Not just a glance

The dagger was thrown
with the skill and accuracy
of years of practice
and a finely honed talent.
The edge glint
in the sun light
as it neared its target.
A deadly steel
that could rend flesh
so easily if it hit is mark
as the thrower
had envisioned.
If only looks could really kill.
__________________________________

This is a Flash Fiction Friday 55.

If you want to know what the hell that means visit g-man.

The challenge is on.

Or come back on Sunday to try my Sunday 160.

If you can fill a text message, you can do this.

Colloquialisms

Visiting the town where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up got me to reminiscing about them. My Dad and Grand Dad had a bucketful of sayings which got me thinking and trying to recall some of their more interesting colloquialisms I've heard over the years. Here is a small collection of the sayings and who I attribute them to.

"Like a fart in a skillet" - my dad would say this about anyone who was twitchy, indecisive or annoyingly energetic. You know the type. You may even be one.

"Not worth sour owl shit" - Dad again. Never did figure out how he would know if owl shit was sour.

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day" - Dad was always eager to point out how often he was right and how stupid others could be. I believe he was truly amazed when someone he felt was not up to his standard of perfection would actually get something right. I also know he didn't make this one up. He just liked it.

"Wop Slop" - anytime my mom would make a dinner with red sauce, my father would refer to it as wop slop. In this he provided me my first lessons in sensitivity.

"Slip me a slobber" - my Grand Dad's way of saying 'give me a kiss'. This is the man who taught me that it was okay to pee behind the barn if I couldn't make it back to the house in time.

"Give me a Road Shortener" - Grand Dad's reference to handing him a beer before he took off on a road trip. It was an easier, softer time when the cops would escort you home.

"Slicker 'n' cow slobbers" - Grand Dad of course. He was a farmer who apparently had a saliva fetish. Sometimes I wondered about his relationship with his cattle.

"Picking fly shit out of pepper" - An old boss used to day this about people who found his work just not quite good enough. Perhaps a bit more detail oriented than he was.

"Jumping over dollars to pick up dimes" - same guy when talking about people who would spend money stupidly thinking they would gain from it.

Then there are a few from one of my more anally obsessed friends - Tighter than a chickenhawk's ass in a full dive & Tighter than a gnats ass stretched across a rain barrel. We won't go down the road of women in religious positions.

We have all had those friends or relatives who love sayings. Maybe you're one of them. In any case.....show me your stuff.

17

This last weekend Mrs MM and I took off to celebrate our seventeenth wedding anniversary. We travelled to one of our favorite little towns in Oregon - Hood River. We spent much of our early relationship in the area which is called the Columbia River Gorge. An area very dear to us both.

While we typically travel the area between our home town, Portland, and Hood River enjoying the hiking trails and waterfalls, we decided for our weekend away we would travel further east along the Gorge. It is still beautiful, but just not as green. Here in Oregon, we refer to this part of our state as the "High Desert" country. These are a few photos of the sites we took in.

We took off from Hood River and went about 40 miles east to the Mary Hill Museum. The museum was built by Samuel Hill, "the catalyst behind the Columbia River Highway", to be his eastern ranch. Due to issue of travel during that time period, the early 1900's, he ended up dedicating his home as a museum instead.

Mary Hill Museum Grounds Entry

On a very park like grounds that is open to the public are a number of sculptures. Including the rather whimsical "Taco Bell", a bell hanging from a bar that has a sculpted taco on it. This was my favorite. Mrs.MM with the Pine Cone. Inside the museum are collections of artwork from Czar Nicholas, Rodin, fascinating chess sets, painting on loan from various private collections and items that leave you scratching your head wondering what the heck are these beautiful works doing out in the middle of nowhere.


Czar Nicholas


Monkey chess pieces...how could I resist.

Then beyond the Mary Hill Museum we went.


Sam Hill's Stonehenge Memorial to WWI


An old barn outside Goldendale, WA I had to shoot.


Wind turbine farm.

And back to Hood River for a romantic dinner. (Mrs. MM hates sentences that start with And, but I had to do it.)

Imperfect

You expect perfection in others

but expertly overlook

your own imperfections.

Set the example

of your expectation

and see how comfortable

you feel in that skin.

________________________________

This is a Sunday 160.
Take the Challenge if you dare. Write a story using 160 characters - including spaces. Your cell phone will tell you if you have reached 160...but cell phones lie...they usually have only 144 to 150. If you want "perfection" in your count, use word count in Office Word and check the character count there. It sure beats counting. Or just say "screw it" and send a maxed out text. Have fun. - MM