The Gift of Your Time

Boy howdy, has this dog ever been through obedience training school?

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During the time of the Russian repression of freedom in Czechoslovakia, the leader of the uprising was none other than a midget in the Royal Prague People's Circus. He was able to (no pun intended) operate under the Russian radar for a long time but, finally, he was ratted out, and the Stalinista military came to arrest him.

He managed to escape them briefly, and showed up at the US Embassy in Prague.

With the Soviet police close behind, he pounded on the door, which was soon answered by a parade dress marine. The midget reached up, tugged at the marine's trousers and asked, "Excuse me, but could you cache a small Czech?"

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Here's a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little 5-year-old girl and some construction workers that will make you believe that we all can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time.

A young family moved into a house next to a vacant lot. One day, a construction crew turned up to start building a house on the empty lot. The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door and spent much of each day observing the workers.

Eventually, the construction crew, all of them 'gems-in-the-rough', more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her, let sit with them while they had coffee and lunch breaks, and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars.

The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her 'pay' to the bank the next day to start a savings account.

When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own paycheck at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us."

"Oh, goodness gracious," said the teller. "And will you be working on the house again this week too?"

The little girl replied, "I will, if those assholes at Lowe's ever deliver the f**king sheet rock...."

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My favorite word today is cleaning. N., like putting those little white strips on your teeth. Def.: Retirees are very slow in cleaning out the basement, attic or garage. They know that as soon as they do, one of their adult kids will want to store stuff there.

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*(Thanks, Vicki.)