Kyle and I were sitting at the kitchen table a couple of nights ago. I was concentrating hard on making a birthday card for my granddaughter. Kyle was eating, or maybe texting.
Anyway, I asked him about something and he said, "Mom, you just asked me about that." I said, "No, I didn't." He said, "Yes, you did." I said, "No way, Jose."
In the next breath, he asked "Where's Swirl?" I said, "You just let her out a minute ago." He said, No, I didn't." I said "Yes, you did."
He opened the door and there she was ready to come back inside.
We were like Laurel and Hardy. It was a veritable human stalemate. Hopefully it's not too serious if we can laugh about it, right?
Maybe the new furnace is putting out too much carbon dioxide or something.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Speaking in Tongues
...or with tongues, or something...
Had a bit of computer trouble when I changed from one provider to another, such as the internet wouldn't connect, the DVD and CD drivers quit working, and the closed captioning on the tv didn't acknowledge off. Kyle was the more motivated of us two at the time, so I left it up to him to find a solution.
He gave it a few ineffectual tweeks, then called his computer-wise brother, Vince. He even bribed him with food. While Vince was working on it, one of Kyle's friends came over, Nick somebody. He's good at computers as well so pitched in to help. I'm not kidding about them speaking an entirely different language.
To me it sounded like: "Dude, have you tried hooking up the abcdkp245 cord to the modenality split? Google the website fix anything for the yada yada systems of the extreme sync connection gizmos and type in parallelay digitalis forum. Have you tried the variation on the easy tubular diagnostic phlanges? CD's are obsolete, no kiddin."
Something like that, anyway. They kept that up for probably half an hour at least, while they kept interspersing comments about how really nice it was to talk to somebody who understood tech support issues without having to have everything explained. I suspect they were possibly referring to other people present in the room. I did my own support of the techs and stayed on the couch reading a book and not trying to "help" them; any comments I made caused them to start chuckling, anyway..
Until we can contact Comcast Monday about a glitch in the motorola box thingey and/or the 50-button remote, I'll get along with the closed captioning which is in huge letters that vary from the top of the screen to the bottom and back. It's quite distracting, but it's ok, because not having watched tv much at all for a year, the whole thing is so IN YOUR FACE!! that I had to turn it off after a bit, anyway. It felt like an assault, and that was just the Home & Garden Channel.
I'm a simple person and am just happy to have the internet again. We will aim for the CD player repair and the captioning issues another day...Monday. I'll have Kyle take care of that, too.
I'm too old to care to learn a foreign language.
Had a bit of computer trouble when I changed from one provider to another, such as the internet wouldn't connect, the DVD and CD drivers quit working, and the closed captioning on the tv didn't acknowledge off. Kyle was the more motivated of us two at the time, so I left it up to him to find a solution.
He gave it a few ineffectual tweeks, then called his computer-wise brother, Vince. He even bribed him with food. While Vince was working on it, one of Kyle's friends came over, Nick somebody. He's good at computers as well so pitched in to help. I'm not kidding about them speaking an entirely different language.
To me it sounded like: "Dude, have you tried hooking up the abcdkp245 cord to the modenality split? Google the website fix anything for the yada yada systems of the extreme sync connection gizmos and type in parallelay digitalis forum. Have you tried the variation on the easy tubular diagnostic phlanges? CD's are obsolete, no kiddin."
Something like that, anyway. They kept that up for probably half an hour at least, while they kept interspersing comments about how really nice it was to talk to somebody who understood tech support issues without having to have everything explained. I suspect they were possibly referring to other people present in the room. I did my own support of the techs and stayed on the couch reading a book and not trying to "help" them; any comments I made caused them to start chuckling, anyway..
Until we can contact Comcast Monday about a glitch in the motorola box thingey and/or the 50-button remote, I'll get along with the closed captioning which is in huge letters that vary from the top of the screen to the bottom and back. It's quite distracting, but it's ok, because not having watched tv much at all for a year, the whole thing is so IN YOUR FACE!! that I had to turn it off after a bit, anyway. It felt like an assault, and that was just the Home & Garden Channel.
I'm a simple person and am just happy to have the internet again. We will aim for the CD player repair and the captioning issues another day...Monday. I'll have Kyle take care of that, too.
I'm too old to care to learn a foreign language.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
"It was a Dark and Stormy Night..."
Thursday after work, I drove up to Clifton. The weather has been bad since before Christmas, so I have been waiting to take Mother her Christmas pajamas and the memorial book about Dad.
Now, I spent almost two decades living in a small country town and was always comfortable being there, but you forget stuff over time...like how really dark nights are without the lights of the city. I noticed it around Brigham, and it became directly obvious as I drove up Sardine Canyon. By the time I passed Richmond, it was stone cold black out there. Coming over the hill from Dayton into Clifton, there is a long lonely stretch as well, and my only thought was "I just wanna be home." Less than a mile later, there it was.
I've missed my Dad these last several weeks, but never more so than when I turned into the driveway about 8:00 p.m. Thursday. He wasn't there to tell me it had snowed some, like 2 or 3 inches. He hadn't turned the lights on in case I came. He hadn't cleared me a nice spot to park close to the house. He hadn't melted the ice off the steps. That's when reality hit; he would never have let there be ice on the steps.
It's no surprise that my car, Miss Charlotte, being a "Southern Lady", is not used to icky weather; she's told me so before. I could tell she wasn't happy to have her little feet in the cold snow, but I didn't know she was going to throw that tantrum! I tried talking nice to her, making all sorts of promises, even rocked her back and forth...to no avail. She was like one of those old stubborn mules, going not one inch further. Lorraine came down and tried to help, but it was ridiculously cold and we were getting nowhere, so we did the only thing we could do. She went home and I went inside and turned up the thermostat, which had been set at 50. It felt warm right after coming inside, but you seriously don't even want the air conditioning to go that low even in the middle of summer.
Anyway, I was unpacking a few things for the night when I heard a noise, actually several noises. Then I thought I heard some guy say something, like 3 words. It was a little spooky, but I got a grip and found some Calvin & Hobbes books to read. I realized the noises were from the house expanding here and there from the heat. I was up late looking at pictures and stuff, sitting on the couch where Dad always sat to read, covered in the blanket Mother made, so cozy and warm. It was comforting.
People living in the country like the quiet, but when you are all alone, it's almost an uncomfortable LOUD quiet. I thought how hard it must have been for my dad to endure all those nights alone, one after the other after the other after the other. What a very long, lonely, dark, cold night. I'm glad he doesn't have to spend another winter that way, that he is now free to learn and continue to do good, to realize his worth and be warm and safe and not have to worry about everything, including pulling weeds and pushing snow, though he'd be first in line to volunteer.
It was a dual lesson. I had returned home after a long drive, but so has he. If there's any snow in Heaven, I'm sure he'll have a place cleared for me to park when it's my turn. :o)
Mother is doing ok. We had a good visit. She sends her love to all.
This song is a lovely tribute, parent and child:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-V3jBzGh8Y
and ps, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CARVER YESTERDAY! Hope you had a fun party today! Love, Grandma Kay.
Now, I spent almost two decades living in a small country town and was always comfortable being there, but you forget stuff over time...like how really dark nights are without the lights of the city. I noticed it around Brigham, and it became directly obvious as I drove up Sardine Canyon. By the time I passed Richmond, it was stone cold black out there. Coming over the hill from Dayton into Clifton, there is a long lonely stretch as well, and my only thought was "I just wanna be home." Less than a mile later, there it was.
I've missed my Dad these last several weeks, but never more so than when I turned into the driveway about 8:00 p.m. Thursday. He wasn't there to tell me it had snowed some, like 2 or 3 inches. He hadn't turned the lights on in case I came. He hadn't cleared me a nice spot to park close to the house. He hadn't melted the ice off the steps. That's when reality hit; he would never have let there be ice on the steps.
It's no surprise that my car, Miss Charlotte, being a "Southern Lady", is not used to icky weather; she's told me so before. I could tell she wasn't happy to have her little feet in the cold snow, but I didn't know she was going to throw that tantrum! I tried talking nice to her, making all sorts of promises, even rocked her back and forth...to no avail. She was like one of those old stubborn mules, going not one inch further. Lorraine came down and tried to help, but it was ridiculously cold and we were getting nowhere, so we did the only thing we could do. She went home and I went inside and turned up the thermostat, which had been set at 50. It felt warm right after coming inside, but you seriously don't even want the air conditioning to go that low even in the middle of summer.
Anyway, I was unpacking a few things for the night when I heard a noise, actually several noises. Then I thought I heard some guy say something, like 3 words. It was a little spooky, but I got a grip and found some Calvin & Hobbes books to read. I realized the noises were from the house expanding here and there from the heat. I was up late looking at pictures and stuff, sitting on the couch where Dad always sat to read, covered in the blanket Mother made, so cozy and warm. It was comforting.
People living in the country like the quiet, but when you are all alone, it's almost an uncomfortable LOUD quiet. I thought how hard it must have been for my dad to endure all those nights alone, one after the other after the other after the other. What a very long, lonely, dark, cold night. I'm glad he doesn't have to spend another winter that way, that he is now free to learn and continue to do good, to realize his worth and be warm and safe and not have to worry about everything, including pulling weeds and pushing snow, though he'd be first in line to volunteer.
It was a dual lesson. I had returned home after a long drive, but so has he. If there's any snow in Heaven, I'm sure he'll have a place cleared for me to park when it's my turn. :o)
Mother is doing ok. We had a good visit. She sends her love to all.
This song is a lovely tribute, parent and child:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-V3jBzGh8Y
and ps, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CARVER YESTERDAY! Hope you had a fun party today! Love, Grandma Kay.
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