The Wood Man Cometh

A few years ago…well actually quite a few…we lived in Manilus, New York. Manlius is located near Syracuse, in a snow belt off of Lake Ontario, so it gets its share of bad weather. To get prepared for our first long cold winter, we thought we should get wood for our fireplace. Being new in town, you are never quite sure where to go, but I had seen an ad in the local paper: Wood Man - Wood delivered. So I told my husband, “Let’s give the Wood Man a call.” We got quite a chuckle out of the Wood Man’s name… the Wood Man from Manilus. .. Ooooo the Wood Man. Anyway, the Wood Man delivered his wood and we were in woody heaven that winter.

The winters last forever in Manlius, the snow capital of the world. It was like we were living in a snow globe. It snowed every day…..like there was someone up there shaking our snow globe... it just kept coming down. So when the winter was finally over and it stopped snowing, it was now April and our taxes were due.

We had some complicated taxes to file so Pauly looked for an accountant. He found one in the local newspaper: The Tax Man. We thought it was funny that the town has a Wood Man and a Tax Man… real chuckle over that one. So Pauly got all his tax stuff together and I said I would drop the paper work off at the Tax Man’s office. Now, do you see where I am going here?

That day I found out that the Tax Man was the Wood Man. They were the same guy…hahahahehehe I thought that was hysterical. The guy is the Wood Man in the fall and the Tax Man in the spring. All he has to do it turn over his sign! So I wondered what kind of job the Tax Man was going to do on our taxes. Would he hack them up and we would end up going to jail because the Tax Man was really the Wood Man? We would have to explain to the IRS that the reason our taxes got chopped that year was because we actually hired the Wood Man.

So I couldn’t wait to tell Pauly….why do I get so much enjoyment out of these situations?? Should I break it to him gently or should I just blurt it out? I go for it.... “Honey, I dropped off the paperwork for the Tax Man, but uuuhhhh…..ummmm…..the Tax Man is really the Wood Man.” I’m waiting now…What’s Pauly gonna say? Will he freak out? Will he worry the Tax Man was really a hack? He replied, “Next time you see the Tax Man, put in an order for a cord of wood.”

I got to thinkin’…..what if the Wood Man delivers a cord of pencils???!!!!