Tag: Family

Lunch Time Again

Coming to the end of another lunch break. It has only been half a work day since my last post, but it feels like it’s been a long day. You know how that is?

It’s 89 degrees outside here in the Tewksbury. The air conditioner is on in the next room, and my little USB fan is running on low about 12 inches away from me. That little fan has been a big hit. I’m loving the stupid thing, and last night when I talked to my brother he said he’s loving it too. It’s just a cheap plastic thing so it will likely burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp* any minute now. Until then…

At some point tonight the Bruins may know who their second round opponent will be. If the Islanders beat the Penguins they will advance to the second round where they will meet the Bruins. If the Penguins win, then they go to a game seven. I’m kind of rooting for that game seven.

It’s not quite time to start really getting excited for this**, but we are starting to get information on Harry’s High School Graduation. We have a date and time, we have parking passes (or we will once he brings them home from school today), and we know how many people can attend. It’s going to be weird in that we will likely follow all of the Covid rules, while the school likely won’t. I mean, come on Rob, haven’t you heard? The pandemic is over. Right. Sure.

Okay, this is just a quick post. Time to get back to work.

(*) You didn’t expect that Monty Python reference. (pause while we wait for the Spanish Inquisition punchline)

(**) It’s too early for me and Jen to get excited, but it’s not too early for Harry. Senioritis is in full effect.

Tuesday Night Nana Sitting

Last night was okay. My brother told me that my mother had slept most of the day so I was a little nervous that she’d be up all night, struggling with back and leg pain. Nope. She went to bed not long after her 8pm meds and slept most of the way through the night. I was ready for sleep around 10, but ended up staying awake until 11. I woke up to go to the bathroom a bit before 5:00am and ended up sitting up for half an hour before trying to sleep again. All together I got about 6.5 hours of sleep, and that’s pretty good for a night on Mom and Dad’s two-seater.

I did manage to watch this week’s Handmaid’s Tale this morning before work. So the misery porn show switches gears and gives us a tear jerker that at the last minute morphs into something really dark and scary. In other words, a pretty friggin’ great episode. Again.

Okay, it’s 9:00am now and I am signed in to work. Let’s get this day rolling, shall we?

Movie #2 and More Bad TV Writing

The Godfather II was a success. The kids were more into the Vito story than the Michael story. The question now is, do we eventually watch Godfather III too? Undecided. I honestly feel that if that movie was called Random Old Mafia Guy instead of Godfather, then it would be considered a classic. It’s good, just not good enough to live up to the name. We’ll see.

Bellana asked if we could watch the first episode of Indestructible. I didn’t know anything about the story, but I did know that there is a twist at the end of the first episode that was surprisingly violent. Jen and Harry did not know that. Bellana waited until the scene in question started before she gave the warning. What a stinker, eh? It was a good episode. I’ll watch more.

So that’s the good movie/TV part of the story. Now for the bad. I’m watching last night’s Fear the Walking Dead. Why do I do this to myself? Season six episode 14 features the second appearance by this season’s big bad. That’s right. The bad guy has now been in two episodes. All of the other episodes were apparently just filler? Much like Stairway to Heaven it makes me wonder (get it? hehe)… Is this guy the big bad for season six, or is he really the big bad for season seven? Are they going to let this stupid, stupid story line go for another year? Good lord, please no!

I’m sure John Glover is a nice guy. I’m sure he has a family and loves them and treats them well. I’m sure he gives a little money to charity when he can. I’m sure if the opportunity arose he would help an old woman cross the street, and I’m sure he would never kick a puppy. I just think maybe… just maybe… it’s time for him to put the bad acting to rest for a while. Maybe it’s time to move behind the camera, or get an office job, or open a fast food restaurant franchise or something.

Movie #1: Complete

They liked The Godfather and I didn’t even need to make them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Also, everyone stayed off of their phones for the whole movie.

Godfather II will happen after dinner. The 3.5 hour movie is the better of the two, but it will be tougher to stay off of all internet connected devices, especially when the Bruins game starts at 7:00. looking at you, Robert, aka me.

Family

The plan for today is to introduce the kids to The Godfather. The original this morning and the sequel after dinner.

I have to resist the temptation to look at my phone during the movie. I need to set a good example. Everything In this movie is visual. You miss it all if you’re distracted.

Stealth Mode

Let’s set the scene. I am in the living room noodling around on my computer. My mother is in the bedroom reading through a stack of mail. The bedroom is across the main hall from me at a bit of an angle. From where I sit, I can see into the room but only a little bit.

I’m putzing around on GarageBand and my mother gets up and walks down the hall to the kitchen. The kitchen is on the other side of the house at the other end of the hall. I cannot see it from where I am sitting. I pop my headphones off of one ear and try to listen to what’s going on, but I don’t hear anything.

I couple of minutes later I get a pop up on my computer asking if I want to connect to my iPhones hotspot. Huh? Why do I need to connect to a hotspot if I’m already connected to the wifi? It could be because I am no longer connected to the wifi. I checked my phone and it’s not connected either. The wifi mnemonic isn’t showing up as an option on either device. Well shit, thinks me. I wasn’t involved in setting this up and I don’t know where anything is. I assume it’s downstairs, but no one goes downstairs. Well, we do go downstairs to do laundry, and if my niece or nephews are here during a school day they go down there for their remote classwork. There shouldn’t be anyone downstairs today though.

I get up, walk into the hallway, and find the cellar door is open. Well shit, thinks me. My mother must have gone downstairs. She knows her doctor has told her to stay off the stairs, but every now and then she tells her doctor to stuff it (figuratively speaking) and goes downstairs anyway. I followed her.

In the stack of mail she found one from Readers Digest that suggested she renew her subscription before it runs out three months from now*. The letter includes a URL for renewals. She was trying to get onto a computer, but the desk she was standing in front of doesn’t have a computer. It used to, and there is still a monitor and a power strip, but there isn’t a computer. She wasn’t sure what to do so she started pushing buttons. One of them shut off the router. She switched it back on and after a few minutes the wifi was back. Sigh of relief. I took out my phone, verified it was connected to the wifi, then tested access by going to Google and searching for “what the fuck”. It worked.

Problem solved. No harm done, other than my mother ignoring her doctor’s order. That left me with the question, how the hell did she get downstairs without me hearing it? The stairs are creaky and the door is squeaky. When I go down stairs I make all kinds of noise. She didn’t make the faintest sound. I sent a text to my brother and sister to let them know what happened. I asked if she had some sort of stealth mode that I haven’t seen yet. They both responded, yup.

Good to know. Good to know.

*My sister added the punchline to the Readers Digest situation. Turns out my mother has already mailed them a check to renew the subscription.

Fingers Crossed

My mother was having a pretty rough night. Not the worst I’ve seen, but really not good. I had to give her the extra pain med, only two hours after she had the main pill. She stopped pacing around 10:30 and she was able to lie down. There hasn’t been any noise from her room since around 11:00 (half an hour ago) when I heard some snoring. That’s good news.

The Bruins won.
The Red Sox won.
Mom was asleep by 11:00.

These are a few of my favorite things.

G’night everyone!

Up the Stairs

I just heard that my father’s physical therapy for the last two days involved climbing stairs. He was able to manage one step yesterday, and today he managed two.

I know that doesn’t sound like much, but given the state of things over the last five months, that’s about as huge as huge can get.

Good work, Dad!