Saturday is a good day to catch up on some of the things that need to be done around the house. Today is the day to tackle the garage. Now for the record, there is nothing wrong with the garage. It’s just in need of a little reorganization. There are several tools I no longer need and so now it’s time to get them ready for a rehoming exercise.

I went out to the garage to make a note of those things that needed to find a home somewhere else. Let’s see. The lawnmower can go since I don’t have a lawn anymore. I think the fertilizer spreader can follow the lawnmower. What about the trimmer? No, I better hold on to that since the neighbor is kind of sloppy about letting his grass grow into my pea gravel bed. I guess the rest can stay since most are used to pick up leaves, and they still need that attention.

I was plugging in my shop vac to give the floor a good sweep when my phone alerted me to someone at the front door. I hit the door cam app, and sure enough, I could see a big guy putting a box on the front porch. I hope he doesn’t ring the doorbell was my first thought. Twiggy was inside, and the ceiling plaster is still wet from last week’s repair. He turned to go and then did a strange thing. He pulled an envelope out of his back pocket with two fingers and dropped it on top of the package.

Waiting until he left, I rushed out to the porch to see what was delivered. The box was from the ACME fireworks company, and I could see it was delivered to the wrong address. No Wilie E. Coyote is living at my house. The envelope had no return address. I opened it quickly and out fell a key. There was also a message. Here’s what it said. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cam.” Find a word that contains “cam” or use it as is. Enjoy! If you want to enjoy it, visit Linda Hill’s blog and read how easy it is. Here is the link https://lindaghill.com/2021/11/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-13-2021/

Cam by John W. Howell © 2021

“You’ve taken all our time with that stupid story about the garage.”

“I snuck in cam, though.”

“Well, that was the only thing good about it. So what’s with the key?”

“I think you will have to come back next week to find out.”

“Oh, no, a cliffhanger. I hate those.”

“I’m sure you do. But there it is anyway.”

“Come on. Tell me about the key.”

“Nope. You’ll have to wait.”

“You know there are a ton of words with ‘cam’ in them.”

“Oh, yeah, tell me one.”

“Er, camel.”

“Not bad I thought you were going to say camera.”

“I was going to tell a story about a camel.”

“Go ahead, tell it.”

“It’s too late the word count is building, and there is no time.”

“Okay, then what do you want to do?”

“Do you think the pub still has shrimp Scampi?”

“They never had Shrimp Scampi. You just threw that in to get a ‘cam’ word, right?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You got the pub thing right, and if it would make you feel better, we could get a couple of Campari cocktails to drink.”

“You dog.”

“I know, right. Dang me.”

While getting ready for a library book appearance this afternoon, there was an envelope on the kitchen counter which had been overlooked. It left from yesterday’s mail delivery. Since it was from my dental insurance provider, opening it seemed to be a good idea. It was from the head of client services, and she wanted to let me know that if I do nothing, my coverage will continue on January 1, 2022.

I felt all warm inside until I saw the date of the letter was October 15. I had to wonder why there was such a delay. This caused me to read further and come to a section that detailed that my premium was not going to change next year. Well, that’s good, was my thought. Then looking at the premium amount, a surprise jumped out. The amount listed was $11.00 more than I thought. With my finger resting on the word ‘premium,’ my other hand went to the web. Sure enough, the amounts were the same.

A further look at payment history showed the price of my premium went up by $11.00 back in May of 2019. “Where the hell have you been?” This was a question that seemed to have no answer. A call to customer service confirmed the increase and the fact that my autopay took care of it.

Disconnecting in a state of stun, the wondering mind turned to all the other autopay accounts, and then the doorbell rang. The first action was getting Twiggy off the ceiling. The second was to look at the ring camera mage, which showed a guy standing there waving an envelope. I spoke to him through the intercom. “Just drop it.” “No can do.” Finally came the reply, “Special delivery.”

I picked up Twiggy and went to open the door. She is visible through the glass doing her Tasmanian devil impersonation while throwing foam left and right. The guy must have had a second thought since he threw down the envelope and broke the Olympic record covering the 100 yards to his truck.

Putting Twiggy back down, making sure she was breathing normally, I retrieved the envelope. Here is what was inside.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “close eyes and point.” Grab the closest printed material to you when you sit down to write your post, open it up (if it’s a book, flyer, etc.), close your eyes, and point. Whatever your finger lands on, use that as your prompt. Have fun!

If you would like to have, fun visit Linda’s blog and see how easy it is. Here is the link.

/https://lindaghill.com/2021/11/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-6-2021/

Premium by John W. Howell © 2021

“Look at you.”

“What?”

“Put your finger on the word premium. You know what you can do with that?”

“I think it’s done.”

“Aw, Naw. You’re not gonna let that story stand as your contribution.”

“I think I am.”

“Come on. You can do a ton of things.”

“Why don’t you write one.”

“What?”

“I said —”

“I know what you said. You must be crazy.”

“Why”

“I don’t write. I review. You know the old adage?”

“Tell me.”

“If you can’t do, review.”

“Please, I heard it a different way.”

“Anyway, I’m a beer expert, not a wordsmith.”

“So get on with your expertise.”

“Premium or lite?”

“Very funny.”

“Maybe I could write.”

“Stick with your strength.”