It’s Thankful Thursday!

I came across this little weekly blogfest recently, run by Just the Stuff Ya Know, and felt I had to join in. So, what am I thankful for this week?

I’m thankful for the great opportunities I have in my life and my writing, like going away to Odyssey in… 3 days, actually more like 2 and a half now.

I’m thankful for a job where I’m treated well and get paid doing things that I enjoy.

I’m thankful for the rain, even though I’m not a big fan of singing in it, and for the sunny days when they come back again.

I’m thankful for air conditioning when it gets too hot, not that I’ve needed them this week.

I’m thankful for my family, and I know that I’ll miss them this summer.

I’m thankful for all the amazing books available on audible.com; I spent a little while this evening trying to pick some new ones for the trip, and ended up with eight novels in my shopping cart checkout! 😉

I’m thankful for bacon! I haven’t been having much bacon lately with my diet, but I did pick up a pack a while back and froze most of it, and then realized that I needed to use it up before I left town. So I made a bacon tomato sauce last weekend, and I’ve been enjoying that with my pasta. It’s almost done, though there’s one helping that I can take into the office for lunch.

Let’s see… I’m grateful for smartphone GPS apps even when they don’t quite work perfectly, and for old-fashioned print maps that come free from the nice people at CAA.

I’m thankful for all the music that I love, and for tools that let me write my own ways to organize it all.

What are you thankful for today?

The turning of the seasons

I’ve been seeing a lot of blogging lately about the coming of the fall and the Autumnal Equinox yesterday. Here in southern Ontario, I haven’t spotted many colors changing on the trees, but there’s little doubt that summer is over with. It’s been cool enough that I’ve switched my little stand-up air control unit from air conditioning to heating mode, though I haven’t felt the need to turn on the pilot light for the gas heat. (That usually happens around Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls in early October.)

This morning, there have been rain showers outside my windows, but hopefully those will ease off later in the day, which I’ll appreciate when I head into Toronto. The summer wasn’t an uncomfortably warm one overall, but I’m glad that the hot weather seems to be over with. Hopefully there’ll be a fun fall before the really cold weather comes.

And fall seems like a good time to work on some new editing challenges and come up with a plot idea for Nanowrimo this year.

How are the seasons turning wherever you are?

Flash Fiction Blogfest time

I found out about this Blog-fest very late, because I happened to drop in on a Ninja who was participating. Luckily, I was up to the challenge on very little notice too! 😉

1. Entries must begin with the two words: Lightning flashed.

2. Entries must be 300 words or less and be in prose. I’m not versed enough in poetry verse to judge it properly.

3. Entries must be posted on your blog between May 21 – 23.

Lighting flashed against the horizon, a tiny fork of it in the flat distance. Robert noticed it out of the window at once, and hope leapt inside his chest. With lightning, there was rain!

By the time he’d run downstairs, the hope was quietly taunting and jeering at him. There was more lightning, and a faint rumble of thunder, and a fresh breeze blowing, but the only arcs were from that one spot in the sky. How far away was the thunder – and the water? He could wait for it – but what if the storm was moving in a different direction?

His drive all used up, Robert lay in the dust, face up, and dreamed of the patter of water droplids on his eyelids.

When the water actually came, it was in a torrenting splash, and hope fought briefly with alarm. In a downpour that heavy, would there be flooding? Would the crop be washed away, or the farmhouse?

Then the splash eased away, and he realized that his pant legs were completely dry. Robert sat up, rubbed his eyes, and saw Mary holding the garden hose. “Aww, whatcha go wasting the wet stuff like that for, watering me like I’m one of your garden projects?” he complained.

“It’s a traditional way of waking up somebody who’s making a nuisance of themselves,” Mary complained. “What did you pass out in the front lawn for, anyway? Were you out drinking at Joe’s?”

“No, I ain’t touched a drop since the last time it rained,” Robert said. Maybe that was part of his problem. “It rained last night.”

“Did not.”

“Did too – somewhere over yonder.” Robert tried to point where he’d seen the lightning, but the memory was already faded. “If it doesn’t rain here soon, the bank gets everything.”

What do you think?