Friday March 13th, 2015

The exercise:

Write four lines of prose about: the obstacle course.

Kat is having a mini-reunion this weekend with some classmates from her online counseling course she graduated from almost two years ago. One of them lives here in Comox, another is driving down from Victoria, I think one is coming over from Vancouver, and the other two are flying in from Calgary. She's been looking forward to this for a while now, and it began just before lunch.

While she was busy doing that, I had couple of high school friends over this afternoon. Max was in full on Shy Mode for most of the visit, so he didn't play much with my friend's three year old daughter. I think he was getting tired before they even showed up, so that didn't help.

Anyway, I still enjoyed seeing them both again. Getting together with another old friend and her daughter tomorrow, and I'm hoping that Max will be feeling a little more up for that.

Mine:

Her instructions are clear. She's even demonstrated how it's done. Jump three times, here, here, and here, and you will receiver her approval - though the consequences of failure have been left worryingly vague.

I do as she says, because who wants to argue with a three year old girl?

4 comments:

Greg said...

They don't get any easier to argue with when they get older either, so I fully sympathize with your narrator's dilemma!
It sounds like it's a full-on reunion weekend for you all then up there, was that part of the plan for the road-trip? I think you now have enough people to make the Vegas side-trip a happening :)
Well done on getting caught up on all the comments again, by the way.

The obstacle course
"These... things... are all in my way," Theresa snarled.
"It's supposed to be an obstacle course, dear," said her ninety-year old mother, hanging on the outside of the cab for dear life and fervently wishing that her daughter was less impulsive.
"Well I'll have it all sorted out soon!" Theresa gunned the bulldozer's engine, which responded sluggishly, lowered the shovel, and started clearing a way.

Unknown said...

The obstacle course:

As I fell face-flat in the sand for the umpteenth time, I heard the general noises of laughter behind me get even louder. "Please stop it, dear" pleaded my wife. "You're a thirty-year-old man attempting an obstacle course intended for ten-year-olds in the park!"
But I couldn't leave until I'd conquered this nemesis from my childhood days, a foe who had always vanquished me in our previous meetings.

Anonymous said...

Why were there always swinging saws in this thing? I stood there, analyzing the rate at which each of the five saws swung, contemplating why every single mission into evil villain lairs always involved those stupid things. After another few seconds, I realized that this specific set of swings was working in an alternating pattern of ten seconds and that I could get by easily with one well-timed sprint, I set my sights on the path beyond the saws.
Of course, the next obstacle was a rope connecting two ledges over a pool of water, most likely containing sharks or crocodiles, though I wouldn’t put it past the Fist of Evil to fill the pool with piranhas either.

Marc said...

Greg - this one was actually a real life story for me. My friend's daughter is quite into doing imaginary obstacle courses :D

Kat had planned ahead to meet up with her classmates and I sent out a few emails ahead of time to see who was available. It's been two years since I've been back, so I really wanted to catch up with some friends.

That is... a very effective way of dealing with an obstacle course! Or traffic, as the case may be...

Nikhil - oh man, I've got a few playgrounds I could revisit with those kind of intentions too...

Haha, very nicely conveyed :D

Ivybennet - love the narrator's attitude in this one, it's so clearly brought out by your writing. Nice work!