Tag Archives: Humor

Chihuahuas Attacked Me!

I Was Late

“Why are you so late?” was the question out of the first child’s mouth. That’s not true; I just felt her think that as she stepped onto the bus.

Yes, I was about ten minutes late picking up the kids this morning. Some nearly died from the additional exposure to the 49-degree weather (I know this because they got on the bus saying that they were about to die waiting on me in the cold). However, it didn’t help them too much to get on the bus, for since I was running late I didn’t have time to warm it up – or put up the windows that were put down by the elementary kids the day before.

Anyway, why was I late? I overslept…simple as that. But telling that to the first child I picked up proved to be rather boring and nothing to write about. Therefore, since my adrenaline was already pumping and my mind was functioning at regular speed (unusual for 6:40 in the morning), I decided to make the reason for my tardiness (I hate that word) more memorable.

The “Real” Reason

“You are NOT going to believe what happened to me this morning!” I exclaimed to the next kids that got on my bus. “I am running late because of a herd of chihuahuas.”

You see, what happened was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen! This morning I walked out of the house and started across the parking lot to my bus, but then all of a sudden I heard the humming sound. I first I didn’t know what to make of it, and then it got louder…then I heard growling…then a chorus of tiny, yappy barks.

My rendition of this morning's horror.

My rendition of this morning’s horror.

Totally taken aback, I look forward and peer into the early morning shadows to see the ground moving around my school bus! As I fearfully inched closer, it became clear that a dadgum herd of chihuahuas was surrounding my school bus! What the taco was going on???

At least a hundred pocket-sized terrors began barking at me, growling, snarling. When I took a few more steps toward the bus, knowing I had children to go pick up, the biting burritos from some south-of-the-border Hades started biting at my shoes – which are the expensive gray kind old men like me buy from New Balance – and that ticked me off!

At first I tried shooing them away, but they couldn’t understand me. Besides that, there was something about the bus they liked, and they wouldn’t leave for love nor pesos. That’s when I walked back to my house, went into the garage, and retrieved my personal putter normally reserved for Gooney Golf games in which I mercilessly defeat every opponent during youth outings with our church.

Knowing there were freezing  children out there waiting on the side of the road…freezing children, fearful that their bus driver had abandoned them…I had to act with speed and ferocity. With a whack here and there, followed by the Hispanic-like squeals from demonic chihuahuas,  I was finally able to clear the way to my bus.

Fifteen minutes later, in a cold bus, I was doing what God has called me to do – save the lives of freezing children and transport them to a place where they can be educated.

You Decide

Now, you can decide for yourself it the above story is a good one and believable. Unfortunately, many people are more willing to believe an exciting story than the boring truth. And beyond that, the more one tells a lie the more likely the listener (or reader) will believe it, especially if the lie is told with passion.

With that being said, Hillary Clinton is being questioned by a congressional committee. I want to hear what she has to say about the chihuahuas in Benghazi.

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Filed under current events, Humor, politics

Coffee…Better Than Beer

National Coffee Day!

Did you hear? Did you know? Today is Nation Coffee Day!! It might be Tea Day in other places, (I don’t know) but it’s the day of the roasted, ground, and steeped coffee bean here, and praise God for it!

When did National Coffee Day begin? I have no idea, nor do I care. All I know is that I woke up this morning to the news of today’s significance and rejoiced, offered to exchange gifts of sweetener and cream, and wore a #2 filter on top of my head.

espressoSo, celebrate along with me! Go enjoy a hot cup of coffee somewhere, especially at one of the wonderful establishments where free cups of coffee are being served – yes, places are doing that!

Responding to the Legalists

“Oh, but Anthony! You shouldn’t drink coffee, my liberal, over-gracious, backslidden friend (my friend in private, at least; not in public…Doctrine of Separation, you know). Coffee is no different than any other drug; it’s just as bad as drinking beer. You may even lose your testimony if you continue to promote the drinking of such an addictive, dark, seductive liquid!”

Well, in response to those who are so legalistic that you won’t even give us a break when trying to enjoy a cup of … let me take a sip … store-brand instant meant to taste like instant Folgers, let me just suggest a few reasons why coffee is at least a better drink to consume than beer.

  1. Coffee costs less than beer, which means I’m being a better steward with my money.
  2. Coffee never gives you a “coffee gut.”
  3. Drink too much beer before driving a car and you’ll get somebody killed, or at least you may end up in prison. Drink a few coffees before driving and everyone benefits: you get where you’re going quicker, happier, more aware of your surroundings, no one dies (unless hit by a drunk driver), and no one goes to prison – unless you’ve had TOO much coffee, and then road rage might be an issue, depending on the caffeine level of the brew.
  4. Drinking beer can lead to spousal abuse. Drinking a seriously good cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain might make you slap your mamma.
  5. Coffee will wake you up and help you conquer the day; beer will turn you into a stereotypically worthless brother-in-law who won’t get off your couch and get a job.
  6. Smart people who sit in a cafe drinking coffee tend to have calm, stimulating conversations which further increase what intellect they already have. On the other hand, smart people who sit around drinking beer kill brain cells and laugh about it, especially when somebody falls off a stool, beats up somebody for rooting for the wrong football team, or thinks the Irish Setter is an Irish redhead.

Coffee always helps.

So, thank God for grace and coffee grinders, then celebrate this wonderful man-made holiday!

Keep your brain cells! Have some coffee! 

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Filed under Alcohol, America, current events, Food, legalism

Biscuits, Jelly, and Legalism

Here’s the deal…

One can easily make rash judgments about people based on certain actions. A legalist will look at those actions and come to the conclusion that the ones being judged are in need of spiritual growth, revival, or maybe total repentance. How then should a “recovering legalist” judge, if at all, people who can’t get your biscuit order right?  Ever!

one sausage biscuit

Image via Wikipedia

For years I have been going to Hardee’s for breakfast. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t go there every day, just once in a while. Usually, I order a chicken or sausage biscuit with cheese and a cup of coffee. That is my standard, but occasionally I order a jelly biscuit, too. I get the jelly biscuit many times for my wife. But no matter how many times I go to the drive-through window, the outcome is always the same:

Speaker:   Hello, welcome to Hardee’s, would you like to try our new gravy-covered, bacon-stripped, egg-wrapped, ham-filled, spicy jalapeño, smoked sausage biscuit breakfast meal?

Me:   No, thank you. I would like a jelly biscuit and a medium coffee, please.

Speaker:   Would you like to make that a combo and add hashrounds, a larger size drink, a bigger bag, more calories, and a bigger bill?

Me:  No, thank you; just the jelly biscuit and coffee.

Speaker:   Would you like to add one of our new multi-fruit, caramel and nut covered, sugar-dipped, candy biscuits?

Me:   No…thanks.  Just a biscuit with butter on it and two packs of jelly (for the jelly biscuit), and the coffee.

Speaker:   Will that be all?

Me:   Yes.

Speaker:   Is your complicated, hard-to-understand order correct on our high-tech, flashy, electronic order-confirming screen?

Me:   Yes, it is.

Speaker:   Ok. Please drive around to the next window, please (2 please’s are always nice).

So, I drive around to the window to pick up my simple order of a jelly biscuit and coffee. How hard could it be? The sign that I was just looking at had all the stuff this place is supposed to sell, including, for $.99, a JELLY biscuit. Did I say, JELLY BISCUIT?

I get to the window, and then an older lady (at least she looks older, but her hard-living lifestyle has probably made her look like a sweet, old granny, even though she’s 23) leans through with my coffee. Got it….coffee….just like I ordered.

Next, after taking my money, I am handed a greasy, paper bag containing the simple (or maybe complicated) order of a JELLY BISCUIT.  Granny says, “Thank you, sweetie. Have a nice day and come back!” I then look in my bag which is supposed to contain Hardees’ completed portion of our transaction.

I stop my car….sigh….mutter something under my breath….bang my head on the steering wheel…..and do just what granny asked….

I go back!

When you order a JELLY BISCUIT, shouldn’t you expect blankity-blank JELLY?!!

Back to the window I go to get my jelly for my JELLY biscuit.  2 PACKS!  Window opens:

Granny:  Can I help you, dear?

Me:   Yes, I need jelly.  I ordered a JELLY biscuit, and there was no JELLY in the bag.

Granny:   Oh, I’m sorry, you have to ask for the jelly.

Me:   (Look of disbelief, feelings of high blood pressure not caused by the high-sodium content of the biscuit I have not yet consumed…because I didn’t get any JELLY for a JELLY BISCUIT!) Really? Well can I have 2 packs of strawberry?

Granny:   How many do you want, sweetie?

Me:   TWO.

Granny:  Here you go, sweetie. Now you come back!

I do go back, but I don’t know why. Maybe I just have a big heart for the “order-taking” challenged.

All I want is a jelly biscuit with, oh, I don’t know……..JELLY!

Obviously, someone at Hardee’s needs to get their heart right with the Lord…or am I being too legalistic? Maybe I need to show a little more grace. Maybe I need to do as some have suggested and just have a stash of jelly with me at all times, just in case.

Or maybe, I should keep in mind the words of Proverbs 10:12,  “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins,” and just keep my jelly-mongering to myself and “granny.”

I really like Hardee’s……..but anyone claiming to be right with God should automatically give JELLY with a JELLY biscuit….it’s the LAW!  Isn’t it?

Oh well, see…..living a life of grace isn’t always easy……sometimes you have to eat your biscuits plain.

 

UPDATE: I wrote the above piece in 2011. This morning I went to Hardee’s and ordered a Jelly Biscuit. The order-taking lady asked, “Do you want any jelly with that?” Amazing, isn’t it?

6/27/15…It happened again. 

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Filed under America, Food, legalism

The Abomidable Snow Monkey

Pardon me, but this post is a test of WordPress’ upgraded smartphone app. 

The snow came suddenly, along with the frigid air that chilled my blood. But nothing could cause me to freeze in fear than a face-to-face encounter with the mythical, yet now all-too-real, Abomidable Snow Monkey. 

I had been in my study studying, which is what I always swear I’m doing when I leave the estrogenated atmosphere of home for a few hours, when I finally had to break away from the parchments (wouldn’t you love to diagram a sentence like this?). So, up from my chair I arose, away from my desk I stepped, eventually exiting the mine in which I readily dig for wisdom. Into the cold I went, at first greeted with a refreshing breath of refreshingly refreshing cold air, then shocked with a chilling terror – the Abomidable Monkey. 



There it was, backdropped by a hillside of tombstones, proof that fur and fear can inhabit the same flanneled square foot. What was I to do but slowly raise my iPhone and take a creative picture?

He/it stared. I stared back with nary a word. Then, like a couple of drifting snow flakes, we softly walked away, as if snow flakes could walk. 

I will never forget that snowy day. And I’ll never again lay a wet with snow monkey on my office chair, either. 

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Filed under blogging, Humor, Monday Monkey

Wednesday Monkey

It has been a while, and a few of you have been asking, so I figured I shouldn’t waste an opportunity for Mr. Monkey to play in the snow.

The only problem? I had to get out in the snow with him – and get snowed on.

So, here it is…totally unscheduled and impromtuitiously made…a new Monday Monkey video…

…on a Wednesday.

Oh, and that’s my school bus in the background. Think I’ll be driving it tomorrow? Are you kidding?! This is the South!

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Facetious Friday

Nothing Serious

This is Friday. It’s been a good day, so far. So, I’m not going to get on my soapbox about anything, not even the biggest topics of the day.

No, I’m not going to address President Obama’s insanely ludicrous pandering to the pluralistic left at the National Prayer Breakfast.

No, I’m not going to address ISIS(L), burning people alive, Kings who act like real men and fly jets, or presidents who drink sweetened beer with uplifted pinkies, either.

Today is a day for something totally stupid…as if the daily news wasn’t full of it already.

Alien Inside

The following (mostly) true story took place on my bus at around 7:45 a.m. in response to an honest, child-like question. Names have not been changed to protect the innocent.

Me:  (to the kids on my bus) Do y’all know about Miss Cassie (she’s married, but we call her “Miss”)?

Kids:  Yeah, she’s going to have a baby.

Me:   No she’s not.

Kids:  Yes she is.

Me:   No, she is not.

Kids:  UH HUH!! YES, she IS!

Me:   You don’t know what you’re talking about…she is not going to have a baby!

Kids:  You’re crazy, Mr. Baker! You know she’s having a baby, haven’t you seen her?

Me:   Oh, I’ve seen her, but she’s not having a baby – she’s having an alien.

Kids:  NUH UHHHH!! That’s CRAZY! She ain’t havin’ no alien!

Me: Is she big and fat?

Kids:  Yes.

Me:  See. She’s going to have an alien.

Kids:  NO SHE AIN’T! How do you know she’s having an alien?

Me:   She was taken up in a space ship and they put an alien baby seed inside her.

Kids:  NUH UH, Mr. Baker! You don’t know that!

Me:  She eats green beans, doesn’t she?

Kids:  We don’t know! That don’t matter anyway!

Me:   Just ask her…ask her if she eats green beans.

Kids:  Why?

Me:   You have to eat green beans to make the alien baby green.

Kids:  No the DON’T!

Me:   Just ask her…ask her if she eats green beans. If she does, then she’s having an alien.

Kids:  That don’t mean nothin!

Me:  Is she pregnant?

Kids:  Yes! She’s having a baby!

Me:  Do you know what the word pregnant means? It comes from two words: Preg, which means “Alien”; and Nunt, which means “inside.” Pregnant means “Alien inside,” so, she’s having an alien.

Kids:  She AIN’T havin’ an ALIEN!!

Me:   Just ask her.

One child:  Mr. Baker, where do babies come from?

Me:  The hospital.

Yesterday

Miss Hensley (she’s marred, too):  Welllll, thank you very much, Mr. Baker! The kids from your bus were sooo thoughtful…asking me about my squirrel bite, and all.

Me:  Only trying to help.

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Filed under current events, Humor, politics

Resolutions to Avoid

Just for the fun of it…and maybe as a reminder to myself…I thought I would create a list resolutions to avoid at all cost.

In other words, if you resolve to do the following, you may not be around in 2016 (or at least in good shape).

10 Resolutions to Avoid

1. I resolve leave the seat up every time I go to the toilet as a sign of my manly rights.

2. I resolve to never say I’m sorry – unless I mean it.

3. I resolve to read the Bible only when it’s projected on the big screen, and only on Sunday mornings, provided there’s enough free coffee and muffins beforehand.

4. I resolve to lose 10 pounds a week (either weight or money, depending on where I am at the time).

5. I resolve to date more people this year than last in an attempt to better understand the fish in the sea.

6. I resolve to trust the government more.

7. I resolve to spend more time at work and less time with my family.

8. I resolve to make my husband change, or else.

9. I resolve to keep to myself and avoid other people.

10. I resolve to keep everything exactly the way it is right now.

So, what do you think? Will you try to avoid these resolutions? Are there any you would like to add?

Happy New Year!

 

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Filed under Christian Living, current events, Future, General Observations, Humor

Mr. Monkey Endorses My Book

If you have been waiting to hear glowing endorsements before purchasing my new book Life Lessons from the School Bus, then wait no longer.

On today’s edition of “Monday Monkey” Mr. Monkey will share a few words regarding the book and our friendship.

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Filed under book review, Monday Monkey

The New Books Are In

It was reminiscent of the scene in The Jerk when Steve Martin exclaimed, “The new phone books are here ! The new phone books are here!” There, leaned ever so proudly against my screen door, was a cardboard box containing my new little books. My youngest daughter and I were excited!

So, here it is, finally in my hands – excerpts from nearly 15 years of bi-vocational bus driving. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like 15 years-worth. You’d think I could have written a novel-sized volume, not a 75-page baby book. Nevertheless, the idea was for it to be a quick and easy read, much like a blog post; something quick and to the point.

This is a funny book, but it’s meant to make a mark or two on the soul. My prayer is that it will have a part in changing at least a few lives for the better. Since God is known for working in the strangest ways, maybe He will work through this book.

Contact me if you’d like an autographed copy.

IMG_2632.JPG

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Feedback Needed! Don’t Be a Snotty Susie!

The following is an excerpt from a new book I am trying to complete within the next few days. It will be called Life Lessons from the School Bus. Let me know what you think. Marketable? Funny? Gets the point across? 

“Losing Marbles”

Once there was a little girl on my bus who cried over everything, especially when she didn’t get her way.  She ended up losing her marbles.

Snotty Susie

One morning this little girl – let’s just call her “Snotty Susie” – was crying about how everybody hated her.  Seriously, not two minutes after getting on the bus she started in with her caterwauling (the howling or wailing noise a cat makes). For the next 15 minutes the rest of the kids tried to console her, but all she kept saying through the sniffing, slobbering and crying was “Nobody wants to be my friend! Everybody hates me! WAAAAAH!

Fortunately, we reached the elementary school before everyone went deaf from the crying. Then, just as “Snotty Susie” was stepping off the bus, a little boy who had gotten off in front of her looked back and said, “Nobody hates you, Susie; we just don’t like you.”

At least the little guy was being honest.

The Great Giveaway

Well, that afternoon, when the elementary kids were getting on the bus to go home, “Susie” got on first and sat on the front row. “Would you like a marble, Mr. Baker?” she asked. “No,” I said, “I have plenty.”

What kind do you have?” she asked. “The round kind,” I replied.

Then, as the other children entered the bus, just as soon as they walked past her, she would ask, “Would you like a marble? You can have it for keeps. EVERYONE! Get your FREE marble, if you WANT one!

I asked, “What are you doing? Why are you giving away your marbles?” She said, “Because I am going to MAKE them like me.

Honestly, I felt sorry for the poor little girl. No one had ever taught her how to make friends.

Life Lesson

When we treat people poorly, and then try to buy their friendship with shiny trinkets, we end up losing our marbles.

“Snotty Susie” usually had a bad attitude about everything. She regularly talked mean to other kids, made fun of them, and then cried out in emotional pain when someone wasn’t nice to her. No one wanted to be her friend because she was NOT friendly! She couldn’t even buy friends for a day.

The saddest part was that I picked up a handful of marbles after all the children got off.

Route Suggestions

  • King Solomon said, “A man that has friends must show himself friendly” (Proverbs 18:24). How can you be nice to someone today?
  • Don’t try to buy your friends. If you do, you’ll just go broke (marble deficient) trying to keep them.
  • Don’t let anyone buy YOUR friendship. Be a real friend to somebody who’s a marble short.

[UPDATED IN AN ATTEMPT TO BE LESS SOPHOMORIC. I HOPE IT WORKED.]

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Filed under book review, Humor, Life Lessons