Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 54

This is week 54 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I had a rough time this week. Don't know if it was the words or my state of mind. Maybe both. It's chilly here but there's now more grass showing than snow. This makes me very happy.


The words for this week's ten word challenge were: sugar bowl, cotton, wizard, fund-raising, Ben Hur, salmonella, luke warm, telescope, bank, walk-a-thon Mini Challenge: challenge, sparkling cider, melancholy, snail mail, master carpenter



My ten word offering for this week:

Augusta Adams hated football season... with all it's stupid bowls: Sugar bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl. What was the whole thing with bowls anyway? Football made no sense to her on any level. Thank God she could find ways to entertain herself while her husband sat glued to the TV for months on end. Thank God she had her movie collection and her own TV. For the coming week she had a great line-up of golden oldies beginning with Ben Hur, the on to the Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island and Casa Blanca. But that was for later. Right now she had to get organized for the big fund-raising walk-a-thon. She was excited because this was the first time since her near-death bout with salmonella that she had felt strong enough for such a challenge. Being so close to death had changed her. Somewhere in her early delirium and subsequent recovery, everything that mattered, had been telescoped in her mind and she was ready to live life with gratitude for every gift and moment, a will to do some good, and forbearance for the joy the football season gave to the man she loved. For now she was off to register at the blood bank, then the walk-a-thon, and then while Charlie watched the game tonight, she would soak her feet in luke-warm water and enjoy a good movie and a glass of wine.

This week's mini:

Master carpenter Jeremiah Martenson was finding it a challenge to keep depression – melancholy as his beloved Miranda had once called it - and the pull of alcohol away. The Sparkling Cider which he had hoped would cheer him up only made him want a drink more. To make matters worse, today’s snail mail had brought the finally severing of his marriage. He would sign the papers and mail them back… and then he would make a choice between continuing his recovery or diving back into the darkness of the bottle.

And the mega:

“Pass the sugar bowl, please Ben,” Gloria said absently to her husband, “coffee’s ready. You want sugar in yours or just milk?” “Bgahf,” was the only sound that issued from behind the newspaper sitting across from her. “Bgahf” is not an answer to my question. You are such a bloody challenge in the mornings. Don’t tell me you have cotton mouth again. Please come out from behind that newspaper, dear and talk to your wife” “Mrrff,” “Ben, darling… if you don’t stop hiding and talk to me, I’ll pick up the phone and hire a master carpenter to spend thousands of dollars of your hard earned money on something you will hate. I will empty your bank account. This coffee is good, love. You will feel better if you drink it. It’s nice and luke-warm, just the way you like it. You are such a strange man. Why DID I marry you?” Saying this, she pushed the coffee behind the newspaper wall and continued her one-way conversation. “Did you see there’s another salmonella scare? This country has gone to the dogs. There’s another fund-raising party at the planetarium. It’s a costume party… We got an invitation in our snail mail yesterday. I think you should go as Ben Hur. You know, Ben Herr goes as Ben Hur…. They want to buy a new telescope” She paused briefly in her monologue: “Ben, dear… are you ever coming out from behind the newspaper?” “I will not go to a costume party as Ben Hur... what about going as wizard... and you could be a witch. I could be Dumbledor and you could be whats-her-name” intoned the melancholy voice of her now coffee fortified husband, “Next time I’m offered champagne at a party please make sure I have sparkling cider instead, won’t you Glory? I’m painfully hung over. Today isn’t that bloody walk-a-thon you volunteered us for is it? Please tell me it isn’t. Oh… and you were just kidding about the carpenter, weren’t you? Your coffee is miraculous, by the way…. As are you, my love. What’s for breakfast?”

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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: humanity, shadow, ricochet, wrong, pluralism, mathematics, personhood, printing press, ink spot, choral society

Mini Challenge: kingdom, take names, best seller, three times, inner demons

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

Enjoy! See you next week.

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