Friday, August 29, 2008

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.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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.




20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pray-tell, where do we find the words for the vanity Wordzzle before you put them up late Friday evening with your story? And my Wordzzle offering will be up at midnight.

Raven said...

Hi quilly - the vanity wordzzle is just old stuff that I wrote long ago in classes. I don't post them before-hand. I usually pick them out when I do my wordzzles on Friday afternoon.

Glad you are joining in this week. Yippee!

Anonymous said...

Raven, you outdid yourself this time. I love the stories. Great use of the words! Glad you had fun. :-)

The story of Ingrid continues... boy, my girl is just all over the place :-)

Carletta said...

Raven,
I don't know why you would think these the last bit dull!
I loved them all beginning with Wanda Waterloo - reminds me of The Medium on TV.
The mini is every first Mama's wish!
You didn't say but I'm visualizing that Pogo Stick is missing a leg!

Mine is up and is the case every other week I can't see Mr. Linky or a box at least tonight so would you care please to Link me! Thanks!

SMM said...

I liked all three stories...how you feeling now Raven?

Raven said...

mommy wizdom - thanks... glad you liked the stories.

Carletta - I've added you to Mr. Linky. My image of Pogo Stick is the little dog across the street... a Jack Russell with tons of energy who likes to bark.

smm - thanks... and thanks for asking about me. Today I finally seem to be feeling consistently better. Hoping it will last and that my energy and enthusiasm will return too. Did you forget to add your name to Mr. Linky?

SMM said...

That's good to hear...I'm still doing the Wordzzle Raven. Will put it up soon

Akelamalu said...

You did a great job with all three Raven, but then you always do! I must admit I groaned when I saw the words!

Hope you're feeling better?

Unknown said...

Good morning! Loved your wordzzles! Always do! I, also, really loved the expectant mother one.

I got up early to do mine, as I have a full schedule today. Have a great day and continue to feel better and better!

Richard said...

Katherine: I thought all the stories were great. I especially like the one about the physic. Interestingly enough, you and I both thought about a pregnant woman at the potter's wheel.

It's makes me feel good to be in tune with you.

Rich

Jay said...

As always you show us how it's done on the Wordzzles! Wanda Waterloo is a great name. And the min-wordzzzle was just sweet.

I wonder if anyone is going to be channeling the potter's wheel scene from the movie Ghost? Obviously I'm not cause I just now thought of it. LOL ;-)

Melli said...

My goodness! These are just all truly great! I LOVE the voice in your mini challenge. That one really made me smile. But all 3 are excellent!

We gotta use SURGE PROTECTOR two weeks in a row???? Good grief woman!

Jeff B said...

Ha, I just saw what Melli was talking about. Was that an oops or are we using surge protector again?

I think you did great with your stories this week. Found myself reading the Mega with a southern drawl.

Dianne said...

we lost power twice here in the third world of NJ twice, both times while I was commenting. So if it looks like I've been hung up in your nest, I was.

You could write for the TV show Medium

and I loved loved loved Zelda, she was so touching.

Raven said...

akelamalu - I groaned too... I find it even more depressing to deal with them when I'm to blame for coming up with them myself. And thanks - I am feeling much better.

kim - glad to see you joined in again. Thanks. I had a hard time this week - as much to do with my state of mind as anything, I guess. Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend. Hard to believe Summer is drawing to a close

richard - thanks... these words did seem to lend themselves to pregant women with swolen ankles and potters wheels.

jay - so glad to have you and Darth Vader back this week. I suspect more than one of us at least THOUGHT about Ghost. Pretty sure it crossed my mind at least once.

melli - thanks for pointing out my brain fart with surge protector. Two weeks in a row - yikes! never! - I've replaced it with the first thing that came into my head (alas).

jeff b - so glad you read it with the mega with drawl. Surge protector was an oops. Sorry about that.

dianne - TWO power outages! Yikes! When I lived in Narrowsburg, NY it was like that. We lost power at least once or twice a month. It was hours before I realized that the massive nation-wide blackout wasn't just a routine power failure. So glad to have you and Finola back this week. You were missed.

Kimmie said...

Hey Raven, glad to hear you are feeling better. :-)

I loved your mini wordzzle the best, it was just such a sweet little story. All three were wonderful though. For not "feeling it", you did an amazing job! You really should be writing books. :-)

Again, I did the Vanity Wordzzle. It is a silly little story! ;-)

Hugs,
Kimmie

Chatty said...

Hi Raven
I just found you because of Jay - that cynical bastard... I want to play Wordzzle, but am unsure as to when it starts and when I post. I think someone said you post the words on Friday night - do we then just have until the next day to post, or do we have a week? I have read your guidelines - I'm just confused about the timing.

Signed, a tad confused but enthusiastic...

Raven said...

hi kimmie - thanks. Glad you liked them.

Hi chatty - welcome to wordzzles. The words for next week's wordzzle are at the bottom of this post - just above Mr. Linky, so you have a week to ponder over them. I'm so glad you're going to join in. Jay is a cynical bastard, isn't he - but such a sweet one. I don't have a rule about when you post yours but mostly people post them on Friday evening or Saturday when Mr. Linky appears... or hopefully appears. He seems a touch skittish and shy these days.

Kaylia Metcalfe said...

I did it... and then I came here and said so, but I don't see my comment..

Oh well, it was fun! Thanks Raven!

Kaylia Metcalfe said...

So I worked with the list of 10 and ended up writing a 3 page (single spaced) short story that I hate with a passion.

To make myself feel better I used the list of 5 and wrote about my lunch hour.

And this time I bolded the words :)