Banana Smoothie

Banana smoothies are a great summer treat. You can take them with you if you have the right gear. A banana smoothie is thick and stays cold for a long time whether you drink it fast or slow. If you feel like you’re melting in the summer heat, here’s a recipe for a banana smoothie you could try:

Cut up one medium banana.

Drop it in a 24 ounce blender cup.

Add four ice cubes.

Open up an 8 ounce can of mandarin oranges. With a fork to hold back the orange slices, pour the juice into your blender cup. Throw out the oranges.

Pour milk in until you’re drink is at the limit.

Blend, then drink.

For those of you who work out lots, put your protein powder in right after the ice cubes.

You’re welcome!

Another Dead Soldier

Toy soldiers go mostly unnoticed, even though they outnumber us by at least one hundred to one.

Since 1893* these little warriors have been stamped out in a variety of poses, ready for battle. They are not printed in squads but in battalions. They’re printed by the thousands and sold one hundred at a time for as little as one U.S. dollar. Packs of these soldiers often come stocked with miniature plastic tanks, miniature fences, bunkers, jets, and even helicopters.

In a pack of one hundred you could find a few ready to shoot bazookas, a few more prepping to shoot mortars, and a modest majority aiming rifles in a variety of poses. You can set up mock warfare in all its inglorious forms with these little guys.

Keep digging through the pile. There will be a brigade of plastic soldiers posed in the act of throwing a plastic grenade. Don’t worry too much—these plastics aren’t explosive.

Also included is at least one soldier with a radio. He’ll be your least favorite. Why? Because he isn’t posing as cool as the rest. Not action like the others, the radio man seems impotent instead of important. Of course, if these were real warriors and this was real war, the one with the radio would be invaluable. He’d actually be doing stuff. As a member of the plastic battalion though, he’s less than fantastic. If you were the destructive type of child you might sacrifice him. He might end up on the front lines somehow and lose an arm, a leg, or the whole battle.

Some of the plastic army will lose the battle to fireworks (not included). Others will lose the battle to the lawnmower. Still others will lose by being lost. You’ll never know what happened to them. Hopefully it wasn’t your favorite one you buried in the sand or dirt.

Regardless of which plastic soldier is your favorite, you have to admit these are the best toys considering how simple they are.

*Close enough.

Writing Prompts

Money.

“If you can guess how many ones are in my wallet, I’ll give you both of them.”

Obedience.

Levels of obedience: Obey out of fear; Obey to gain a reward; Obey out of love.

Portal.

Doors in floors. The fastest one scores.

Screen-saver.

Instead of a screen-saver, have a screen-Savior. An image of Jesus on your computer.

Logophile.

If you consider every word an expandable idea with infinite possibilities, then this word prompt is its own LIBRARY.

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Want to do your own writing to the prompts? Here is a list of seventeen writing prompts. If the seventeen below aren’t enough for you, use the five above as well. When writing to a prompt, you can really do any kind of style you want. What does the prompt bring to your mind first? Do you instantly get a storyline in your head? Do you reminisce about something? Does the prompt throw you in a completely different direction? All of these are acceptable. Write whatever you want!

  1. Czechoslovakia
  2. Ferrari
  3. Excellent
  4. Diamond hard
  5. Necrotic
  6. Cornucopia
  7. Knuckle duster
  8. Godspeed
  9. Harley
  10. Almost died
  11. Old English
  12. Crochet
  13. Cave dweller
  14. Transcontinental
  15. Pinky promise
  16. Voice
  17. Juxtaposition

Cat Street

My neighbor to the north of me has a kitten. You’ll never guess where it likes to hide.

In trees.

I’m not so sure it’s all cat. It might just be part squirrel.

*Professor squirrel.

To the south, my neighbor there has a cat, fully grown. It likes to climb. When it can’t jump high enough to get to something, this cat uses alternate means. Smart cat.

Then there’s my cat. He has a potty mouth. He thinks he has Tourette’s, so he takes medication. The meds make him sleepy. At least, that’s the story he tells us. Regardless of whether it’s a truth or an embellishment, we let him sleep. The house is much more peaceful that way.

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*That has nothing to do with my neighbor’s kitten. It’s just that every time I see the word squirrel, I think of a similar fictional character’s name.

Finding Your Bike

The Apple Airtag is a security device Apple has created to operate with an application on your cellphone. The Airtag is a stand-alone device with functions of the MyTracker app which Apple has used to help people find their phones. The MyTracker application uses the network of all connected Apple products nearest whatever device is the object of the search.

As the Apple Airtag finds its way in the collective consciousness, it gets abused, and finds usefulness.

Airtags have been misused as tracking devices for the purpose of stalking. So not cool, man. So not what Airtags should be used for.

Use one on your keys, your kids’ shoes, your dog, or your wallet—whatever you’re prone to lose—an Airtag can help you find it.

Airtags have even been put in inconspicuous places on bicycles, so if your bike gets “misplaced” or even stolen, you can find where it went. That right there is a great use for an Airtag.

The problem of finding a stolen bicycle has long been without a good solution. Bikes are so often stolen by people who want a free ride. They don’t even have to go very far before the bike is impossible to find.

Airtag could be a cyclist’s new best friend.