2022 A to Z Blog Challenge Reveal

Posted on March 8, 2022 by hdh

2022 A to Z Blog Challenge Reveal

This is my seventh year doing the A to Z Blog Challenge. In the past, my themes have included: “Life’s Choices/LIfe’s Changes”, “What if…?”, “Attitudes and Gratitudes”, “Whiplash”,  “A to Z Google Images alphabet book”,  and “Wishes, Lies, and Dreams”. I’ve had a lot of fun exploring the different facets of my writing ability – memoir pieces, research-based non-fiction pieces, poetry, and fictional writing. 

This year’s writing will be Point of View stories. Each one will be written in first-person from someone’s point of view through the use of letters (correspondence) that they have written. Some may be true, as letters I might be writing to my past self or someone I know. Some might be imagined, as would be the case if my future self wrote to my present me. And some may be totally fictional through characters that I’ve created. As in past years, my hope is that some of the letters will tell a more complete story connecting their writing to other letters in the 2022 A to Z Challenge. Oh yeah, and make sure you’re prepared for the blackouts. I’ve heard that a lot of strange things happen during them and one needs to be creative.

It’s time to get writing and prepare for the April Challenge. See you all on April 1st. Let the stories begin.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2022, Writing | Tagged | 3 Comments

You Don’t Say!

Posted on February 22, 2022 by hdh

You Don’t Say!

Shannon and Mark have lived together for 20 years. Now when you’ve been with someone for a long time, you get to know their little quirks and habits; most of which are easy to live with and accept. However lately, there was one habit of Mark, Shannon has a very hard time dealing with.

They’re walking down a street close to where they live. They stop in front of a flower shop window and Mark turns to Shannon and says, “Don’t turn around!”

You know when someone tells you not to do something the first thing that usually runs through your mind is to do that exact thing. Shannon shows much restraint.

“Why not this time?” she asks. 

Mark’s reply is, “Don’t ask, just don’t move!”

Now of course Shannon’s mind starts to wander and wonder at what the heck is happening. Her mind starts listing possible worst-case scenarios. Is there a stalker behind me? Is it one of Mark’s ex-girlfriends? Is it one of my ex-boyfriends? Is there a spider about to drop down near me? (note – I’m very fearful of spiders.) Is there a Russian spy looking in my direction and pulling out his gun? Nah – couldn’t be that. Mark doesn’t know anything about my CIA affiliation…or does he?

Next, Mark pleads, “Just wait one more minute.” 

Shannon notices that Mark’s hands are no longer in his pockets and he has taken a step closer to her in what appears to be a very protective way. She puts her hand slowly into her purse, planning to pull out the gun she has stashed there, flip off the safety and fire it if necessary, when Mark lets out a long, withheld breath of air and says, “Never mind,” and turns back to look at the flowers in the window. 

This has been happening more and more wherever they go. He never explains why he says, “Don’t move,” or “Don’t breathe,” or “Don’t turn around.” And no matter how much she pushes him to explain, he replies, “It was nothing, let’s leave it at that.”  Man, is that frustrating! She wishes he would stop replaying the same scenario over and over again.

————–

Mark and Shannon have lived together for 20 years. Now when you’ve been with someone for a long time, you get to know their little quirks and habits. Most of which are easy to live with and accept. However lately, there was one habit of Shannon, Mark has a very hard time dealing with. She always seems to put herself in dangerous situations.

As much as he would like to confide in her that he’s a sleeper agent for Russian intelligence, he knows it would put both of them in mortal danger from the Russians and the United States. The Russians made it clear from the start what would happen if she found out, prior to him being activated.  

With tensions between Russia and the United States now heightening he’s even more worried. He’s tired of living a lie and wants out. He’s lived here too long and has become accustomed to the life Shannon and he have created. But everywhere they go he sees or imagines agents everywhere staring at them. He doesn’t want Shannon to notice, he wants to protect her, but fears she’ll be caught in the crossfire, so he tells her not to look.

So far she has been good at listening to him, but for how long? She’s already getting suspicious. Maybe he should trust her but he’s too scared. He just wishes that she would stop putting him in these situations. 

———–

To all those reading these transcripts, please note that following these revelations, both Mark and Shannon were both…

Don’t turn around!

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Concert

Posted on February 17, 2022 by hdh

The Concert

Look Up! Look Up! They all shouted as I was finishing my last song. Here I thought they were all raising their hands in the air to cheer me on, but they weren’t looking at the stage. “Look Up!” They all cried.

So I looked up. It took my eyes a minute to focus. What I had thought was a spotlight on my for my performance, was in fact, something else. 

What it was, I’m not sure of. It was hovering over the crowd and slowly moving in my direction on the stage. 

Suddenly there was a beam of light right next to me and there appeared a person. He looked quite familiar to me. In fact, he looked exactly like me. Clothes and all. In his hand, he was holding a guitar. And it wasn’t just any guitar, it was my guitar. It wasn’t a replica, as my hands were now empty. 

The bright light above the crowd and me disappeared and I was left standing next to myself wondering what was going to happen next. I believe the crowd was as confused as I was. Then I heard rhythmic applause begin from the back of the crowd which quickly moved its way up until the whole audience was cheering and yelling, “Play! Play!” as if I had planned this whole experience. 

My doppelganger, if that was what he was, began to play a song I had just written but had yet to perform publically. Suddenly a guitar was back in my hands. So I decided to play along with him and broke into harmony. The title of this new song was entitled, “Who am I?”  A fitting song for the occasion. 

As we finished the song the crowd erupted into a cacophonous cheer, again reaching their hands into the air. This time it was for our performance.

My double came closer to me and whispered, “Thanks for letting me play along with you. I’ve been a fan ever since we were children. And since my ship was in the vicinity of this parallel universe during this concert, I couldn’t stop myself from coming on stage with you.”

I didn’t know what to say. Before I could respond, that bright light appeared again and I was not in the same place. I was on some sort of alien ship. An older woman, looking just like my mother, who had died over 20 years ago, looked at me and said, “I’m glad you got a chance to play. Now it is time for us to go back to our own universe.” 

There was another flash of light and we were gone. “We were not in Kansas anymore,” I muttered to myself.  As for my double, I guess he got what he wished for.

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Where did it go?

Posted on February 14, 2022 by hdh

Where did it go?

There’s a song by Pete Seeger, Get Up And Go, in which the chorus goes like this:

How do I know my youth is all spent?

My get up and go, has got up and went.

But in spite of it all, I’m able to grin

And think of the places my get up has been.

This begs the question, where did my get up, go to? I am certainly willing to do many of the things that I had attempted in my youth. As far as I’m concerned all that it involves is to get up and go do it. 

There’s the saying in the Bible, Matthew 26:41 “The spirit is indeed willing, but the body is weak.” In Matthew’s case, he was talking about temptation. In my case, it has to do with motivation and the reality that my body is a lot older now. 

As much as I would like to jump out of bed, get on a bike and take an aerobic 5-mile trek each morning (which in fact I never did do in my youth), I instead work on stretching my calf muscle each morning which has cramped up overnight, so I can get out of bed. 

Do you know what it’s like to stay up very late at night watching a movie, writing a song, or reading a book and then waking up early full of energy to attack another day of work or play? Yeah, neither do I.

I do have an Apple Watch. It tracks my steps (at least 6,000 a day), my exercise (at least 30 minutes a day), moves (at least 400 active calories burned a day) and stands (I’m supposed to stand for at least one minute during an hour, at least 12 times during my waking day).  I’m usually pretty good at doing them all. In fact, I have a 370+ day streak on my Moves. 

Of course one of the reasons that I do accomplish these tasks, is because I am the one that sets the goals. The Apple Watch actually recommends that I do at least 10,000 steps a day and over 600 moves. I like feeling that I’m having success.  I’ve also noticed that if I select “Other” as my type of exercise which is listed as a catch-all choice if you’re not walking, running, biking, or swimming, my watch will register whatever I’m doing as exercise time. Did you know that washing dishes can then be considered exercise? So does housework, which in some cases really is exercise. Moves are a bit harder to get, but that’s why I keep the goal at 400. As for stands, that’s generally easy to get, unless I’m stuck driving somewhere for 2 hours or have 3-½ hours of zoom meetings to sit through. That too can sometimes be averted by swinging my arm back and forth while I’m sitting for a minute. My Apple Watch thinks I’m standing and moving. 

Though I do enjoy manipulating my Apple Watch, I’m not fooling myself.  I wouldn’t say that my get up and go is gone; It is just taking its time. More like getting up and going slow. 

Just like your new car comes with a scheduled maintenance and service manual, So do you. Or at least you should. 

After all, I’m over seventy years old, and even though I can’t find the maintenance/service manual that must have come at my birth, my service stations, better known as all the medical professionals I see, seem to keep track of my aches and pains, and medications that I need to keep my get up going. I keep track of all that stuff too. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with reliving past experiences. That’s why I keep writing about them. 

And just to reassure myself, I do follow the advice that Pete Seeger gives in the last verse of his song. 

 

I wake up each morning and dust off my wits

Open the paper and read the obits

If I’m not there, I know I’m not dead

So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed. 

How do I know my youth is all spent?

My get up and go, has got up and went.

But in spite of it all, I’m able to grin

And think of the places my get up has been.

Posted in Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

Posted on February 13, 2022 by hdh

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

Today I plan on writing a totally true story. Well, actually there might be a few embellishments along the way. 

It all starts with my friend Ronald. I invited him over to my house for a play date. Well, actually he invited himself but I agreed. 

The plan was that we would go to the park next to my house and hang out in the woods that surrounded it. What could possibly go wrong? Well, actually the plan was just to stay in the park, but Ronald thought it would be more fun to explore the wooded area. 

I thought it would be fun to play hide and seek since there were so many places to hide. Well, actually Ronald thought it would be a good idea. I thought hide and seek isn’t a great game to play with only 2 people. 

Needless to say, Ronald said I was it and ran off into the brush. I counted up to 100 as I was supposed to. Well, actually I only made it to 25, since he was already out of sight and I didn’t hear any movement. 

I headed off through the brush in search of him and it wasn’t long before I found him. He was staring at something on the ground. 

When I went over to him he pointed to a dead rat on the ground. I personally thought that it was disgusting and suggested we go back to the park. Ronald agreed. 

Well, actually, Ronald suggested that we look for more rats. 

The dead rat we had seen wasn’t very large, so we started hunting for rats. It didn’t take us long, being in the Bronx, for us to find one. Since this one was not dead, we quickly ran in the opposite direction. 

Well, actually, at Ronald’s suggestion we started chasing the rat, with the rat being more afraid of us, than we were of it. Well, actually I was scared stiff to do it, but as Ronald was taking the lead, I was sure if the rat attacked, he would be the victim not me. 

The rat did manage to get away and we decided that was enough exercise that day, so we returned to my house. 

We decided not to mention to my parents what we had done. Well, actually, I decided not to do that. Ronald had no trouble bragging about what we did. 

My parents had no problem with our actions. “They’re just kids having fun,” my mother said. 

Well, actually, my father sent Ronald home and my mother read me the riot act and sent me to my room. “HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID!” she yelled.

Because of that incident, I was told never to play with Ronald again and listen to his stupid ideas. I agreed and that was the end of my relationship with Ronald.

And that’s the absolute truth. Well, actually…

 

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It says what?

Posted on February 10, 2022 by hdh

It says what?

It’s tough being a pharmacist. First of all, it’s all those names of drugs you have to know. And they keep coming up with new ones. Then there are all the people that come into your store and ask you for advice about whatever illness, rash, growth, or contagion that they have. I thought that was what the doctor was for. And you have to sound like an expert, even if you don’t have a clue, or else you will lose their business. What we need is a waiting room for triage prior to entering the drug store. Thank goodness for COVID now, at least these people are wearing masks. 

The worst thing about being a pharmacist is that you have to fill prescriptions that are sent in by doctors who have graduated from the Master’s program of illegible handwriting. As a pharmacist, even when you’ve taken the course in your training, Deciphering Physician’s Handwriting 101, it is incredibly hard to read what the prescription says. Usually, I can figure out the dosage and how often it should be taken, but as to the name of the medication, that’s hit or miss. 

Nowadays, with digital prescriptions, it has become a lot easier, since it is all typed out. However, there are still those old country doctors that haven’t bought into the digital age. They write out all of their prescriptions by hand. At least I think it’s by hand. Sometimes I would swear that they wrote it out by foot, their non-dominant foot. 

It’s no wonder why drug prices are so high. It’s not because of the big drug companies, vying for money. It’s because of the high costs of insurance needed to cover mistakes in medicine received by patients whose prescriptions can’t be read.

They need to invent a digital scanner for druggists that can read and interpret doctors’ handwriting. The person who invents that will make millions. 

Until then, take a seat in our waiting room, hand in your prescription, and wait 15 or 20 minutes, while we try to contact your doctor, through the myriad of numbers I have to push on our phones to get through to a real person, in order to find out what was actually written.  As they say on the answering machine, your visit is important to us. 

 

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Let’s go camping

Posted on February 7, 2022 by hdh

Let’s Go Camping

The year was 1968. I had just graduated high school, and since it was summertime, my friend Ronald decided that he and I should take a break before we started college and go camping somewhere. 

He said to me, “Come on, Harv. It’ll be great fun. What could possibly go wrong?”

Ronald said his parents had no problem with us going away for a weekend. I believe Ronald’s parents actually looked forward to him going away for a while. My parents, who knew Ronald, were more wary. They didn’t trust Ronald. However, with assurances from Ronald’s mom and dad, they said I could go. 

The plan was for Ronald’s father to drive us up to Bear Mountain on a Friday and leave us to camp out in a well-known and supervised camping area. His father would pick us up on Sunday and bring us home.

We packed what we thought we’d need, backpacks, rain gear, a portable tent, sleeping bags, and plenty of food and water. 

The idea was that once we were dropped off, we would find a suitable location to pitch our tent, store our supplies, and do all our hiking and activities from there.

Ronald’s father helped us unload and set up our campgrounds. He wished us good luck and hoped we’d have a great time. 

The idea was to hang out at our campsite the first day, then do a lot of hiking and swimming (there were lakes nearby) and just have fun the whole time. 

There were a few other campers where we were camped; however, we planned on staying mostly to ourselves. After Ronald’s dad left, we made sure that we had some privacy by moving our tent away from the others. It was Ronald’s idea. 

The first thing we learned about camping was that having a compass and a map is a good idea, even if you have to draw the map yourself showing how to get to and from your campsite. We discovered this on Saturday morning when we took our first hike. It was supposed to be a 20-minute easy walk, with Ronald as navigator, but it took 3 hours until we finally found someone to guide us back to our campsite. 

The next thing we learned was the use of matches. One should always make sure that they are waterproof. It is rather difficult to start a fire when it is raining and your matches get wet. Needless to say, we were lucky it was a warm night. However, the canned food we planned to cook could not be warmed. For that matter, when you don’t bring a can opener, it’s kind of hard to eat it anyway. 

We did have other foods that weren’t in cans. Suffice it to say we ate a lot of peanut butter while up there. 

Also, do you know what you shouldn’t do when you are inside a tent and it’s raining outside? Whatever you do, don’t touch the top of the tent from the inside. The rainwater then gladly leaks through.

For our final lesson, we discovered why Bear Mountain gets its name. Even though I told Ronald to make sure the tent was secure and closed up with all our supplies when we went hiking on Sunday morning before we were picked up, our campsite was visited by…you guessed it, bears.

We got back to the campsite just as Ronald’s dad came by to pick us up. It took us a while to pack the car, as we made several mini hikes to find most of our stuff. 

When I got home and told my parents about the trip, I only remember getting a big hug from my mom, who appeared to be crying. I think she said something like, “Thank God you’re alive.” She also commented on being glad Ronald and I would not attend the same college.

Somehow, my adventures with Ronald never seem to be dull. 

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Invite

Posted on February 3, 2022 by hdh

The Invite

I finished my lunch and as I was walking back to my car I noticed that every windshield I passed had a flyer underneath the wiper. The flyer looked like it was an advertisement for a dry-cleaning establishment. All that changed when I got to my car. 

I also had something under my wiper blade, however, it was not a flyer; it was a note. It appeared to be an invitation to a local park. The odd thing about the invitation was that it wasn’t just a generic invitation; it was specifically addressed to me by name. 

Needless to say, I found it very odd. There was no signature on the invite which made it even more perplexing. 

I always enjoy a good mystery, and having time left on my lunch break, I decided to go to this park, which was located not far from where I was. 

Arriving at the park I felt a little bit uneasy, as the park was completely empty. The weather was beautiful. It was a clear sunny day; the air was filled with the scent of spring flowers in bloom, and the temperature seemed to be in the 80’s. You would expect a lot of people. Besides being thrown by the fact that the park was empty, I should have realized that the scene in front of me on this beautiful day was completely out of place. It was February, after all. I said aloud, “There’s something wrong here.”

I debated turning back and forgetting about this whole mystery idea when there was a sudden flash of light. 

The next thing I knew, I was not in the same place where I had started. Well, let me be more clear, I was in the same place physically as I had been, the park, however, the scene had changed. It now looked closer to the park I should have seen when I got there. The sky was cloudy. It must have recently snowed as there was at least an inch of snow on the ground. The temperature was possibly in the low 40’s, as the evaporating snow created an eerie fog that blanketed the surroundings, and there were people wandering around the park. The people seemed to move with a rather robotic cadence. 

If I wasn’t confused before, I definitely was now, due to the voice I heard that spoke to me. Or should I say spoke within me? It sounded like it was inside my head, just like my tinnitus  It said, “Sorry for the confusion. This idea of seasons is so confusing for us. Please just act normally. This observation won’t take long in your notion of time. You will be returned by the time your mid-day eating interval is over.”

It seemed like forever as I tried to leave the park. Interacting with others to find an escape was useless. The people seemed as bewildered as me (if they were real at all). 

I finally did get out of the park, back to my car, and back to work. I knew no one would believe me if I told them what happened, so I kept quiet. 

The next day when I went to my car after having lunch, I was surprised to notice notes on a number of other cars. As to my car, there was only a flyer for a dry cleaner.

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

George

Posted on January 31, 2022 by hdh

George

George was a stargazer. At least that is what you would think he was looking at his face most of the time. That vacant expression, glazed over eyes, you knew he was in another world, lost in thought. 

I must admit, his thoughts when verbalized were very creative. And he never stopped asking questions, which of course had its upside and downside. He sure wanted to know every facet of our company.

But that was George. No one got to or wanted to know him. That is until the day the FBI showed up at work and specifically asked for him. 

George was escorted by two FBI agents into a vacant office and remained there for over an hour. When they came out of that room, lots of things changed.

First of all, George walked straight into the boss’s office, closed the door, stayed in there for about 2 minutes, then walked out, without acknowledging any of us. That vacant look that I told you about, was gone from his eyes. It was replaced by a determined look. He knew exactly where he was going. I could even see a bit of a knowing smirk on his face. He knew something that we didn’t. And then he just left. 

As to the FBI agents, they too went into the boss’s office. They, however, stayed a bit longer. When they left, our boss went with them. 

The boss just turned to us on his way out and said, “You can all go home now. Consider yourselves on a temporary vacation until you’re contacted to come back to work.”

It’s been three weeks now and we haven’t received any calls. I get along well with the custodian of our office building, so I gave him a call to find out if he knew anything. He said as no one had given him any time off, he’d been in every day. He said that no one has been in the building except for George. 

I asked him what George was doing there.

He said that George spent most of his time in the boss’s office on the boss’s computer. Whatever George is doing, he’s got a flash drive attached to the computer. One would assume he’s downloading stuff…unless he’s uploading something to the computer.

Now my curiosity was even more tantalized.   

I called my local police department to find out if there were any crimes committed in or around our office building in the past 3 weeks. They wanted to know who I was and why I was interested. I explained that I worked in the building and since I was on what seemed to be a forced leave of absence, I wanted to know was there anything preventing me from returning to work even though I hadn’t been called.

They responded that nothing had occurred, not to go back to work, that I shouldn’t worry about it, nor bother them again, and then they hung up on me. 

Ten minutes later there was a knock at my door. It was George.

In his hand, he had a non-disclosure document for me to sign, which I did. 

The bottom line was our chief had been arrested and charged with federal crimes of extortion and drug smuggling. George was an FBI undercover agent who gathered all of the evidence needed to convict him. Oops, I probably shouldn’t have told you that. 

The story given to our staff was that our old chief had to leave the company for personal reasons and as he wasn’t going to return I was named to take his place. As it was a personal issue, no further information was needed by the staff.

My first act as the new boss was to accept the resignation of George, who said he found a better job, one which paid more and allowed him to work on a mystery spy novel he was writing. 

 

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Snow App

Posted on January 25, 2022 by hdh

The Snow App

I was sitting at home, bored as usual, with nothing much to do. I opened the window to my bedroom to look out and check out the weather. It was gray and dismal and definitely cold. I hate winter, though, on afterthought, winter is a lot of fun, especially in this new virtual reality app I just got. It was called “Winter Playland 2022”. So that’s what I decided to do. I put on my VR goggles, turned on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, sat back in my chair, and started up the app. 

I was immediately placed in a winter snow scene. It was snowing lightly and there were all sorts of choices to make. I could go skiing or sledding on any of an assortment of hills. There was a group of kids having a snowball fight that I could join or build an awesome snow sculpture. It was perfect. I decided to start with the snow sculpture. 

It was incredibly realistic. The first part was to create the base for your construction. As I moved my hands I was rolling up snow for the base. This continued for the other parts of my creation. Next came the sculpting part. I was provided tools to design whatever snow creature I wanted. I decided to go for a unicorn, though my end result looked more like a miss-shapen alien unicow. All the while, the snow continued to fall. At one point, I was tempted to see if this simulation created two snowflakes that were identical. That required more work than I was willing to take on so I went on to my next event. 

I went over to the ski slope. I have never skied before in real life, so I of course took the advanced slope. I may have fallen a few times going down the slope but it was exhilarating. I could feel the wind and snow whipping across my face as sped down the hill. This new game was incredibly realistic. 

I then joined in on the snowball fight. I must have been hit dozens of times for my face was getting really cold. I could even feel the simulated snow going down the back of my neck. 

I don’t know how long I ended up playing the game. Maybe a couple of hours. My whole body ended up feeling wet and frozen. I could believe how real this all felt. I mean, my legs felt like they were stuck in deep snow and my hands were numb. I thought, next time I play this game I should make sure I pay for the App Add-ons which include warmer snow attire. 

I turned off the iPhone, took off my VR goggles, and at that moment I learned 4 very valuable lessons about playing “Winter Playland 2022”.

  • 1 – When you play a VR game, be aware of how much time you are actually in the simulation. In my case, it was close to 3 hours
  • 2 – Don’t assume that all the sensations you are feeling are coming from the App.
  • 3 – If it’s cold outside in the real world, make sure you close the window that you opened prior to playing the game so that the cold air doesn’t enter your room.
  • 4 – Pay attention to the real weather forecast for the day you are playing. Spending 3 hours playing a game, in the winter, with the window open, during a forecasted blizzard, is not a good idea.

 

If you’re sitting at home, bored, and have nothing to do, you are welcome to come over to my house and play an awesome VR game. Just note, you might have to shovel away some of the 2 feet of snow from my bedroom before we get to play. 

Posted in Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment