I have noticed a lot of people complaining as of late about the abundance of miss spelled words on social media and the lack of punctuation. I am guilty of this myself not the complaining but the fact I often misspell words and rarely use punctuation. I have learned to use spell check and rely on it often in my writing. I do not think this problem is a new one I think it is just noticed more now with communication being mostly in type and not spoken word.
I have my own opinions on why this is becoming more and more common and as I always do I am going to spew out my thoughts on this epidemic as I have seen it called . The first part of this problem I feel has been caused by quotas and the need for schools to show a certain body count each year at graduation to keep founding money coming in. The government funding is very important to each school no matter how big or how small and if one dollar of funding money is lost it could mean cutting back on school programs for the next year. So many students are shuffled along and promoted from one grade to the next even if they are not prepared or have learned the basics to do so. I am a product of this quota system as I never grasped mathematics but with a D in a class I would be promoted to the next grade. In many instances I should have been given an F and held back until I was able to grasp or learn but to fill the body count or quotas I was passed. I feel this does a disservice to the student and does not prepare them for the world they will enter once they graduate.
I also think the money given to run schools is often misused and squandered on programs that are not as important. The need for these small towns to build a new school every ten years or so baffles me. There once was a time the school and the church and town hall were all in one building. Those days are a thing of the past and I understand there is growth in towns and villages and the need for more class rooms and space is needed but what is the problem with expanding the building or updating what is already there? Do we really need to spend money on a new school and not just a school but they have to be an expensive Frank Lloyd Wright style building? My small town has grown since I was a child and many of the schools I attended have been torn down and new ones built. Some of the schools were closed and sat empty for many years while they built new ones. My small town built a new High School before I graduated in 1980 and I attended that school after one year in the Old High School. The Old High School was deemed to small for the growth of the town but instead of expanding on the existing school building they built a new one. A few years ago I see that they have built yet another new school to house the students and within a few years after it was built it was deemed to expensive to run and the students were moved back to the old High School. Money wasted as far as I can see.
My point in all that babble is that why is the money not spent to teach the children properly and assure they are ready to go out into the world with the proper knowledge? Having an impressive stylish building seems more important than teaching the children from what I see.
Overloaded classrooms is the next problem I see. A teacher has 30 or 40 kids in a class and no matter how outstanding a teacher they are they do not have enough time in one day to give special assistance to each child, so many of the students fall through the cracks and are allowed to do the minimum and past to the next grade.
The new technology has not helped the problem with the new phones and texting being the main way to communicate. Texting has caused people to use abbreviations like cuz for because 4eva for for ever. It is a form of short hand but I feel by using this to communicate will and has caused spelling problems. I can only speak for myself but I know my spelling has improved by actually spelling the words out I may be completely off in my thoughts on this but as I say I can only speak for my self. I have dyslexia and that fact did not come out until I was in the military many years later that could be the reason that I never grasped mathematics and struggled so much in school to mentally hold on to information.
The cure for this? I do not have one I have ideas as I am sure others reading this do I do feel it is only going to get worse in the future if something is not done. I feel we need to put more effort and resources into teaching our young properly and make them the priority in the education system something I am not seeing.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
The Voice Chapter One
This was a book I started writing a few years ago but never finished this is a small part of it hope you enjoy it.
Marching band practice had ended and a group of kids gathered setting in a circle on the curb waiting for their parents to arrive and take them home. Sarah and Chris best friends since 2nd grade were right in the middle of the group they were laughing and having a good time. On the outer edge of the group sat Patty just setting very quietly listening to the group looking so very out of place. Patty, Sarah and Chris had been very close friends about 3 years before but Patty had become very distant and had wild mood swings and seemed she wanted to be alone most of the time. Jenny and Chris noticed the change at fist but it was so gradual that soon they just accepted it as a fact, and after a while they drifted farther and farther apart until they rarely talked at all. Patty had changed so much over the last three years her appearance for one thing, she had once been very conscious of her appearance never a hair out of place and dressed very stylish. The past few years she came to school looking very disheveled drab clothing and her hair looked as if it had not been washed or combed in weeks. She shied from large groups where she once thrived at being the center of attention.
All the other kids from band had been picked up by their parents leaving Patty sitting on the curb alone. The sky above had started to darken and a rumbling of thunder could be heard off in the distance. Patty sat alone clutching her books to her bosom and her head down staring at the ground watching some ants in a line following each other. She reached down and ran her fingers through the middle of the trail the ants were traveling changing the scent of the trail and thus confusing the ants. As she watched the ants started to bunch up and become confused with the loss of the trail scent they had been following. It seemed to mirror what was going on in her own life how she had been on a path that for some reason had been changed and thrown her into a confused state running in circles trying to get back to the path but the will or the scent was gone. A flash of light and sound of lightning broke her out of the daze she had been in as the sky let lose with a down poor of rain. Patty sat not moving as the rain drenched her and sent a chill up her spine. She sat frozen as if she did not notice the rain at all and focused her attention on the ants.
Patty had become so engrossed watching the ants scurrying around in the rain trying to find their way back to the original path she did not notice the car pull up in front of her. The window rolled down and a voice broke her trance, Get you ass in this car right now! the voice screamed at her. She rose slowly like an old person and as she did her books fell and scattered on the ground. As she tried to gather them before they got wet in the puddle that had formed on the ground the voice rang out again making her wince, you are so clumsy and worthless move your ass I do not have all day! Once in the car the voice kept at her about how stupid she was and the fact she was getting the seats all wet and how she was more of a bother than she was worth. Patty kept her head held low and tried to deflect the barrage of insults that spewed in her direction.
As the voice went on and on the whole drive back to Patty's home Patty in her mind had gone to what she called her Nother World. Her Nother World was a place she would go inside her mind when the life around her got to be too much. In the Nother World she was running in fields of clover in a pretty white dress and a slight breeze blew making her long hair trail behind her as she ran through the field twirling and spinning without a care in the world completely free of worries. The voice became only a buzzing in her head like the bees that flitted from one clump of clover to the next collecting the nectar from each flower. Just as she reach a small coral in the Nother World with a black horse she called Slate she was jolted back to reality with a hard slap across the face. The voice could be heard again invaded the Nother World and pulled her back, you stupid little bitch have you heard anything I have said to you? worthless you are just worthless. Patty could feel the tears well up in her eyes and threaten to run down her cheek even though she fought them back one lone tear ran down her reddening cheek with the imprint of the hand that had delivered the slap. The voice came at her again belittling her making her feel so small (YOU ARE WEAK!) (POOR PATTY!) cry baby Patty.
Once the voice was done grinding her into the ground she was told to go to her room the voice said I do not want to look at you anymore the sight of you sickens me. Patty ran up the stairs and dashed into her room and closed the door. As she closed the door behind her she placed her back against it and slid down to a seating position on the floor happy to have the thin wood door between her and the voice. Partly using her body as a barricade and feeling emotionally drained she sat there for some time. She could hear the voice yell out now and then but the thin door muffled the sound.
Patty gathered her strength and arose from the spot she had been and walked over to the open window. She was still soaked from the rain and could feel a bit of a chill as she closed the window. Then she spotted the rain on the floor from the open window and felt an overwhelming fear come over her as she ran to get something to clean up the water that had gathered on the floor under the open window from the rain. Whew she thought good thing she caught that before the voice noticed it. As she cleaned up the last of the water she glanced out the window to see Chris and her Mother pull up in front of their house that sat directly across the street. They must have gone shopping on their way home from band practice and they had a lot of groceries she could see in the back of the mini van. She could not hear their conversation but they were smiling and laughing as they unloaded the packages and took them into the house. Patty stood in the window and watched as they hurriedly emptied the last of the packages from the van trying not to get wet from the rain and watched as door shut behind them leaving the neighbor hood looking as though it was abandoned. Not a soul was on the side walk nor did a car come from either direction as if the rain had washed all the human inhabitants from view. Patty stood in the window for a long time staring at the closed door of Chris's house. She remembered at one time she had been in and out of that house many times and was welcome there.
Soon it was becoming dark and she could see lights coming on in the windows of the houses up and down the street the rain had stopped and people were moving about again some hauling the trash to the curb and there was a person going by on a bike. Patty had been staring so hard at the closed door of Chris's house she had barely noticed the people coming out of hiding from the rain.
Patty felt a shiver come over her and she realized she was still in the rain soaked clothing as she turned from the window to find something to change into. She peeled off the wet clothes and dug in her closet digging out a sweat outfit and put it on. The sweat outfit seemed comforting and warm and for the first time in days she felt a small bit of joy and an almost safeness like a child wrapped in a warm blanket straight out of the clothing dryer. The sweat outfit was a left over from her former life when she was on the track team that life seemed like so so many years ago now. The Voice had said track was a waste of time and the Voice said there was no time to be hauling her sorry ass around to this or that so the voice told her to pick one school activity and Patty had chosen Band. She had given up Volleyball Track and a few other clubs all things she loved but at the time band seemed more important because both Chris and Sarah were in band. She had chosen band over the rest so she could spend time with her best friends. Funny how that choice would eventually cause her to lose her friendship with them both.
Patty could hear the footsteps of the voice coming up the stairs and she rushed around the room to tidy it up before the voice reached the top of the stairs. Patty sat on her bed and opened her school books and waited for the door of her room to open. With much relief she heard the footsteps of the Voice pass her door and go down the hallway then the sound of a slamming door. Patty waited for a while then went to the door of her room and slowly opened it and crept down the steps to the kitchen to get something to eat. The house looked as if it had not been cleaned in days piles of dishes in the sink dirty clothing piled in clumps on the floor half eaten food on plates setting all over the place. Patty trying to be as quite as possible started to clean up the mess thinking to her self why she even bothered because it would look the same the next day when she came home from school. But she cleaned just the same so as not to give the Voice another reason to attack her.
As Patty cleaned she picked up a plate and tears welled up in her eyes as she held it in her hand. The plate was one of the few items left from her old life the one she lived just a few years ago. The plate had been part of a set her father had bought her mother for Christmas one year. The plates had happy farm scenes on them of a farmer in a field a woman taking bread from an oven etc, they were blue with a white background. Patty's Mom had kept them in a china cabinet and only used them on holidays or special occasions. The china cabinet was long gone with most of her mothers belongings discarded by the Voice. The the voice had broken most of the set one night while in a rage tipping over the china cabinet so only a few remained. Patty at one time had smuggled a few pieces up to her room and hidden them to have something of her mother to remember her by a cup and saucer and a sugar bowl that had survived the night of rage and the toppling over of the china cabinet but the voice had found them and smashed them into tiny pieces all over her bedroom floor.
Patty gathered her thoughts wiping the tears from her eyes and returned to cleaning the house in silence trying not to make a sound. Once everything was picked up and the house looked clean once again Patty went into the kitchen to make herself something to eat. She opened the refrigerator to find it almost empty except for a few half empty wine bottles a few beer cans and four Styrofoam boxes of half eaten molding take out. Patty closed the fridge door and went to the cabinet that housed the food the Voice allowed her to eat only to find it also empty. This was no surprise to Patty she had come to expect this sort of thing. She looked through the other cabinets to see if she could find something to eat that would not upset the Voice if she ate it. She found some old stale cookies in the cookie jar on top of the microwave and just as she started to put one in her mouth she felt a presence looming behind her and she shuddered.
Patty felt someone grab her arm and pull it knocking the stale cookie out of her hand and making her drop the cookie jar on the tile floor breaking it into what seemed a thousand pieces. The voice started screaming about how Patty was eating too much food and how sloppy the house was. The cookie jar was now spread out in broken pieces over the floor Patty had just mopped and cleaned. The Voice got louder and was now right in Patty's ear. Look at what you have done I clean all day and you mess up my clean floor you worthless little bitch. Patty felt a hand on the back of her head forcing her down so she could view the mess she made then Patty felt the full weight of the Voices body was on her pushing her face down on the tile floor. The Voice was smashing her face into the floor and grinding the broken cookies and the pieces of the cookie jar into the side of her face. Patty felt a red hot rage rise within herself and she pushed the voice off of her with such force the voice landed flat on its back with a thud and toppled over the small breakfast table making a load noise as it hit the floor on its side. As the table hit the floor everything that had been atop of it spewed across the floor clanging and banging as it spread out over the tile. The Voice lay there for some time but then recovered and before Patty new what was happening the Voice lunged at her grabbing a hand full of her hair and started banging her head on the tile floor.
That red hot rage in Patty returned but this time ten fold it seemed to come from her toes and worked its way up to her head. She felt a rush of heat come to her cheeks and her eyes blurred with anger. As the Voice was slamming her head into the tile Patty reached to find something to defend her self with as the Voice was much bigger than her in size and try as she might she could not get the Voice off of her. Patty felt something cold in her hand and she swung it towards the Voice it made a slush sound and the Voice let up on its grip and let out a gurgling sound as the Voice pulled its hand away Patty could see a sizable clump of her own hair still clutched in the Voices hand much of it pulled out by the roots. The Voice tried to stand only making it to its knees and then started flailing its hands around like one of those tube men car lots use for advertising at grand openings. The Voice seemed to be trying to reach its back. The Voice turned away from Patty still on its knees and that's when Patty saw the Knife in the Voices back and the red blood soaking into its house robe. The Voice let out a gurgling sound as if it was trying to say something then fell on its back forcing the knife farther into its back as it hit the floor. Patty sat exhausted with her back against the wall her rear end on the floor and her legs sprawled out on the cold tile trying to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. She became frozen unable to even blink as the blood from the Voice started to ooze out over the off white tile floor the grout lines becoming rivers of blood running towards her bare foot slowly at first then like a flood the blood rushed across the floor getting closer to her. She found the strength to move her leg just before the large pool of blood reached her. Everything suddenly went black and Patty felt as if she was falling down down down into a black hole.
Patty awoke to the sound of her alarm clock beep! beep! beep! she got out of bed and hurriedly put her clothes on grabbed her school books and slowly opened her door wanting to get out of the house before the Voice woke up. She quietly went down the steps and out the front door closing it behind her and thinking how happy she was that the Voice was not up yet. Patty walked to school feeling a bit happier today for some reason she could not understand why but it was like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders.. The day at school was uneventful for the most part and as the last hour came around Patty felt that old familiar dread and the fact she would soon have to go home and face the Voice again.
She went to her locker and gathered her books for homework and started the walk home. Upon turning the corner just down from her house she noticed the car was not in the driveway this was strange because the Voice never went anywhere and was usually passed out by this time or just stirring from the hang over from the night before. Patty walked slowly bidding her time and somewhat enjoying the warmth of the sun. Soon much too soon she found herself slipping the key into the front door of the house turning the knob and opening the door thinking to her self what new hell awaits me today? It was very quite inside no TV blaring soap operas from the front room as was usual and as she went up the stairs she glanced back noticing the house was still clean from the night before. She went to her room and shut the door wondering were the Voice had gone not in a worried way but more of a relief that she did not have to deal with it.
Patty did her home work and then tiptoed down the steps to check out why things were so quiet. There was no one to be found in the house she looked everywhere and was sort of surprised and relieved to not find anyone. It seemed a bit eery as the Voice always seemed to be there looming around every corner. The Voice is not here I can take a shower she thought to her self but I better hurry in case the Voice returns. The Voice did not allow Patty to use the shower or bathtub on the 2nd floor and she was only allowed to use the toilet on the first floor. The first floor had just a toilet and a sink so she did all her bathing with a wash cloth and washed her hair in the sink when and if she could get passed the Voice to do so more often than not she skipped bathing and hid in her room. It had been forever since she was able to shower at home or take a long soak in the bath.
Patty had intended to just take a quick shower but ended up filling the bathtub and climbing in to take a nice soak. She had just gotten in the bath when she heard a sound she sprang out of the tub and ran down the hall to her room. Standing in her room fear washed over her as she realized she had left the tub full of water. She stood silent for a long time frozen in one spot listening to hear if she could hear the Voice.An eery silence was all that could be heard and the tick tick tick of her clock next to her bed. Patty stood frozen for a long time listening but no movement could be heard. At last she broke from her frozen state and went back down the hall and climbed into the tub. After a nice soak she dried off and crept down the stairs to the kitchen to forage for some food. She was starving and her stomach was grumbling. She flicked on the light in the kitchen and as she did it was like a bolt of lightning struck and some strange images of the Voice laying on the floor popped into her head.
Patty shook her head and rubbed her eyes she felt dizzy and braced herself in the kitchen doorway. I must be hungrier than I thought she said almost out loud looking intensely at the spot on the floor she had just seen or thought she had seen the Voice laying when she turned on the light but there was nothing there. Patty noticed that the kitchen was spotless as she passed through the doorway she had been bracing herself in cleaner than she had seen it in a long time. She opened the fridge to find it clean all the molded food gone and in its place there was an abundance of food there was fresh fruit,sandwich meats,cheeses.milk,juice more food than she had seen in that fridge for years. She found a fresh loaf of bread near the toaster and hurriedly twisted the tie off and took out two pieces of bread. She quickly made herself a sandwich and pored a glass of milk. She then added water to the milk jug to make it look like there had been none taken then put everything back in its place so the Voice would not notice she had taken anything. She gathered the sandwich turned out the light and hurried quietly up the stares and into her room. As soon as the door was shut she ate the sandwich like a starving animal almost choking herself gulping it down. She was so very hungry but also did not want to be caught with the ill gotten goods. Patty did her homework in silence as she always did but something was different on this night there was no movement or yelling or loud TV for background noise just sweet silence.
After she finished the last of her milk she hid the glass in a dresser drawer under some clothes thinking to her self I better not forget that or the Voice will be sure to find it. Patty then slipped into bed and in no time fell fast asleep. A sound woke her from her slumber and as she awoke she glanced at the alarm and noticed it was two in the morning. She lay there half awake listening to hear what the noise was that had awakened her. No sounds once again just the tick tick tick of the bedside clock. Something is wrong she thought and then laughed to her self thinking not so much wrong strange maybe but not wrong. It seemed right to have quiet for a change no yelling or stumbling around noises coming from down stairs, yes it seemed so right. Patty lay back down and went back to sleep.
Marching band practice had ended and a group of kids gathered setting in a circle on the curb waiting for their parents to arrive and take them home. Sarah and Chris best friends since 2nd grade were right in the middle of the group they were laughing and having a good time. On the outer edge of the group sat Patty just setting very quietly listening to the group looking so very out of place. Patty, Sarah and Chris had been very close friends about 3 years before but Patty had become very distant and had wild mood swings and seemed she wanted to be alone most of the time. Jenny and Chris noticed the change at fist but it was so gradual that soon they just accepted it as a fact, and after a while they drifted farther and farther apart until they rarely talked at all. Patty had changed so much over the last three years her appearance for one thing, she had once been very conscious of her appearance never a hair out of place and dressed very stylish. The past few years she came to school looking very disheveled drab clothing and her hair looked as if it had not been washed or combed in weeks. She shied from large groups where she once thrived at being the center of attention.
All the other kids from band had been picked up by their parents leaving Patty sitting on the curb alone. The sky above had started to darken and a rumbling of thunder could be heard off in the distance. Patty sat alone clutching her books to her bosom and her head down staring at the ground watching some ants in a line following each other. She reached down and ran her fingers through the middle of the trail the ants were traveling changing the scent of the trail and thus confusing the ants. As she watched the ants started to bunch up and become confused with the loss of the trail scent they had been following. It seemed to mirror what was going on in her own life how she had been on a path that for some reason had been changed and thrown her into a confused state running in circles trying to get back to the path but the will or the scent was gone. A flash of light and sound of lightning broke her out of the daze she had been in as the sky let lose with a down poor of rain. Patty sat not moving as the rain drenched her and sent a chill up her spine. She sat frozen as if she did not notice the rain at all and focused her attention on the ants.
Patty had become so engrossed watching the ants scurrying around in the rain trying to find their way back to the original path she did not notice the car pull up in front of her. The window rolled down and a voice broke her trance, Get you ass in this car right now! the voice screamed at her. She rose slowly like an old person and as she did her books fell and scattered on the ground. As she tried to gather them before they got wet in the puddle that had formed on the ground the voice rang out again making her wince, you are so clumsy and worthless move your ass I do not have all day! Once in the car the voice kept at her about how stupid she was and the fact she was getting the seats all wet and how she was more of a bother than she was worth. Patty kept her head held low and tried to deflect the barrage of insults that spewed in her direction.
As the voice went on and on the whole drive back to Patty's home Patty in her mind had gone to what she called her Nother World. Her Nother World was a place she would go inside her mind when the life around her got to be too much. In the Nother World she was running in fields of clover in a pretty white dress and a slight breeze blew making her long hair trail behind her as she ran through the field twirling and spinning without a care in the world completely free of worries. The voice became only a buzzing in her head like the bees that flitted from one clump of clover to the next collecting the nectar from each flower. Just as she reach a small coral in the Nother World with a black horse she called Slate she was jolted back to reality with a hard slap across the face. The voice could be heard again invaded the Nother World and pulled her back, you stupid little bitch have you heard anything I have said to you? worthless you are just worthless. Patty could feel the tears well up in her eyes and threaten to run down her cheek even though she fought them back one lone tear ran down her reddening cheek with the imprint of the hand that had delivered the slap. The voice came at her again belittling her making her feel so small (YOU ARE WEAK!) (POOR PATTY!) cry baby Patty.
Once the voice was done grinding her into the ground she was told to go to her room the voice said I do not want to look at you anymore the sight of you sickens me. Patty ran up the stairs and dashed into her room and closed the door. As she closed the door behind her she placed her back against it and slid down to a seating position on the floor happy to have the thin wood door between her and the voice. Partly using her body as a barricade and feeling emotionally drained she sat there for some time. She could hear the voice yell out now and then but the thin door muffled the sound.
Patty gathered her strength and arose from the spot she had been and walked over to the open window. She was still soaked from the rain and could feel a bit of a chill as she closed the window. Then she spotted the rain on the floor from the open window and felt an overwhelming fear come over her as she ran to get something to clean up the water that had gathered on the floor under the open window from the rain. Whew she thought good thing she caught that before the voice noticed it. As she cleaned up the last of the water she glanced out the window to see Chris and her Mother pull up in front of their house that sat directly across the street. They must have gone shopping on their way home from band practice and they had a lot of groceries she could see in the back of the mini van. She could not hear their conversation but they were smiling and laughing as they unloaded the packages and took them into the house. Patty stood in the window and watched as they hurriedly emptied the last of the packages from the van trying not to get wet from the rain and watched as door shut behind them leaving the neighbor hood looking as though it was abandoned. Not a soul was on the side walk nor did a car come from either direction as if the rain had washed all the human inhabitants from view. Patty stood in the window for a long time staring at the closed door of Chris's house. She remembered at one time she had been in and out of that house many times and was welcome there.
Soon it was becoming dark and she could see lights coming on in the windows of the houses up and down the street the rain had stopped and people were moving about again some hauling the trash to the curb and there was a person going by on a bike. Patty had been staring so hard at the closed door of Chris's house she had barely noticed the people coming out of hiding from the rain.
Patty felt a shiver come over her and she realized she was still in the rain soaked clothing as she turned from the window to find something to change into. She peeled off the wet clothes and dug in her closet digging out a sweat outfit and put it on. The sweat outfit seemed comforting and warm and for the first time in days she felt a small bit of joy and an almost safeness like a child wrapped in a warm blanket straight out of the clothing dryer. The sweat outfit was a left over from her former life when she was on the track team that life seemed like so so many years ago now. The Voice had said track was a waste of time and the Voice said there was no time to be hauling her sorry ass around to this or that so the voice told her to pick one school activity and Patty had chosen Band. She had given up Volleyball Track and a few other clubs all things she loved but at the time band seemed more important because both Chris and Sarah were in band. She had chosen band over the rest so she could spend time with her best friends. Funny how that choice would eventually cause her to lose her friendship with them both.
Patty could hear the footsteps of the voice coming up the stairs and she rushed around the room to tidy it up before the voice reached the top of the stairs. Patty sat on her bed and opened her school books and waited for the door of her room to open. With much relief she heard the footsteps of the Voice pass her door and go down the hallway then the sound of a slamming door. Patty waited for a while then went to the door of her room and slowly opened it and crept down the steps to the kitchen to get something to eat. The house looked as if it had not been cleaned in days piles of dishes in the sink dirty clothing piled in clumps on the floor half eaten food on plates setting all over the place. Patty trying to be as quite as possible started to clean up the mess thinking to her self why she even bothered because it would look the same the next day when she came home from school. But she cleaned just the same so as not to give the Voice another reason to attack her.
As Patty cleaned she picked up a plate and tears welled up in her eyes as she held it in her hand. The plate was one of the few items left from her old life the one she lived just a few years ago. The plate had been part of a set her father had bought her mother for Christmas one year. The plates had happy farm scenes on them of a farmer in a field a woman taking bread from an oven etc, they were blue with a white background. Patty's Mom had kept them in a china cabinet and only used them on holidays or special occasions. The china cabinet was long gone with most of her mothers belongings discarded by the Voice. The the voice had broken most of the set one night while in a rage tipping over the china cabinet so only a few remained. Patty at one time had smuggled a few pieces up to her room and hidden them to have something of her mother to remember her by a cup and saucer and a sugar bowl that had survived the night of rage and the toppling over of the china cabinet but the voice had found them and smashed them into tiny pieces all over her bedroom floor.
Patty gathered her thoughts wiping the tears from her eyes and returned to cleaning the house in silence trying not to make a sound. Once everything was picked up and the house looked clean once again Patty went into the kitchen to make herself something to eat. She opened the refrigerator to find it almost empty except for a few half empty wine bottles a few beer cans and four Styrofoam boxes of half eaten molding take out. Patty closed the fridge door and went to the cabinet that housed the food the Voice allowed her to eat only to find it also empty. This was no surprise to Patty she had come to expect this sort of thing. She looked through the other cabinets to see if she could find something to eat that would not upset the Voice if she ate it. She found some old stale cookies in the cookie jar on top of the microwave and just as she started to put one in her mouth she felt a presence looming behind her and she shuddered.
Patty felt someone grab her arm and pull it knocking the stale cookie out of her hand and making her drop the cookie jar on the tile floor breaking it into what seemed a thousand pieces. The voice started screaming about how Patty was eating too much food and how sloppy the house was. The cookie jar was now spread out in broken pieces over the floor Patty had just mopped and cleaned. The Voice got louder and was now right in Patty's ear. Look at what you have done I clean all day and you mess up my clean floor you worthless little bitch. Patty felt a hand on the back of her head forcing her down so she could view the mess she made then Patty felt the full weight of the Voices body was on her pushing her face down on the tile floor. The Voice was smashing her face into the floor and grinding the broken cookies and the pieces of the cookie jar into the side of her face. Patty felt a red hot rage rise within herself and she pushed the voice off of her with such force the voice landed flat on its back with a thud and toppled over the small breakfast table making a load noise as it hit the floor on its side. As the table hit the floor everything that had been atop of it spewed across the floor clanging and banging as it spread out over the tile. The Voice lay there for some time but then recovered and before Patty new what was happening the Voice lunged at her grabbing a hand full of her hair and started banging her head on the tile floor.
That red hot rage in Patty returned but this time ten fold it seemed to come from her toes and worked its way up to her head. She felt a rush of heat come to her cheeks and her eyes blurred with anger. As the Voice was slamming her head into the tile Patty reached to find something to defend her self with as the Voice was much bigger than her in size and try as she might she could not get the Voice off of her. Patty felt something cold in her hand and she swung it towards the Voice it made a slush sound and the Voice let up on its grip and let out a gurgling sound as the Voice pulled its hand away Patty could see a sizable clump of her own hair still clutched in the Voices hand much of it pulled out by the roots. The Voice tried to stand only making it to its knees and then started flailing its hands around like one of those tube men car lots use for advertising at grand openings. The Voice seemed to be trying to reach its back. The Voice turned away from Patty still on its knees and that's when Patty saw the Knife in the Voices back and the red blood soaking into its house robe. The Voice let out a gurgling sound as if it was trying to say something then fell on its back forcing the knife farther into its back as it hit the floor. Patty sat exhausted with her back against the wall her rear end on the floor and her legs sprawled out on the cold tile trying to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. She became frozen unable to even blink as the blood from the Voice started to ooze out over the off white tile floor the grout lines becoming rivers of blood running towards her bare foot slowly at first then like a flood the blood rushed across the floor getting closer to her. She found the strength to move her leg just before the large pool of blood reached her. Everything suddenly went black and Patty felt as if she was falling down down down into a black hole.
Patty awoke to the sound of her alarm clock beep! beep! beep! she got out of bed and hurriedly put her clothes on grabbed her school books and slowly opened her door wanting to get out of the house before the Voice woke up. She quietly went down the steps and out the front door closing it behind her and thinking how happy she was that the Voice was not up yet. Patty walked to school feeling a bit happier today for some reason she could not understand why but it was like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders.. The day at school was uneventful for the most part and as the last hour came around Patty felt that old familiar dread and the fact she would soon have to go home and face the Voice again.
She went to her locker and gathered her books for homework and started the walk home. Upon turning the corner just down from her house she noticed the car was not in the driveway this was strange because the Voice never went anywhere and was usually passed out by this time or just stirring from the hang over from the night before. Patty walked slowly bidding her time and somewhat enjoying the warmth of the sun. Soon much too soon she found herself slipping the key into the front door of the house turning the knob and opening the door thinking to her self what new hell awaits me today? It was very quite inside no TV blaring soap operas from the front room as was usual and as she went up the stairs she glanced back noticing the house was still clean from the night before. She went to her room and shut the door wondering were the Voice had gone not in a worried way but more of a relief that she did not have to deal with it.
Patty did her home work and then tiptoed down the steps to check out why things were so quiet. There was no one to be found in the house she looked everywhere and was sort of surprised and relieved to not find anyone. It seemed a bit eery as the Voice always seemed to be there looming around every corner. The Voice is not here I can take a shower she thought to her self but I better hurry in case the Voice returns. The Voice did not allow Patty to use the shower or bathtub on the 2nd floor and she was only allowed to use the toilet on the first floor. The first floor had just a toilet and a sink so she did all her bathing with a wash cloth and washed her hair in the sink when and if she could get passed the Voice to do so more often than not she skipped bathing and hid in her room. It had been forever since she was able to shower at home or take a long soak in the bath.
Patty had intended to just take a quick shower but ended up filling the bathtub and climbing in to take a nice soak. She had just gotten in the bath when she heard a sound she sprang out of the tub and ran down the hall to her room. Standing in her room fear washed over her as she realized she had left the tub full of water. She stood silent for a long time frozen in one spot listening to hear if she could hear the Voice.An eery silence was all that could be heard and the tick tick tick of her clock next to her bed. Patty stood frozen for a long time listening but no movement could be heard. At last she broke from her frozen state and went back down the hall and climbed into the tub. After a nice soak she dried off and crept down the stairs to the kitchen to forage for some food. She was starving and her stomach was grumbling. She flicked on the light in the kitchen and as she did it was like a bolt of lightning struck and some strange images of the Voice laying on the floor popped into her head.
Patty shook her head and rubbed her eyes she felt dizzy and braced herself in the kitchen doorway. I must be hungrier than I thought she said almost out loud looking intensely at the spot on the floor she had just seen or thought she had seen the Voice laying when she turned on the light but there was nothing there. Patty noticed that the kitchen was spotless as she passed through the doorway she had been bracing herself in cleaner than she had seen it in a long time. She opened the fridge to find it clean all the molded food gone and in its place there was an abundance of food there was fresh fruit,sandwich meats,cheeses.milk,juice more food than she had seen in that fridge for years. She found a fresh loaf of bread near the toaster and hurriedly twisted the tie off and took out two pieces of bread. She quickly made herself a sandwich and pored a glass of milk. She then added water to the milk jug to make it look like there had been none taken then put everything back in its place so the Voice would not notice she had taken anything. She gathered the sandwich turned out the light and hurried quietly up the stares and into her room. As soon as the door was shut she ate the sandwich like a starving animal almost choking herself gulping it down. She was so very hungry but also did not want to be caught with the ill gotten goods. Patty did her homework in silence as she always did but something was different on this night there was no movement or yelling or loud TV for background noise just sweet silence.
After she finished the last of her milk she hid the glass in a dresser drawer under some clothes thinking to her self I better not forget that or the Voice will be sure to find it. Patty then slipped into bed and in no time fell fast asleep. A sound woke her from her slumber and as she awoke she glanced at the alarm and noticed it was two in the morning. She lay there half awake listening to hear what the noise was that had awakened her. No sounds once again just the tick tick tick of the bedside clock. Something is wrong she thought and then laughed to her self thinking not so much wrong strange maybe but not wrong. It seemed right to have quiet for a change no yelling or stumbling around noises coming from down stairs, yes it seemed so right. Patty lay back down and went back to sleep.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Language Dialect and Slang
Language is a funny thing and can cause more havoc than one would think. I have stated many times in my blog I was stationed in Germany for almost 7 years and that I had traveled through Europe after graduating High School. I never thought about how language can separate us until I was faced with trying to maneuver my way through Europe and make sure I was on the right train heading in the right direction or trying to order food at a restaurant. Most of the time this language barrier could be worked out but often it took a lot of playing a game of charades or drawing stick figure people on a napkin. I have to say in most of Europe people speak a bit of English and most speak or understand a bit of a few different languages.
I think back to my teen years in the 80's and how we as teens made up our own words often bastardized words that already existed or words we took and added or subtracted from and often just made up words. Spazz,Gross,Totally,tubular,gnarly to name a few. Those words could be dropped randomly in to a sentence to make it our own. The words sprang into phrases many borrowed from the California surf culture and the Valley Girls. Gag me with a spoon.Barf me out!, Not Even! and one of my favorites Whats your damage man?. I know this is nothing new and teens had been doing this for years but the 80's stands out more for me because it was the time I grew up in.
As a kid we would visit our cousins and family in West Virginia only a few states away and if you were not used to the way they speak could be something a culture shock. In West Virginia they drop letters off the ends of words or take them out completely You all meaning a group of people becomes Y'all white is pronounced wite, night is nite, light is lite emphasis on the letter I. Now this will also depend on what part of the state you live in the more north you go the less of a country twang will be heard the farther south you go the more of the twang will be heard. It is called dialect and dialect can change from state to state depending on if it is northern state or southern western or eastern. When I was about 13 I was taken to Nebraska to visit my sisters husbands family. I did not notice a lot of differences in dialect or language but one thing they said stuck out and at first confused me. If someone was going to the store they would say (you wanna go with? or you want to come with?) a shortened down version of do you want to go with me to the store.
Most of the time I could hear and comprehend and just go with it but there were times dialect got me into trouble. The more a person travels the less the differences becomes a cultural shock. On such instance was when I was around the age of 10 and my father who was from West Virgina born and raised had always said things with a W.Va accent or dialect and for the most part I was used to it. He would say things like winder for window and piller for the word pillow. There was however one day he came up with something I had never heard before and almost got me a good old fashioned ass whoopin drop the (G) as he pronounced it. He had told me to go out and do trim work around trees after the mowing was done. We had a gas powered push mower so it was not back breaking work but it was hot work and time consuming. We lived on ten acres and our house sat about in the middle of that ten acres and we had a lot of trees and flower beds etc that needed trimmed around so it was not a job that could be done quickly. We as a family often joked that it seemed we no sooner got the lawn mowed and trimmed and it was time to start all over again. I digress so now back to my little story. I had been out trimming around trees one day and came in the house to get something cold to drink. My father asked me.....get ready here comes the saying I did not understand and caused my father to want to beat my butt for what he though was me being disrespectful. He asked me (So how much do you like mowing the lawn?) Now I took that as do you like mowing the lawn? so I said I do not like it but you said I had to do it. His eyes got big and I could see he was angry but I could not for the life of me understand why. He asked again (How much do you like mowing the lawn?) and I came back with the same answer. This went on for a while and my Mom hearing this from the other room came in laughing her ass off. My father seemed to become even more angry that she found what he thought was my disrespect funny his face turned red and I just knew he was going to give me a whoopin drop the (G).
So that you are in on the funny part of this to my father the sentence (How much do you like mowing the lawn?) Meant how much more mowing do you have left to do?) and as I said I heard it as (Do you like mowing?) I had never heard the term before and it had thrown me for a loop. My father calmed down after my Mother explained to him the miss interpretation on my part and we would laugh about it later when we spoke of it.
While stationed in Germany I picked up some of the German language and was able to order a drink, find directions and converse with people in a slip shot manner of mixed English and German. About four or five months after my arriving in Germany and thinking I had mastered the basics of the German language I went out on my own and stopped in a small local bar and ordered a drink. After I ordered the people in the bar within ear shot brook out in laughter making my face turn red as a beat. You see many words if not said right can mean something very different and what I chose from my dictionary was totally the wrong word . The funny part of this story is I wanted a rum and soda water the word I used from my English to German dictionary was I wanted a Rum and urinate in my glass. The bar got such a kick out of my screw up that I did not buy a drink the rest of the night so it turned out to be a good screw up.
Even in countries were English is not the native language they have different dialects and different words that mean the same thing. In most cities in Germany they speak what is called high German or what we call proper English but each city still has its own dialect. The differences were not so noticeable to me because my German speech was very limited but to a German speaking person it is much like a person from Michigan going to Texas the language is still English but there is a certain difference in pronunciation that is noticeable to a person who is not used to it.
I remember many of the new soldiers would speak loud and very slowly English to a German person who did not understand English like that would help them understand better. It is like giving hand gestures to a blind person or screaming at a deaf person to get a point across. The funniest thing I ever heard was a guy from the southern states learn German but he kept his southern English Drawl even the German people got a kick out of hearing him speak.
I know this whole slang, dialect, language thing has been written about before many times before and probably much better than I have but it was just something that popped into my head and I wanted to share. I think what made me think about it was a post on a friends wall on Facebook. They had mentioned that many people add an s to things like stores that do not need to be there. For instance Walmart if a person says they are going shopping at Walmart they say Lets go to Walmarts as if they were going to more than one Walmart store. I was guilty of this for many years saying I am going to Krogers the proper way of saying it is I am going to Kroger. I do not know how or why this (S) adding was started but many (peoples) are guilty of this one.
The differences can make you laugh like knockers in England means something on a door to announce you are at the door like a door bell. Knockers in much of the United States means a woman's breast. Knocked up in the US means pregnant in England it means you went calling on a person and knocked on their door. I remember the first time I heard an English accent and heard them say knockers I as a young kid of 9 or so laughed and laughed.
The internet has brought forth a whole new group of words and phrases used in chat rooms, texting, and tweeting. I do not even want to go there LOL TTFN
I think back to my teen years in the 80's and how we as teens made up our own words often bastardized words that already existed or words we took and added or subtracted from and often just made up words. Spazz,Gross,Totally,tubular,gnarly to name a few. Those words could be dropped randomly in to a sentence to make it our own. The words sprang into phrases many borrowed from the California surf culture and the Valley Girls. Gag me with a spoon.Barf me out!, Not Even! and one of my favorites Whats your damage man?. I know this is nothing new and teens had been doing this for years but the 80's stands out more for me because it was the time I grew up in.
As a kid we would visit our cousins and family in West Virginia only a few states away and if you were not used to the way they speak could be something a culture shock. In West Virginia they drop letters off the ends of words or take them out completely You all meaning a group of people becomes Y'all white is pronounced wite, night is nite, light is lite emphasis on the letter I. Now this will also depend on what part of the state you live in the more north you go the less of a country twang will be heard the farther south you go the more of the twang will be heard. It is called dialect and dialect can change from state to state depending on if it is northern state or southern western or eastern. When I was about 13 I was taken to Nebraska to visit my sisters husbands family. I did not notice a lot of differences in dialect or language but one thing they said stuck out and at first confused me. If someone was going to the store they would say (you wanna go with? or you want to come with?) a shortened down version of do you want to go with me to the store.
Most of the time I could hear and comprehend and just go with it but there were times dialect got me into trouble. The more a person travels the less the differences becomes a cultural shock. On such instance was when I was around the age of 10 and my father who was from West Virgina born and raised had always said things with a W.Va accent or dialect and for the most part I was used to it. He would say things like winder for window and piller for the word pillow. There was however one day he came up with something I had never heard before and almost got me a good old fashioned ass whoopin drop the (G) as he pronounced it. He had told me to go out and do trim work around trees after the mowing was done. We had a gas powered push mower so it was not back breaking work but it was hot work and time consuming. We lived on ten acres and our house sat about in the middle of that ten acres and we had a lot of trees and flower beds etc that needed trimmed around so it was not a job that could be done quickly. We as a family often joked that it seemed we no sooner got the lawn mowed and trimmed and it was time to start all over again. I digress so now back to my little story. I had been out trimming around trees one day and came in the house to get something cold to drink. My father asked me.....get ready here comes the saying I did not understand and caused my father to want to beat my butt for what he though was me being disrespectful. He asked me (So how much do you like mowing the lawn?) Now I took that as do you like mowing the lawn? so I said I do not like it but you said I had to do it. His eyes got big and I could see he was angry but I could not for the life of me understand why. He asked again (How much do you like mowing the lawn?) and I came back with the same answer. This went on for a while and my Mom hearing this from the other room came in laughing her ass off. My father seemed to become even more angry that she found what he thought was my disrespect funny his face turned red and I just knew he was going to give me a whoopin drop the (G).
So that you are in on the funny part of this to my father the sentence (How much do you like mowing the lawn?) Meant how much more mowing do you have left to do?) and as I said I heard it as (Do you like mowing?) I had never heard the term before and it had thrown me for a loop. My father calmed down after my Mother explained to him the miss interpretation on my part and we would laugh about it later when we spoke of it.
While stationed in Germany I picked up some of the German language and was able to order a drink, find directions and converse with people in a slip shot manner of mixed English and German. About four or five months after my arriving in Germany and thinking I had mastered the basics of the German language I went out on my own and stopped in a small local bar and ordered a drink. After I ordered the people in the bar within ear shot brook out in laughter making my face turn red as a beat. You see many words if not said right can mean something very different and what I chose from my dictionary was totally the wrong word . The funny part of this story is I wanted a rum and soda water the word I used from my English to German dictionary was I wanted a Rum and urinate in my glass. The bar got such a kick out of my screw up that I did not buy a drink the rest of the night so it turned out to be a good screw up.
Even in countries were English is not the native language they have different dialects and different words that mean the same thing. In most cities in Germany they speak what is called high German or what we call proper English but each city still has its own dialect. The differences were not so noticeable to me because my German speech was very limited but to a German speaking person it is much like a person from Michigan going to Texas the language is still English but there is a certain difference in pronunciation that is noticeable to a person who is not used to it.
I remember many of the new soldiers would speak loud and very slowly English to a German person who did not understand English like that would help them understand better. It is like giving hand gestures to a blind person or screaming at a deaf person to get a point across. The funniest thing I ever heard was a guy from the southern states learn German but he kept his southern English Drawl even the German people got a kick out of hearing him speak.
I know this whole slang, dialect, language thing has been written about before many times before and probably much better than I have but it was just something that popped into my head and I wanted to share. I think what made me think about it was a post on a friends wall on Facebook. They had mentioned that many people add an s to things like stores that do not need to be there. For instance Walmart if a person says they are going shopping at Walmart they say Lets go to Walmarts as if they were going to more than one Walmart store. I was guilty of this for many years saying I am going to Krogers the proper way of saying it is I am going to Kroger. I do not know how or why this (S) adding was started but many (peoples) are guilty of this one.
The differences can make you laugh like knockers in England means something on a door to announce you are at the door like a door bell. Knockers in much of the United States means a woman's breast. Knocked up in the US means pregnant in England it means you went calling on a person and knocked on their door. I remember the first time I heard an English accent and heard them say knockers I as a young kid of 9 or so laughed and laughed.
The internet has brought forth a whole new group of words and phrases used in chat rooms, texting, and tweeting. I do not even want to go there LOL TTFN
Friday, May 2, 2014
Sunrise Brings Back Memories
When I bought my house there was a large deck on the back side of the house that I built a metal roof awning over to keep the rain off me while setting on the deck and working on my paintings. The plan was just an awning over a small portion of the deck leaving the rest of the deck so I could soak up some sun now and then, the small awning grew into a large awning and before I was done covered the whole deck. I was very happy with this until the winds started blowing and making it impossible to paint on the deck were I live I have open farm fields all around me with no trees as wind breakers the winds howl through often and hard. So my little awning that grew into a large awning soon became an enclosure with windows all around or as many call it a sun porch.
I mention all this only to give you an idea of my surroundings when I awoke very early this morning to find I had fallen asleep crunched up on the small couch on the sun porch last night. It was still very dark and I was not sure of the time so I went in to the kitchen to look at the clock and it was six in the morning. I put some wood in the furnace pored myself a cup of coffee and made that morning stop in the bathroom then walked back out to the sun porch, I pulled up one of the shades and flipped on the outside light to see if it had rained last night to find out in fact it had. The rain had drenched everything and was pooling up in some areas and was still raining.
I opened up the rest of the shades and as I was pulling the last one open I could see the sun had slightly lit the sky just enough that you could see the outline of the trees on the far side of the open field. It still seems strange to see the fields bare of the rows of corn that once stood there only a few months ago. As the warmer weather starts to be more prevalent it warms my inner self to know soon the flowers will bloom and the trees will be full of leaves and the humming birds will return to buzz around the yard flitting from feeder to flower then buzz of to some unseen nest to start a new group of the little dive bombers. If their feeders get empty they buzz my head as if to say HEY! buddy you need to refill the feeders and now would not be soon enough.
I watched the sun rise slowly making the sky red and orange with a blaze of color. I realize how lucky I am to be living were I am and to have the chance to view such beauty. I look for my camera to catch it only to find the batteries dead and by the time I find some new ones the colors are all gone. I set and ponder to myself how fast life passes even when we are unable to notice. This brings my mind to people who have passed through my life and brings a smile to my face remembering so many good times. I have been blessed in my life to have had many good people to spend moments in my life with. I hear many say people only remember you when they want something. I feel just the fact they need me is a blessing but. knowing the fine line between being needed and being used is the conundrum. Life happens and people get busy and are trying to live their own lives they might not be right by my side but they will always be in my heart and i hope when they think of me a smile comes to their face and lightens what ever load they are dealing with.
And I owe all those thoughts to the beautiful sunrise that was provided for my viewing.
I mention all this only to give you an idea of my surroundings when I awoke very early this morning to find I had fallen asleep crunched up on the small couch on the sun porch last night. It was still very dark and I was not sure of the time so I went in to the kitchen to look at the clock and it was six in the morning. I put some wood in the furnace pored myself a cup of coffee and made that morning stop in the bathroom then walked back out to the sun porch, I pulled up one of the shades and flipped on the outside light to see if it had rained last night to find out in fact it had. The rain had drenched everything and was pooling up in some areas and was still raining.
I opened up the rest of the shades and as I was pulling the last one open I could see the sun had slightly lit the sky just enough that you could see the outline of the trees on the far side of the open field. It still seems strange to see the fields bare of the rows of corn that once stood there only a few months ago. As the warmer weather starts to be more prevalent it warms my inner self to know soon the flowers will bloom and the trees will be full of leaves and the humming birds will return to buzz around the yard flitting from feeder to flower then buzz of to some unseen nest to start a new group of the little dive bombers. If their feeders get empty they buzz my head as if to say HEY! buddy you need to refill the feeders and now would not be soon enough.
I watched the sun rise slowly making the sky red and orange with a blaze of color. I realize how lucky I am to be living were I am and to have the chance to view such beauty. I look for my camera to catch it only to find the batteries dead and by the time I find some new ones the colors are all gone. I set and ponder to myself how fast life passes even when we are unable to notice. This brings my mind to people who have passed through my life and brings a smile to my face remembering so many good times. I have been blessed in my life to have had many good people to spend moments in my life with. I hear many say people only remember you when they want something. I feel just the fact they need me is a blessing but. knowing the fine line between being needed and being used is the conundrum. Life happens and people get busy and are trying to live their own lives they might not be right by my side but they will always be in my heart and i hope when they think of me a smile comes to their face and lightens what ever load they are dealing with.
And I owe all those thoughts to the beautiful sunrise that was provided for my viewing.
My Strange Claymation Stop Motion Dream.
I have to say I have not seen a claymattion or Stop Motion movie in many years. I think the last such movie I saw was Mysterious Island and that was stop motion and had to have been ten years ago. Last night I had the strangest dream in a claymation motion stop style. The dream started out normal LOL or what I call normal I should say. I was in a hurry to get someplace and had overslept so I was rushing around gulping coffee at the same time I was putting on my clothes and that's when it happened like the music video from the 80's Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel suddenly I had four arms and one was buttering toast another was making my second cup of coffee another was brushing my teeth and the last was picking out my wardrobe. After each appendage had done its job it shrank back into my body.
I soon stood ready at the front door of a house I have never seen and my car pulled up by itself and I got in. At first the car was like a Flintstones Shleprock car so I revved up my feet Flintstones sounds included and away I went. I stopped at a red light and the car changed to a 1966 Mustang and when the light turned green I dropped it into gear and left the cars behind me in a cloud of smoke from my burning rubber. The scenery around me was all claymation and looked like something out of a Doctor Seuss book. The road signs had strange sayings like {You can find magic wherever you look just sit back relax all you need is a shnook. I was like what the hell is a shnook? that seemed to make me angry that I did not know what a schnook was.
I turned to the left and the car started to spin around and around everything in sight became a blur. The car slid to a stop as if parallel parking and I found myself in a large traffic jamb. All the cars were made of clay or a nurf substance. The people got so mad that the traffic jamb was not moving that they started smashing into one another and that made them bounce off of one another and the whole scene changed into a huge Pinball Machine nurf cars bouncing around in every direction lights flashing pinging noises, bells ringing as the cars bounced off the Pinball bumpers and each other. My car was heading for the huge pin ball paddles but I swerved to miss them and passed them by thus sending me down the hole and inside the dark inner belly of the machine. I could hear the song from Pink Floyd playing soft at first but it became louder WELCOME TO THE MACHINE.
My car was being bounced around inside shinny silver tubes turning right then left faster and faster then suddenly I could see light and my car now turning into an RV tour buss shot out of the pinball machine and I landed on route 66 and everything around looked like the 1950's I laughed at the gas price listed it was like 25 cents or something very cheap.
There were people dancing all up and down the road doing the jitter bug dressed in 1950's garb and for some reason I started running them down with the RV and laughing like some deranged nut job and saying that is 50 points as I marked kill points on a chalk board. People were flying in the air as I hit them with the RV. The ones I hit turned into zombies and started hanging on the side of the RV trying to get in. I speed up and soon was on a section of the road that was like a desert nothing but Sun,sand and pavement could be seen for miles. All the 1950's zombies lost their grip and had fallen off bouncing on the road as they hit.
The RV turned into and Army deuce and a half and the shifter was stuck so I was grinding the hell out of it to get it in gear. The soldiers in the back were yelling at me (if you cant find it grind it) that pissed me off so I hit a lever and it lifted the back up like a dump truck and sent them all sprawling on the road I could see them in my side mirror jump up and start chasing after me. I got the deuce and half in gear and sped off flipping them off as I left them in the dessert.
The vehicle went back to a Flintstones car and was going very fast I could see ahead the road had collapsed into a large sink hole so I put my bare feet down on the road trying to stop but the pavement burnt them and I could not stop. The car and I dropped into the sink hole and I could feel myself drooping.
I woke up just as I hear the voice of Ray Harryhausen or what I thought was his voice say CUT! that's a wrap! thank you all for your help, this motion picture is in the can. I woke up and thought What the hell was that? and the dream has stuck with me the rest of the day. It seemed so real even though it was mostly claymation and nonsensical. Proof I am crazy? Maybe or the fact my creative juices are backing up? maybe my cold has infected my brain? What ever it was it was just down right strange, very strange!
I soon stood ready at the front door of a house I have never seen and my car pulled up by itself and I got in. At first the car was like a Flintstones Shleprock car so I revved up my feet Flintstones sounds included and away I went. I stopped at a red light and the car changed to a 1966 Mustang and when the light turned green I dropped it into gear and left the cars behind me in a cloud of smoke from my burning rubber. The scenery around me was all claymation and looked like something out of a Doctor Seuss book. The road signs had strange sayings like {You can find magic wherever you look just sit back relax all you need is a shnook. I was like what the hell is a shnook? that seemed to make me angry that I did not know what a schnook was.
I turned to the left and the car started to spin around and around everything in sight became a blur. The car slid to a stop as if parallel parking and I found myself in a large traffic jamb. All the cars were made of clay or a nurf substance. The people got so mad that the traffic jamb was not moving that they started smashing into one another and that made them bounce off of one another and the whole scene changed into a huge Pinball Machine nurf cars bouncing around in every direction lights flashing pinging noises, bells ringing as the cars bounced off the Pinball bumpers and each other. My car was heading for the huge pin ball paddles but I swerved to miss them and passed them by thus sending me down the hole and inside the dark inner belly of the machine. I could hear the song from Pink Floyd playing soft at first but it became louder WELCOME TO THE MACHINE.
My car was being bounced around inside shinny silver tubes turning right then left faster and faster then suddenly I could see light and my car now turning into an RV tour buss shot out of the pinball machine and I landed on route 66 and everything around looked like the 1950's I laughed at the gas price listed it was like 25 cents or something very cheap.
There were people dancing all up and down the road doing the jitter bug dressed in 1950's garb and for some reason I started running them down with the RV and laughing like some deranged nut job and saying that is 50 points as I marked kill points on a chalk board. People were flying in the air as I hit them with the RV. The ones I hit turned into zombies and started hanging on the side of the RV trying to get in. I speed up and soon was on a section of the road that was like a desert nothing but Sun,sand and pavement could be seen for miles. All the 1950's zombies lost their grip and had fallen off bouncing on the road as they hit.
The RV turned into and Army deuce and a half and the shifter was stuck so I was grinding the hell out of it to get it in gear. The soldiers in the back were yelling at me (if you cant find it grind it) that pissed me off so I hit a lever and it lifted the back up like a dump truck and sent them all sprawling on the road I could see them in my side mirror jump up and start chasing after me. I got the deuce and half in gear and sped off flipping them off as I left them in the dessert.
The vehicle went back to a Flintstones car and was going very fast I could see ahead the road had collapsed into a large sink hole so I put my bare feet down on the road trying to stop but the pavement burnt them and I could not stop. The car and I dropped into the sink hole and I could feel myself drooping.
I woke up just as I hear the voice of Ray Harryhausen or what I thought was his voice say CUT! that's a wrap! thank you all for your help, this motion picture is in the can. I woke up and thought What the hell was that? and the dream has stuck with me the rest of the day. It seemed so real even though it was mostly claymation and nonsensical. Proof I am crazy? Maybe or the fact my creative juices are backing up? maybe my cold has infected my brain? What ever it was it was just down right strange, very strange!
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