A New York Tail…

September 6, 2011 by 6 Comments

He’s here!!  Landed on my doorstep just as Hurricane Irene hit the New York area a few days ago.

Who, you ask?

Leo, that’s who!  Leo the Sock Monkey who is traveling across America, here, direct from Dweej in Michigan!  Leo will be my house guest for, well, as long as I decide to keep him or until such time as he misbehaves.  Whichever comes first.

This little Monkey-dude has been doing his fair share of road trips around the U.S. and I’ve been waiting for weeks to welcome him here to Kent Cliffs, New York, in the heart of the Hudson Valley.

As the rains from Irene started pouring down on New York, I came home from work to find a fairly soggy box waiting on our front porch.  Peeking out was one damp little Monkey with a baggie over his head, obviously pissed-off from waiting all day.

I rushed to bring him inside and give him a Banana Hot Toddy.   He was complaining so much that I sent him directly to his room, hoping a little nap would help him calm down.

                                                             

My home….

                            

Leo just loved the wooden sign over our front door and climbed up to get a better look…..

               

There will be plenty of work to keep him busy, like the bushes in need of some major Leo Scissorhands and some major yard clean-up of all the fallen branches from our recent storm.  He needs to keep his mind on other things right now.

You see, this poor little guy came to me feeling depressed, something he didn’t share with Dweej while visiting;  I’m sure she would have been very supportive had he reached out.  Seems that, while on his journey across America, during a stay with Shannon in Indiana,  Leo went and got himself…married, to someone named “Baby” who wasn’t quite all she seemed.  The sweet girl he first met turned into someone else entirely!

It was one of those spur-of-the-moment things that can either blossom into a wonderful relationship or quickly fade away.  This faded faster than a politician’s promise!  Soon after leaving Indiana, Leo found his new wife monkeying-around and, well, I’d rather not go into great detail but, from all he related, his ex was a bit on the loose side.  If you get my drift. 

He showed me her photo and wiped tears from his eyes as he agonized over the real “Baby”. 

I  promptly called our attorney on Leo’s behalf and had him file for an annulment.  It will be over and done in 30 days.

My hubs and I decided that the best thing to do was to get Leo involved in everything we do; keep him on the move to help get his mind off that little hoochie monkey.  So…he came to work at our business where he quickly learned to become a technician.  In no time, Leo was taking care of customers….

He worked  read some blogs on the computer in my office….

 

 

He also helped himself to my iced coffee!

 Learning a new trade in this economy isn’t a bad thing and Leo thinks he might continue as an Automotive Accessory Installer…

He was very proud of his first install on a Jeep of an HID light bar….

Leo managed to take several breaks during the work day….

 

Our new daughter-in-law, Kristy came by and Leo did some flirting while he sat in her new Fiat…

Later in the week, Leo came to the salon for a quick trim but kept spinning around in the stylist chair as I tried taking his picture…

                                          

He is not a good tipper!

Oh…Leo took a big liking to a Log Cabin Dollhouse that I recently finished building…

 

The little monkey-butt managed to get his big head stuck in the window and I had to pry him out!

After that, he cuddled up with a few dolls in my kitchen who all gave him lots of sympathy while I whipped him up some Banana Lasagna.  Leo loves Italian food but I had to hide the Chianti.  A drunk Monkey trying to sing like Dean Martin ain’t purty.  Just sayin’

Leo had the greatest visit with us and we will all be sorry to see him leave but, he’s a travelin’ little dude with places to go and more people to see.  He will be staying long enough to have some of my birthday cake and we’ll bid him a very fond farewell.

As Leo was packing for the next leg of his journey to visit with one very special lady, Cherie from the fabulous Lots of Jewels, I learned that Cherie’s home suffered devastating  flood damage.   It will be some time before this family recovers and gets back to normal.  Please keep them in your prayers and stop by Cherie’s blog to share some support and love.

In the interim, Debbie, from Northern North America Bears, will be waiting for Leo to arrive at her home.

Thanks so very much to Deb for sharing Leo and giving us all so much fun!   

If you would like to be a foster parent and help Leo see even more of the world, visit lovely Deb at… mccormickmadness.com and let her know. 

You won’t regret it except for the fact that… Leo snores….a lot!

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Goodnight…Irene!

August 30, 2011 by 5 Comments

Well, it’s over.  Irene has left the building.

Sadly, this unwelcome visitor left behind too many tragedies and horrible devastation to the towns she spun through.  Where I live, in upstate New York, well, we were fairly lucky.  It could have been so much worse.

At home, we are currently functioning on generator-power with no restoration of electric service promised in the near future.  Through the pounding storm early Sunday morning and most of that day, we plugged along with the hum of our gas-driven power plant.  And…we had cable television and internet, a rare occurence during any storm.

                             

Irene was soon downgraded to a Tropical Storm but warnings for tornadoes and flooding were broadcast into Sunday night as the once massive hurricane headed away.  Just as we relaxed a bit, the winds started to increase and, much like in the early morning hours, trees started to bend, creak and lean dangerously in the direction of our home.  Sometime after that, we finally lost our cable connection which remains down for the count at this moment.  
                                  

For now, the only internet access I have is here at work, which wasn’t up until this morning and I’m trying to catch-up on blog reading while trying to look busy.  Of course, one of the first things I noticed was a news item about another hurricane threat coming off Cape Verde…Tropical Storm Katia.

I hate her already….

Now, as always after a major event, the debate about local New York, and other, governmental hysteria in demanding evacuations and closing down mass transit being necessary is all over the news. 

Stupid, stupid media analysts, once again! 

If the lack of decision and prompt action during Hurricane Katrina didn’t prove to teach us all something, what would it take?   Any storm is unpredictable and there should never be any hesitation to safeguard human lives…at any time.  Homes can be re-built, some possessions can be replaced but people cannot. 

So, for today, this is my sneaky blog post, written while the husband head honcho wasn’t looking over my shoulder in my office.  I’ll close with heartfelt prayers for everyone adversely impacted by Hurricane Irene.

 

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They’re going back!!

August 20, 2011 by 2 Comments

 

I just couldn’t help myself and had to put up this old commercial from Staples for every parent out there who is counting the days until school starts again.  Until today, I chuckled each time it aired on television and “they’re going back!” was a celebratory phrase shared in my circle of friends at the end of many long summers.

The focus is mainly on the daddy in this video as he gleefully skips and down the store aisles gathering school supplies; in the background,  Andy William’s soothing voice sings a classic Christmas carol.

Such happiness…

That was, until today, when I looked at the sad faces of the two small children in this commercial and thought for a while.  Suddenly, it wasn’t so funny as those frowns represent more than the end of  summer vacation.  I saw anxiety in their sad expressions.  Apart from new teachers and homework, it was more like they were thinking about who would be the class bully this year.  What boy or girl would be the one to hurl insults, make threats or worse, on the playground, in the halls or on the daily bus ride to and from school.

Why do kids bully?  One reason given is because he (or she) has a deep troubling need of his own and is picked on or feels that he does not have a very successful life.  And, too many kids fall into a trap by thinking that bullying is just “the cool thing to do,” especially in front of their friends.  Psychologists and educators feel that adults don’t give children the skills they need to be able to tolerate and appreciate the differences of others. 

Plenty of reasons, even excuses, and it boils down to the fact that school shouldn’t be a tense and fearsome place for any child; the start of a new year should represent the excitement of new beginnings and fresh starts. 

For now, there are more fireflies to catch and still time to sleep late.  Vacations will come to a close as many children return to school with happy memories, summer smiles and the anticipation of learning something new and unknown. 

 

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