At times, one has to survive on sheer wit, wily ways, and wishful wisdom. Where to some life is a test, I liken it more to a pop-quiz. Only those quick enough, creative enough, witty enough to react, are allowed to move on to the next experience, the next round.

Over the years, luck, fate, and roads traveled have put, placed, yes, even dropped a wealth of colorful moments in my path. Chronicling the oft times funny, emotional, dramatic, yet always colorful characters chance assembled to orbit my formative youth, 'Never Play Leapfrog with a Unicorn' unflinchingly looks at one Family Tree, or as my dad so called it, '...the Family Bush!'

My Li'l Black Dad
"Freeze the brass off a bald monkey!" my dad would say on chilly mornings. "Freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" he'd say in the winters deep-freeze. I thought of this as blue-collar meteorology.