I do both. I have a one year old great grandchild in June and a new great grandchild in a week! I look back on pictures of the moms or dads as children and it’s difficult thinking, wow time really does fly! I find the future looms these days with doom, but have to concentrate on the positive of new babies. But then I think, what will the world be like when they’re toddlers, or teenagers? Thinking positive only takes your mind so far.
Sunday Poser # 278- Future or the past
Approaching a touchy subject like what we have for our theme today requires planning, empathy, and directness to ensure the conversation is productive rather than confrontational. Difficult conversations matter because there’s usually something meaningful at stake that we deeply care about, and I appreciate everyone showing up for this and I want to listen to what you come up with.
***
Drugs have always been a touchy subject in most households. When I was in constant pain, I was taking more advil and hydrocodone than allowed, and I was also on a fentanyl patch that increased over the years from a 15 every three days to 150 every other day. This took fourteen years and didn’t actually work, after two failed back surgeries. Then living in Colorado, the rules changed and I had to visit a pain clinic 45 minutes away and get a triplicate prescription. Sometimes it was not available so I thought pumping up the otc would save me. It didn’t. I was offered marijuana but I wouldn’t take it. I was afraid my grandkids would know or find it – basically I was scared of it. This is only a part of my experience but if you’re in constant pain and cannot get rid of it no matter what you do, you’ll understand. I ran out of the meds, my patch fell off in the shower and it was two weeks before I could get another, so I went into something like cold turkey. I don’t remember it all. This experience makes me empathetic to others in pain. Please remember you can’t always see pain like a cast or bandage. I don’t listen to much music and “drug”songs don’t appeal, but I found this one.
***
“Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd is primarily about a intense, destructive addiction to cocaine, masked as a love song. The lyrics use a double entendre, where the “numbing” effects of the drug are compared to the overwhelming, disorienting feeling of being with a captivating, yet dangerous, lover.
Making Informed Choices About Substances Matters
March in line, keep it straight.
The world at war cannot wait.
Young bodies fit and trim.
Ready for battle on someone’s whim.
Mother and fathers sadly know.
As their children grow, a hidden threat now, growing up, to the age some “official”stands to sew a designated future
they can’t escape with a flag, always ready, to drape.
***
Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Prompt Word!
The summer rush of passion shone in the students eyes. Hand in hand, a young couple fled the campus confines to turn their expectations into experience. The snap of forest twigs as they melt into the tree lined paths, leaning against the bark’s resin, feeling the strength of the tree’s trunk behind them. Joe and Mary couldn’t wait to taste each other’s sweetness, and Joe pushed Mary softly back into the trunk. The luck of being secluded suddenly turned half disappointment as Mike and his girlfriend curiously walked by. Joe grabbed Mary’s hand and they ran further into the forest to be alone. Spring break began.
***
Wordle 749
Fandango’s Flashback Friday — March 20th
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He thought it would be easy. Unfortunately for the rest of us, he learned the hard way. You don’t enter the schoolyard ready for a fight with no backup. He shouldn’t have challenged the biggest, already sore from the last fight, boy in school, especially after calling down all your former friends. But that’s what bullies do; big, crazy boys who think they’re omnipotent.
***
The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 21, 2026
Childhood mission, pick some berries
Gathered our pails for well worn trails
Picking berries
Our favorites being
Strawberries tiny
On green grass hills
We knew so well
But no, the order was for gooseberries
Sweet spiky orbs that prick little fingers
**we dared each other to eat them, sharp but sweet😎
Weekend Writing Prompt #460 – Gooseberry
I woke up, unfortunately I was on my way to work…driving…no memory of getting out of bed, dressing, or even a cup of coffee! I panicked and pulled over on the side of the street. At least I wasn’t on the highway! I recognized neighbor Jerry’s, trash can on the sidewalk. The street ahead held an unusual, new, traffic sign. My head started to spin with the worst headache ever and my car just started driving me towards the sign. When closer, I saw a huge circular disk. I was transported inside it, asking, “Is this the Twilight Zone?”
***
20 March 2026
This week let’s write a poem with the words condition, five and rapid in it. This is another of those prompts where I randomly choose three words from a list of the top 1000 words in the English language plus a few of my favorites. Post your poems in the comments below.
Never counted to ten or even five
Never thought of risking lives
Rapid as striking a match
Condition red threatening to open a latch
Fumbling fingers a toddler might hatch
Thinking it a game, a winnable dispatch
Sadly for the boots on the ground
And airmen in planes flew around
These lives expendable the toddler thought
His gaming continues as the golf he plays
It was a deal he thought could be bought
And I have to ask, how many days
Will bombs and rockets fly
And we sit at our screens, watching them die.
***
My response as https://rugby843.blog to this poetry challenge:
POSTED BY BARTHOLOMEW BARKER ⋅ MARCH 16, 2026
“You can’t just divorce yourself from generations of family memories. They’re included and accepted with each member relying on love and forgiveness. When you inherit your husband or wife’s family, you also welcome all the personalities, their strengths and their foibles. No matter how you want to miss the problems that may occur, there is an invisible glue that held all these people together over the years.”
***
MLMM Monday Wordle #468
The Bag Lady 
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