Daily writing prompt

What would you do if you won the lottery?

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If it was a large amount, we’d do our best to show restraint and not say anything for a while, find a safe place for the ticket, and eventually contact somebody who could steer us in the direction of a prudent plan.

I’ve often had visions of being able to help our kids, donate to community projects, buy a nice house with a couple acres of land and space for a woodshop. I’d buy a brand new Toyota Tacoma extended cab, and pay off all bills, including the mortgage. Maybe we’d do some extended road trips.

If it wasn’t much, I’d probably buy more tickets and hope for the best.

Daily writing prompt

What books do you want to read?

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Joe Posnanski wrote a book titled Why We Love Baseball, which I read a couple of years ago. I see he’s written one about football, so I’ll have to pick that one up at some point. I’m hoping he treats other sports, because I’d probably read them all.

I’m not in the mood for anything too heavy– we get enough heaviness and opinion on a daily basis just turning on the TV or going online. But every now and then a good bio comes out, like Jon Meacham’s And There Was Light, about Abraham Lincoln, and I am curious enough to either get it on Kindle or pick it up at the library.

Revisiting a classic every now and then is worth the time. I started The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, a while back, but still have a ways to go.

Daily writing prompt

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

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Ethnically speaking, the only one that comes to mind is fika, a Swedish/Scandinavian practice of afternoon coffee and some sort of baked good. Except when I do it, it’s often a Clif bar and a bit of cold brew.

Growing up, most traditions revolved around the holidays– Thanksgiving and Christmas. For Thanksgiving, we’d have the big meal at either our house or up at Gram and Gramp’s, and everyone would be there– aunts, uncles, cousins, it was quite a crew. We started a Christmas Eve tradition of gathering at our house– everyone would bring a dish to share, there’d be homemade sill (pickled herring) and hardtack, some gift giving, and then an 11pm candlelight service at church.

Now that our kids are married and off in a few different places, we’ve started gathering at our house for Thanksgiving, where at least two of our three kids and their families are in town for food and fellowship over the course of 2 or 3 days. And my wife and I have been making the 12-minute trip to our son and daughter-in-law and their four kids for Christmas morning. Breakfast and gifts under the tree.

Daily writing prompt

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

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Depending on weather and funds, I could golf multiple times a week. I’ve recently tried diamond art, or diamond painting (not sure why it’s called painting) and find that to be a bit addicting, though it’s unclear what I’ll be doing with the finished products. They’re starting to pile up…

It’s nice to have a woodworking project to be engaged in, and we are looking at rearranging some rooms in the house, which will involve changing the function of certain spaces and getting rid of clutter.

Other leisure time activities would be reading, writing in WordPress, playing the piano, and taking an occasional day trip.

And it just dawned on me– most of my time is potential leisure time anymore.

Daily writing prompt

Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

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Coal was king in this neck of the woods. It isn’t anymore, but there are still a few spots that serve as reminders of those bygone days. One of them is Centralia, where an underground coal fire has been burning since the early 60s. There’s not much to see there, as one drives on SR 61, and just a handful of people still live there, down from its bustling days of 2700 or so. A trip through that area must be a sort of haunting pilgrimage through a ghost town– nature has reclaimed much of it, though a few remnants and reminders of a once-bustling place, where an underground fire may burn for another 200 years, still stand.

Two other spots are Eckley Miner’s Village- an authentic 19th-century coal town- and Lackawanna No. 9, an actual coal mine in Scranton, PA that people can still enter and tour.

Daily writing prompt

List five things you do for fun.

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Visit the grandkids, work on diamond art– we’ll soon have a van Gogh hanging somewhere in the house, maybe; read a good book, go out to eat with my wife, watch a couple of select TV shows.

There’s a bit more, but these are the first five to come to mind.

Daily writing prompt

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

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If I had a pet, probably a dog, I would try to make it understand that it’s not nice to hover around the kids’ table and wait for handouts or simply steal stuff off a plate. It’s not nice to beg, to sit and wait for scraps. I know dogs and animals in general live in a different world where etiquette isn’t a top priority, and food– any food, any time– is OK with them.

I realize there might be a whole other level of pet ownership, involving trying to understand them and treating them like I would a human member of the family, but I have little interest in doing that.

Daily writing prompt

What’s your dream job?

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I think I’d prefer to work for myself, so if I was still looking, it would have to be along the lines of some sort of woodworking business. If I could have it to do over again, I would invest in a decent lathe and other tools, and learn that craft.

Plan B would probably revolve around gaining familiarity with computing– writing code, software development, maintenance of equipment. And I might find time to play keyboard in a band, just for fun, and nurture an interest in astronomy.

Daily writing prompt

What makes a good leader?

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Courage, conviction, the strength to speak honestly and frankly with people; maturity, a moral core; patience, persistence, the lack of an ego that is counterproductive; a certain empathy and humanness, an ability to listen and delegate and cast a vision, and, as often as possible, an ability to make informed decisions after research, discussion, and evaluation of options.

I’m of course drawing upon our national experience of currently enduring the exact opposite of pretty much everything I’ve mentioned. Different leaders are needed for different settings and scenarios, but certain leadership qualities are more desirable than others, across the board.

Daily writing prompt

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

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Nuclear weapons, or any implement of war. Imagine the financial outlay and intellectual resources mis-applied over the centuries. Of course, this would mean we either ignore or show superhuman restraint in using various technologies for other, more beneficial purposes. It seems unlikely that this would be possible, given current human tendencies.

The first thing that came to mind was cell phones, but that wouldn’t make sense. Beyond the distraction they cause among our youth, they’re also quite useful, some might say indispensable.

How about pharmaceutical commercials?