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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, the prompts are being provided by Lissa.
This week's prompts are:
1. light
2. voice
3. lock
4. hunt
5. laugh
And/Or
6. wild
7. simple
8. evanescent
9. vulnerable
10. frigid
She grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight function the moment she heard the boom outside. The storm that had blown up in the night had managed, again, to knock out the electric transformer between her and the neighbors. That noise always startled her when it happened, and it was even more jarring when it awakened her from a sound sleep.
She and that neighbor would, along with others, be without power until everything simmered down and the repair crews could safely come out.
Once she'd looked out the window and made sure of what she suspected, that the whole block was dark, she turned off the LIGHT on her phone as using it caused the actual phone part to LOCK. She made the call automatically, as she and the neighbors had been left without power a few times when the company never even realized they were out. None of them had faith any longer in the system the company supposedly had in place to make calling in your outage unnecessary.
While calling, she put the phone on speaker so she could use both hands to HUNT up her regular flashlight in the drawer. At the sound of the automated VOICE coming from the phone speaker, her cat Sonny jumped almost as high as she had when the transformer had blown. Looking like a WILD thing, he darted around as if seeking the other person in the room that he could hear but not see, causing her to LAUGH.
She punched the buttons to tell the computer that yes, this was her account, yes, the electric was out, yes, she had checked the breakers (she wished this case were that SIMPLE). Being without electricity at night made her feel very VULNERABLE, even though she knew that safety is, at best, an illusion, an EVANESCENT idea.
At least, she thought, this was a summer storm. Now that the lightening had passed the area, she could open the windows and the breeze would keep the room cool enough to sleep. Not like when the power went out in the FRIGID winter a few months back and she'd had to go to a motel to keep from freezing, smuggling Sonny and her old dog crate in and sharing the room with the older neighbor lady up the street so they could both afford it. That had been an adventure.
She texted that neighbor now to check on her, and they agreed to call each other in the morning. Window open, she listened to the steady rain and drifted off after a while and was pleasantly surprised to hear her carbon monoxide detector chirp it's "I've got power again!" sound just after sunrise, letting her know the repair crews had already been at it and the situation was well in hand.
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Today is:
Black Cow Root Beer Float Day -- the ice cream and root beer combination was supposedly first served on this date in 1893 by Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing, and he named it after the local Cow Mountain
Hanawa Bayashi -- Kazuno City, Japan (parades and music in the merchant's quarter, through tomorrow)
Hijra -- Islam (Islamic New Year Begins at the viewing of the new moon crescent, so exact time/date varies by location)
Hot & Spicy Food Day
Ibumin Earoeni Day -- Nauru (Day of the Tribes)
Jeshen -- Afghanistan (Independence Day)
Manuel Luis Quezon Day -- Quezon City, Philippines
National Aviation Day -- US
National Medical Dosimetrist's Day -- American Association of Medical Dosimetrists (medical radiation safety experts)
Potato Day
St. John Eudes' Day (Patron of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada)
St. Sebald's Day (a/k/a Sebaldus) (Patron of Bavaria, Germany; Nuremburg, Germany; against cold weather and freezing)
Vinalia Rustica -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Ripening Grapes)
Watch the Pot Wednesday -- Fairy Calendar
World Humanitarian Day -- UN
Birthdays Today:
Snuffleupagus (year unconfirmed)
Jennifer Morrison, 1979
Matthew Perry, 1969
LeAnn Womack, 1966
Kyra Sedgwick, 1965
Kevin Dillon, 1965
John Stamos, 1963
Adam Arkin, 1956
Cindy Nelson
Peter Gallagher, 1955
Mary Matlin, 1953
Jonathan Frakes, 1952
John Deacon, 1951
Gerald McRaney, 1948
Tipper Gore, 1948
Bill Clinton, 1946
Jack Canfield, 1944
Jill St. John, 1940
Diana Muldaur, 1938
Franklin Story Musgrave, 1935
Willie Shoemaker, 1931
Don Ho, 1930
Gene Roddenberry, 1921
Malcolm Forbes, 1919
Jimmy Rowles, 1918
Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915
Philo T. Farnsworth, 1906 (forgotten inventor of television)
Ogden Nash, 1902
Coco Chanel, 1883
George Bellows, 1882
Orville Wright, 1881
John Dryden, 1631
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Animal Clinic" and "Acrobat Ranch"(first Saturday morning children's programs, on ABC), 1950
Today in History:
The Roman Senate is compelled to elect Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, Consul, BC43
Augustus Caesar dies, 14
Crusaders defeat the Saracens in the Battle of Ascalon, 1099
Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith to assume the throne, 1561
Five people are executed for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., 1692
Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences, 1839
The New York Herald reports the discovery of gold in California, 1849
The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio, 1934
Hurricane Dianne kills 200 and does about $1 Billion in damage, 1955
Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, 1990
Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities, 2005
A team of divers discover the wreck of a Swedish warship, part of King Erik XIV's fleet, that sank in 1564 in the Baltic Sea, 2011
NASA satellites take photos showing that the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had for the first time completely dried up, 2014
The monsoon rains finally ease up in Kerala State, India, where flooding has already claimed 350 lives and left 200,000+ in relief camps, 2018