she said, “I suspected that the day I met you, you could do this-and he lowered his guard for that one moment.”

    Wendy’s voice came out in huge heaves, as she tried not to throw up again. “Why…why didn’t you do this?”

    “Because when I was of age, about the age you are now, Lady Worthington, he made sure to put cogs deep into my brain to prevent this. I could not disobey him, nor lie to him, nor think of raising my hand to him even in defense. And, Lady Worthington, I wanted revenge. You saw what he did to that woman from the village that got lost on his lands, what happened to my mother. Merely a notation in his notes, a ‘daughter’ to serve as his assistant. I wanted revenge for decades, ever since the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty. I could consider it, dream of it, lust for it…but never enact it, ever,” Rose continued, stepping close to Wendy. “But, if you consider the literal and the logical, Lady Worthington, he never commanded me to prevent his death. Arrogance on his part, a fault you do not have.”

    From a pocket hidden in her skirt, Rose removed a carefully folded small towel and began to clean off the bits of blood and flesh and chemicals from Wendy’s body. “You will need to take a shower and a bath, Lady Worthington, if you would wish me to serve as a maid for you in this,” Rose said with an odd and uncomfortable kindness, as if she hasn’t been truly kind for a very long time.

    For a moment, Wendy lowered the axe, then realized what Rose kept calling her, and hissed, “Why are you calling me Lady Worthington?”

    “Because you are now, Lady Worthington,” Rose paused for long enough to take some wine from the bottle on the desk and use it to wipe off the more caked-on gore. “Upon Lord Worthington’s death, his will shall note that you are his heir. I…might have aided in this, but the genealogy is clear. Even if the gender is not, this is merely an issue to be resolved by a good solicitor. And, you will need to be ennobled and entitled, Lady Worthington. You will need the resources here to preserve your life.”

    To Wendy’s confused expression, Rose sighed, “Lady Worthington, you are like your sisters-you might have two shillings of life left in you. Of course his customers would want to make sure that their mistresses never swelled, never told, and never would outlive their ‘patron.’ They would have twenty to twenty-four years of absolute perfection before their flesh failed in days. But, do not worry-the processes to sustain you are much kinder than what Lord Worthington used. Time and research has allowed for a great deal of improvement, and he was angry that the newer processes would not work for him. There were so many things that made him angry. I would show you the scars, if they did not heal as fast as your flesh could.”

      1. It’s been an idea for a while, this story. And a few others set in the same universe. It’s steampunk…ish, and it’s quite horrible in it’s own terrible ways.
        Imagine England being ruled by Queen Victoria in the 1930s, eternal and unaging. And the wealthy of England having the same access to the same techniques…despite the terrible, haunted look behind their eyes. Or, even worse, not having that look behind their eyes.
        A post-Reconstruction America, lead by Abraham Lincoln, that “handled” the founding of the Ku Klux Klan by hanging every single “night rider” that General Sherman could catch, throwing the families of the “night riders” out of their homes and burning them to the ground the next night, and enforcing civil law across the South. By mass hanging, as needed.
        A Germany that is civil and organized and polite…in the large cities. Get too far away from the electric cities, you run into the Grimm Tales in all of their terrible glory.
        Russia ruled by the Secret Tzar, stories that would terrify Lovecraft in the tundra, and only fools, criminals, or Socialists would be outside of anywhere with a stout door once the sun sets in groups of less than twenty. With rifles and grenades.
        This one…imagine Victorian-era poverty, add “My Fair Lady,” the certain knowledge that if you find the right person, your young son can bring you more money than the “sewing shops” for your young daughter, the idea that anything can be reshaped if you’re willing to do terrible things, and how many of the wealthy and powerful in London go through interchangeable mistresses that never swell, never tell, never age, and disappear-maybe with a quiet funeral-after just long enough…

        1. More please? I’ll offer brainstorming and beta-reading services if they’re needed.

  13. & reporting on Halloween atop the world here in the golden heart of Alaska;

    Meanwhile up here atop the world, my savage teen granddaughter, dressed
    and painted as something out of Steam Powered Giraffe (You don’t know SP
    Giraffe? Shucky darn you must be almost as old as I am!), dressed and
    painted as somewhere twix Spline and Rabbit (Who started out as
    identical twins but Rabbit, going at great lengths not to be #2 twin
    trannied.) spent all Hallows Eve with her four and a half closest
    friends steppin’ and stylin’ ’round the skirts of Fairbanks not treating
    (which is, of course forbidden, if it saves the life of one geriatric
    democrat voter (unless they early voted thrice already, of course), it’s
    all worth it!) but maybe tricking (You must admit, a gray area, when
    does a trick become a protest and hence COVID safe?), & a ghoul time
    was had by all!

  14. “There is that,” said Millefleur, pointing over the bay. An island there, large and favored by wind and current, still showed the remnants of the city that wizards had burned. Nothing of it faded or rotted away. It still stood a ruin, the land about it lifeless and charred black.

        1. Nate Silver has started to wobble. The internal polling must be epic given how lopsided the public polls are. I’m trying very hard not to become optimistic since I don’t want the emotional crash but, wow.

          Stock futures opened flat. No one knows nothing.

          God bless us, there’s none like us,

            1. The question will be how to live in truth when everything is a lie. Whatever the result we’re going to have to do that since their hatred of Trump has poisoned everything. I wish the church hadn’t been poisoned too, but that’s just more evidence that we are confronted with principalities and powers.

              My wife pointed out to me that religious people of all persuasions are coming out together. You have nuns, Amish, Orthodox Jews, who don’t normally come out publicly taking a stand. We’ll have to hang together.

              I don’t know why the story of Saint Franz Jagerstatter came to my attention this feast of All Saints but he does remind us that we can simply say no to evil. Any death that preserves the truth is a good one when one is faced with the enemy.

              And who knows, perhaps the horse will learn to sing. Despite my caution and depression, I’ve always been optimistic about how it will end. Perhaps this will be the wake up call we needed and we’ll recall what John Adam’s said about this being a system of government for a moral people, which we haven’t been. We’ve been Nietzsche’s last men with no honor, no passion, no faith but we’ve had our comfort and health.

              1. Heck, there were communities of recognized nuns, recognized “lay associations of the faithful” working on becoming nuns, and even sedevacantist schismatic nuns, all going to Trump rallies! This is some pretty wild stuff.

                1. Re: truth, I didn’t realize that almost every video by Dr. Julius Sumner Miller is now on YouTube. The ABC network in Australia has his shows that made him famous, and his Demonstrations of Physics are on his own (posthumous) channel, with playlists so that you can watch them in order.

                  He’s a very interesting physics teacher who likes drawings and dramatic experiments, and he’s energetic. But since I always watched him on PBS when I was home sick as a kid, I find him very soothing. (Although honestly, he talks really fast, so you might want to slow him down or watch him multiple times. But it’s a soothing way of talking fast, especially since I don’t hear the high overtones that I heard in his voice as a kid.)

                  His show on liquid nitrogen is guaranteed to cheer you up.

  16. Sigh.

    Is it “unreasonable” to hope that the comments here focus on the promos and the vignettes?

    And yes, I made the mistake of making one political comment here.

    1. Tend to agree Paul, & I did first post a vignette, but I do reserve the right to brag on my granddaughter anywhere, anyplace, any time! -grin-

      1. Bragging on kids & grandkids is a very very different matter than pol-ticks. 😀

        1. Hon, you’re making the fundamental mistake of most Americans since 2016. This is an existential struggle, not politics.
          As in if they win, I doubt many of us will exist next year at this time.
          At such a time, while I can give you stuff to amuse you, staying away from the central worry very long is not a hope.
          As for Ian…. he’s trying. I still don’t believe it, though. I remember the happy talk in 2008 and 2012

          1. I’ve found that the anxiety builds up in my guts/breathing, and sends me into depression.

            A lot of the time I can knock it back down, and recover function, with a combination of lying down, deliberate, deep breathing, and music to keep myself from occupying my mind with the cycle of thoughts that brought the panic or anxiety in the first place.

            1. I’ve been re-reading some “Light” reads to keep my “cool”.

              Oh Alma, your Familiar books are the “Light” reads. 😉

          4. Also: I really don’t want to add to your worries, but watch yourself. We have a firm grip on this nationally,…..

            But there are starting to be reports of brick fairies in Denver.

            Please hold back the bezerker? Just a few days more.

                1. Depends on the magnesium content in the firework. Plain old black powder black cat firecrackers are pretty safe, unless you’ve got a lot of dry leaves or grass around your house.

                  1. They’ve been using professional grade fireworks. Question: It takes a Federal license to sell those, and supposedly BATFE tracks that. Why haven’t they forcibly closed every licensed source? Or arrested whoever is doing the selling?

    3. *Bob writes long stream of insane political vignettes*

      In all seriousness, the rather unhinged original story seed I was studying in the bath started from “what if Kyon was expecting regular obnoxiously insane Haruhi Suzumiya, but was surprised to come across a Haruhi who had been ‘redpilled’ into white supremacist nutjobbery.”

      I have have a big turnover in useless story ideas. Haven’t had the spoons to spend on vignettes in a while. And I’m obviously freaking out about politics and potentially able to appreciate a break from them.

  17. It was still there, but fading fast: The gazebo – near collapse. The dance hall – just a foundation. The roller coaster, the midway games – all rotting wood. Andy’s memories of the place were as fresh as yesterday, but he wondered if he was decaying as quickly as the abandoned amusement park.

  18. Autumn Belfontaine gestured at the garbled e-mail on her computer. “So what is this gibberish?”

    Lou Corlin leaned back a little in the chair. “I can definitely say it’s not ROT-13, since that’s the first thing I tried. Next most likely thing is one or both hands out of position on home row. I’ve been trying all the possible combinations, but so far I haven’t hit anything.”

    “Which leaves the possibility of the sender’s cat playing on the keyboard.” Autumn recalled a few embarrassing incidents of her own. “However, it doesn’t look like typical catlike typing. The pattern of word lengths look too much like real writing, for starters.”

  19. The cicadas have given way
    to the crickets some unnoticed weeks ago.

    Autumn is here.

    The leavings are falling and piling in drifts on windy days. My nose is not subtle enough to discern their rot which must be starting.

    It has frosted lightly once weeks ago, and I hear it may freeze in 48 counties tonight!

    1. 30℉ here at the house, and the second time we got snow this season today (random flake snow not included). I hope they got the warming closer to right that the “In the 40’s” were were supposed to get last week (it might have hit 40 on monday, but high 30;s was the going rate with days of mid 20;s for my motorcycle ride to work)

  20. “I’m going up into the mountains,” said Catherine.
    The man eyed her. “You won’t last long if you do.”
    “What? I shall foolishly assume that a trunk lying on the dirt is still sound, and step on it though it is rotten through, fall down and so break my neck?”

  21. Pingback: Vignette-The Lady And The Axe – Big Bootay Books

  22. Whatever flesh had been on the bones had long rotted away. Or been removed. They stood with sword and shield in hand, and though they did not move, and no uncanny light glowed in their eyes, they could not stand like that without magic.
    Which Felix had warned them about.

    1. Now why am I thinking about the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts? 😉

  23. A friend I hadn’t chatted with for a while gave me a call, and asked, “So, has 2020 been going well for you?”

    “It depends on what you mean by well,” I replied. “My two monthly get-togethers with friends, at Bead Night and the woodturning club meeting, having been cancelled since March. Which means I have not been driving much. It’s been a year since I first leased my new car, and I don’t even have 1500 miles on it yet.”

    “Bummer. But you got to stay home and watch the quail, right?”

    “Wrong. Only two pair hatched any babies this year, and they disappeared in less than a week. I cut down on the amount of seed I put out, but we still tossed stale bread or popcorn out now and then for the doves and sparrows. But no quail.”

    “That’s sad – I know you like the quail the best.”

    “It gets worse. We realized in September that rats were eating the stuff we had been putting out for the birds, because my son and I saw them one evening hauling the stale bread slices away. I had to stop feeding the birds anything, and buy a bucket of poison baits to try to get rid of the rats.”

    “Is it working?”

    “I think it is finally having an effect. But then just last week I discovered that the damn rats had chewed the wiring in the car in three places so the front turn signals no longer blinked. It cost me $600 to get it fixed because rodent damage is not covered under the warranty.”

    “Um, yeah, I can see maybe it hasn’t been such a great year for you.”

    “Oh, but you haven’t heard the latest. Two weeks ago I noticed that the fronds on the Queen Palm in the yard weren’t just browning off normally. They were all dead, and the upper trunk looks like something has been eating it out all the way to the center, and clawing the rest. And the neighbor’s palm looks the same way.”

    “Oh, my!”

    “Yes, and on top of that the big saguaro by the driveway has developed what looks like a bad case of bacterial necrosis at the base and may have to be removed.”

    “Good grief! I’d be a quivering wreck by this time. So why are you sounding almost happy?”

    “I’m happy because we rent this place, which makes the dead palm tree and the cactus rot Somebody Else’s Problem!”

    And I smiled at the cellphone as I opened yet another bottle of Blue Moon.

    *************
    Genre: Non-Fiction. *sigh*

      1. Thank you. I’m thinking fervent prayers for the future of our country, and I am not even religious. Then again, the current landscape does appear to be full of foxholes.

      1. Not as dramatic, true, unless you count the 5 days son spent in the hospital with a stomach drainage tube down his nose, at the end of August. NOT WuFlu-related – he tested negative. Thankfully he is fully recovered and back at work.

        But we have both coped with everything thrown at us so far this year. We can only sit back and keep our options open for dealing with the next curve ball heading our way. At least your muse is fighting back. Mine, a fickle creature in the best of years, crawled into a hole months ago and refuses to come out and play. [wry grimace] So I read your blog for inspiration. 😉

  25. Grandpa joined the Navy on December tenth, nineteen forty-one, but he never put to sea. He would have called it rotten luck, but it was his own damn fault. When somebody asked him if he knew how to type, he said, “Yeah,” and with that one unguarded word his fate was sealed. He spent the entire war sitting at a desk in Norfolk, Virginia.

    He typed up orders that sent men to ships, and ships to sea. He typed reports on the status of ships, fleets and fuel supplies. He typed out inventories and requisitions for everything from shells and depth charges and torpedoes to socks and spoons and toilet paper. He didn’t storm the beaches at Normandy, but his paperwork did.

    “We also serve who only sit and type,” he grumbled.

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