Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Laugh!

It has been a tough week at Hurst Greenery and I'd be lying if I said any different.  Without dwelling on the gory details, suffice it to say that an unholy alliance of weather and transportation has left us with a higher percentage of damaged plant babies than we would ordinarily expect. The odds of getting a cutting or plug delivery on time this February is about the same as expecting your flight to the East Coast to depart when scheduled. This month we have unpacked mush that used to be coleus..or New Guinea impatiens...or geraniums.... shipped from all over the United States.  We never know whether the flowers froze at the departing airport, the intermediate airport, the warehouse that received them, or the vehicle that delivered them.  Or..perhaps it was the substitute driver that Blake discovered leaving two boxes of cuttings OUTSIDE our office door one day when it was 15 degrees.  The box was clearly marked "Keep from Freezing".  The frosting on this ill begotten cake was an entirely unpredictable equipment failure somewhat akin in likelihood to winning the lottery...except we didn't.  Because its the time of year when we are not lacking for work to do, we don't especially relish the notion of  re-ordering, then replacing and replanting that which we have planted once.  It has been a challenge to "Put on a Happy Face".

Thankfully, we have our personal team of in house comedians! I am not sure what age Ben was when he went through the joke stage, but surely it was between the ages of seven and ten.

  I do remember Brooks telling us jokes without obvious punchlines when he was about ten....or perhaps I just lost concentration before he delivered it.....

At any rate, this family has always appreciated a good..or bad...pun, depending upon your opinion of that brand of humor.  And what better way to cope with misfortune than by having a good laugh?

Blake solved this one before he'd even finished his first cup of coffee the other morning.  From Mark over in St Louis, via text:
 "What do you call a dinosaur with a large vocabulary?''

"A THE-saurus!"

Or..."What does a clock do when its hungry?"

" It goes back for SECONDS!"

You aren't laughing?  Well, Mark isn't pretending to be Jimmy Fallon, but he has an infectious chuckle and you would join in if he were here!

The most prolific jokesters in the family these days are the seven year olds.  Santa Claus is not just a right jolly old elf; he must want others to be jolly too because he brought Gabe and Abbie each a joke book in their stockings.  Friday night Abbie got us all warmed up for the birthday party with a few choice one liners:

Abbie: What do you call a wheelbarrow full of stones? A boulder holder!
(Gabe: yuk yuk yuk , BOULDER HOLDER!)

Abbie: What do you call a tired tent? A sleepy tepee!
(Gabe: rolling on the floor, SLEEPY TEPEE!)

Then there's the ever reliable knock-knock joke, perennial favorite of the younger set.

Gabe: Knock, knock....Who's there?  Jell-o.  Jello who?
Jello, its me again!

He's got a whole book of them.  Really.

Finally, there's my favorite joke anecdote.  This falls into the category of the comic that cannot remember the punchline.  Last year sometime I heard the perfect joke for a girl Lizzie's age.  And, sure enough, after a short explication, her lovely eyes lit up delightedly.  Then she ran out of the room briefly, returning with a pencil and a piece of paper.  "Grandma," she said, "Would you please write this down so I won't forget it when I go to school?"

And I did...but that didn't stop her from calling me up days after that, asking me to tell her the snowman joke again..

Here it is:

"What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" No, I'm not telling!

Next time you see Lizzie, ask her!