July 2013 Blog Chain: Dog Days of Summer

Tweet of the Day: Strings of Retaliation – 21a – iDo It Again

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You read the title, you know the drill, another month, another blog chain:

Starting Date: Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Open to all forum members, even after it starts!

This month’s prompt:

Dog Days of Summer In other words, the hottest and most sultry part of summer. Etymology lesson here. As always, can be prose, poetry, play, fiction, nonfiction.

Instructions:

Simply post your blog’s URL in this thread to join. I’ll let you know in this thread when it’s your turn. Once your turn comes up, you have two days to complete a blog post using the prompt. When you are finished, please add a link to your post on the thread. If you signed up but find yourself unable to participate or need to be moved around in the schedule, please PM me or post in the thread. If you fail to post on your blog and on the thread within two days, I’ll bump you down to the end of the line on the third day; you’ll get a second chance at the end of the month.

Each post should be less than 1000 words if possible. Read and comment on other participants’ posts if you possibly can–they’ll be doing the same for you! Please include a list of all participants’ blogs (not necessarily their actual posts for the month) in your blog post.

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Somewhere in East Texas….

Long drops of condensation slid down the side of the lemonade glass. Mack sat on his rocking chair on the balcony with Bubba the border collie by his side. Bubba panted heavily, his water bowl empty and his grey eyes fixed on the melting ice cubes.

“I already filled your bowl twice, Bubba. You’re going to have to wait until Lucy gets back from her shopping,” said Mack. Bubba whined, went back to lap up the last drops of water on his bowl, then took his usual station besides his master. A frantic voice blared from Mack’s old AM radio.

It was one of his favorite host went on his latest diatribe, “I warned you this day would come! The damned UN has stepped all over our sovereignty and is now letting all kinds of aliens enter our borders. I say its time we armed ourselves and stood our ground. Ain’t no damn alien going to take my land!”

“Damn right,” muttered Mack, his eyes on the horizon. The tall grass swayed with the occasional breeze. Distant clouds cast shadows as the crossed the sky. Mack didn’t think much of it until one shadow came over the house with a weird whine to match. Bubba bolted from the porch and Mack followed. A bulbous spaceship, all black and vaguely triangular.

From a side hatch a rail thin, bug eyed alien popped up, “Excuse me sir….”

Mack jaw dropped. Lucky for him he sweated most of the lemonade in the summer heat, otherwise he would have ruined his pants. But that didn’t stop him from doing what any red blooded American would do when faced with a monstrosity from outer space. Or at least he tried to. The moment he drew his gun on the alien, a beam of light parted his hair and obliterated his home of twenty-three years.

The sheriff arrived fifteen minutes later with the fire department close behind. Zhutak the alien; absentmindedly patted Bubba’s head with a bony three fingered hand as he gave his statement of events.

“I’m really sorry. It was really all my fault.  I should have recalibrate my ships self-defense suit the moment I jumped in-system. You see, I’m on my way to a conference on Human/Galactic Affairs and my navigational AI should have synched with the local aerospace traffic control but… I take full responsibility for all of this. Again I am really, really sorry and my government will pay for all the damages. I’m just glad nobody got hurt,” said Zhutak.

The sheriff glanced at Mack from under his stetson, “That’s all right, Mr. Zhutak. it was an honest mistake. I just need your signature on this report so I can filed it with the county office and the local insurance agent.”

All the while Mack stared dumfounded as firemen poured water on the smoking remains of his home. Worst of all, he feared what would happen when….

“MAAAAAAAAACK!”

His wife got home.

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Participants and posts:
orion_mk3 – http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to post)
Ralph Pines – https://ralfast.wordpress.com (link to post)
articshark – http://www.drslaten.com/blog (link to post)
Sunwords – http://susannedoering.wordpress.com (link to post)
Diem_Allen – http://mindovermistakes.blogspot.com (link to post)
U2Girl – http://ancatdubh.org (link to post)
robynmackenzie – http://www.iwanttobeawesomewhenigrowup.com (link to post)
Lady Cat – http://radomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.ca (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes – http://www.taraquan.com (link to post)
pyrosama – http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com (link to post)
Angyl78 – http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
SuzanneSeese – http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
Diana_Rajchel – http://blog.dianarajchel.com/ (link to post)
HistorySleuth – http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
AshleyEpidemic – http://www.soipondered.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
SRHowen – http://srhowen1.blogspot.com (link to post)

Bumped:

Archive of Past Blog Chains

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