Month: April 2022

Not Cutting It

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RDP Monday: MUSTARD

For most of my life I have not, by definition, ” cut the mustard “.

I’ve inched close to making my goals but I never, ever quite cross the finish line.

Like I’ve worn the right clothes, but I didn’t wear the right color. I read a lot of books but I don’t read some of the cool ones that turn up on the banned book lists or book club lists and they don’t seem to get more then one star at Amazon or Goodreads.

And don’t even get me started on where I ended up in personal relationships- on the other hand my cats live freakishly long lives and my dogs have all been wicked smart and on their own figured out things like how to open up accordian doors and little things like unzipping backpacks to get to the snacks that most of us carry around in there. They were great at problem solving-every single one of them.

So even though I never, ever cut the mustard and I probably never will there is this-

I’ve navigated my way through this world- which can only be described as a burning house without crashing into a heap and at the end of the day when I get home and open door and my dog- who has spent all seven years of his life with someone who struggles daily with severe depression- my dog has a toy in his mouth and his is jumping up and down and he is insane with joy.

I may not have cut the mustard and I may not have hit those goals but when I see  unabashed joy my dog  oozes from every pore of his being has when he sees people outside on our walks  or we meet up with dogs or cats or when the alarm rings in the morning and we have to get up- I’m thinking that I may not be cutting the mustard but I’m doing something right and defining what  those things are or if I ever cut the mustard at all   doesn’t seem to be very important.

 

A Ghost of A Chance

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Word of the Day Challenge ” PROTAGONIST ”

Over the weekend I started watching ” Ghosts ” on CBS- well, I streamed it on Amazon Prime but that’s not the point.

When I first saw the promo’s for  ” Ghosts ” I decided I’d eventually get around to it but I hadn’t.  I was working my way through some other shows and I don’t have a lot of tv time so I put a reminder on it and let it go.

Then last  Saturday I was going to watch it the  final episode of ” Why Didn’t They Ask Evans ” as adapted by Hugh Laurie which turned out to be such a delicious watch that I refused to binge on it and I was only watching one episode a weekend.

For some reason my Amazon app on my TV in the living room is always glitching ( as opposed to the smart tv in my home office  which NEVER does) so when I went to pull up Evans there was a glitch and it loaded up ” Ghosts ”

I thought, ‘well while I’m here- ” I decided to watch the first episode.

You know, it’s one of those things- I kept it on because I liked the two Protagonists  and I liked their timing- or I guess you’d call it  chemistry- and before I knew it I was hooked.

And then I started to fall for all of the other characters and I wanted to know all about them.

I’m intrigued by the ghosts of the Cholera victims that haunt the basement  because over the hundred years they’ve been down there, they’ve spent most of their time in the dark and they’ve become experts at doing maintenance on the house’s hot water heater because they’ve been watching people work on it since it went it.

Above all it’s a fun show because it opened up some great spins on the ghost and haunted house story line- like what do ghosts do when they’re not haunting? In this universe they watch paint dry. I’m not kidding. That was an awesome answer.

I knew that this show is based on a British show of the same name and that the story line is similar. I actually ordered the DVD’s from the UK a month ago because it looked awesome too and I wasn’t sure when it would turn up here.

Of course there are two camps- in the reviews for the  British DVD some customers felt the need to say that the British version was far superior to it’s American counterpart and other people who doing reviews liked the American version because they don’t like British humor.

Here’s my thoughts on that- I haven’t seen the British version but from the clips I’ve caught on youtube I will probably love it too.

I should say, In the past I haven’t been crazy about American spinoffs of British shows.

I loved ” Man About The House ” but never liked the American version that we know as ” Three’s Company ” I didn’t like it back when it aired and I don’t like it now. But I do go back and watch “Man About The House ” because it’s still funny and as a side note, Paula Wilcox the actress that played ” Chrissy” in Man About The House ” now plays Shakespeare’s mother in “ Upstart Crow “- again a great show that I absolutely LOVE.

There is no need for me to choose a team here because I’m going to really become  a big fan of BOTH the American and British version of ‘ Ghosts’.

All in all it’s an excellent story and the writers on both projects know how to tell a great story . So give them both at least a ghost of a chance- you won’t be disapointed.

amm

Ghost US Remake- Meet The American Versions of The UK Characters HERE

Meet the British Cast of Ghost  HERE

Little Windows

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It might be Sunny today- but I’m going to ignore that.

I always do when I’m writing.

Revenge of The Doormat

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RDP Saturday: DOORMAT

In the end her daughters used to think, but would never say out loud ( of course ) that they thought their other was a witch.

They didn’t think she was a witch because she had warts on her nose, or wore black clothing or listened to heavy metal music.  They thought she was a witch because she was constantly cursing them out.

When Toby and Bette asked to go to the dentist because  their teeth hurt or they needed new shoes or lunch money for school- she would say ” You kids treat me like  doormat. All  you good for nothing kids ever do is take and take and take and you never give anything good to anyone in return. I hope you rotten kids know what it  feels like to be treated like this one day.”

Because Toby and Bette believed that they walked all over their Mother and had treated her like a doormat  they thought it was reasonable to believe that their Mother had cast a curse upon them.

And she cursed them at least once a day and at least three times a day on Mother’s day and twice a day at Christmas.

The girls were convinced their Mother curse would take hold and they were destined to be good for nothing and never gave anthing to anyone- they still tried to love her- or maybe we were scared what would happen if we didn’t love her. The world is a terrifying place when you’re not even 10 years old.

So burned into their memories was the vision of her mother weaving her cure upon them.

She would be waveing  her hand- not the one with the cigarette but her free hand while she  chanted ” You kids treat me like a doormat -all you ever do is take and take and take and they give nothing  good to anyone in return. I hope you rotten kids know what that feels like one day.”

They would watch ger cigarette smoke would curl around her head like a snake and then twist and twist in the air until it was gone.

After years of having their Mother’s curse cast upon their heads- they  became convinced that all they did was take and take and they  gave nothing in return and what they did give in return was worthless.

Ask anyone who knows Bette and Toby- their ex-husbands- their friends who threw their confidences around like confetti and streamers at midnight on New Years Eve- and they  would gladly tell you that their Mother was absolutely right  about them.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Outside of the front doors of Bette and Toby’s homes are doormats- Bette’s is woven with  flowers and Toby’s mat has been faded by the Sun and when they return home at night from their jobs where none of their co-workers couldn’t tell you  single detail about them, they carefully step over their doormats and close the doors to their empty homes  quietly behind them.