Slash the Drabble

I went in to Kaiser for a PT appointment for my plantar fasciitis (suddenly MUCH worse since May), and discovered it was cancelled. But COVID boosters were available, so I got one. They only had the Pfizer version, and I braced myself for 24 hours of mini-COVID. What a surprise--nothing more than a sore arm! That has never happened before, and it was a huge relief. I didn't even have to beg for the booster (thanks, RFK Jr.), but I was prepared to. I'm not old enough to be in an at-risk class, but COVID goes straight to my lungs and tanks them.

Still trying to get the last of the fire/smoke-damaged replacement goods bought (deadline is today), and then I'll dive back in to trying to get stuff put away. We've held off on putting down the new rugs until we were sure the cat's head wound had stopped bleeding, and I have one more bookcase to assemble. HalfshellHusband just needs to decide where he wants it, because it's big and heavy. We still have a total of about THREE pictures up in the entire house. There's just so much to do that it's overwhelming, and I find it hard to make headway on anything. :(

I worked on my Idol entry last weekend, and it was a fun one. Our group is getting smaller and smaller, so please read the entries and vote if you can! We need the outside help.

Finally, my previously promised TV recs. Most are on Britbox/Acorn:
Shetland - We rewatched the series from the beginning, and it is a delight. Hard to lose one of the main characters (and have an interloper seem to become the lead, if bossiness is any indication), but the characters are really enjoyable throughout. 10 seasons, and 11 is currently being filmed.
The Chelsea Detective - This gentle detective series really grew on me. 3 seasons so far, and I hope more are coming.
Grace - British police procedural in Brighton, well-written and engaging.
Life on Mars - John Simm (from Grace) also stars in this show about a London detective who is in an accident and is transported back to 1973. OMG, the crude idiots in the 1970s version of policing! Funny and touching.
Recipes For Love And Murder - a South African "cozy" mystery with a Scottish main character. Charming throughout.
The Devil's Hour - Peter Capaldi is fantastic in this captivating show about time-looping and crossover realities.
Doc - An abrasive doctor suffers a brain injury and the resulting amnesia leaves her with a time gap of the last traumatic 8 years that caused her to become such an unpleasant person.

I've probably forgotten some, but they'll probably come to me eventually.

Tony
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 11 | 2000 words
Tiger Team

x-x-x-x-x

Tony the Tiger was losing his zip. After seventy-three years of being the Frosted Flakes mascot, he was having to fight harder and harder to hang onto his legacy.

He'd always evolved with the times, even when the fads made no sense. In 1960, his eyes changed from green to gray. A decade later, they became yellow, and his nose turned blue like one of those creepy monkeys. In 1984, he finally became three-dimensional, and by the '90s he was on steroids.

Now, he was just struggling to hang onto his job.

First, it was the tooth veneers. That was after he'd already chipped a fang on a cereal bowl decades earlier. In 2015, he'd had plastic surgery to remove the double chin that had plagued him all his life. The next insult was fur and whisker dye, and he'd had to get tooth implants in the early 2000s (because he was not about to get dentures). There was an entire team of specialists devoted to making him look good.

But they couldn't fix his memory.

"Kellogg's Frosted Flakes! They're good!"

"Cut!"

It was a TV commercial, like any one of the dozens he'd made over the years. With all of that experience behind him, why did he keep blanking on the tag line?

"Let's go again," the director said.

"Kellogg's Clotted Snakes! They're grrrreat!"

"Cut!"

What's wrong with me? Tony wondered. He used to be able to pop those lines out in his sleep, and now he couldn't get through them to save his life.

"Again!" the director said.

"Balrog's Busted Rakes! They're grrrreat!"

"Cut!" the directory yelled. "For crying out loud–take ten!"

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