Weather and The Nudist Colony

AND still no day off from work? WTF??? I ask you why do I live in a place with ZERO snow days per year yet I still say today could have qualified as an official day off?! COME ON!

Any who I wrote a whole other post for today yesterday for my easy posting pleasure but then last night happened. The snow, sleet, ice crap started. We left work on time actually and were driving to pick Matthew up when we noticed an old man had fallen down on the side of dangerous two lane road just as we were coming to the top of the road. Kevin stopped and I jumped out to help him up because he could NOT get up on his own. He was rather old and thankfully Kevin hopped out to help me because this guy put all his weight on me trying to get up and I would have fallen too!

The lady behind us also put on her hazards and the cars behind us all stopped so no one was being dumb and trying to go around all of it. The old man happened to fall on the widest part of the road in a drive way thankfully or else he would have been hit. We asked him if we could drive him home and he said he would appreciate that.

We found out he had been in an accident - lost control of his car and hit a tree earlier. He had been taken to the ER and released. He called a cab but the cab company said they would not drive out in the country in the weather. SO apparently he decided to walk. Let me tell you, his walk would have been dangerous even for someone 30 years younger & he would died trying to get to his home - I do not feel like I am exaggerating here.

He also told us he had a stroke a few years back and his left side did not work so well any more. We were at the 4000 "block" and he said he lived in the mid 7000 area of the same road. Seriously it would have been FIVE miles from where he fell to walk to his "home" and with NO sidewalks on a two lane country road across a main highway, past a limestone quarry with absolutely no sidewalk or even extra room on the side of the road to walk, & much more.

I just shook my head the whole time muttering about WHO on earth would let this old guy WALK home in the weather we were having? He told us we did not need to drive him the whole way, that he felt bad and said it was far out of our way. We insisted and I am glad we did because when we pulled into 7330, it was a long "driveway" of the main road and we pulled up to a compound.

I was dumbfounded. It was a NUDIST COLONY! OMG. I think I had to stuff my eyes back into their sockets and stifled the bemused laughter that almost emanated from gaping maw! I think it was called Fern Glen or something like that but basically painted on the door to this place were the words Groovy and Living Nude. The sign outside the gate said "Delivery men please honk so we can come get packages" and the old man had to buzz himself into the gate of this "compound". He was really nice and insisted on leaving some money for gas which we tried to give back.

Kevin & I basically laughed the whole way back to get Matthew. I like to think he was just the winter caretaker of the grounds but who knows... Gotta LOVE living in liberal Southern IN... -

Once Upon A Time...

As of late, we have been playing a new game in our house. A LOT.

Matthew: Sing a story to me

Kevin/Christina: Say please Matthew.

Matthew: audible sigh - PLEAAAAAAAAASE sing me a story.

Kevin/Christina: Twinkle, twinkle litt...

Matthew: No, no - SING me a story.

Kevin/Christina: OH, you mean 'tell me a story', right?

Matthew: Yeah, Sing me a story (one can practically see the eyes rolling at us) about a _______ (Insert the theme - for me it seems to be tractor - I must look like tractor kind of a gal to my son.)

Kevin/Christina: Once upon a time...

****
Mostly Kevin does the story telling because I do the reading at night (by Matthew's choice.) Also, I think Kevin is much better at making up stories to be told to a two year old than I am - you know match the level of the mind to the level of the mind - Matthew may have a year or two on Kevin (I am SO kidding...)

This story telling game is not limited to the bed time routine any longer. We also do it in the car and when we are eating. It is actually quite fun and we have been encouraging Matthew to participate in the story telling though I am not sure he is quite there yet. He does try but he mostly likes for Mommy and Daddy to tell the stories. We offer in between to let him add on or tell his own. One day he will.

SO the other night at dinner we were all seated in our usual locations - Prince Matthew sitting at the head of the table (how wrong it that? Is that setting him up for some kind of Freudian let down later in life?!) and Kevin and I in our appointed positions flanking the Prince in the Kingdom Of Matthew.

Matthew started to tell a story out of the blue. He said "Once upon a time, there is an old man named Daddy. Daddy and Matthew were out for a walk with Matthew's bike on the trail when a bunny hopped onto the path. The end." Can you hear the laughter from where you are? The old man named Daddy about killed me. Little did I know that Matthew was essentially repeating a story Kevin told him the night before. It is quite humorous and I am thankful he is not saying an old lady named mommy. Though I have been added into the story along with the dogs - it is an evolving story apparently. I am not sure I should feel good or bad about being parceled together with Santana & Lucy but hey it works for Matthew so whatever.... There is also a fox and a river now.

Kevin and I started discussing our story telling methods and Kevin fessed up and said he often will cut a story short and end it for absolutely no reason in the middle. Just like the old man story. I confessed that Matthew actually CUTS me off because my stories get to be so boring - they sort of ramble on and become to fused with details (SHOCKING I know!)

So once upon a time there was an old man named Daddy... add to this story and let's see how we can change it up for poor Matthew and his story challenged parents!