Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana |
PROMPT March 30th Congratulations on making it to the last day of the competition! What was your favorite prompt from the last month? What was the most rewarding aspect of participating in the competition? What fun it was to learn a little more about all the participants. I now know where some of you live, where some of you work. I know that few of us like practical jokes, and few of us had vacations as children. Isn’t that curious? I don’t think I had a favorite prompt. They were all interesting. The two food prompts were fun. But then the one about words was also unusual. I usually downloaded them to my Mac the night they were posted. Then I worked on the prompt the next day to post the next night. I tried to post comments to every post. So I apologize if I didn’t get to everyone. I tried. I really did. The most rewarding aspect of the competition was pushing myself to complete something. Every day. Every day had a deadline. And since I don’t have a ‘real’ job anymore, that seemed like a job. It gave me a purpose. Especially during this crazy mixed up abnormal period of history, we need a reason to get up in the morning and do something. Anything. |
PROMPT March 29th What did you like / dislike about where you grew up? What do you like / dislike about where you live now? I grew up in Jefferson, Ohio. That is a small town in NE Ohio. My neighborhood was quiet. We had a small gang of kids that ran around in the woods or from house to house. Small school, great education I guess. My grandparents lived next door and an aunt and uncle next to them. Lots of family always around it seemed. But I left home as soon as I could. I like the town I now live in. Roundup, MT is north of Billings. It reminds me of the town where I grew up. I like that I can walk or ride my bike everywhere. But I do wish I was closer to the mountains. I do like my little home. Hubby wanted to be out in the country. But we’re glad to be in town as we get older. We are close to a big city for shopping, but live in a small town. We can always drive a ways to be in mountains if we wish. So I guess it is a good compromise. |
PROMPT March 28th We need your help filling the Challenge War Chest with prompts! In your entry today, write three of your own 30DBC prompts and then choose one to respond to. Name three things in your bathroom right now. How clean is your house right now? You only have $50 left with nothing in the bank, nothing saved, and no more money coming any time soon. How will you spend it I choose the bathroom prompt. 1. Right now I have lots of toilet paper. There is always a case in the bathroom. Hubby insists on buying a case every time we go to Billings. Every time. Extra cases are filling my second floor. 2. There are two open tubes of toothpaste. One tube for him, one for me. There used to be just one, but seems someone, who will remain nameless, was irritated that the tube never got squeezed correctly. (For the record, I never knew there was a method for that.) 3. There is a bath rug in front of the vanity that has suddenly decided to wrinkle every time you walk on it. After five years of lying flat, it now decides to act contrary. It is a handwoven-by-Amish rug made from old jeans. It should be heavy enough to lie flat. Annoying. I never knew the bathroom could be so full of drama, did you? |
PROMPT March 27th In your entry today, write about one of the most frightening moments of your life. Hubby and I had a few ugly words and I rushed out of the cabin. I headed up the mountain in the Jeep to pick up a friend for church. It was a Sunday in March 2008. It had snowed just a bit in Gardiner, MT. There was a bit of slush on the road. The road up the mountain to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park is a twisty turny one. It takes you from about 5,200 ft to about 6,700 ft in about five miles and follows the Gardner River. It also crosses the 45th parallel of latitude, halfway to the Arctic Circle. I went a bit slow after passing through the North Gate. Glancing for a second off to the left at the river, a movement in front of me caught my attention. Headed straight at me was a huge truck. I stomped on the brake, the clutch and screamed. Crash! The truck pushed the Jeep back hundreds of feet. Airbags went off. My seatbelt grabbed my chest, cut into my left thigh. I gripped the steering wheel. Screamed and screamed. My legs were still on the brake and clutch. The car’d died. The front end was a crumpled mess. The other driver was now at my door. “Are you okay?” I was shaking. No blood. But I was shaking. I was able to get out of the Jeep and walk around. But the pain in my leg and my chest were intense. Someone asked me if I wanted an ambulance. But I just wanted someone to call my husband, he was at church. So he came. Husband stayed with the Jeep and the park Rangers. The church pastor’s wife took me the 50 miles to the hospital. On the way there, I wished I had taken the ambulance. I was short of breath, and my leg really hurt. Nothing was broken. But I had a bruised sternum and a huge bruise, seroma, in my upper thigh. I also sustained an injury in the lining of the left hip. The sternum bothered me for a few years. The seroma is a soft tissue compartmental injury. It bothers me still. I had surgery a few years after the accident to repair my hip injury. The truck that hit me didn’t get a ticket. He was towing a trailer with snowmobiles and was traveling faster than the speed limit and was in my lane. The Rangers blamed the road condition at the time of the crash. But his insurance paid. Scariest day of my life, so far. But I could also add the night my second husband had a stroke. We had to life-flight him to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. Or the night current husband told me to call the squad, and he almost had an appendix burst. Scary. So kiss your beloved before they leave. Say a prayer before you take a car drive. You never know. |
PROMPT March 25th What’s the best or worst practical joke that you’ve played on someone or that was played on you? You know, I’ve been thinking on this the entire day. Actually, since last night. I know there have been some in my life. Some have been done on me, and I’ve done some on more than a few unsuspecting folks. But I sure cannot remember a single one. Unfortunately, I’m married to a person who doesn’t appreciate the subtle art of the practical joke, the pratfalls, the puns. He just doesn’t think they are funny at all. Shucks. I love to watch the videos of the show ‘Who’s Line is it Anyways?’. Improv comic relief. So at night sometimes I’ll watch several, laugh myself silly. Make me laugh so hard I’ll cry, So you find your fun wherever you can. I know I’ll have fun with my friends. And you don’t always have to play a practical joke on someone to have fun. Wordplay is often a lot more fun. |
PROMPT March 24th Write about some of your most memorable vacations. Where did you go? Who were you with? What was your favorite part of the trip? We never went on many vacations as a family when I was a kid. If we did it was in a soft-sided travel trailer. When I married, we never had money to do anything or go anywhere. So my kids never had vacations of any type. I wanted to go camping, but my husband at the time claimed he had enough camping in the army, so that cheap option was off the table. Current hubby had a different attitude. He took me to New York City for the first time. We saw a Broadway show and went to a nice restaurant, stayed in a nice hotel. We went hiking on the Appalachian Trail once. We took a trip to Arizona and hiked a trail in the desert. Then when we lost our jobs and had to sell our home, we took the ultimate vacation; we traveled full-time in an RV. We started in Ohio in the fall and worked our way South to avoid winter in the North. I loved that time of traveling, him not so much. I would still like to travel but now we are on a fixed income so that option is again off the table. Unless a rich uncle dies. We’ve already had one die, Uncle Walter. But our 'Uncle Sam' is about to bite the dust. So perhaps when he dies we can travel to Canada. It’s not too far from Montana. |
PROMPT March 23rd What do you do to improve your mood when you are sad? If you are frustrated or angry, what is your secret to feeling better? I usually go to the Lord. I pray. When I am sad, frustrated, angry, irritated, worried, or generally not feeling well I go to prayer. It helps me to focus my energies on a higher power. God is the only one that can help when I am troubled. God can help me get over a bad patch. I know others go to meditation or yoga. But I prefer to go to my Creator. He made me, He knew me from before I was born. He knows what I need. He knows I need time to heal. He knows that perhaps if I go for a long walk, take a rest, drink some water, say a prayer then I’ll feel better. I think I’ll stick with that solution. It works for me. And it saves me a lot of money on therapy. |
PROMPT March 22nd Write about your earliest memory. Try to describe it in as much detail as possible. My parent’s first home was a little rental on Satin Street. I remember a bedroom on the second floor. It was unfinished and there were canning jars full of food along the bottom of the walls. I seem to remember ‘Howdy Doody’ on the TV set. They say I commented on my newborn sister’s arrival home. I was three years old. “Take it back, I don’t want it.” Prophetic words indeed. |
PROMPT March 21st What food or dish have you never eaten but would really like to try? Manna. Like God gave to the Israelites in the desert. They state it tasted like honey, or coriander. But typical of humans, after a few meals they complained. “Manna, again! Come on, God. I cannot eat this wonderful food one more day. I know it has everything I need for my health and welfare. It has every nutrient. Everything I need to keep me healthy and strong while I wander in this desert is in this little wafer. It doesn’t need refrigeration. It appears like a miracle each day. But we want change!” Then I thought of Forrest Gump and Bubba Gump shrimp. Manna spaghetti Manna manicotti Manna hollandaise Manna a la king Manna scampi Manna chow mein Manna soup Manna stew Manna loaf Manna meatballs Manna grilled with corn Manna roasted with vegetables Manna subs Manna scrambled Manna patty melt Manna filet Manna tetrazinni Manna lo mein Manna and cabbage Manna hash Manna cheese pizza Manna and grits Perhaps manna was the fountain of youth. A cure for cancer. Maybe this would cure Covid-19. Bring back manna! Put some salt on it and I would eat it every day. |