Nifty Fifty

Tizzy's blogfest is to celebrate reaching 50 followers on her Impossible Dreams blog.  The idea is to create something with 50 as the theme.  My entry is a short little story.  After you've read mine make sure you go to Tizzy's site to find the other entries and read them as well.



                                          The Big Five O

         Maybe she had listened one too many times to Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover".  Or maybe she had realized that she was still a relatively young hot babe and I had just turned fifty.

          Sure, back when we had gotten married everyone was telling me I was making a mistake.  Some suggested I was using 50% of my brain in thinking out this marriage thing--maybe I wasn't thinking with my brain at all.  Now I had gained fifty pounds and she had gained some devious knowledge of how to separate me from nearly everything I owned.

           So on my fiftieth birthday I was handed divorce papers drawn up by the $99 paralegal who was offering a $50 special.  Oh yeah, they all thought it was fair and equitable.  It was a fifty-fifty split--she got the assets and I got the debt.

           At least I got the pick-up truck--a 1988 Ford F-150 that had seen better days.  It had sat in the back yard barely used anymore, but it still ran.  I won't say it that the truck was not very dependable, but I wouldn't have wanted to go more than fifty miles from home in it.  It was not very economical to drive either.  I guess it got fifty gallons per mile.  Okay, I exaggerate, but I never left a gas station without having to pay at least fifty dollars.
  
            Believe me, I was not thrilled when I got the notice from the DMV that the registration renewal was due and I would have to get the truck smog checked.  They gave me sixty days, but of course I procrastinated until fifty days had passed and I decided that I'd better get it done so I wouldn't have to pay the fifty dollar penalty

            At the smog check station I was nervous that the truck might not pass the inspection and would require major repairs.  If that were the case I would have been just as well to roll the truck off a fifty foot cliff and forget about it.   But to my relief the truck passed.  I handed the smog inspection guy a fifty dollar bill and he handed me a penny.  My next stop would be the DMV.

           Going to the DMV would be high on my list of the top fifty places I hate to go.  I usually end up waiting at least fifty minutes whenever I have to go there.  When I arrived, there were maybe fifty people waiting to take a number.   I looked up at the digital counter to see which number was being served and noted that it read 750.

            From past experience I was aware that there was a number cycle that ended at 999 and then started over at one.   Since I estimated that there had been about fifty people ahead of me to pick up a number and from the looks of the waiting area there were maybe another fifty or so already there, I would probably be getting a number somewhere around 850.  That meant that this was going to take much longer than fifty minutes today.

           I could only hope that my estimation was wrong.  Please let my number be less than 850, I thought to myself.  When I reached the number dispenser I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then took a number.  I opened my eyes and looked at the ticket in my hand--50.

                                            50 *  50 *  50 *  50 *  50 *  50

         Sign up for DiscConnected's SUPER 8 DEBUT ALBUMS BLOG HOP which happens on Monday February 28.  There's still time!   I'll even give you the Linky list to make it easy for you:

My Final Thank You Bloggers

       Before I begin my post today I wanted to again congratulate Nicki Elson for her success in promoting the A to Z Challenge to the press.  If you did not see her press release submission efforts please click on the link to see the wonderful job she did: 

  Author Invites Fox Valley Bloggers to Join International Blogging Event

       Nicki is scheduled to discuss the topic of to press coverage on the Monday edition of her blog.  She can also be found today as a guest on Jen Daiker's Unedited.   Now on to my post for today---

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

           No, I'm not going anywhere.  It's just that I've been doing these thank you posts where I show our gratitude to all of you who have posted something about the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  Since these posts can get rather time-consuming I am going to discontinue posting these.  I'm sure I have missed many of your efforts to plug the Challenge.  If I missed yours I'm sorry, but please be sure that we do appreciate everything you've done so far.

          Please continue to add the badge to your sidebars, mention the challenge in your posts, and write up any special posts that feature the Challenge or provide others your own helpful pointers.   Your efforts will be appreciated by all of us.

            And now for our amazing list of spirited bloggers who believed in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge enough to show the world.   As always, I hope that each of you reading this post will try to stop by as many on this list as you are able to visit and tell them you appreciate them and then follow their blogs if you aren't doing so already.  Here are todays blog heroes:

Special Posts:

Karen from A Peek At Karen's World honored Tossing It Out with a Blog of the Week recognition and touted the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  Excuse me while I deflate my head.

The Dump Stat is one of many gaming sites that has joined and posted a special announcement.  I don't really know much about the subject matter of these sites, but if you are into games and other things related you might want to check this site and some of the others.

Australian game blogger Austrodavicus at There's Dungeons Down Under not only posted his intention to join the Challenge, but actually provided a list of his topics--interesting stuff.

Chris at Vaults of Nagoh is another gamer who posted his topics.

David from Tower of the Archmage also announced his intent, but had not announced any topics.

You'll find a special announcement with badge on sidebar at Legos and Lightsabers.

Elizabeth from Graphomaniac is returning from last year's Challenge and had a few words to say about Blogging from A to Z.

Sandi at That's Ahh Some! is giving her best shot at trying to encourage others to sign up.

A special announcement appears at My Bric-a-Brac.

Melody from Melody's Musings is back for a second year and made the official announcement.

Sheila at SheilaScribbles is another one who made her announcement in a big way.

Michelle at Beautiful Chaos also made her intentions known in her own special post.

Larry at DiscConnected posted a wonderful reminder about the Challenge.

Tiffani at Thought's from Tiffani announced that she too had joined in the Challenge--don't worry, Tiffani, I think you'll do just fine.

We always know that we can count on Yvonne at Welcome to My World of Poetry for promotion and she's done it again with another poetic plug.  If anyone reading this is still not following her blog, I'd like you to go over and do so now.  I told her she'd reach 400 followers by the end of April and I'm counting on everyone to help her reach that goal.

BZ gave us a double whammy at her blogs Reach for the Sky and English Speaking Zone.

Freda at Freda's Voice heard the voice of the A to Z Challenge calling her and decided to join in the fun.

Thaumiel at Cradle of Rabies--From Role to Games will be playing along with us as well.

Grendelwulf at Axe and Hammer-- another gamer joined the game.

And yo! Adrian (sorry I couldn't resist) from Occam's Samurai Sword made the big announcement.

Lisa at Flash Fiction announced about the interesting way she's going to approach the Challenge.

Wanda at The Watered Soul gave a big sprawling post for A to Z.

Charmaine at Wagging Tales gave us a very nice write-up.

Jim's Girl Family History Blog made the A to Z announcement.

A very nice write-up can also be found at Pocket Full of Playdough and she displays the badge as well.

K.D. at A Coffee Driven and Adventure Bound Life placed an announcement and added a badge.

A fun post from Dan at Sanguine Musings announced his entry into the Challenge.

Swim-Write-Run made the announcement with the badge in the sidebar as well.

J.L. at The Character Depot is displaying the badge.


Badge in Sidebar:

Kristin at Razzy's Corner has added the badge to her new blog that will essentially be debuting in the April Challenge.

The badge is also on display in the sidebar of The Poe Family Blog.

You can also find the badge in the sidebar of Better Is Possible -- a blog title that we should all take to heart.

Amanda at Inspiration,  Art, and Creativity got inspired to join in the Challenge and added the badge to her site.

Heidi from ...then she writes has the badge in her sidebar.

Sarah, The Aspiring Sub-Creator, has a newer blog that has added the badge.

Paula Martin's Potpourri has the badge displayed.

Angela at Whimsy, Writing, and Reading put the badge on display.

MJ at Creatively Spilt Ink has the badge.

M.P. McDonald Has the Write Stuff and she also has a badge in her sidebar.

Rogue has the badge up on Mercy's World and Rogue's Home Cooked Blog.

Susan at thecontemplativecat shows the sidebar.

Jonathon at Jon's Life added the badge.

Mariah is a new blogger who has put up the badge on her Formula Mom blog.

Mooderino at Moody Writing joined the Challenge and immediately added the badge.

Nicki Elson's Not So Deep Thoughts thought enough about the challenge to display the badge.

The artistic Blue Sand Studio blog is exhibiting our artistic A to Z badge.

Septembermom at My Voice, My View is another one with the badge.

Denise at L'Aussie's Travel Blog also has displayed the badge.

And Giving the Challenge a Nod:

Ruby from Blabbin' Grammy mentioned her participation in the upcoming Challenge.

The Word Crafter at The Rainy Day Wanderer also made her announcement and confrimed it with a badge in the sidebar.

Rosalind Adam is Writing in the Rain and joining in the A to Z Challenge.   She also displays the badge to prove it.

Melissa from Melissa's Imaginarium gave us a great big nod as well.

Another new blogger is Laura from Daily Dodo who included the Challenge in a post listing upcoming blog events and also added the badge to her sidebar.

Michael from In Time.... dropped a reminder in a post.

 

             So let's give these bloggers another round of applause for their dedication.  Anyone participating in the Challenge can always feel free to do their own Thank You posts--I'm sure won't hear any complaints from any of us if you do.

              Has anybody else tried to submit press releases or talk to someone from the press?  If so, what were your results?  Does anyone know how many countries are represented in the Challenge so far?  Did anyone notice that I didn't edit my post yesterday before posting it?  I did go back and fix several errors at about 10 AM PST, but before that it was pretty bad.

              Have a great weekend!

***************

Lost...and Gone Forever: A Blogger's Sad Lament

             They were the words that would change the world.   No better words had ever been written in all of the history of blogging.  I carefully studied what I had labored over for several minutes to make sure there were no errors.  This comment had to be perfect.

            With a deep breath of satisfaction I clicked the "Post Comment" button.  The screen lurched and the page shifted.  Scrolling down, I returned to the comment box.  The crazy word "APHYLE" waited for me to enter it into the Word Verification box. 

           The screen jogged and went back to top of the page.  I scrolled down.  The red letters told me that I had typed the word incorrectly.  Now I was commanded to type "CESSNE".  Curses!  I could have sworn I had entered the first word correctly, but undaunted I entered this new word.

          This time the blog page jumped and pulsed.  The screen flicked and twitched.  What was happening?  The comment box disappeared and was replaced by a blank white space.  I tried to refresh the page but the white space remained.  Nothing!   The comment box with my most perfect words was gone.

            My words had been captured by CAPTCHA and catapulted into cyberspace limbo.  My time had been wasted.  There would be no comment left on this blog today.   

           Has this ever happened to you?   Do you still have the surprise pop-up CAPTCHA word verification on your blog?    

*********************
          Two blog events are coming in the next couple days that need more support.  This is the first blog fest for each of these bloggers so I hope you'll show them your support by joining in the fun.

Larry Cavanaugh's Super 8 Debut Albums--Not as difficult as it sounds.  I'm going to double check mine on Wikipedia to make sure I find the debuts of some of my favorite artists.   These music themed blog hops have been a lot of fun in the past and I think this will be also.  It would be nice to have more participants.  Join up at DiscConnected.  The blogfest will be next Monday February 28th.

          The Nifty Fify Blogfest is a first try for Tizzy at Impossible Dreams.      A nice prize is going to given in Tizzy's blogfest.  She's offering a Bodleian Library Everyday Journal from Museums and Galleries--sounds pretty nice.  Pop on over and check this out and add your name to the list.  This fest happens this coming Saturday February 26th.

       








**************************