Camping for the Uninformed

Seth was relieved to complete the near vertical climb through deserted stretches of trails overlooking Las Vegas.  Seth cleaned his dusty spectacles and gazed at blinking lights below.

Ha!  And Dave said I couldn’t do it!  Seth smiled as he thought of his brother’s derision as he loaned his camp gear to novice camper Seth.  But his gloat was fleeting as he realized the sun was almost behind distant mountains, and he had yet to set up camp.  The full moon was moving behind heavy clouds and it would soon be completely dark.

Frantically Seth tried to find a suitable patch of ground that wasn’t rock hard.  He tumbled down into a trench where the softer ground made hammering spikes easier.  The tent was up in minutes with the Coleman lantern blazing.   Ha! He said again, as he dropped trousers to urinate into the dry ground. Giggling as the yellow stream flowed, he mused how indecent this had been in the streets of Las Vegas, maybe. 

As he dozed off warm and cozy within Dave's tent, he heard the thunder in the mountains and enjoyed the sound of rain falling upon the tent. 

When the ground rumbled and shook, Seth leaped outside the tent just in time to see the wall of water and mud roaring toward him along the gully.  His last thoughts were, ‘Dave is gonna be really pissed about the tent….’

 

gully washer in action

This is a 2013 Wed. words from the early days. It is a writing challenge for bloggers to use the above underlined words to be creative. I wrote this after going on a bad camping experience, channeling the emotions into this blog. The underlined words come from that weeks challenge.

Please check out Wednesday Words and Prompts at drifting slowly

We have gone camping many times over the years. The only mistake we made  was my husband pitching the tent on red ant hill. Not a good thing. 

The Circus Capital of the World: Sarasota, Florida

 

Florida! The perfect place for circuses to settle for winter!

 Sarasota was the Circus Capital of the World.  The animals that were part of the circus world needed the same care as any person. 

It was where the traveling circuses came to renew themselves and their performers to create. Some of those people decided it would be a fine place to live and retire.

Please be patient and read this if at all possible. It is extreme, using comparative phrases. It is what it is.     

Dr. Henry, veterinarian,  provided treatment for a wide assortment of animals, from big to small, mammals or birds or reptiles, owned by the population. 

The line to the office wound out the door and around to the parking lot, where a huge circus tent was set up for larger animal patients, as well as curious tourists from all countries. Their tickets were only $5. 

Assistants who worked with Dr. Henry could never be chicken hearted. Linda had been a high wire performer but retired to help in the vet's office. She was always as busy as a bee.

 As always, his patients were never the same usual animals. One owner Nancy, who had been acrobat, brought in Lady as happy as a dog with two tails could be. Dr. lanced the abscess under the anus carefully, avoiding the two tails that whipped around with happiness.

Next came Goofy Bill, who had been a clown, holding his cat Fluffy, whose claws got his tongue.  It wasn’t pleasant but Fluffy survived

The third owner was Lucy the Limber contortionist, with mildly sedated bison Melba, which was taken to the tent. There Melba had a whale of a time chasing other pets who didn't stay away from the heavy enclosure that held her. 

All the locals (who hung behind an iron bar security fence) were in the tent taking bets on who would be tossed in the air first. They were not terrified too often.

The fourth patient was a hybrid blend of a wolf and sheep, owned by the bearded lady, Princess . No details were given about the wolf in the sheep’s clothing creation or what brought it to the doctor. No one wanted to know.

And then, came the retired circus leader, Major Windy, with his pet elephant, Melody.  No one could ignore that elephant in the tent.  

By that time the whole town was crowded in the tent watching to see if the bison would chase the elephant.  How it ended, no one knew since they were all running for their lives.

At the end of the day as Dr. Henry closed the door he smiled. It had been another rewarding day. 

The alligator didn’t come but would tomorrow. He smiled. Oh how he loved his work.

Many thanks to any reader who managed to get through the story that came to be by using unusual sentence fragments. 

The italicized segments are from Elephant's Child (who sadly passed away this past year) who managed to find or any findable words to challenge bloggers in Blogger world.  Did you have ants in your pants, with each passing sentence? So silly to write that, but the whole post is like that.

I really enjoy challenges like these. These strangest words always provide lots of entertainment for me as the writer. 

 These are the gourmet from which to choose:

the elephant in the room;     as busy as a bee;     as happy as a dog with 2 tails; chicken hearted;     a wolf in sheep's clothing;     cat got your tongue;     having a whale of a time;     ants in your pants

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Jesus is alive, Grandma

 

Theology 101 according to a four year-old.

After I pick up Sunshine from Gateway Christian Preschool, we always have lunch together.

Having lunch with Sunshine is always an interesting event, even if it involves copious amounts of pbj, milk, and applesauce.  All it takes is a simple question, and her vast wealth of knowledge and opinions come flooding out like gold coins from Scrooge McDuck’s vault.

All I have to ask, “What did you learn at school today?”

Just before Easter, Sunshine’s eyes brightened at that question, and without missing a bite of pbj, or a drop of the jam from the oozy edges, Sunshine told me.  “I learned all about Jesus.  And, Grandma, did you know…”  

She paused for a swig of 2% milk, and to allow me to mop off her face.  “Did you know that Jesus gotted nailed to a cross?  That’s a thing that has two pieces of wood that make a small ‘t’.  The bad Romans (Where did she hear about them, I wondered.) took big nails, Grandma, really big nails.”  She spread her hands about a foot apart.  “And then they hammered them through Jesus’ hands, really hard.  Right through Jesus’ hands.” She pounded the table.. 

Her wide blue eyes made contact with my green eyes, to make sure I understood what she said.  Oh, I understood.  I could feel His bones breaking, and the blood dripping onto the wood.  My green eyes became misty with tears.

With casual care, Sunshine licked off the strawberry jam that she had squeezed out from the bread, on purpose.  She likes to do that, and I don’t blame her; so do I.

“Then they stood the cross up like this,” Sunshine demonstrated with her yellow IKEA plastic spoon, “and dropped it in a hole like this.”  She brought down the spoon hard into the bowl of applesauce.  “That woulda really hurted, you know.”

Again her eyes looked deeply into mine, checking for understanding just like any good teacher would.  Oh, I understood how the cross would have hit the ground with a vibrating thud, and how this would have shook Christ’s body with waves of pain.  My eyes blinked at hers several times.

She told me the whole story, event by event, while I remained very still, listening and watching as my almost 5 year old granddaughter explained salvation to me.  “Miss Kenny gived us each a paper cross we color on, and I decided to color my cross like a sunset.”  I looked confused, I suppose, for now she patiently explained her ideas as if I were only 4 years old.  

“You see, Grandma, the red is for the Blood of Jesus, which He gave away so we can see Him in Heaven.  Then the orange is for the sunset when Jesus died.”  Another bite of pbj, and the last swallow of milk.  

“Can I have some more milk, Grandma?”  Without missing a beat while I automatically poured the milk into her pink IKEA cup, Sunshine lowered her voice to a whisper.  “Then I used yellow.  You know why I used yellow?” 

I shook my head, for at this point I didn’t want to or couldn’t talk.  “Well, the yellow is for sunrise, when Jesus got up out of His grave.  That meaned that He wasn’t dead anymore, that He was alive!”  She slammed her hand on the table.  “He went up to Heaven! There!  See, Jesus is alive!”

With the last bite of pbj, and the last swipe of the spoon around the bowl of applesauce, Sunshine finished up.  “Then I colored around the cross in blue, ‘cause Jesus went up to Heaven, and He’s waiting there for all of us.”  She gazed into my eyes and asked, “Grandma, why are you crying?  This is good news, not bad.  Jesus is alive!”

I pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her.  Sunshine wiped her gooey face into my tee-shirt, and filled me with her warmth.  Yes, He’s alive, Sunshine.

Susan Kane

April 27,2011

This is 15 years ago.  I had forgotten about until I checked comments in Hold for Moderation section.  Sunshine is now 20, taller than me, with the amazing blue eyes.  And she still knows what Jesus did for us.