There’s a story there…somewhere

Pop a Wheelie Point of View

This past weekend I took Number One Son to field lacrosse provincial qualifiers in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). As we were speeding down a major multi-lane highway I noticed two motorcycles on the on ramp. Because I was in the right lane, I was in the process of judging whether or not I’d need to adjust my speed when I realized exactly what the first motorcycle driver was doing: he’d popped a wheelie! Merging onto a major highway. Not 50 feet away from me.

Here are our two points of view:

Number One Son: Whoa that’s EPIC! How does he do that?

Me: OMG is he crazy?! What if he wipes out and crashes in front of me?

And that’s why I love writing for kids. Their reaction is so much more fun. 

(The motorcycle sustained the wheelie for about 5 seconds or more, returning to two wheels just as it merged onto the highway proper and sped away. Big relief for me. In spite of our differing points of view, it was definitely the most memorable moment of the weekend for both of us.)

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

So Random

Random occurances from my world in the last week:

  • a porcupine crossed my path (okay, the road…I was in my car, photo below)
  • the bittern is back! It makes the weirdest noise, kind of like a tap dripping. I’ll try to record it.
  • we had snow, but it’s melted thank gawd. The ferns still look fried though.
  • picked the first rhubarb of the season and made an upside down cake for dinner last night
  • ate boiled dandelion buds (with butter and salt) and survived. They were actually pretty good although I think I boiled them a bit too long.
  • booked my first Skype author visit for next week, eep! 
  • the other day as I was crossing a plaza parking lot a pickup truck drove past with what every household needs strapped to the box…a huge plastic moose! The things you see in Muskoka, I swear!

That’s a porcupine, honest. I did a U-ey and pulled off on a handy sideroad. Phone photo so it’s not stellar. If you’re reading this on the web (i.e. not RSS) click on the photo to see a bigger version.

All right, now off to the serious business of writing and revising.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

Earth Day Unearths Some Weird Stuff

My kids’ school celebrated Earth Day today. Nice. The kids all participated in neighbourhood cleanup. Nice. When my kids came home they had to tell me all about it. Nice.

But what was weird was that two out of my three kids found kinda bizarre things thrown away in the bush close to the road. Things bizarre enough that it makes you wonder what sort of drama led up to them being discarded, abandoned, flung into the beyond.

One was a shoe.
The other was a lawnmower with a mangled blade and missing wheel.

Hunh. So who just chucks away those things? Don’t they both beg some sort of story!

(Luckily these two items were found quite a distance away from each other otherwise any story begging for both might best be written by Stephen King)

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.