Saturday, May 23, 2009

Raven's Challenge 64

Today's Link
Nobody asked Me

Today's Saying
Sometimes I give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.
~Mary Wortley Montagu


Today's Picture
Our upside down tomato plant-still alive

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle

This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: albino, trench, marble, assistant, Indian, What's that supposed to mean?, sound first principles, the key thing, moat, curtain
The mini challenge: under the surface, doomed, grand design, temple, aspirin

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Agent 012 popped another aspirin and sat down on the steps of the only marble temple ever built by North American Indians. It had just been explained to him that what he thought was the remnant of a moat was in reality an Indian burial trench. He knew so little about Indian history and nothing about this temple which had so recently been discovered. If only he knew its original grand design so he could tell where the curtain had been.
The Agency had intercepted a message from Mute saying that somebody was to meet the Albino at the curtain in the temple sometime today. But Agent 012 following his fundamentally sound first principles of detective work had walked through the temple five times without finding a curtain or a place where a curtain had been hung. Either there was more of the temple under the surface or the word curtain was a code.
So Agent 012 sat on the steps saying to himself “What's that supposed to mean?, “ over and over as he looked at the message. Finally he went behind a large rock pile and called an assistant at the Agency Office on his shoe phone.” The key thing” he said to her,” Is that I can’t observe the meeting if I don’t know where it is and I’m doomed to fail. So please try to break the code for me.” She told him to call back in a couple of hours. Just at that point a little boy came around the rock. “ Look mommy” , he hollered there is a crazy man here talking into his shoe.”
This was not going to be his day.


The Ten word challenge-Out of a Job?
The story continues -You can see the first part HERE.
Chief Ican was now following sound first principles of detective work and searching the Mayor’s house. He knew that if he was wrong he had no job but then it wasn’t the greatest job in the world. The key thing was the blue car he had sold to the DA. It was driven by the Director’s lover to the motel and was caught on tape at the murder scene. Now he hoped to find the gun and if he was lucky some other evidence.
On entering the living room Ican’s chief assistant opened the curtain to let in some light. On the far wall hung a massive painting of an albino polar bear swimming across a moat toward a marble castle where an Indian waited to shoot it with a bow and arrow. The Chief looked at the picture for several minutes asking himself “ What’s that supposed to mean?”. It certainly isn’t fine art.
Pushing the picture aside he found a large wall safe behind it. “ Now that I understand”, he thought. He asked Mrs. Trench, the housekeeper to open the safe. But she didn’t have the combination.
It was at that point that one very angry Mayor arrived.
“Your fired”, he said as he came through the door. “ Your all fired. Now get out of my house”
“I am afraid , your honor, you can’t do that” , Ican said , as respectfully as possible under the circumstances. “ I have an order issued by the judge preventing you from doing that until this case is concluded. Now please open the safe.”
“No, I won’t’ the judge replied.
“ Then I will have to arrest you for obstructing a criminal investigation and have it drilled open”.
Now looking like somebody who was just hit by a two by four the judge muttered “ I mean I can’t only my wife has the combination. It‘s her safe. I don‘t even like the picture”.
A search of the remainder of the house turned up nothing.

The mini challenge-So Open the Safe

Chief Ican took two more aspirin as they waited for the DA to arrive. On the surface everything looked fine but under the surface a lot was going on. Chief Ican was waiting in the full knowledge that if there was no evidence in that safe his job was over. He wondered if that was part of some universal grand design by an omnipotent being with a warped sense of humor.. He was trying to do right but it was ending up so wrong. Now like a doomed man he was just waiting the moment of his execution. He felt like the polar bear in the picture swimming toward the marble temple but knowing he was going to be shot before he got there. Finally he understood that stupid picture.
Then the DA arrived and though with multiple protests on how her rights were being violated she opened the safe.
To be continued next Thursday.

All fifteen words in one sentence
Get it Right the First Time

What’s that supposed to mean? “ asked the albino Indian, Marvin Marble of his assistant Moat Trench as he tried to show that sound first principles, the key thing, in any grand design for a temple curtain built under the surface had not been followed and they were doomed to need many more aspirins before this was over.

Of course the dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.

News from Pigeon Falls
The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
It’s Saturday and time to look back on the week in Pigeon Falls
Monday-Tammy was in love with somebody else and Tommy UK felt like a doomed man. Crazy thoughts filled his head:
“ Could it be part of God’s grand design to make me suffer like this?”
“ I have to keep the big curtain closed so I won’t see her if she walks or bikes by.”
“ She is so beautiful that she would stand out like an albino deer.”
“If only I was an artist I would have make a marble statue of her so that her beauty would be captured forever.”
“ I should build a moat around this house and hide ..”
“ The guy she’s in love with is a real loser I should teach him a lesson or two.”
Of course, if you looked at him you wouldn’t have known all that he was thinking. He was keeping it under the surface and pretending to be happy.

Tuesday – Bonnie McGregor got a book to help her with the twins. It was titled “ Sound First Principles of Parenting” It started with this statement in big capital letters, “ THE KEY THING IS NEVER TO LOSE CONTROL”. Bonnie read that over and over thinking “ What’s that supposed to mean?” How do you maintain control when one kid dumps a bowl of spaghetti over her head while the other is screaming like a wild Indian in the other room. She wondered if the people who wrote these books lived in some sheltered golden temple instead of the real world. What you needed to parent in the real world would be a large bottle of aspirin and your husband to act as an assistant.

Wednesday– This morning a large trench was discovered behind the town hall. Nobody seemed to know where it came from.

Thursday– Tommy UK and Eino discussed the recent crisis. Tommy suggested that the poltergeist was the only rational explanation for the defeat of the demon. Eino responded that demons aren’t rational, Tommy’s power ring isn’t rational. Dragons aren’t rational, ghosts aren’t rational. How could Tommy say it was a rational explanation. According to Eino everything in Pigeon Falls is outside of reason so there is no rational explanation.

Wrap UP
Busy day today. We started at 7:30 mixing up saffron buns. We put them in two bread machines but we put one on dough bake and we intended to pull the other before it began to cook. While the dough was getting ready we made brownies. Then the buns themselves. After that we put one more batch to rise and Betty started on muffins. All of this because tomorrow we take our once a year turn at serving coffee at St. Mark's. I also visited all the blogs on Raven's linksy and left comments. Then I visited all the blogs that left comments yesterday. Both my sister and my son Peter called. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
*****************************************************************

23 Comments:

Anonymous quilly said...

Ican and Agent 012 would make excellent friends, don't you think? They could commiserate with each other over their not so good days, and celebrate with each other over their successes.

Eino is right.

2:08 AM  
Blogger anthonynorth said...

I'm loving your characters. And that's certainly the way to grapple with a challenge. My words :-)

3:00 AM  
Blogger DawnTreader said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

4:08 AM  
Blogger DawnTreader said...

Loved the marble temple built by North American Indians. What a find.

Also looking forward to the continuation of the other story! :)

4:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to admit I was tempted by the haging tomato plant. You'll have to let us know if it actually works.

4:40 AM  
Blogger Finding Pam said...

My Hubs did that hanging tomato thing about ten years ago. He is ahead of his time.

Only you could take such a mixed bag of words and make them into a really great story.

I am wondering what is in the safe?

Happy Memorial Day.

7:28 AM  
Blogger Melli said...

TO BE CONTINUED??? To be continued?! Ohhhhhhhh NO FAIR! You said you were finishing it UP! Daggon it! I gotta wait until THURSDAY??? UGH!

Pooooor Tommy.... sO much going on in a young man's life...

Eino is smarter than I thought!

My friend PJ's second attempt at the upside down tomato experiment is going a wee bit better than the first ... some links for you:

First AttemptSecond AttemptThird ReportI can't believe I never FOUND any of these so that I could be part of the experiment too!!!

7:46 AM  
Blogger Melli said...

LOL! Some spaces inbetween them would have been good, huh???

7:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Agent 012 has so many more bad days than good days. Things have got to start looking up for him. I think the little boy is to young to know of Maxwell Smart :)

Ooo I'm so glad that Chief Ican stood up to the Mayor. If I were the wife I would be a bit worried.

Eino is a smart young man.

Very well written as usual :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

9:06 AM  
Blogger Jeni said...

I've been tempted to get one of those upside-down tomato plants (also, the strawberry plants) but never knew anyone who had actually done that kind of gardening before so I was afraid to invest in any of that stuff. Now that I know you have one, I might get brave enough to give them a shot. At least I'd have someone to compare notes with that way.

9:19 AM  
Blogger aims said...

I'm a tad confused Dr. John. Is the mayor the judge? Did I forget something here? And where did that moat come from anyway?

I don't mind that you didn't wrap it up today although I did sit down thinking that you were going to! hehehehe - always a trickster you are Dr. John.

And I hate to do this but 'your' should be 'you're'. Always a tough one that. I have to sound it out in my head all the time. Goes right along with to and too. Crazy English language.

9:34 AM  
Blogger Dianne said...

I've seen the ads for those tomato plants so many times - I hope it yields many fine salads for you - I'll be interested to know if they really do grow as the ad claims

I enjoy all the stories - I smiled about so much going on under the surface and poor Ican worrying about his job

10:30 AM  
Blogger Raven said...

I always love Agent 012 and am enjoying his fellow law enforcement person Ican.... Well done.

11:36 AM  
Blogger Richard said...

Caught on his shoe fun. Loved it.

12:14 PM  
Blogger Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

Let us know how the hanging tomato plant produces - I've been thinking about getting one of those! Maybe next year?
I VERY much want to know what is in the safe!!
Have a blessed weekend, Dr. John!

Word Verification is "procatat"
It makes me wonder, Where *is* that pro cat at? :)

1:11 PM  
Blogger starbender said...

You have so many on-going stories, do you ever get tired and accidentally mix them up?
Although, with your creativity, it would just become another interesting story.

I have been tempted to buy those upside-down tomatoe plants. You will have to keep us updated on their success... they have strawberry ones also...yum!

2:10 PM  
Anonymous Alice Audrey said...

I've been thinking about giving those upside down tomato plants a try. We aren't allowed to have a garden here, not eve a container garden, but I might get away with a hanging tomato.

2:15 PM  
Blogger ForestJane said...

I'm going to be following your tomatoes as well as your stories. ;)

Good job with all the challenges - and getting them done while baking buns and brownies!

5:45 PM  
Anonymous MommyWizdom said...

Holy Toledo, that's a lot of stories! You sure had fun with this one!

News from Pidgeon Falls is always fun! That's my favorite.

Have a great weekend!

MommyWizdom

8:36 PM  
Blogger Stephen said...

I liked the Agent 012 adventure, and him getting caught talking to his shoe. I liked the episode of the detective story, too. The one sentence story about the temple curtain was also good. The Pigeon Falls stories are interesting to read. I like hearing about the little town. It's good that it was saved and the demon was defeated. Things were looking bad for a while.

Stephen from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
http://stephen-has-spoken.blogspot.com/

2:41 AM  
Blogger Melli said...

By the way... I think the T-rex caused the T-rench!

5:19 AM  
Blogger gabrielle said...

Agent 012 now has a hardworking gumshoe compatriot and I have a lot of catching up to do. Your stories flow seamlessly.


Mmm...saffron buns. I’m not a dragon. But they sound tasty.

3:40 PM  
Blogger Bill ~ {The Old Fart} said...

I am sure 012's day will get better.

1:28 AM  

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