Author: rugby843

I am a widow since 2013 and live by myself in a small apartment. I use a wheelchair to get around, but I wouldn't consider myself disabled. I'm 11 years away from having bladder cancer resulting in a urostomy and I'm doing well. This cancer was a result of having radiation in 1995 because of uterine cancer. So have faith in yourself, a cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. My first try at blogging was an attempt to help other people with my condition. I am a mother of three married children, and a grandmother to eight gorgeous kids, featuring them often here, and a great grandmother to two as of today, 6/7/25! I enjoy exploring my feelings and like to try the challenges. I like humor, music, movies, games, and some sports. I absolutely appreciate your reading and commenting on my blog. I am happy to read all of your blogs and learn more about you. Please comment however you like, ask whatever, and I'll answer honestly. Thanks for reading! Cheryl

Skeptic’s Kaddish – Weave Written Weekly

by rugby843, posted in Uncategorized

https://www.writerswrite.com/prompts/poetry/ Write a poem about a woman who works at Barnes & Noble.

***

“So many books, so little time“

She sings this small rhyme

For children with smiling faces

Putting books in proper places

Books are adventures outside their room

Where in a story they are able to zoom

Up a mountain top or in outer space

Using imagination in its place

She places the smallest easier ones

Where tiny fingers are bound to come

Reading to some on quiet area rugs

Hoping they all get the reading bug.

***

https://skepticskaddish.com/2023/01/18/w3-prompt-38-weave-written-weekly/

dVerse Poetry – Prosery

by rugby843, posted in Uncategorized
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
– W.S. Merwin, from “Separation”

Here’s how to take part in the Prosery Prompt:
• Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose up of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line from the poem.
• Post your Prosery piece on your blog and link back to this post.
• Place the link to your actual post (not your blog url) on the Mister Linky page.
• Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy.
• Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts!

***

MY DAY IN COLOR

Everything I do is stitched with color from the gray fog of a winter morning to the bright white bathroom glow where I wash and decide what type of day I am going to have. My tired green eyes are enhanced with a brown eyeliner to stand out under glasses along with blonde/gray highlights in aging red hair. I decide that a foamy topped cream cup of coffee would spark my brain into writing something passable as a story. Red and green Christmas decorations still linger about my living room and go well with the clean white snow falling in soft layers outside my window. Even winter hues inspire although autumn is still my favorite color pallet. A cold soft yellow sun streaks through wispy clouds while a pink printed quilt covers my stretched out legs. It’s time to be creative.

http://dversepoets.com/2023/01/16/dverse-prosery-everything-is-stitched/

FFftPP

by rugby843, posted in Uncategorized
Why isn’t it here yet? It should be here already! The frustrated young woman paced back-and-forth in her living room worried that it might’ve gone to the wrong address. What if someone else received the package she sent specifically to her mother?

Mother, a widow for five years and Carol knew that she was lonely and needed a companion. Her mom didn’t like dating sites. She thought they were too crude. Carol decided to take the matter into her own hands. She started perusing the personals in the back of the local newspaper and came upon a very interesting advertisement.

“Single man, looking for love and companionship, a romantic at heart, and would like to meet a woman of similar taste around middle age as I am, please call 555-0000.”

Carol decided to arrange a meet with this man and check him out secretly without her mother’s knowledge. She didn’t think how she could arrange the meeting with him and her mother and decided to surprise her mom instead. That’s when MailChimp got involved.

Apparently you can ship almost anything with mail chimp. She had already checked with the post office, UPS and the other delivery services. She called Mail Chimp and said that she had a large heavy perishable box that had to be delivered immediately.

The tricky part was meeting the man and devising a way to knock him out to get him into her car and into the box. He was a nice looking man and thankfully, a small guy. The sedative worked. She lifted him clumsily, walked him out to her car, labeled the box and done.

Carol’s mother was surprised but after the man fully awoke he and Carol’s mom had a hesitant laugh. Their relationship continues today. Carol was scolded, but thought “success!”

https://flashfictionforthepracticalpractitioner.wordpress.com/2023/01/18/flash-fiction-for-the-purposeful-practitioner-2023-week-04/

SYW 1-16-23

by rugby843, posted in Uncategorized

Here are this week’s questions:

1. What is the most comfortable vehicle you have even ridden in or driven? Riding in a Lincoln Continental

2. What is the most uncomfortable vehicle you have even ridden in or driven? A Jeep on a mountain pass

3. Have you ever ridden a horse (or a donkey at the seaside)? No but it’s a dream

4. If you could have one of these as a pet, which would it be and why?Black panther, cheetah, leopard, lynx? Leopard—I like spots😃

5. I am grateful today for a needed trip, driven my daughter and our free time together.

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/share-your-world-16th-january-2023/

Simply Six Minutes

by rugby843, posted in Uncategorized
We shared this room, thus the pink and blue bureau, an image certainly of the political correct fifties culture. Boys need blue and girls are pink. Probably that and the closeness of brother and sister at young ages is one of the reasons we now survive as adults. We ignored the labels and sought solace in our secret conversations, included our true feelings despite the outer garments we were forced to wear. We needed to fit in, at least that was the direction in which our parents guided us. Life happened and as teens we were of course separated in distance, but still we remained our best friend-tell-all status. It is sometimes sad to look back at these pictures of seeming equality, yet it was only a forced facade.

***

http://christinebialczak.com/2023/01/17/simply-6-minutes-welcome-to-the-challenge-01-17-2023/