Joe Neighbor

My four-year-old was standing by the window upstairs looking over at the neighbor's yard. He yelled out, "Hello," and received a "hello" back.

My wife called out to him, "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, just Joe neighbor."

Now we jokingly always say, "Hi Joe Neighbor!" to one another. The neighbor's got a real kick out of that one.

A Fish Takes A Nap

The fish bowl was dirty, so I told my son that it needed to be cleaned out soon. The next mornng, his mother helped him clean it, and later that afternoon, my son fed the fish and came downstairs to talk to his mother. She said, "What have you been up to?"

"I just fed my fish, but he's taking a nap."

"A nap?"

"Ya, he's sleeping."

(pause) "How do you know he's sleeping?"

"He's lying on his side."

"Um....dear.... I think your fish might be dead."

"No, I just saw him swimming earlier today."

"Did you see him eat?"

"Well, no..."

The fish was given a buriel at sea ten minutes later. My three children, with drawn faces, watched in quiet as the fish was dumped into the toilet and flushed. Death is never an easy concept, even when it involves a fish.