Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2017-24

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IN THIS ISSUE

• Kate Brookfield writes about their visit to Lake Como
• This Heroic Story is about a hero who is unstoppable
• Betty Audet forwards some groaners
• Barbara Wear shares a poem about the train of life
• Shirley Conlon sends some strange facts
• Sites are suggested by Tom Telfer

Kate Brookfield describes their visit to

LAKE COMO

After our tour of the Last Supper we went back to the apartment to pick up our luggage and then took the train to the Milan airport to pick up a rental car. This took longer that we thought as we went to the wrong terminal and the distance between terminal One and Two was about 25 km! The mistaken time for our Leonardo tour, plus the time it took to find the car rental place, and then driving out of Milan to the mountains meant that it was almost sunset when we arrived at our AirBnB destination in a place called Dario.

As we drove into the community, not really a town, Michael handed me the printout from the internet booking. No address, no phone number, just an e-mail address! We needed wifi to contact the host, but there was no MacDonald´s around. We asked some local people, who told us there was wifi at the library, but only when it was open!

It was getting dark and I said we would have to go to a hotel and ask if we could use the wifi. We drove out of this community and along a deserted lakeshore road, but there were no hotels around. Finally, we saw a sign to a hotel up a side road on the hillside. But the hotel was full. and they suggested another hotel higher up the hill. So up and up we went as the light slowly faded, and we came to the most charming hotel overlooking the lake.

When we explained our situation, the receptionist let us set up the computer in the coffee shop so Mike could contact the AirBnB host who was waiting for us ... somewhere! Meanwhile, I decided that we should book in at the hotel, whatever the cost. They had one room left, so I took it. The wifi in the coffee shop was not very strong, but once we got into the room, Mike was able to make contact and get clear directions to the apartment. So while I had dinner in the hotel, Mike went off to meet the host of the apartment. It turned out that the apartment was right where we had stopped two hours earlier.

The hotel room was beautifully furnished, with a king size bed and two balconies at the side and front with views across the lake and the snow-capped Alps in the background. The next morning I woke early and watched the sun rise over the lake. After breakfast in the hotel, we drove to our apartment, which was also situated near the lake, but not such an open view of the lake. This apartment was nice, but the one drawback was no parking, and Mike had to go and find street parking.

So our first day we drove along our side of the lake enjoying the view. Most of the mountainside was either private homes or palaces, but at the neck of the lake the map marked what looked like an environmental park. But it was just flood land area with nothing much to see. We could see in the distance a small chapel on a peninsula not far from the hotel where we found sanctuary the night before. The chapel was described on the map as an active but ancient monastery and a tourist attraction, so we decided to go and see it.

After passing the hotel, we were suddenly stuck in a chain of cars, with nobody coming up or going down. After waiting patiently for about 30 minutes, Mike managed a 3-5 point turn and we went back to the hotel car park. The hotel staff welcomed us as old friends, so we had afternoon tea, left the car in their car park, and walked down the hill to see this ancient and active monastery, Abbazia Cluniacense di Santa Maria di Piona.

If you have Google Maps loaded on your computer or device, this link will let you follow the route to the monastery: http://tinyurl.com/yaka4bgo

It was a long but beautiful walk away from the madding crowd. Whatever had caused the traffic jam was resolved, and there was plenty of parking half way down. But the best way to visit this serene place is by walking. We did pass one place that appeared to be a commune, or maybe rental accommodation for a group. The entrance to the monastery grounds has large sculptures of what looked like saints. It was all very tranquil and an ideal place for communing with nature. We just missed a choral performance from visiting choirs, which probably explained the traffic jam on the single-lane road.

If we had known ahead of time that this was going to be our last day seeing the mountains, we might have used the time better to visit one of the many gardens in the area. The next day was dull, and we could no longer see the mountain tops. Transport in the region is mainly by ferries crossing the lake or going down the lake, and stopping at tourist sites. It is possible to go back to the large city of Como on one of these ferries.

Brent Clevenger of Navan, County Meath, Ireland, writes about his father:

THE UNSTOPPABLE HERO

My father is a truck driver, and has been for over 30 years. He works12+ hour days, and weekends, hauling scrap metals, toxic industrial residues, and other dangerous materials. Someone has to move these things; I am glad it´s someone as reliable as my Dad.

One evening my father brought my brother and me to collect our mother. We arrived at the local Eagles hall and were waiting in the truck when my father smelled something. He looked behind our truck and could see smoke coming from a house, a block behind us.

He quickly drove around to the house. The smoke was apparent, and we saw fire when he opened the door and went inside. He came out with a woman and rushed back in for her children. He didn´t stop until all the children were out. When the firemen arrived we went back to get my mother.

My father didn´t even mention it to Mom. We had to tell her what we had seen. My father said that nothing much happened and not to worry. The next day the story in the paper said that the people from the house were trying to identify my father to thank him. My father just said that they had more important things to be concerned with.

My father has a metal detector. He goes all over town, to fields, bus stops, parks - virtually everywhere to use it. He finds countless amounts of change, jewelry, and junk. The most valuable thing he ever found was a solid gold nursing pin, a badge given to nurses when they graduate. This one had an initial and last name, and a date in the early 1920s. Dad did some research and learned that the rightful owner was now in a nursing home several hundred miles away.

The next Sunday he drove to see her. She was overjoyed. The pin had been lost for over 50 years. The woman asked my father how much he wanted for the pin, and he refused any reward. But the woman became upset that he would accept nothing, so he compromised by accepting gas money for the trip - though I am sure that he didn´t tell her how much the drive actually cost.

Any one of these events makes my dad a hero, but he never stops. I´ve learned from him that being a hero means doing whatever you can whenever you can. Since I moved from home, my father has received a citation from the city for saving a man from a crash before his truck exploded.

I can´t wait to hear what he does next.

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Betty Audet forwards more

OUTRAGEOUS PUNS

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab centre said: ´Keep off the Grass.´

The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it´s your vote that counts. In feudalism, it´s your count that votes.

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you´d be in Seine.

A vulture carrying two dead raccoons boards an airplane. The stewardess looks at him and says, ´I´m sorry, only one carrion allowed per passenger.´

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, ´Dam!´

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can´t have your kayak and heat it too.

Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ´I´ve lost my electron.´ The other says, ´Are you sure´ The first replies, ´Yes, I´m positive.´

Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root-canal His goal: transcend dental medication.

There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Shirley Conlon send these

STRANGE FACTS YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN BEFORE

1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel. 2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle. 4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

5. A female ferret will die if she goes into heat and cannot find a mate. 6. A duck´s quack doesn´t echo. No one knows why.

7. A 2x4 is really 1-1/2"x3-1/2".

8. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance (and Heston´s wearing a watch).

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily! (That explains a few mysteries....)

10. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he didn´t wear pants. 11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood. 12. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

13. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple, and silver.

14. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." There was never a recorded Wendy before.

15. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

ED. NOTE: Online "facts" are not necessarily true, as you find if you check them.

Barbara Wear forwards this poem:

THE TRAIN OF LIFE

At birth we board the train and meet our parents,
And we believe they will always travel by our side.

However, at some station,
Our parents will step down from the train,
Leaving us on this journey alone.

As time goes by,
Other people will board the train,
And they will be significant -
Our siblings, friends, children,
And even the love of your life.

Many will step down
And leave a permanent vacuum.

Others will go so unnoticed
That we don't realize
They vacated their seats.

This train ride will be full of joy,
Sorrow, fantasy, expectations,
Hellos, goodbyes, and farewells.

Success consists of having a good relationship
With all passengers,
Requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is:
We do not know at which station
We ourselves will step down.

So we must live in the best way,
Love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are.

It is important to do this
Because when the time comes for us to step down
And leave our seat empty,
We should leave behind beautiful memories
For those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you a joyful journey on the train of life.
Reap success and give lots of love.
More importantly, thank God for the journey.

Lastly, I thank you
For being one of the passengers on my train.
(By the way, I am not planning to get off the train anytime soon.
But if I do, just remember I am glad you were part of my journey.)

SUGGESTED SITES

Tom Telfer sends this link to a video that´s just in time for Father´s Day:

Tom also forwards the URL for a video of grazing cows rushing to listen to accordion music:

Issy Simpson wows the judges with her magic act in Britain´s Got Talent:

This helpful microwave guide will show you 21 interesting tips that will make your life a bit simpler:

From The Seattle Times, here is the story of how therapy dogs help patients and their families in Seattle hospitals:

In this video, Mandy Harvey, who lost her hearing when she was 18, wins the golden buzzer award for her singing at America´s Got Talent:

In this TED talk from Kelowna, BC, Dr. Mark Holder talks about the pursuit of happiness:

This CBC news story tells of the amazing change that has resulted from enrolling homeless Montreal men in an urban beekeeping program:

From the Huffington Post, here are some surprising animal thieves: