A little story

Once upon a time there was a family--mama, papa, sonny and daughter--who gathered one pleasant Sunday afternoon on the back deck for a BBQ. It was quite hot that day, so papa used his remote control to extend the awning. It was just one of many remote controls he used to maintain control of the various things in his life.

Even the family tortoise sought out some shade.

Things were going along quite pleasantly when all of a sudden mama had a wild idea for something silly to do. Silliness was often what she resorted to when papa got a little bit out of control with his control issues.

She was thinking of the rock-wall-building crew who worked every day from sun-up till sun-down erecting beautiful stone walls around the condo complex.

She thought it might be fun to bring a little fun and entertainment into their daily grind of cutting and chiseling and hefting those heavy rocks. So she summoned sonny to help her hatch the plan.

"Sonny," she said, pointing to a nearby pile of rocks, "go over there and draw a funny face on one of those big rocks with this black permanent marker."

So sonny, who occasionally minds his mama, set to work.

He drew a face that would surely brighten the day of the rock-wall-building guys.A few days went by and mama noticed that several of the rocks had disappeared from the pile, including the one with the face. She had no idea where it had ended up, and was pretty sure it would never be seen again.

But she was wrong.

And everyone lived happily ever after. The end.