Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 28

Welcome to Week 28 of the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. Those new to the process can check back here for guidelines of how the challenge works. I had a hard time writing anything this week and then I had a hard time getting this to post. It looks sort of distorted to me. Sorry about that. I am disgruntled, distressed, burdened with the blahs.... Hope these aren't as dull as they seem to me. Looking forward to reading what everyone else has done.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle And for the Mini Challenge: Swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potter’s wheel

Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Psychic Wanda Waterloo, mother of five sat amidst the chaos of pogo sticks, fish tanks, an ant farm, the terrarium which was home to her youngest’s three box turtles, a pile of jump ropes, three tin boxes and a host of other toys and childhood paraphernalia. She was in every way a very ordinary person except that when the phone rang and some distant police chief asked for her help she was suddenly transported to distant places. On this particular day she saw first an old woman whose face bore the ravages of time, she felt the gasping breath and the tight breathing that her intuition read as pneumonia. Next she saw the surge protector tossed into the old woman’s bath. Lastly she saw a man’s hand wearing a large gold ring with a skull on it and a very unique watch reaching into the wall safe. All this she shared with the distant policeman, hearing as she did his astonishment at the accuracy of the details she described. As quickly as the vision came, it was gone and she gratefully hugged the three year old who crawled into her lap for a hug and returned her to the hectic peace of her every-day life.

And here's my mini challenge:

Sitting at the potter’s wheel, Zelda turned the stereo up full volume and let the voice of the opera singer fill the room. “You’re giving me swollen ankles, mighty munchkin, but I love you anyway,” she whispered to her swollen belly, lips parting in a toothy grin. “This belly is making pottery too difficult, so I guess it’s time to move on to oil paints. No matter what it takes, little one, I’m gonna make sure you got culture from before you’re born. Your gonna have a life like dreams are made of, I promise. Listen good to that music, ya hear? That’s what smart folks listen to. Only the best for my little one. You’re gonna have a better life than me, I promise, baby love. I promise.”

And the mega challenge:

His wrinkled face and toothy grin reflecting the ravages of time and hard work both, the old farmer looked the tired young woman up and down, noting her swollen ankles, blood-shot eyes and general air of exhaustion and then took in the unhappy looking child standing miserably at her side. “Opera singer, are ya?” he announced more than asked. “Doc said you had pneumonia and need to rest and recuperate.” When she nodded, he added “Waterloo Tin Box Farm may look rustic, but I think you and that young lad will both enjoy your stay here. My wife Essie’s a fine cook… and she’s also a pretty impressive psychic. She’ll be thrilled to give you a reading if you’d like. And we got lots of entertainment for both you and the boy. There’s movies every night and live music on weekends. We got a Art department: a potter’s wheel if you want to try your hand and oil paints and canvass if you’ve a mind to be creative. Or you can just rest and enjoy the scenery. We got a wall safe in the main house if you got valuables and surge protectors in case you got a computer you want to hook up. As for you, boy, ever seen an ant farm? I got the biggest one you’ll ever see. Belonged to my son when he was your age – long time ago now. We got a couple of big old box turtles out back that love an extra treat of fresh lettuce from anyone that wants to visit them. And this here’s Pogo Stick,” he said as an energetic little dog bounced up and down at the boy’s side quickly erasing his sullen shyness with doggie kisses. As though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, the tired mother smiled for the first time. “Looks like a friendship made in heaven… I can’t wait to get settled in and enjoy some of your famous hospitality. Thanks so much for this warm welcome.”

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: moonshine, tenacious, stalagmite, acoustical ceiling, president, fabulous, swirl, roller coaster, high arch, fringe.

President Eubie McCoy rolled his eyes upward, gazed at the bland sameness of the acoustical ceiling and longed for simple times and better days, before he had been sucked into the consuming, tenacious world of politics and glory and deceit. He thought back to childhood days in the Ozark Mountains and his mind took him into the rich green woods and the high arch entrance to Dinwood's cave. That was a ceiling - its high curve dripping with stalagmites and stalactites. It’s beauty beyond words. He could almost feel the dampness of the strange rock formations. And then, like some exotic roller coaster, his mind jolted forward and he was 16, aware now that there was a bigger world that swirled beyond the fringes of the woods, where they laughed at coon hunters and moonshiners. In those days the mystery of that world had seemed too fabulous to resist and he had scraped and clawed and pushed to get away. He had vowed at the time to destroy that quaint old world of his childhood. But years of public life had changed all that. He was tired, right past his bones and into his soul. He would trade it all - the power, the money, the glamour - for a good jug of moonshine liquor and a night under the stars outside of Dinwood's cave.

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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: invincible, falling leaves, (surge protector - OOPS! Sorry... I'd do that cross out thing but I don't know how), two-year-old, fusion, grizzly bear, Jamaica, delivery, popsicle stick, caviar ... Surge Protector can be replaced with lap-top

And for the Mini Challenge: toad stool, liquid lunch, counting sheep, manacles, Jurassic Park

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Lately, Mr. Linky has been playing hide and seek. On the off chance that all you see is a little square instead of the Mr. Linky logo, just click on the square. The little guy should be there. I don't have sufficient cyber skills to know why this has been happening. And maybe it's only happening on my computer which has been acting very odd of late.