Yonkers Before the Zombies

The world is supposed to end in December of 2012. 

 What better time to release what was going to be the zombie film of all time, World War Z?  Based on the book by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks's son, not that it should matter but sometimes it does), I was so looking forward to this. (The film, which Brad Pitt was supposed to star in, is now delayed into 2013, if it ever gets released at all. What a (not) surprise!)

You see, I am secretly into zombie lit.  Not all of it but it does fit into the dystopian future literature I...er, feed upon.

I was so looking forward to seeing the Battle of Yonkers.  Yonkers is a city in New York State that borders New York City on its north.  In World War Z, after New York City falls to the zombies, the U.S. Army makes a stand in Yonkers.  I'll leave it to your imagination how the battle ends.

Yonkers isn't worried, by the way.  They are too busy decorating for Halloween.  I should know - I visited Yonkers a couple of days ago.

On our way to a party yesterday, we passed a house that was incredibly decorated for zo....I mean, Halloween.

It was located on Kimball Avenue, in walking distance of the Cross County shopping center.

After the party, we went back.  It was getting dark, and floodlights had been turned on.

You can't see it in the photos but there was even an animated "dead" figure trying to crawl along the ground.  Not exactly a zombie, but it could have been.

Finally, it got too dark, and we left the house to its fate.

No one ever decorated for Halloween when I was growing up.  Now, it's getting to be almost as big a decorating holiday as Christmas has become.  And zombies are massively popular now, for reasons I could spend an entire week blogging about.

So Yonkers waits.  Patiently waits, for the zombies to come.

Brad, eat your heart out.

True Love in the Time of Zombies - A Valentine's Day Story

What does true love mean to you?  Sometimes it means tolerating your spouse's latest craze in reading...and its consequence.

I am reading a book called World War Z, by Max Brooks.  Yes, I have recently gotten into zombies, at least somewhat modern zombies.  World War Z is a serious book, written by an admirer of the late Studs Terkel.   Brooks has done an extensive study of politics, of geography, of military science, to come up with a story of what would happen if a worldwide virus plague hit, turning most of humanity into...well, zombies.  Moaning, unconscious zombies, eating the dwindling human population.

I spent part of the last week reading this book, including horror stories filled with graphic descriptions of a plague that started in China, and ended up overwhelming most of the world.  Romantic, right?

So, on Saturday night, I went to bed and had this dream that became more and more of a nightmare. But instead of zombies, for some reason, it was crazed Canada geese that were trying to get into my house.  My face was up against the back door, where the sheer weight of the moaning geese was starting to bulge the door inward towards me.  In a last gasp effort to keep the geese out, I bit the door.

The door was soft. Too soft.

And suddenly I woke up, with this realization....it wasn't a door. It was a shoulder.

My spouse was awake too.  "Did I bite you?" I asked, fearing the worst.

Yup.

Well, in over 35 years of marriage, that was a first.  He wasn't even mad at me.  I think he was a bit amused.

Turns out spouse was having this strange dream, also involving geese.  But they weren't zombie geese, and they weren't trying to get into the house.  And just as the dream was getting really interesting, someone bit his shoulder and he woke up.

Luckily I didn't hurt him, perhaps thanks to the nightguard I wear.  In fact, the bite isn't even visible anymore.

So, that is my romantic story.  Love means never having to say you're sorry when you bite the one you love during an invasion of zombie geese.


Do you have a non-romantic story that shows the love you have for a longtime love of your life?