Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 140

Well, Wordzzle day has returned again. Last week's words were difficult indeed and I battled them alone. I'm sitting here staring at this week's list and feeling like it may be a repeat of last time. I keep thinking of other things to do because I don' t have an idea in my head for what to write. Sigh. 11:00 pm update: I have finally squeezed a positively feeble mega out of my fevered brain and I'm exhausted. I thought last week's words were difficult, but they seem easy in retrospect. Ugh. Sorry. I just write down what comes into my head for words.  I fear it will be another solo week based on how hard it was to do the mega. Sigh.


Words for this week's challenge were: kissing cousins, macaroni and cheese, chasm, orange glow, bucket list, eucalyptus, charged, handy, superior   And for the mini: ambition, charter, bug spray, business as usual, cheap




My mega:
 

Newly wedded Fred and Mable 
sit across the kitchen table

On macaroni and cheese they dine, 
along with very cheap red wine

Bathed in candles' orange glow, 
loving looks between them flow

The air is charged with sexual tension - 
they're newly wed - did I forget to mention?

Eagerly they plan their life -
how they will live as man and wife

A bucket list of dreams and visions 
about which they must make decisions

What about Ausable Chasm, pet? 
It's near the place where we first met

Pragmatism being Mable's strength, 
she explained to him at considerable length

How it would be better to pick a more handy site 
in early years with money tight

Lake Superior could be next year - 
it's not expensive from what I hear

This didn't gel with Fred's ambition; 
adventure and glory were his life mission

Business as usual was not his thing 
and a local vacation had that ring

Spending the night with kissing cousins 
whom Mable had in double dozens

But loving Mable very much, 
he reached across her hand to touch

We've time enough to make a choice 
he said in his most loving voice

Which quickly soothed her wounded pride 
and they set vacation plans aside

And talked instead about the pitch 
for the product that would make them rich

Eucalyptus Bug Repeller, 
bio-friendly, really stellar

Would make extinct old bug sprays 
and issue in much "greener" days

Eco green but also money... 
a concept they found very funny

So off to bed the couple went, 
feeling happy and content.

My 10 word:  


Kissing cousins, Stan, Martha, Frank and Susan - along with their respective spouses - had remained close friends throughout their lives. Now moving into their 60s and approaching retirement, they gathered monthly at the Eucalyptus Chasm Diner (a central location handy to everyone's home) to work on their bucket list of how to make the best use of their so-called "golden" years.  Sitting in a window booth beneath the orange glow of the diner's neon sign, they feasted on the chef's famous macaroni and cheese special. Cesar, E.C's owner, was a superior chef of rather eccentric personality. He had once explained the long and complicated story behind the restaurant's odd name and over the years had become friends with this group of regulars, often joining them at the table and joining in on their plans. When business was good (which it usually was), he only charged them for drinks and had effectively become part of their family. Years later - as they journeyed around camping and exploring the world - the friendship proved particularly delightful. Roughing it with your own personal  gourmet chef is hardly roughing it at all. 




My mini: 


Walter's father was deeply disturbed by what he saw as his son's total lack of ambition.  A charter member of the local Chamber of Commerce he was a "business as usual" kind of guy. He had been in the bug spray business for his whole life and his motto was "produce it cheap and sell it at as big a profit as you can get."  Unlike his son, he cared little for ecology and saw climate change not as a threat to the world survival but to his bank account.  It was hard for Walter to reconcile the loving father who had taken him on fishing trips and journeys to National Parks with the strange man who cared about nothing but money.    His father's business was - for Walter - the antithesis of everything he believed in - yet it was that business that had paid for the education that made him aware of how destructive his father's work was. He was grateful that their relationship was so strong, because given their differences, it was not going to be easy in days to come when he lobbied against his beloved Dad's interests in favor of what he perceived to be a greater good. Life, he thought, was awfully messy sometimes.

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Word for next week's 10-word challenge: sugar cookies, muscles, drama, chimes, heating vent, paprika, runes, envelope, candle holder, stubborn

And for the mini: caustic, cloudy skies, ballet, cell phone, covert

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.