Monkling’s Blog

For those of you who have had to endure my San Antonio tales and see photos of what I got my son as a souvenir, I figured I’d share the sequel with you. Yesterday, the phone rang. We have caller ID so I knew who it was.

“Hi, Steve! What’s up?”
“Mom, that was really gross.”
“Oh, did you get the package I sent?”
“Did you know that was a real worm?”
“Yep. Hey, at least your mother doesn’t send you boring stuff.”

I bet both the kids are so happy they’re living at college. Otherwise, I’d have them busy at work with me making treasure maps for Saturday. (Don’t worry. You’ll hear all about that, too. Eventually.)

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With my constant complaining about the noise on my block, I have probably given everyone the idea that I have the world’s worst neighbors and that they are all on that Rotten Neighbor website. The truth is, this is a situation where the squeaky wheel gets the oil can thrown at it.

Most of the people on my block are good people who watch out for one another. We learned that less than a month after living here when one of our neighbors was going to call the police because my father accidentally set off the house alarm. Snow Blower Man was probably one of the best neighborhood watchdogs, mostly because he was retired and was always outside puttering around in his yard. Frank & him were buddies and he loved his snow blower. As soon as September hit, he’d be out in the yard making sure the snow blower was ready. Every time we walked past his house, he would tell us, “Don’t worry if it snows. I’ve got it covered.” If we had a mild spell in the winter, he was still confident that he’d get to use that snow blower. “It’s coming,” he would assure us.

Frank & I have adopted that phrase. The proper usage for it goes something like this:
Person # One: “It’s so beautiful out.” (Beautiful in the winter for NY means it’s above 45 degrees and you can go out without having your nose fall off from frostbite.)
Person # Two: “Don’t worry. It’s coming.” (Meaning you better enjoy the nice weather while it lasts because eventually we’re going to get slammed.)

Snow Blower Man passed away a year or 2 ago. Whoever said, “You can’t take it with you,” had it wrong because we haven’t seen any sign of that snow blower. I think he took it with him. There’s a whole new crowd of people up there in heaven hearing him say, “Don’t worry. It’s coming.”

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