In the morning, when I walk the kids, each kid gets their own walk. Sometimes, we see someone new in the neighborhood and their responses remind me of this story:

Wait Till Martin Comes..." An old man was out walking when a storm came up, so he looked for a place to take shelter. Soon he came upon a rundown house. He ran up on the porch and knocked on the door, but no one answered. By now the rain was pouring down, thunder was booming, and lightening was flashing. He tried the door, and when he found it unlocked, went in. Except for a pile of wooden boxes, the house was empty. He broke up some boxes and made a nice fire. He soon fell asleep from the warmth it gave off. When he woke up a black cat was sitting near him. It stared at him for awhile, then began purring. "That's a nice cat", he thought and dozed off again. When he opened his eyes, there was a second cat in the room. But this one was as big as a wolf! It looked at him very closely and it asked, "Shall we do it now?" "No", said the other cat. "Let's wait till martin comes." "I must be dreaming," thought the old man. He closed his eyes again. Then he took another look. But now there was a third cat in the room, and this one was as big as a tiger! It looked the old man over and asked, "Shall we do it now?" "No," said the others. "Let's wait till martin comes." Hearing that,the old man jumped up, jumped out the window and started running. "When martin comes, you tell him I couldn't wait," he screamed.

I first read this story when I was a kid. I had "The Thing at the Foot of the Bed" (I begged for this book!) Anyway, this morning, there were some guys installing stairs in the neighborhood. It went something like this: I'm walking by with Qor and one guy says "That's a BIG dog!" Me: "Oh this is the small one" Him: "The SMALL one?" Me: "ah huh.. I'll be by with a bigger one in a little bit" The on Qay's walk: Him: "Wow! That's a BIG Dog!" (His buddies are starting to shrink back from the sidewalk.. he is starting to tremble a bit but stays his ground. I don't get this. Qay is happy and smiling and not paying any attention to them) Me: "oh no, I have one bigger" Him: WHAT? Then on Targ's walk Me: THIS is a big dog. Him: **gulp** If it wouldn't make him so terribly uncool, I'm sure he would have run for the back yard. Targ didn't pay any attention to this silly man.