Downward dog, upward butts (As told by Liz)

My back was bothering me one day at work and I complained about it to Tina a few times (perhaps several). Len was coming in that afternoon to pick Tina up and she said she was sure he'd have some advice. I'd heard all about Len's kettle bells and Yoga expertise so I figured he'd be a good person to ask. When Len arrived Tina asked if he could suggest some stretches that might help my back. Without much preamble he got down on the floor of Tina's office in the downward dog Yoga position. I think I stared at him for a moment before realizing he expected us to follow along but Tina I both got into downward dog (much less gracefully than Len) and he enthusiastically led us through several other Yoga positions and stretches. I'm sure that anyone walking by Tina's office seeing all three of us with our butts up in the air or in other varied odd positions, wondered what the heck we were up to. But, Len really seemed to enjoy helping me out despite the fact that Tina and I giggled through the whole thing and probably were not very good students. And, my back did feel much better when we were done.

Flying Leonard, Hidden Tent (as suggested by Wanda)

A few years ago at our house in Chelsea, Leonard had decided that he wanted to get something to cover at least part of the patio in the back yard. We found a nice patio tent kind of thing that was basically a structure with four L-shaped poles connected together at the top like a pyramid, covered with canvas and surrounded by mosquito netting. It was "anchored" to the ground at each corner with very large rocks.
It lasted for a good amount of time, but we get good storms out here sometimes, and with them, big gusts of wind. One day the strong winds rattled the canopy until it came loose from underneath the rocks and began to move ominously. When Len went out to see what was going on, even stronger winds started to carry the whole thing away. He grabbed on to try to keep it in place so it wouldn't fly away and do damage elsewhere, but eventually the wind was too strong and pretty soon he briefly went airborne. After he was forced to let go, the tent continued on its way for a while, crashed to the ground and ended up in some far corner of the property. Leonard was fine despite his brief foray into parasailing.
We've since begun to appreciate our covered porch more.

More running jokes

Len had a good number of funny sayings for which we always gave him a hard time. Among them:

• "Do we have access to Microsoft?" (Microsoft Access)
• "We have to get this soundtrack!" --Said about literally ANY movie, no matter how good or bad the music was. It got to the point where we started saying it for him as soon as the movie started playing
• "No snacks for me tonight." --Usually after dinner. Yeah, right
• "F$&@ing hillbillies!" --Regarding slow drivers down south
• "I'll be ready in five minutes." --Said usually about a half hour or hour before he was actually ready either because he wasn't dressed yet or found some other distraction in the meantime (such as his trees)
• "Look at [whatever] over there..." --Pointing out something in the car, probably while driving painfully slowly up our driveway, and if you were in the front seat, with his arm in your face since he was pointing out your window
• Taking abbreviations of sports teams and making them into ridiculous acronyms
• "Hey!" --After meeting someone he hadn't seen recently and inevitably not remembering their name
  
• "What?" --His response to you, usually if you were yelling for somebody else in the house
• "Do we get 'SHO?'" or "Do we get 'H-B-Ho?'" --Asking about two of the channels we've had pretty much since we moved to Chelsea
• "I was just resting my eyes." --Usually right after we'd wake him up from what was clearly a nap

Some great memories (from JoAnne and Bob)

Where do we begin? We have quite a history with Len and Tina. One thing we want to say and we KNOW everyone will agree, we have never met anyone that was kinder, happier, more interesting, more honorable, easier to talk to, and an all around nice guy.

We were so blessed to have had Len in our lives for as long as we did. He made us *think* when we sat and had conversations about anything and everything. He always brought both sides of the topic to any discussion. He was an extremely fair man.

Len was so obviously content with his life. He found beauty in everything in nature. He knew every inch, every blade of grass on the property and enjoyed caring for it . He was so proud of all he and Tina had accomplished in their *do-it-yourself* projects. That was something we admired so much about him/them. He was willing to do anything, try anything, and succeeded more often than not.

Len was a joy to watch when he sat down to enjoy a meal and a glass of wine. He was always so appreciative of anything Tina would prepare. He was adventurous in life, and in food...!!!! He wasn't afraid to taste even the oddest of ethnic cuisines. "Anchovies..?? Olives...?? Sure..!!! I Love them....!!!!....Wow, this is GREAT...!!!! "

We had a tradition that we would meet Len and Tina in Stockbridge, sometimes weekly at our favorite Ice Cream Stand and sit and gab as we all indulged in a sweet treat. We stopped there yesterday and got a cone and *toasted* in honor of Len.

One of our fondest memories of Len was a few Christmas' ago. He was introducing us to some Christmas music that was new to us. The one song in particular was *Driving Home for Christmas*. OH MY GOODNESS, I can still close my eyes and see him pretending he was driving a car and running around the living room singing that song. Our sides ached for many hours afterwards from all the laughter.

Len was totally a class act. A sincere friend. An amazing husband. A very hands on Father. We will miss him greatly and will NEVER FORGET his warm welcomes, his beaming smile, his kindness and his friendship.

Expressed with Love, Bob and JoAnne

The new Russian Sensation (from Ryan)

A few years ago, back in Livonia, Leonard and I heard of a used CD/tape sale. We decided to check it out since it was a weekend. It was being held at a VFW hall, and had a few tables set up with pretty good deals on old CDs.

We were walking around, picking out a few selections, and talking to some of the sellers. We were nearly done, when Leonard went up to a table. He picked up a random CD and asked the seller "Is this the new Russian sensation?"

The seller looked at him as if he was crazy (justifiably). I tried to restrain my laughing, but couldn't stop when I got home and told mom and Dennis about it. It became a standard catchphrase in our house, which was especially fun when the topic turned to an actual Russian person.

His puns were painful but...

One year not long after Len and mom got married, my Italian grandmother (who spoke an interesting combination of Italian and English that few besides us understood) bought them a Christmas card. On an unrelated note, she asked us to spell out the word "aspirin" for her, which we did, thinking she was making a shopping list.
Christmas came and my parents opened the card. The gist of the text inside was "To my beloved daughter" but there was also something written by my grandmother below that: "...and her aspirin." It took us all a few minutes to realize that was her idea of how the word "husband" was spelled. After that we always referred to Len as her "aspirin."

Cordless saw

Back when we lived in Livonia, Leonard was working on some project out in the garage and he was using the circular saw we had. At one point he was cutting some wood when the saw stopped working. He looked around for a while but couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start again...until he realized that he'd cut right through the saw's power cord. To this day, that cord is still held together with some tape, but it doesn't get used very often