Fandango’s Flash Fiction – The Door

The door was Grandpa’s idea. We went into his wood shop and he showed me how to cut the wood pieces and glue them together. I dug around in the wood pile for scraps to create the arch that would frame the door. I even attached hinges just to see how to do it. Everything at Grandpa’s house was a learning experience.

Finding the wooden shims inspired the creation of the gate. He showed me how to use the coping saw to carefully shape the pickets. I enjoyed the finer detail most of all. Grandpa pulled out some leftover Testors paint and found enough blue to paint the door so it would stand out.

“We will show that snake who’s who around here”. Grandpa chuckled. Building the fairy garden was his way of blocking the snake hole I kept poking around in. Grandma was on board, thinking it would give the garden a little spark and discourage the snake at the same time.

Mind you, I never ever saw a snake, but Grandpa was convinced and there was no arguing when his mind was made up.

The next morning, we walked to the side yard with a gardening trowel and a rubber mallet. Grandpa carved the dirt out just enough to force our newly constructed wall into the mound of dirt. The rubber mallet allowed us to set it back into the dirt securely without damaging anything. I put the gate in securing it to the ground with garden pins.

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”It certainly is beautiful.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “What a nice gift.”

“Let’s eat”, mother said. We all headed inside and Dad pulled the blue door closed behind him.

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The next morning I went running back to the house. “Hey, Grandma, Where did you get the miniature picnic table and bowls and stuff? They are so cool!”

”Child! What on earth are you talking about. Now sit down and eat your breakfast.”

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I had fun with Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge today. Check it out! #FFFC

Monday Missive – What Day is it Anyway – June 8, 2020

Time is certainly moving at a fast pace although each individual day crawls by. Salvador Dali’s painting “Persistence of Memory” might be the best artwork to represent this time period. If you are not familiar, it is the painting of the ‘melting’ clocks. It is interesting to note during this time period, Dali use a method of  “self induced psychotic hallucinations” to create his art. Maybe we are all experiencing something similar.

Friday our oldest grandson graduated from high school — with honors. We are so proud of him. We were able to see him walk via a livestream broadcast. They held the ceremony in the football field seated 6 feet apart. Every graduate had a mask printed with the school name and logo. The only time they did not wear them was when they received their diploma and had their photo taken. It is hard to believe this is the same little boy that started to spend a week every summer with us in Florida when he was four years old. This fall, he plans to attend Clemson University. No one yet knows what the college outlook will be in the fall,  but we are hopeful it will be a good experience for him.

Our walk this morning was difficult. 99% humidity makes it tough for me especially going up and down our hilly walkway. We cut the walk short, though. I stopped to take a photo of a flower which was evidently ample time for a yellow jacket to find its way onto hubby’s sock. He did not notice it until the sting! He is not allergic, but the sting does swell so we decided to head back home and tend to the sting.

I posted a two new pieces from my writing class here if you are interested in reading. These are exercises so I put a short explanation above each for clarity. The new work is at the top of the page.

Hubby continues to find something to change on the container garden. It now has a door and wire surrounding it in hopes of keeping visitors at bay. Most of the plants recovered after the rains we had. I have one cucumber plant that has taken off like mad! I love cucumbers, hubby not so much.

The virus continues to forge ahead claiming more victims every day.  Yesterday we dropped from 1370 new cases down to 921. I am sure some will see this as progress, but we have seen 996 deaths since March 22 and a total of 35,546 cases to date. We had our first pediatric death in the last week.

So, we continue with our same precautions. Very few people wear masks locally which increases our exposure even if we try to take every precaution possible. I feel less safe now that more people are out in the grocery stores unmasked so we continue to do curbside pickups with the exception of going to purchase meats and fresh vegetables when we run low.