Make Mine Wry September 7, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Fiction, Humor, Life Balance, People.comments closed
“My parents are driving me crazy. Every time they need a light bulb changed, they call me. Every time the power goes out, they call me.”
“They want you to restore the power?”
“No . . . they want to know how long it will be out.”
“How would you know that?”
“C’mon. Look at me. Can’t you see that I’m omniscient?”
“And omnipresent?”
“Yes. That too. They believe I can be two places at one time.”
“So, you’re their Super Hero.”
“Yup. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. As soon as the power is back on, they need me to reset their cable box. Now. Running through the sequence takes no time at all, but driving 50 minutes round-trip is getting old.”
“Why don’t you write down the instructions for them?”
“I have. More than once. Each time they lose the list, they call me to ask me where they put it.”
“That’s funny.”
“Sure it is . . . you’re not related to them. But they’re MY gene pool.”
“That’s a sobering thought.”
“One that keeps me awake at night.”
“Insomnia?”
“Of course. Goes with the territory.”
Wikipedia ~ Insomnia
“How about your kids?”
“Yes. They keep me awake at night too.”
“Sorry . . . I meant could your kids help with your parents?”
“Sure. If I could get them to put down their Smart Phones for 5 minutes to focus on the world around them.”
“What is the appeal of maintaining that constant cyber connection?”
“Beats me. The more plugged in they are, the more disconnected we become.”
“How did we manage without Smart Phones and iPods and Facebook when we were growing up?”
“Face time.”
“Right! How did we get from Point A to Point B without GPS?”
“It’s a mystery.”
“I guess we did a lot of re-calculating and re-positioning.”
“Using the stars to navigate.”
“Well, I don’t need a Smart Phone to tell me that caring for parents in their 80’s and kids in their 20’s is tough.”
“No wonder we’re called the Sandwich Generation ~ we’re the glue that holds it all together.”
“It pays to have a sense of humor.”
“Sure does.”
“Make mine wry.”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Here’s to maintaining a sense of humor whenever you’re caught between a rock and a hard place or just spread “too thin.”
Spirit Lights The Way 