Tick Tock Tick Tock

July 21, 2026 / animar64 / Leave a comment

I used to think I Candy Crush and a word game were my top data crunchers, but it turns out I spend a lot of time on my music app from Amazon.

How much time I spend on my music app for sort of surprised me, but I guess it shouldn’t because when I listen to music I lose track of time and that might not be such a bad thing.

There are worse things I could be letting into my head, isn’t there?

Young woman wearing headphones and using a smartphone while sitting next to a train window

WP Prompt asks what app I use the most.

RIP What’s Her Name

July 21, 2026July 21, 2026 / animar64 / 4 Comments

My Grandmother’s sister past away several years ago and as far as services went it was your standard fare.

The casket was closed, there was a little basket near the door for condolence cards next to the remembrance book on a shiny cherry wood desk and and nice array of cut and potted plants and flowers tastefully staged around her casket ( which had a light oak finish ).

So I should probably add her because it bears on this story that my Grandmother’s family wasn’t exactly what you would called overly religious.

They showed up in church for christenings and weddings and sometimes Easter so I’m guessing their Funeral Director engaged a minister to officiate the service.

He was a nice man. He took his time to speak to the family as they arrived and then he got up and began the service by asking us to remember, ‘ Gary ‘.

The minister told us about cherishing the fond memories we had of Gary, to remember the love Gary had for us etc etc etc.

The thing is, my Great Aunt’s name was ” Geri ” which was short for Geraldine.

I thought it was hilarious.

Gary got a nice heartfelt send off on that sunny afternoon and I think my Aunt Geri would agree with me.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Evergreen Washelli Seattle WA

The Box Was Marked Fragile

July 20, 2026July 20, 2026 / animar64 / 1 Comment

I’m not one of those horror movie aficionados who goes on a social media platforms and does reviews and in them will toss in factoids about myself like how hard it is to get me to jump at a scene because I’m so hardcore that nothing surprises me in that genre anymore.

Well. That’s not me. I do like horror films. I don’t like to analyze them because I’m watching it for fun, so all I want is a good story and to have a good time.

With that in mind, I will say that one movie had a scene that was a horror scene in it’s purest form.

In this scene there was a monster ( a human one ) another character was going insane right in front of our eyes, another character lost whatever faith he had in humanity- poof just like that and the character who does kill the monster is probably going to dispatch himself after the act ( that’s my guess, it wasn’t in the movie ).

I am talking about the ” What’s in the box” scene from the movie “Seven.”

Of all the horror scenes I have seen this stands alone as the one that has gotten under my skin and nested there.

I’ve re-watched Seven over the years and I will have to say that I still push my back up against my chair and I still sit there and hope as the scene plays that what I know is in that box- can’t be in there. It shouldn’t be there. It isn’t there…is it?

FOWC With Fandango — Boxes

He Gave Me His Ghosts

July 20, 2026 / animar64 / 6 Comments

WP Prompt: What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?

When I was in elementary school, I won a short story contest and one of my prizes was a book called ” The Ghost Belonged to Me. ”

1913. Alexander Armsworth is a normal boy until he sees a ghost of a girl in his barn, warning him of an impending disaster. This leads to him to become a local hero. But when he explains that a ghost warned him, it uncovers the story of how she came to rest on their property, far from her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. He takes it upon himself to take her body home to New Orleans.

Richard Peck went on to write a series of books featuring Alexander and his neighbor Blossom Culp. To this day I will fight and die on the hill to claim these books are among the best ghost stories in print.

However, after I read and re-read ‘ The Ghost Belonged to Me ” I decided at the age of 11 that one day I was going to go to New Orleans and see the cemeteries and the people who walked to music that you couldn’t hear but you could see.

I wanted to visit the grave of the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, I wanted to take tea with ladies with a checkered history and wear a fancy gown. I wanted to meet the larger then life characters that Richard Peck wrote about.

Most of all, I wanted to roam around and find ghosts of my own.

The upshot is, when I grew up I visited New Orleans several times and each time I had a great adventure, just like Alexander and Blossom.

But that’s another story.