Monday, February 16, 2015

Snow Czar

I meant to write this yesterday but I got caught up with packing for a trip, cooking and shoveling 
oh my God the shoveling. We have so much area to shovel and yet no snow blower. 
But there is no place to put one. 
If one would invent a snowblower that folded neatly to shovel size, that would do the trick.
 Sadly, nobody has gotten around to inventing it. 
Snow removal is an obsession for B.
He has a precise, sometimes, exhausting, system for how to do it, where to put it and how much should be removed, in order to minimize the development of ice.
It can be equally argued as the work of a genius or a madman.
Usually it's just around this time of year though that he throws in the shovel and says, "Fuck it." because  there is too much snow and nowhere to put it anymore.
Despite this, I still think there's no better candidate. Somebody really needs to appoint that man to be the Snow Removal Czar of  Southern New England.
Consider this my public nomination.
Here is a funny thing. 
We are in NJ on vacation. 4-6 inches are expected tomorrow.
And so it goes on and on. 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Last Cookie

My friend posts a note everyday with something new that he wrote. He has invited me to do the same. I hope you like this one-it was the January prompt for my writer's group.

The Last Cookie in The Yellow Room

I am standing at the counter
in the yellow room 
that is mykitchen.
I am eating the very last cookie 
in the last box of the
Peanut Butter 
Girl Scout Cookies that come
but once a year.
I was not thinking of getting any
though this is the season for such,
when I happened upon 
the colorful boxes
and the cheerful girls 
in their beanies,
outside of the store.
I bought the cookies home 
And placed them
in a cupboard with out saying so.
Curious as to how long 
it would take 
for them to be found.
I came the very next day, 
today,
to find the boxes 
opened, ransacked.
One lonely cookie was left
uneaten, last in line
nestled safely 
in its plastic tray.
I bit into the cookie
savoring 
the salty sweet taste 
of peanut butter and chocolate.
It tasted sweeter 
because it was the last cookie,
in the last box, 
for the year.
It tasted even sweeter to me
because, 
although for everyone else,
it was the last cookie,
I knew of another box.
Tucked away
 unopened.
Where is it?

I’ll never tell.

(Obviously I can't show this to my family until I have gone through that last box of cookies.)

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Wager-A Short Story

A few years back, out with B and some friends, I got caught in the middle of a conversation about basketball teams.
The topic was Secular vs. Catholic school teams (for lack of a better phrase) focusing on how the Catholic teams always seem to be much better.

I mentioned that it would be pretty funny if the losing teams began to renounce God en mass, after losing to a big Catholic school team.

We went with it for a bit and it was very entertaining.

I have been fascinated with really short stories that contain larger stories, in just a few sentences or small paragraphs.

I was reminded of that conversation today while listening to the priest at church talk about the story of Job.

Here is what I came up with today-Hope it works.

I also have to credit a certain Guy Benoit for coming up with the team name and finding the idea funny-it was definitely a collaboration.

A new wager was made, straight out of the book of Job. 
Sadly, the previous winner is foiled this time when Bucci's Auto Body unanimously renounces God, in favor of his Adversary, after losing in a landslide to the St. Pius basketball team on Thursday.