He read about a hike called the incline in the guidebook.

It said it was a
strenuous hike and to bring plenty of water. “A beautiful hike to the clouds”
described one review. “Not for the faint-hearted,” said another. “Not too bad of
a workout”, bragged a third review. I thought I’d hike it when I fly in from
Maryland on my day off from the senior citizen's wellness conference. I hiked 2
miles a day around the neighborhood so I could handle a 1.1-mile hike. What a
foolish mistake that was for a 70-year-old low-lander.

1.He slowly poured the drink over a large chunk of ice he has especially chiseled
off a larger block. He didn't particularly like his drinks cold, but he knew that
the drama of chiseling the ice and then pouring a drink over it looked far more
impressive than how he actually liked it. It was all about image and he'd
managed to perfect the image that he wanted to project.

2.Sometimes it's the first moment of the day that catches you off guard. That's
what Wendy was thinking. She opened her window to see fire engines
screeching down the street. While this wasn't something completely unheard of,
it also wasn't normal. It was a sure sign of what was going to happen that day.
She could feel it in her bones and it wasn't the way she wanted the day to begin.

3.Twenty-five years Dana had been waiting. She tried to be patient during that
time but she hadn't always managed to be as patient as she'd like. But today
the opportunity had finally come. The thing she always imagined would make
her the happiest person in the world was about to happen. She didn't know why
at this specific time she all of a sudden felt sick inside.

4."Can I get you anything else?" David asked. It was a question he asked a
hundred times a day and he always received the same answer. It had become
such an ingrained part of his daily routine that he had to step back and actively
think when he heard the little girl's reply. Nobody had before answered the
question the way that she did, and David didn't know how he should respond.

5.There was a time and a place for Stephanie to use her magic. The problem was
that she had a difficult time determining this. She wished she could simply use
it when the desire hit and there wouldn't be any unforeseen consequences.
Unfortunately, that's not how it worked and the consequences could be
devastating if she accidentally used her magic at the wrong time.

6."Begin today!" That's all the note said. There was no indication from where it
came or who may have written it. Had it been meant for someone else? Meghan
looked around the room, but nobody made eye contact back. For a brief
moment, she thought it might be a message for her to follow her dreams, but
ultimately decided it was easier to ignore it as she crumpled it up and threw it
away.

7.The kids were loud. They were way too loud for Jerry, especially since this was
a four-hour flight. The parents didn't seem to be able, or simply didn't want, to
control them. They were yelling and fighting among themselves and it was
impossible for any of the passengers to concentrate or rest. He thought about
politely tapping on the parents' shoulders and asking them to try and get their
kids under a bit more control, but before he did he came up with a better idea.
Sure, it was a bit sinister, and he'd probably end p in a lot of trouble, but he
really didn't care at that point.

8.One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in
pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the
vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent
imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. One dollar and eighty-
seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas...

9.There was something in the tree. It was difficult to tell from the ground, but
Rachael could see movement. She squinted her eyes and peered in the direction
of the movement, trying to decipher exactly what she had spied. The more she
peered, however, the more she thought it might be a figment of her
imagination. Nothing seemed to move until the moment she began to take her
eyes off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye, she would see the movement
again and begin the process of staring again.

10.There was a reason for her shyness. Everyone assumed it had always been
there but she knew better. She knew the exact moment that the shyness began.
It had been that fateful moment at the lake. There are just some events that do
that to you.

11.Dave found joy in the daily routine of life. He awoke at the same time, ate
the same breakfast and drove the same commute. He worked at a job that never
seemed to change and he got home at 6 pm sharp every night. It was who he
had been for the last ten years and he had no idea that was all about to change.

12.The rain and wind abruptly stopped, but the sky still had the gray swirls of
storms in the distance. Dave knew this feeling all too well. The calm before the
storm. He only had a limited amount of time before all Hell broke loose, but he
stopped to admire the calmness. Maybe it would be different this time, he
thought, with the knowledge deep within that it wouldn't.

13.Eating raw fish didn't sound like a good idea. "It's a delicacy in Japan," didn't
seem to make it any more appetizing. Raw fish is raw fish, delicacy or not.

14.He heard the loud impact before he ever saw the result. It had been so loud
that it had actually made him jump back in his seat. As soon as he recovered
from the surprise, he saw the crack in the windshield. It seemed to be an
analogy of the current condition of his life.

15.Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. The man walking down the street in a
banana suit. The llama standing in the middle of the road. The fairies dancing in
front of the car window. The fact that all of this was actually happening and
wasn't a dream.

16.Dave watched as the forest burned up on the hill, only a few miles from her
house. The car had been hastily packed and Marta was inside trying to round up
the last of the pets. Dave went through his mental list of the most important
papers and documents that they couldn't leave behind. He scolded himself for
not having prepared these better in advance and hoped that he had
remembered everything that was needed. He continued to wait for Marta to
appear with the pets, but she still was nowhere to be seen.

17.There once lived an old man and an old woman who were peasants and had
to work hard to earn their daily bread. The old man used to go to fix fences and
do other odd jobs for the farmers around, and while he was gone the old
woman, his wife, did the work of the house and worked in their own little plot of
land.

18.It was that terrifying feeling you have as you tightly hold the covers over you
with the knowledge that there is something hiding under your bed. You want to
look, but you don't at the same time. You're frozen with fear and unable to act.
That's where she found herself and she didn't know what to do next

19.At that moment he had a thought that he'd never imagine he'd consider. "I
could just cheat," he thought, "and that would solve the problem." He tried to
move on from the thought but it was persistent. It didn't want to go away and, if
he was honest with himself, he didn't want it to.

20.The computer wouldn't start. She banged on the side and tried again.
Nothing. She lifted it up and dropped it to the table. Still nothing. She banged
her closed fist against the top. It was at this moment she saw the irony of trying
to fix the machine with violence.

21.I haven't bailed on writing. Look, I'm generating a random paragraph at this
very moment in an attempt to get my writing back on track. I am making an
effort. I will start writing consistently again!

22.He heard the crack echo in the late afternoon about a mile away. His heart
started racing and he bolted into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a
gunshot," he repeated under his breathlessness as he continued to sprint.

23.Why do Americans have so many different types of towels? We have beach

towels, hand towels, bath towels, dish towels, camping towels, quick-dry towels,
and let’s not forget paper towels. Would 1 type of towel work for each of these
things? Let’s take a beach towel. It can be used to dry your hands and body with
no difficulty. A beach towel could be used to dry dishes. Just think how many
dishes you could dry with one beach towel. I’ve used a beach towel with no
adverse effects while camping. If you buy a thin beach towel it can dry quickly
too. I’d probably cut up a beach towel to wipe down counters or for cleaning
other items, but a full beach towel could be used too. Is having so many types of
towels an extravagant luxury that Americans enjoy or is it necessary? I’d say it's
overkill and we could cut down on the many types of towels that manufacturers
deem necessary.

24.There was something in the sky. What exactly was up there wasn't
immediately clear. But there was definitely something in the sky and it was
getting bigger and bigger.

25."It doesn't take much to touch someone's heart," Daisy said with a smile on
her face. "It's often just the little things you do that can change a person's day
for the better." Daisy truly believed this to be the way the world worked, but
she didn't understand that she was merely a robot that had been programmed
to believe this.

26.Don't be scared. The things out there that are unknown aren't scary in
themselves. They are just unknown at the moment. Take the time to know them
before you list them as scary. Then the world will be a much less scary place for
you.

27.She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried to
think back to when the girl had been younger but failed to pinpoint the exact
moment when she had become a little too big to pick up and carry. It hit her all
at once. She was no longer a little girl and she stood there speechless with fear,
sadness, and pride all running through her at the same time.

28.Matt told her to reach for the stars, but Veronica thought it was the most
ridiculous advice she'd ever received. Sure, it had been well-meaning when he
said it, but she didn't understand why anyone would want to suggest something
that would literally kill you if you actually managed to achieve it.

29.It really shouldn't have mattered to Betty. That's what she kept trying to
convince herself even if she knew it mattered to Betty more than practically
anything else. Why was she trying to convince herself otherwise? As she
stepped forward to knock on Betty's door, she still didn't have a convincing
answer to this question that she'd been asking herself for more than two years
now.

30.He had disappointed himself more than anyone else. That wasn't to say that
he hadn't disappointed others. The fact was that he had disappointed a lot of
people who were close to him. The fact that they were disappointed in him was
something that made him even more disappointed in himself. Yet here he was,
about to do the exact same things that had caused all the disappointment in the
first place because he didn't know what else to do.
31.Patrick didn't want to go. The fact that she was insisting they must go made
him want to go even less. He had no desire to make small talk with strangers he
would never again see just to be polite. But she insisted that Patrick go, and she
would soon find out that this would be the biggest mistake she could make in
their relationship.

32.What if dogs were racist? Would they care about fur color….. “son, only play
with other tan dogs”? Or maybe it would depend on breed, “honey, only play
with other German Shepards, never poodles”. Better yet it could depend on
occupation. “I’m a sled dog while you’re only a running companion, leave me
alone”. Maybe the neighborhood they live in could be the way they choose
which dogs to associate with and which to shun? Size could be the determining
factor, “see how tall that dog is, they are probably dumb”. Luckily dogs don’t
discriminate. Just watch at a dog park. Big black and white dogs wag their tails
and play with tiny tan dogs. A service dog chases after the same ball as the off-
duty police dog. So if dogs don’t discriminate then why do we?

33.Should he write it down? That was the question running through his mind. He
couldn't believe what had just happened and he knew nobody else would believe
him as well. Even if he documented what had happened by writing it down, he
still didn't believe anyone would still believe it. So the question remained. Was
it be worth it to actually write it down?

34.Barbara had been waiting at the table for twenty minutes. it had been twenty
long and excruciating minutes. David had promised that he would be on time
today. He never was, but he had promised this one time. She had made him
repeat the promise multiple times over the last week until she'd believed his
promise. Now she was paying the price.

35.They argue. While the argument seems to be different the truth is it's always
the same. Yes, the topic may be different or the circumstances, but when all
said and done, it all came back to the same thing. They both knew it, but neither
has the courage or strength to address the underlying issue. So they continue to
argue.

36.Samantha wanted to be famous. The problem was that she had never
considered all the downsides to actually being famous. Had she taken the time
to objectively consider these downsides, she would have never agreed to
publically sing that first song.

37.He lifted the bottle to his lips and took a sip of the drink. He had tasted this
before, but he couldn't quite remember the time and place it had happened. He
desperately searched his mind trying to locate and remember where he had
tasted this when the bicycle ran over his foot.

38.It all started with a random letter. Several of those were joined forces to
create a random word. The words decided to get together and form a random
sentence. They decided not to stop there and it wasn't long before a random
paragraph had been cobbled together. The question was whether or not they
could continue the momentum long enough to create a random short story.

39.There weren't supposed to be dragons flying in the sky. First and foremost,
dragons didn't exist. They were mythical creatures from fantasy books like
unicorns. This was something that Pete knew in his heart to be true so he was
having a difficult time acknowledging that there were actually fire-breathing
dragons flying in the sky above him.

40.Betty decided to write a short story and she was sure it was going to be
amazing. She had already written it in her head and each time she thought
about it she grinned from ear to ear knowing how wonderful it would be. She
could imagine the accolades coming in and the praise she would receive for
creating such a wonderful piece. She was therefore extremely frustrated when
she actually sat down to write the short story and the story that was so
beautiful inside her head refused to come out that way on paper.

41.All he could think about was how it would all end. There was still a bit of
uncertainty in the equation, but the basics were there for anyone to see. No
matter how much he tried to see the positive, it wasn't anywhere to be seen.
The end was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty.

42.Breastfeeding is good for babies and moms. Infants that are breastfed get
antibodies from their mothers against common illnesses. Breastfed babies have
less chance of being obese as an adult. Breastfeeding a baby lets the infant-
mother pair bond in a very unique way. Mother’s who breastfeed lower their
chances of developing breast cancer. Usually, mothers who breastfeed lose their
pregnancy weight more quickly and easily. The benefits of breastfeeding are
numerous.

43.They had made it to Las Vegas, wide-eyed and with so much hope and
energy. They had planned the trip for more than a year and both were so
excited they could barely control themselves. They still hadn't realized that Las
Vegas promised a place where dreams come true, it was actually the place
where dreams came to die.

44.Sometimes it's just better not to be seen. That's how Harry had always lived
his life. He prided himself as being the fly on the wall and the fae that blended
into the crowd. That's why he was so shocked that she noticed him.

45.What have you noticed today? I noticed that if you outline the eyes, nose,
and mouth on your face with your finger, you make an "I" which makes perfect
sense, but is something I never noticed before. What have you noticed today?

46.The red line moved across the page. With each millimeter it advanced
forward, something changed in the room. The actual change taking place was
difficult to perceive, but the change was real. The red line continued relentlessly
across the page and the room would never be the same.

47.They told her that this was her once chance to show the world what she was
made of. She believed them at the time. It was the big stage and she knew the
world would be there to see. The only one who had disagreed with this
sentiment was her brother. He had told her that you don't show the world what
you're made of when they are all watching, you show that in your actions when
nobody was looking. It was looking more and more like her brother was correct.

48.It was the first day of the rest of her life. This wasn't the day she was
actually born, but she knew that nothing would be the same from this day
forward. Although this was a bit scary to her, it was also extremely freeing. Her
past was no longer a burden or something that she needed to be concerned
about and defend. She threw off the covers keeping her warm in bed, placed her
feet over the side of the bed, slipped on her slipper, and took the first step of
the first day of her new life.

49.She wondered if the note had reached him. She scolded herself for not
handing it to him in person. She trusted her friend, but so much could happen.
She waited impatiently for word.