Weekly Update + Shorts #1
I’m pulling a Terry Freedman
this week. He has his “Start the Week #-”. Mine is going to be called Weekly Update. I don’t know how often I’ll be posting a weekly update. This week and last week have been busy at work and I haven’t been able to spend much time on my newsletter.With this post, I’ll be updating you on what I’ve been doing with my writing and I’ll be telling you some very short stories. These are stories that I don’t think I would be able to tell as a long story.
So let’s get on with what’s been happening.
I’ve got big news! This is exciting news for all those peeps out there that told me they wanted me to continue a story. Back in August, I took something that Terry Freedman had written about real life and I turned it into a fiction story. Several people told me they liked it and they wished the story had continued. Well, the good news is that I’ve decided to continue the story. Last week, I worked all day to write more of the story. It will end up being either a three-part or four-part story. I’ve written the ending already. Now I just need to work out some more logistics before I can post it. Stay tuned for the next installment of “The Woman on the Train”.
Scary Incident
Tuesday, October 3, I was on my way to work. I travel down two main roads. The second road doesn’t have any lights at all. The area is inhabited by people who have houses that cost between one million dollars and two million dollars. I guess they don’t want streetlights going along their unique neighborhoods.
It is pitch black dark down that roadway. It gets even worse when there is fog. Luckily, this day there wasn’t any fog. The speed limit was 40 mph. Recently, it went up to 45 mph.
I’m usually the only car traveling in that direction. Not many people are out at 3:50 a.m. I’ll see an occasional car coming in the opposite direction. There are two lanes going both ways. The southbound and northbound lanes are divided by a grass median. They also have trees and plants on parts of the median.
On this day, I was traveling in the range of 40-41 mph. I usually have at least my right hand on the steering wheel. This day, I had it on the bottom of the steering wheel. I’m always attentive when going down the road. I’ve seen an occasional rabbit or other animal dart across the road.
I was driving in the right lane. All of the sudden, I saw a large alligator in the road, partially in my lane. Its tail was right where my right side tires would be. I quickly turned to the left to miss it. I only had about eight feet notice of this impending strike. The alligator was looking back at me. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened had I hit it.
Someone was looking out for me and kept me safe.
The Golf Cart
From 1996 to 1998, I worked as a web developer and computer programmer at a company in Palm Bay, Florida. While working there, I also did computer installs and fixing computer problems. I worked with a guy who I talked about in these two stories:
On this particular day, we were out back of the building. We needed to go to another building to fix a computer problem. We would always take a golf cart. There were only a limited number of cars allowed inside the compound. Walking would take too long.
K was in the driver’s seat and I was in the passenger seat. It was a tight squeeze between the back of our building and the building behind it. There was hardly any room to turn around. K was having difficulty managing to turn the cart around. I told him to move out of the seat and let me try. Well, I got in and I tried to back the cart up. All of the sudden, I put too much juice into it and the back of the cart hit the door where the photography studio was. I quickly jumped out and said that he could try it again. The photography guy, who we both knew, opened the door and asked what was going on. I pointed to K and told him he did it. 🤣
The Car Horn
This was a long time ago. I was driving an old car and my Mom saw someone she knew. I hit the horn on the steering wheel. The problem? The horn got stuck. There I was, with my Mom in the passenger seat, on the main highway with the horn blaring. We were very close to home. I was two streets from home. I was driving fast trying to make it home. I pulled into the driveway and into the garage. Then we had to figure out how to get it to stop.
We ended up going across the street to the old guy who I have talked about before. He came over and disabled the horn in the engine compartment.
If you don’t remember or you’re new here, these are the other stories I wrote about him:
Conclusion
Well, that’s it for this week. My schedule at work changed so I didn’t have much time. Hopefully, this will keep you going for another week.
Thank you to all my readers.
Until next time, happy reading!
-Matt
Loved this post, Matt! Jaw-dropping and hilarious at the same time - the perfect balance. 😊
Oh my goodness - the stuck horn!!! Thankfully all these years later we can just laugh, but the thought of it actually happening is pretty terrifying!!! Makes for a good story though.
Thanks for your weekly update. A terrific way to keep in touch. I like the little snippets. (Oh yes! The alligator on the road!!! A very different part of the world.)
Hugs sweetie. Don’t work too hard. 🤗🤗