The 28 Minute, Five Minute Freewrite ~ The Elusive Concept of 'Discord' ~ Original Photography and Original Story ~

in #goodoldfashioneddiscord6 years ago (edited)

P1480374-1 FINAL 344kb.jpg

Sometimes, You Just Gotta Finish The Story



Five Minute Freewrite

Prompt: Discord


My dad leaned back in his portable chair, to un-plug the movie projector.
Dick! The CURTAINS!!!” Before you could shout “Zowwie", all sorts of mayhem burst forth in the room. The brown rubber plug sticking out from the wall-receptacle suddenly spewed blue and yellow sparks in a solid stream from the small, round hole where the projector cord USED to attach.

The sad little plug was efficiently spraying colorful shooting-stars all over our living room carpet, up the wall like a reverse-gravity waterfall, and onto the heavy draperies that covered our enormous picture window.

“DYAAHHHH,” was all my dad could come up with as he jumped to action, tipping his chair over backwards, then yanking at the drapes in one smooth move, while reaching down to try and pull the hot, melting plug from the electric supply in the wall.

The awesome display reminded my brother, sister and me of those whooshing sparkler tubes we were allowed out on the driveway on the 4th. But THIS was different. We're talking major, professional fireworks, in our LIVING ROOM. And in the dead of winter. The grand show was rapidly turning the flowered drapes and eggshell-white wall a dense shade of charcoal black.

Our house was on the brink of becoming a major story on the evening news, but we children thought it was GREAT. Nothing like this ever happened during movie night. Usually we just sat and watched a series of 3-minute films that my dad had proudly 'produced' with his new, Super-8 Winde-O-Matic 870 camera.

Really enthralling cinema. We children, sitting in the middle of a circular, three-rail Lionel track on the tile basement floor, watching a six-car freight go round and round and round and round. For three solid minutes. Or the dog, wandering about the yard, doing absolutely nothing of interest. For another three minutes. The best ones though, were of my mom, either mugging for the camera, or more often, putting her hand up in front of the lens and mouthing “DON'T ", for three minutes straight. Much to my dad's chagrin, and a whole lot of wasted film.

But THIS? This was WAY beyond the usual excitement. And totally new for Saturday movie night. I couldn't WAIT to tell my friends.


------------------------------------------------ - § - ---------------------------------------------


My dad finally got the plug out of the wall, and beat the small, blueish flames that had begun to move up the drapes back into nothing more than a smoky mess.

Not a person to let a learning lesson be derailed by one of his 'stuck at age 12', adult antics, he didn't even break stride, puttering around in his newest mess. “See kids, that's why you always pull a cord out of the wall by the PLUG. Not by yanking on the cord, three feet from the wall.” He seemed proud in the wake of his latest demonstration of a learning moment.

We all nodded in unison with pious, humor-laden “Yes Dad " eyes, as my mom uttered HER usual fantastic father fare. Exasperatedly proclaiming over her shoulder as she exited the room, “You clean it up, I'm going to bed. " I don't think she was really all that disgusted, more likely just tired from watching another full set of exceedingly boring home movies on the fold-away screen.

But WE thought it was all quite wonderful. How many OTHER dads could demonstrate the finely tuned and artistically proper way to Dis-cord an extension cable plug, with such flair and grace? Only OUR father. We puffed up our little chests and thanked the gods of family matters for a dad that was so knowledgeable and used such proficiency when demonstrating home-safety protocols. Yes, all three of us were very very proud, beyond our short stature and early years.

My only regret was that the tripod, lights and camera were not set up for filming when it all went down, so we could watch our fun evening all over again NEXT Saturday night. Wouldn't THAT be something...

~ Finto ~





floridaarkansas 113-1 210kb final.jpg



Here is the link to the post about the Five Minute Weekend Freewrite, put on by @mariannewest:
Day 246: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: Discord
[Five Minute Freewrite Prompt Post]



Thanks for stopping in and viewing the latest installment of the 28-Minute, Five Minute Freewrite. If you have any thoughts about the proper way to 'Discord' a plug, movie night at home, mother's with endless patience, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.





Please UPVOTE, COMMENT and FOLLOW if you enjoy my works.

And go to @ddschteinn -- There's a whole lot more...

Posted: 06/22/2018 @ 17:51



P1050887-1 48kb no name.jpg


Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat

Fact Number 79

Five minute free write-discord cord -cat nose print criminals 1.PNG
Five minute freewrite -Discord cord - Cat nose print criminals.PNG

Sort:  

A very interesting approach to discord. I love the innocent and safe world you paint with tiled basements the playroom for father's display of one of his hobbies and the living room a space for passing a boring but wonderfully nostalgic night with the family in eggshell white, flowered curtains, and electrical mayhem.

Apropos of nothing, when I first saw your response to the cat-bot, I knew we'd be fast friends. As, the first time I encountered a bot, I too had a bit of a 'discord' with him as well. And often when I am chatting on a discord channel, a bot will appear saying, 'dds has earned lever 5' or some such, I cannot help but interact with the thing. It's either years of being taught boring WASP manners or impish ways never 'ruled' out in the nursery. Either way, we'd be an unstoppable delightful duo on any discord channel (how's that for illteration?)

You earned lever 5? But you haven't even thrown levers 2 - 4 yet! Do you even know what these levers do?

Oh dear, not dreaded lever 5...

My dad was good at some mayhem. Don't think he ever really grew up. Maybe that's where I get some of my view on life.
It always tickles me when you enjoy these romps through memoryville. They are fun to write as well.

As for responses, we must have had the same teacher. Be it out of impishness or proper manner-ly-isms, I am so inclined as well. Though it's also just darn fun to respond. I am SO bummed CatFacts has gone away. I'm down to re-replying to older ones. I even wrote to the author and asked if I could get more. No response came back. It saddens me.
This discussion sounds familiar. Have I told you that before, about CF? I spout so much 'brilliance' hack hack, on here, that I forget where I've been. And as to where I'm GOING? HA. Never HAVE had a handle on that slippery little guppy.
I must look into Discord again. I signed up, but never really went back. Need some work on process again. SO compu-literate. But that might be fun. Maybe we'd become famous...then again, maybe we'd be dis-invited on the channel. DDS and DDA take up all the bandwidth. Whatever that means. Well, have a peachy day.

Ah - here I thought we were about to be served some tedious claptrap about the breakdown of the nuclear family through emotional discord a la Revolutionary Road. But instead we got family hi-jinks and a literal discord in the spirit of A Christmas Story.

I liked it better. Perhaps the only thing more satisfying than a literal discord would be a littoral discord, which would likely involve the electrocution of several fish.

Hee hee, a real 'fish fry', or if younger, 'Fry fry'. (I SO want to put and E at the end of that first one, but that would only get me a dapper dress boot). Glad you enjoyed the walk down Nostalgia Lane. They are fun to write. And I love 'claptrap'. That was one of my grandfather's favorite words. They don't make descriptors like THAT anymore. Not that I'm comparing you in age to my grandfather, just in brilliance of saying. Though I suppose-when I first knew him, he would not have been all that old. Odd to think of those things sometimes...my how life goes by like a whooshing freight. Well, have a nice Sunday, and tallyhoe (you only hear that one when a fox cuts through the garden while weeding.)

cuddle_hug3.png

Thank you, small blue kittybot. How DO you dance on your tail like that? Or are you in clear jello?

Dis-cord.... a cable... I must admit I didn't saw that coming! 😅

Yay, fireworks! Those new-fangled fast fuses and Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers have taken away much of the fun.

BTW: If you wire all the pins of a plug together on the inside with thick copper wire, and put a sturdy rubber insulating handle on the thing, you have a device that can be used to bring down all activity in a school by simply sticking it into a socket here and there.

Or so I've heard.

I'm just guessing, but my thought: there may have been a few blackouts at the Enschede (sp?) grammar school a number of years ago. But just guessing only.

You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

Yes I too am learning to never let a teachable moment be wasted! Its the perfect way to save face in front of my nearly adult son!!! Great tale there, my friend!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. And I can't imagine THAT'S ever happened up yonder, "just do what I say, not what I do, son. That's why I did it, to show you how NOT to, next time..." "Right, dad". I never had the joy, but sure remember it from MY days of youth. Though our track coach in H.S. used to smoke like a chimney, and claim the same. "It's an example of what not to do boys, now get out there and run hard".

As always, you crack me up. We had an uncle who did the movies but growing up without a TV and they came very infrequently to visit, we thought the movie nights great fun.
And love the use of the prompt!!!

check this out and give it a vote :) You already got 1 SBI membership and we can get 5 more. each LOL

https://steemit.com/contest/@freewritehouse/nominees-for-best-punday-monday-puns-1st-anniversary

Look for the comment with your pun in it :)

Thanks for the heads up. I spaced the original voting, just lost track of it all in life stuff. Happens, I suppose. I voted, and even for myself. Feels odd, but for your nomination, for sure. Thanks for that, I sure do appreiciate it. As does Pickles. She hopes she wins, as her vacation was cut short. (Can't imagine a cat on a beach, THAT would be something to behold. Been to a lot of beaches, never seen a cat. Only a skinny racoon. Though it WOULD be the worlds largest litter box, with auto flush, and lots of baubles to mess about with, after business is done, so hmmm....)

Come to think of it - I have never seen a cat on the beach either. And here in Southern CA, most beaches have houses built right up to them and where are houses, there are cats...
I usually don't vote for myself either. So, I voted for everyone including us LOL
And I have to say - 5 SBI shares would come in handy.... 🤓

Yes, that would be nice. Though when I last looked, we were trailing. Maybe we'll get a second wind at the last moment. We can always dream ( :
Those pesky cats...

I will ask some friends. I get asked all the time to support people and I never do it - so, here we go. Let's win this thing LOL

Um! If this can be recorded for filming, that would be really great! And if I was a child and if my father did it like this, I would be much excited and that would be a lot of fun, for sure!

Great writing, as always! ;)

Thank you my friend. Glad you enjoyed the story. I think such things might be a bit TOO exciting at times, but what fun anyway. As long as the house stays standing. Have a nice night, and remember, when in doubt, grab the plug, grab the plug.

You're welcome! Ha ha! Yeah! "As long as the house stays standing".....

Have a wonderful night.... Okay, I'll remember.....grab the plug!! ;D

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.17
TRX 0.15
JST 0.028
BTC 62205.55
ETH 2397.85
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.50