2004-08-16 - 1:10 p.m.

Monkey Funness

I find it interesting that people like to dress monkeys up. Why is it that people treat monkeys as if they are little people that refuse to speak English? Oh, humans do this to all sorts of animals, but monkeys are just a bit more exotic than cats or dogs.

They also happen to be very trainable too.

This past weekend I drove to my folks to spend time with my 86-year old grandmother. She is in really great health, and the reality is, she isn�t going to be coming out here that much more. Oh, she does / says plenty of things that I find way too old fashioned and judgmental, but when you take that away (or rather once you understand why this stuff comes out) she is a great woman.

I just wish sometimes that she'd realize that the world isn't still stuck in 1945. It isn't, but in many ways she is.

When she first saw the Monkey at Fisherman's Warf I didn't understand why she wanted me to walk her over to him / her / it. I thought it silly that some dude would dress up a poop throwing creature and ask it to sit on people for money. But then I realized this meant a lot to her. A whole lot more to her than to me, so we both dug into our pockets to find change. My grandmother said, "I think the monkey likes dimes."

Dimes? Hello? You can ask a homeless man to pee on you for a dime these days! Fortunately this came out as, "Grandma, I think he has a sign telling us what the monkey likes. I imagine he can't hold small coins like you or I can. He is afterall just a monkey."

You'll notice that the monkey became a "he" to me. Well, he was dressed as a male, so I just worked with it. But it doesn't really matter, there weren't any other monkeys around to test my theory ... if that even works.

But I digress. I lucked out. The man did in fact have a sign that pointed out that the monkey did in fact "like" quarters. Truth be hold, the monkey didn't like most people. I doubt he could tell the difference from a quarter or a dime.

I was shocked when I went up to the monkey that he jumped in my lap and didn't want to leave. My grandmother wasn't actually interested in getting a picture of the monkey with me in it, but realizing that rarely people take pictures of me, I actually yelled, "Grandma, mind taking a picture of me here now?" She did, and here it is:

http://contour.diaryland.com/images/monkey1b.jpg

<< previous - next >>