Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Floofgry (floofintion) – a hungry, drowsy look that housepets use when they’ve been asleep and are awakened by the sound of an opening container.
In use: “Hearing him open a new package of toilet paper, the small orange tabby raised his head and favored him with a floofgry look.”
Organizing writing thoughts this morning delivered today’s theme music. Although I wasn’t thinking about murder, I was numbering and ordering what I was going to do. From that began the Sting/Andy Summers jazzy song, “Murder by Numbers” by The Police (1983).
It’s all about one, two, three, as easy to learn as a, b, c.
Quadrafloof (floofinition) – surrounded by four housepets.
In use: “Quadrafloof was the normal situation when he and his wife settled down in the evening. The cats took the laps, the dog took an end, and the bird took a shoulder. Then, eating popcorn and watching a movie was the standard practice until the popcorn was gone, all were asleep, and the television went on with its broadcasting.”
Today’s theme music is from 1984, when Madonna was a new phenom.
I started streaming it because of a dream. In the dream, people were constantly chastising me for crossing the border, or crossing the lines, or crossing the borderlines. At first, I responded with confusion, telling them, I didn’t see, or, I didn’t know. Sometimes I apologized because they were upset. But as I grasped what they meant about borders and lines, I realized that they were the offensive ones with their false conformity-based or racially/sexually biased borders. As I encountered more people, I discovered more ridiculous borders and demands to recognize and accept the borders. That all pissed me off because their borders were predicated on childish fears and outlandish ideas. I was prompted to declare that I was against their borders, and I was going to cross them. That led to a huge, ugly, hostile confrontation.
So, awakening and thinking about the dream, I streamed a few things involving borders, like Taco Bell’s old commercial line, “Run for the border.” I then streamed a little CCR, “Better run through the jungle, and don’t look back to see.” But then, out of the morass came Madonna’s “Borderline”, which stayed and soothed.
I fumbled through routines. Did I feed the cats? Yes, I remembered, I did.
But I didn’t bring in the paper. Oh, yeah, go get it.
I forgot my gloves. Right, go get them.
Jesus, I forgot that refrigerator light bulb. That’s right, that’s right, I planned to go to Ace and get that after I’m done writing, and wanted that bulb with me. Christ, go get it.
You better think. Do you have everything else?
I thought about it. I’d begun the morning by thinking about an intense dream I had. Then the muses took over, writing in my head. They revealed why the other character hadn’t joined yet, and gave me more insight into her eventual appearance.
Scenes kept flowing through me on an unstoppable course. As it happens when the muses push hard, my imagination became switched on full. Story and characters flowed, along with poems and floofinitions.
In the end, though, I had to shove all that aside and re-focus energy and attention on April Showers 1921. It became one of those sessions of typing fast and hard, leaving my coffee almost full, just, I think, a sip and a gulp consumed before I launched into full writing mode.
Finally, three thousand words later, the muses relented. A stop was ordered. I reckoned seventy-five minutes had passed. It felt like I’d totally been in that church were the scenes were taking place, and not in a coffee shop table, typing on a laptop. I’d ignored my posture, of course, so my shoulders were achy from being hunched over and typing as fast as I could.
Good day of writing like crazy. These days are not terribly frequent, but I love them when they come.
Foot-floof (floofinition) – a housepet who likes to sit or lay on someone’s foot or feet as part of their expression of affection.
In use: “He didn’t know where and how they’d learn it but whenever he stopped, the dog sat on one foot and the cat sat on the other, rendering it impossible to ignore them. He believed that was the plan. They never got on his lap; they always were on a foot, originating their nickname, the foot-floofs.”
I smell a pipe and remember Dad.
Cigars remind me of my smoking fad.
Mother dear arises with sights of Salems and Kools.
Pall Malls and Marlboros put me in the office with chain-smoking fools.
But marijuana rolls me back in time
to my youth, when a hazy high was sublime.
Subfloofinal (floofinition) – a housepet’s ability to do something without people noticing.
In use: “Despite her awareness that the cats were fond of stealing food off her plate and had dibs on anything brought into the house, she put her plate on the table beside her and sat down to read. When she did, her Bombay Black employed subfloofinal tactics to steal several pieces and take them to the floor, where she and the other two cats happily devoured them.”
Today’s choice was one of several songs in my morning stream (which kinda sounds like something I was peeing out, doesn’t it?). I owe it’s stream presence to a cat, specifically the Ginger Prince, a.k.a. Meep, alias Papi, but also sometimes called the Blade. The youngest of our cats, he still enjoys roaming at night. The house quickly bores him, so he wants out. Then, it’s cold and raining, so he wants in. But it’s boring in the house, so he wants out. But it’s cold and raining, so he wants in. And always, as he’s going in and out, he’s asking me, “What are you doing? Want to play?”
Either way, in or out, he spends the day sleeping, bathing, eating, with a little playing on the side, but he likes the night life better.
From 1979, here are The Cars with “Let’s Go”.
Michael Seidel, writer 