Moments #22: That Ugly Old Swing

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

This backyard swing may not have looked like much.

The first night in my current house, I stood in the kitchen and looked out the window at the backyard and I said, “That swing has got to go.” The wood looked old. The chain was rusted. It was an ugly old swing, left behind by the house’s former owners. It was easy to dismiss but, the first time I sat in that swing and I let the wind gently rock me back and forth, I fell in love with it.

It was my place to go if I was feeling down or if I just needed some time to myself. If the world was getting too chaotic or if I came home hating my job or cursing biology, I would sit on that swing and the gentle rocking would take all of my troubles.

That swing went from being an eyesore to being home.

A little over a year ago, our town got hit by a violent storm. Throughout the night, rain pounded on the roof, the wind shook the windows, thunder made the house tremble, and the flashes of lightning were so bright and frequent that I barely noticed that the power can gone out. In the morning, when the rain had finally become a drizzle, my sister and I stepped outside. Our backyard was flooded and littered with debris. Our neighbor’s tree had collapsed, smashing his fence and then crashing into our yard.

Underneath the tree were the crushed remains of the swing.

I was upset, even though I knew it was just something that no one could have controlled. I didn’t blame my neighbor. I certainly didn’t blame the tree. I didn’t even blame the storm. There was no one to blame. I guess we were lucky. If the tree had fallen in a different direction, it would have hit our house. If the cats had been outside, it could have fallen on them. When we cleaned up the backyard, we didn’t find any dead squirrels, birds, or possums under the tree. It could have been so much worse.

The man who lived across the street helped us to move the remains of the swing out of our backyard. We put it on the curb so that the city could pick it up. Because of the storm, the debris left by the storm were not picked up for three weeks. But the swing only lasted a day on the curb before someone — I don’t know who — picked it up. I take some comfort that someone took it, rather than it being tossed in a garbage truck. The swing is serving a purpose somewhere.

One year later, I still miss that ugly old swing. I guess I always will.

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Moments #21: Exploring The Back Yard Of An Abandoned House

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

I simply can’t resist the opportunity to explore an abandoned house. Check out this backyard!

A few weeks after I took these pictures, the city sent down a landscaping crew who mowed the grass and tossed out all of the tables and the chairs that had been left in the backyard. It made me sad watching them do it. I don’t know who once lived in that house or why they left their gate open but I’ve always wondered if they ever came back looking for their plastic chairs. Watching it all get tossed in a dumpster felt like the end of an era.

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Moments #18: Downtown Richardson, In The Rain by Erin Nicole

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

I took these pictures of downtown Richardson, Texas on a rainy evening many years ago. I stood out in the rain and got soaked but I didn’t care because I had my camera and I was capturing the moment. The downtown might not look like much but there was a comforting familiarity to it that I loved. Sadly, many of these buildings are gone now. The downtown has been rebuilt and modernized but I’ll always think of it as being the way it was.

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Moments #16: Walking In The Fog

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

I woke up and saw that a thick fog had descended over the neighborhood. I know better than to let a good mist go to waste so I grabbed my camera and I went for a walk.

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Moments #14: Visitors

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Dazzling Erin

Living near a creek, we occasionally do get visitors. These fine ducks decided to take a break in our front yard on their way back home. They were enjoying the warm weather.

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Moments #13: Watchers and Followers

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Dazzling Erin

A few years ago, I was walking around the neighborhood when I realized that someone was watching me.

After saying goodbye to my new friend, I kept walking. A few blocks later, I realized that I was being followed.

As soon as I turned around and looked at him, he ran away.

It’s been years but I still think about the two of them whenever I go for a walk around the neighborhood, the proud cat and the curious dog. I’m glad that they both had a home and happy lives. I’m glad the cat enjoyed staring me down and I hope the dog enjoyed following behind me. Human don’t deserve animals but I’m glad they put up with us.

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Moments #12: The Halloween That Nearly Wasn’t

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

I stood out on the front porch and watched as the sky went from being blue to being dark and gray in a matter of minutes. That was the year that fall came early and almost all the leaves were gone by the end of October. But just as the leaves fell early, so did the storms arrive ahead of schedule. It rained hard during the afternoon and probably panicked everyone looking forward to spending the night collecting candy.

The rain stopped before evening came and that night, costumed searchers and their parents walked up and down the sidewalks, running up to houses and shouting, “Trick or Treat!” I was alone that Halloween so I dressed up like a cat and handed out candy. Everyone was extra grateful because they knew that if the storm had started just an hour later, there would have been no Halloween that year.

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Moments #8: The Woman In the Hallway (by Lisa Marie Bowman)

Posted on October 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I don’t believe in ghosts but I may have seen one when I was 18.

It was the summer after I graduated high school and I was in Italy, discovering what the world outside of both high school and America looked like. That night, my sisters and I were staying at a hotel in Rome. I had a room to myself. The Vatican was nearby. At two o’clock in the morning, I could still hear the sound of motor scooters roaring past on the streets below my window. I naturally wanted to go outside and see what was happening but I had promised my sisters that I would not leave the hotel and wander around Rome late at night. As they pointed out, I didn’t speak Italian so, if I got lost or into any sort of trouble, there would be no way for me to ask for help. As well, we were visiting the Vatican tomorrow morning. I didn’t have to sleep, they knew better than to ask me to do that. But I did need to stay in the hotel.

So, I took a shower, I put on my usual late night outfit of a t-shirt and underwear, and I lay in bed and I listened to the scooters outside. When I got bored with the scooters, I turned on the TV and I watched an episode of an American soap opera that had been dubbed into Italian. I could follow the plot just fine and I found myself wondering if maybe my sisters had been exaggerating the language difference.

Finally, I decided that, even if I couldn’t go outside, there was no reason why I couldn’t step outside of my room and walk up and down the hotel hallway. It would give me a chance to stretch my legs and work off my restlessness. Plus, it was two in the morning. Every other guest at the hotel was probably asleep. I’d have the hallway to myself.

I stood up and walked over to the door of my hotel room. As I approached, I felt a chill in the air and I shivered a bit. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, figuring it was due to me being underdressed and that maybe there was just a random cold spot in the room. I put my hand on the door knob, turned it, and slowly opened my door.

There was a woman standing directly across the hall from my room. She appeared to be in her forties, short and slightly heavy-set with long, jet black hair. She was wearing a shapeless brown dress and her dark eyes narrowed at the sight of me. What I immediately noticed about her was that her skin was an ashen gray.

I stared at her for a few seconds, not knowing what to say but fully aware that she was glaring at me.

Slowly, she asked, in perfect English that carried not a trace of an accent, “What are you doing here?”

I still didn’t know what to say.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?” she snapped.

I tried to say something but the words wouldn’t come.

“I OWN THIS HOTEL!” she yelled, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?”

She started to move towards my room. I slammed the door shut and locked it.

I stood there for what seemed to be an eternity, listening for her. I was expecting her to start pounding on the door and screaming at me to come out but she didn’t. Instead, after I shut the door, I didn’t hear anything in the hallway. I didn’t hear her breathing. I didn’t hear her walking away. I didn’t hear anything.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour but was probably just a few minutes, I open the door a crack and peeked outside. The hallway was empty. The woman, whoever she had been, was gone. Still, I wasn’t going to take a risk. I closed the door again, got back in bed, and I didn’t get out of bed until the next morning.

When I asked my sisters if they had seen the woman, they had no idea who I was talking about. They hadn’t any seen any woman fitting the description at the hotel. They told me that I should have called them or the front desk for help and they were probably right but, at that moment, I had been too frightened to do anything. I had seen enough horror movies to know that calling for help was usually the least effective thing you could do when confronted by a maniac. It was my sister Erin who told me that the woman was probably a ghost, maybe the former owner of hotel demanding to know why I was in her home at two in the morning. Maybe she was. I don’t believe in ghosts but if I ever did see one, it was probably her.

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Moments #5: Walking In The Rain

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

Some days, there’s no better way to clear your mind than to take a walk in the rain.

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Moments #4: The Neighborhood, This Afternoon

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

Some days, you are lucky enough to wake up and discover that your entire neighborhood has changed over night. Though it looks like snow, it’s actually just sleet and ice. The roads are slippery enough to justify staying home today. I still went outside and snapped a few pictures. Outside, it was very cold, very still, and very quiet.