Monk's Memoirs: Fall Is In The Air...and Soon I'll Be On The Road

All of the snowbirds, including myself, are getting ready to fly the coup...the anxiety is building and I can hardly contain myself...It must be a biological thing...now I know how migrating birds feel...I'm driven to fly south...I have my grandfather's genes...he went south every year no matter what...nothing would hold him back...family complained and friends tried to talk him out of it and he would get this glazed look in his eye and say nothing was going to stop him....He would go down every year..not to relax in the sun...but to work in it..he was a stone mason and every year he would go to St. Pete and build another house with his Florida buds.....not being a rich man..that's how he earned his keep...many is the time he would return from Florida in the spring nearly broke but with a big smile on his face ready to spend his summer working hard and getting ready for his next migration...I remember one spring he was overdue by a few days and no one had heard from him in a while...we were all worried and thinking the worst when he came strolling down our street one sunny afternoon...a big smile on his face and only one dime in his pocket...he had spent all the money he earned in Florida and had to hitch-hike back home..he never let anybody know how broke he was..and he was to proud to ask for help....Yep, he was one of the best stone masons around and his work is still around today...I used to help him on summer vacations and I can remember a couple of jobs that I still see..the one I think of the most is a fireplace and chimney that we built from stones that were gathered from the customers own property....gramps would get these round field stones and deftly give them a couple of smacks with a chisel and hammer and they would split open revealing a beautiful multi-colored sparkling interior which he would then use as the face on each stone he set in place in the fireplace and chimney...I drive by that house at least a dozen times a year and remember..other than my Dad... the kindest and gentlest man I have ever met..he had a heart of gold and literally would give you the shirt off his back...my father and he were two of a kind..each time I drive by that house I think to myself that I should stop and ask permission to lay my hands on that fireplace and say a prayer for Gramps...then I think that the people who now live there will think I'm nuts...so I just think of him as I drive by and say the prayer anyway...whoever is in the car with me at the time gets told the story about how we built it together...even if they have heard it a dozen times before...they never let on that they know all about the field stone fireplace and chimney.....

I don't have a picture of the house, but the picture I snapped this weekend is of one of the spots on the lake that both gramps and I used to love to stop and read the names and dates on the old tombstones...we'd be in his old red International truck and I'd be riding with my chin resting on my hands against the dashboard...which now would be considered almost suicidal...we'd stop and admire the view as we read the stones...I'd always tell him that this would be a great place to be buried..overlooking one of the prettiest lakes in the world...and he'd make some crack like "You'll be dead and won't give a lick for your view from where your bones are buried. You want to make sure you live your life so your looking down on all this and not looking up..if you know what I mean."....He and Dad always had something to say about everything and it usually would crack you up...but in this case...truer words were never spoken...

Had a book signing this week-end at the local library in Canandaigua....it was just too nice a day for anyone to be inside..only sold two books and made a couple of trades with other authors...I did have a good time and it was the first time I'd ever been at a multiple author book signing...I don't promote like I should..but then again..I wrote the books for my children and not to make a million bucks..don't tell my publisher I said that....here are few shots of some the great people I met...