Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesdays, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls

“Words for Wednesday”.

She puts up a selection of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. incarcerate

2. phlegm

3. damp

4. groan

5. knife

6. blessing

we also have "a glacial stillness....the sickly sun of winter"

Here is my story:

 The world outside the courthouse was held in a glacial stillness, the sickly sun of winter making only feeble attempts to occasionally break through the blanket of clouds hanging low over the small town of Blissful.

The damp cold this winter had taken its toll on Judge Wilmer, at 68 he was no longer immune to the failings of the aging. The recent flu that had laid most people up in bed for a week or more, had hit him too, although his version was more of a heavy chesty cough which left him gasping.

He cleared his throat of phlegm, took another swig of cough syrup before washing his face and hands, then headed back into the courtroom to continue the hearing. 

The ten minute recess was over and it was time that boy out there learned his lesson.

The handcuffed defendant stared blankly as the Judge spoke to him. 

"Mark Petersen, we meet again. This makes the seventh time in the last three years, it seems that all the rehabilitation measures haven't worked. 

Let's check this sheet now....three robberies, two assaults with intent, two assaults with a deadly weapon....community service, several months in the youth remand centre, a week in the psychiatric hospital.....you're on the wrong track for sure. 

You're facing some serious charges this time, that shop assistant you claim you "accidentally" slashed with a knife in a "pretend" robbery was on life support at Memorial Hospital. He died last night."

Mark stared the Judge right in the eyes, not so much as a twitch revealing any thoughts or emotions he might be feeling. 

Only eighteen, yet his eyes already had that dead look so common to hard-core violent criminals, killers; soulless men who'd murdered time and time again and spent many years in prison for it. 

Judge Wilmer continued, "you're eighteen now son, there'll be no more easy roads after this, no six weeks community service, no more time at Franklin Remand Centre. You're to be tried as an adult, on a charge of murder. You'll be incarcerated until your trial, set for the fifteenth of July. Your lawyer here has requested bail, but with your history, I have no regrets at all in denying him."

The Judge shuffled his papers into a neat pile, banged his gavel once and asked the bailiff to remove the prisoner to the cells in the basement.
A groan of relief broke the silence in the room as Mark Petersen's mother buried her face in her hands and began to cry. 

As her boy was led away, she was heard to say through her tears, "it's wrong of me to say this, he's my son after all, but this is a blessing, it really is. There's something wrong with him, it's like the devil has his soul, he was always a wild child and now he's just straight out bad. He needs to be off the streets and locked away."

stupid walkman? or stupid brain?

I spent most of yesterday trying to put a new playlist on my walkman.

I haven't done this for who-knows-how-long....years for sure. Many years.

It seems I've forgotten how to do it.
I went through my music library, selected a couple of hundred songs, clicked "add to sync list", so far so good....connected the usb....clicked on start sync and things progressed nicely. Then I accidentally clicked the "stop sync" button.
Only two songs were now on my walkman.

No big deal....I'll start over.
Re-selected a couple of hundred songs, minus the two which were already transferred, clicked on start sync.

Then started reading blogs, leaving comments, time passed...you know how it goes. Checked in every now and again, the little syncing icon was twirling around, but nothing was being transferred.
I'll leave it a bit longer, see what happens?

Six hours later, there were still only two songs on my walkman.
I must have done something right to begin with, since I now have two songs...but what about the rest? Surely they should have synced over when I reselected and restarted?

I'll be trying again some time today.

Whimsical Wednesday #112

Welcome back to Whimsical Wednesday!

The day for your googled giggle that gets you over the hump that is Wednesday and sliding down into the weekend.

nuff said.....

market day...what I saw, what I bought

As you all remember, last Saturday I went wandering down to the Fullarton Community Centre where the annual plants, arts and crafts market was on.

I remembered the first time I went, it was quite a small event, a few tents and stalls laid out in the carpark.......this year it was quite a bit larger. Actually a lot larger.
It took me at least an hour to walk around looking at stalls to see what there was, I had a bit of a look at stuff, then I did a slower circuit and really looked, especially at the book stalls. There were only two and as I looked through the books on offer I was surprised by how many I had already read.

I didn't take my granny trolley as I wasn't planning on buying anything or maybe just a small thing or two....

Let's just say next year I'll be taking the granny trolley.  
And more money.

There were many, many stalls with jewellery, some homemade and very nicely presented, some that looked a lot like one of those glittery Asian stalls at Central Market had uprooted itself and settled in the carpark, several bakery stalls, one with fruit pies such as cherry, apple, apricot, but the pastry looked very solid, thick and chunky, (my mum would have said chainsaw pastry) I doubt my teeth would have been able to bite through it, so I didn't buy any.
Plenty of stalls with cards, ribbons and little things of the scrapbooky type to make greeting cards or something, I didn't look closely as I'm not interested in those.

Another stall had these....

jelly cakes!! I haven't seen these in yonks, so of course I bought some, they were sold as you see them here, a plate of four for $5. I ate two with a cup of coffee straight after taking this photo and hours later I was still picking coconut out of my teeth, but it was worth it. These were freshly made, with real cream. So yummy!

Behind the jelly cakes you'll notice two jars of jam...

strawberry&rhubarb and raspberry&rhubarb...woo-hoo!! I've been looking for home made raspberry&rhubarb since the jar I bought at Semaphore one summer was so very tasty. I think this might be from the same people, but I can't be sure. Anyway, I overheard the woman telling another customer this would (might?) be their last year at the market...so I bought both jars of jam instead of trying to choose between them. The raspberry seeds will cause me grief, wonder if I can strain them out?

It was very cloudy when I left home and I'd expected it to stay that way, but the sun had come out while I was browsing, so I tried to stay under shelter since I didn't have my hat with me, I briefly thought about buying one from one of the stalls, but I have three, so...no.

I found a stall selling hand-made-from-camphor-wood chopping blocks in assorted shapes and sizes, they had a box with "rejects" that were marked down, so I rummaged through and they all looked fine to me, I could see marks that meant they weren't perfect, but I've seen worse in shops like K-Mart.....then under a few I found this....

cute little chopping block/cheeseboard/slab of wood....30cm long and only 15cm at its widest point.
My hands wouldn't put it down!  
I had to have it.
It lives now beside my computer, the perfect resting place for my coffee mug. 
When I flip it over......

it looks totally different.
It's very lightweight, only 1cm thick.
The seller recommended I oil it a couple of times a year with a vegetable grade oil such as grapeseed, I asked will olive oil do and she said okay, but I haven't done that yet. It will enhance the colours and protect the wood, but since I'm only using it for my coffee mug and not chopping anything on it I think it will be fine. I've never oiled a chopping board in my life.

I looked at a few clothing stalls, slowed down as I passed the sausage sizzle and breathed in deeply, I love the smell of onions on a barbecue!

I walked really slowly around stalls that had potplants for sale, I wanted to buy so many of them, but have no place to put them, my front porch is tiny and too hot.

I started getting tired after my knee went painfully clicky for the  umpteenth time, so decided to head home. Besides, the books I'd bought were feeling heavy. The jam too.

aha! A Tami Hoag that I haven't read yet, Deeper Than the Dead, (there's probably lots of Tami Hoag's that I haven't read yet), The Secret Lives of Dresses,  by Erin McKean, hadn't heard of her either, but I'd read about the book in a newspaper review a long time ago, The Stone Angel by Katherine Scholes, I've never heard of her...the story is set in Tasmania and a 10th anniversary edition of For Better or Worse cartoons in excellent condition. 

Altogether a fantastic day out and I will do it again next year.

Sunday Selections # 160

Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post

3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.

4. hop on over to TheElephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

Kath and Andrew often join in as well, although Kath has been quite busy lately and unable to join us.

There are several other semi-regular participants now though:

Jackie K at WorkingThrough It

Gillie at RandomThoughts From Abroad

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I'm continuing with a couple of photos of something I love.

motorbikes!

in particular, Harley Davidsons. Look at it, gorgeous, right? 
Mmmmm.

I used to have a toy one, the helmet was attached to the back of the seat by a string, and when you pulled it out, it revved the bike which then took off down the hallway. 
I gave it to a grandson years ago, he loved anything with wheels, still does.

And that's it for today, only two photos.

got things to do today.....

I'm heading off to the local plants, arts and crafts market this morning.
I haven't been for a couple of years and since the weather here is cooler now and I'm less likely to melt while walking there, I'll be wandering up there right after breakfast.

I planned on doing the grocery shopping first, but the market closes at 1pm and the supermarket is open until 5pm...and the craft market is more fun to wander around anyway, so I'm going there first.

Maybe I'll buy stuff....let you know when I get back.

Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesday’s, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls

“Words for Wednesday”.

She puts up a selection of words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. actual

2. spontaneous

3. remedy

4. fanciful

5. mesmerized

6. cranium

and just to increase the challenge, we have...

07. listen

08. glisten

09. christen

10. moisten

11. hasten

12. penicillin

Here is my story:

 Wrapped in the restraining jacket, Annemarie's actual life bore no resemblance whatsoever to the fanciful dreams and monstrous terrors inhabiting her cranium. She gazed as if mesmerized at white padded walls that she did not see. 

On the other side of the heavy, locked door with its tiny barred window, her parents spoke anxiously with Dr Robinson and Dr Jerrie.

"Is there nothing we can do? No remedy we can try? I hate to see her like this, that's not my little Annemarie at all."

Dr Robinson looked very downhearted. "I'm so sorry Mrs Tark. I've seen this many times, all this hippie, flower power, free love the kids are into these days, wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the drugs they're all taking too. We've had patients who make spontaneous recoveries once the drugs are out of their systems, others come back to reality more slowly, some never make it back at all. They never come out of the worlds they've created in their heads."

Tears glistened in Pam Tark's eyes, her husband Roger sipped at a paper cup of water to moisten his lips before speaking.
"Are the restraints still necessary? She seems calmer, there are no new scratches on her face.....it's been two weeks...."

Pam said, "we never had her christened, I want to do that now. I know we always thought it wasn't necessary, but I want Annemarie christened, as soon as possible."

Old Dr Jerrie spoke up, "Pam, Roger, we've kept a close eye on Annemarie for the last 4 days and while she seems calm now, that's probably because she's close to falling asleep. There's a pattern here that we didn't notice at first, 36 hours of raging, screaming fear, then she stays huddled in that corner staring at nothing until she falls asleep. She's been staring now for about five hours, if the pattern follows, she'll be asleep by four o'clock."

"If only we knew what is in those drugs out there on the streets. At first it was just that Marijuana, then LSD, but there is something new, and kids are taking all kinds of combinations of pills," said Dr Robinson. 

Dr Jerrie said, "I wish this was a physical illness, an infection....we could hasten a cure with a shot of penicillin....but mental breakdowns like this....there's just no way of knowing what the damage is or why it happens. We just don't know enough yet about the brain and why it does what it does."

Roger asked, "if she has a calm period every day, would it help if we sat near her and spoke? We could tell her how things are at home, give messages from her friends, maybe she would listen....maybe something would get through?"

oooh! Heavy Machinery!

There's things happening here......things that involve big machines....trucks and bobcats....

A while ago, there was a residents meeting in the community hall where several persons from I-forget-where attended and spoke to residents then walked up and down the driveway looking at the surface and admiring the gardens.

The driveway, which goes right through from the main road to a side street and also runs around behind several of the blocks of flats, is in pretty poor condition.

 all cracked up

The inspectors put in applications for roadworks, depending on what needed doing there was a decision to be made regarding resurfacing or repairing. After the last few rainstorms, it was decided the whole driveway would be resurfaced.

edges and gutters are in bad shape

 pot holes


Work began last Monday and would be broken up into sections, two days per week per section, then the small areas behind the flats where the washing lines are placed would also be replaced as they are very uneven and a hazard for those with "gophers" and walkers.

I was woken on Monday morning by the sounds of trucks arriving and a lot of crunching type noise which turned out to be made by this big machine breaking up the blacktop ready for removal.

 the crusher

A damaged spoon drain along the main driveway was removed and replaced while the whole back section where most of the garages are, was removed and scraped level.

old spoon drain was here

pouring concrete

working on the drain gang....

the new spoon drain

men at work

getting right in there

witches hats were placed at both ends of the driveway

one of several mini skips filled with broken up road surface

the first of many truck loads of waste leaving from my end of the driveway.


The first section was resurfaced on Tuesday but I didn't take photos then as the strong smell of hot bitumen would have given me a headache.
I'll be out there with the camera a bit later this morning.