16 Comments

Good story, Elizabeth, I enjoyed your way of telling it. I once backed my truck into a mailbox, thought I only scratched the bumper, and didn't even see the horrible scrape and dent I put in the passenger side fender. I completely forgot about the incident. Two days later, my helper used my truck to go to the lumber yard. When he returned, he pulled into the driveway in such a way that I saw the dent for the first time. I was shocked! And he wouldn't even confess, he just ignored the dent like he didn't just get into an accident with my truck! When I asked him about it, trying to stay calm, he was like, "Yeah, I noticed that. What happened?" I was completely baffled and dumbfounded!

He could surely see the blame in my expression, but luckily I held my tongue and tried to wait out the confusion. It took me a couple of hours to suddenly remember!

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Across the years, I have been given many opportunities to learn the art of not blurting. I'm still at it. In this instance, I think of the adage "cat's got your tongue" and am oh, so grateful to have been unable to say what I was thinking! This is a perfect story to illustrate just that, Don. Thanks so much for chiming in! Those mailboxes can be really mean!

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Sep 18Liked by Elizabeth Beggins

❤ this adventure!! Like all great stories, it kept me in suspense, til the end..

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Thanks, Barry. Me, too, actually!

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When I was a kid, I worked for a guy named Art, who never took a vacation because he always felt guilty. All work ethic, no play ethic. One day during lunch break, he confessed to me that he was late for school once and the teacher wanted to know why. Art was never late for anything.

“My dad heard a lot of noise in the chicken coop last night and, dressed only in his night shirt, he grabbed a shotgun and went out to see what was going on. About the time he opened the chicken coop door and pointed the shotgun at whatever was bothering the chickens, our old dog walked up and licked dad on the rear end. I’ve been cleaning chickens ever since.

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Ohh...no!! This story gives Art a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

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I hope you weren’t traumatized by this story.

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Not at all, though I'm glad nothing similar has ever happened to me. 😳

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Sep 19Liked by Elizabeth Beggins

A great suspense in the story! And the flowing tie to your previous post on gun violence and the need for us all to register and to vote!

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I appreciate that, Erica. I'm hearing reports of thousands of new registered voters, which is encouraging. But the widespread purges aimed at identifying inactive voters is of concern. I'm planning to tack voting information to the end of my emails from now through the election. It can't hurt, right?

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Sep 19Liked by Elizabeth Beggins

Absolutely, yes. Good suggestion and I will do the same on emails and posts. Thanks!

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Whew! Thanks to your suspenseful storytelling, I was worried about your cat. Glad the episode worked out ok for all but the pigeon.

Great idea adding a voter registration link and spreading word about purged records and the need to check. Thank you for doing what you can for this election!

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Sep 19Liked by Elizabeth Beggins

More Luther stories, Elizabeth. He's a gem.

And as for pushing the Vote - go for it. The right to vote is the very foundation of democracy. I can't conceive anyone not voting. I'm sure I may have mentioned before but voting is compulsory in Australia. One is fined if one doesn't vote.

Make it count, I say!

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I wish that were true here, Prue. Your gun laws and compulsory voting are enviable, in my mind, but as we've already explored together, Americans are very much devoted to certain versions of independence. I guess we come by it honestly!

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Sep 20Liked by Elizabeth Beggins

Honesty and politicians? Hmmm...

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Point taken. The expression isn't really the best fit in this case, is it?

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