where does time go??

Back home again, after seeing my little teeny nephew graduate from high school. My teeny nephew who is 6’4. He may be taller than that now – he’s REALLY tall. And he’s never been teeny – I think he’s been in about the 99th percentile for height since he was born. He outgrew his three-years-older sister when he was 7 or 8, and she’s not short. Anyhow, size aside, I can’t believe he’s old enough to graduate from high school. I think this means we’re officially elderly.

The happy graduate and his dad – my brother. Who is probably thinking, TIME TO GET A JOB!!!! The nephew is not going to college, and appears to have no plans other than becoming a rock star. Hopefully he’ll change his mind about college, and I think he is considering the local community college. His grades weren’t exactly sterling – he’s very very smart, but not the most industrious kid. Or maybe he really will become a rock star – you never know! I haven’t heard his current band but he had one a couple of years ago and they had a MySpace page with some of their music. I was pretty darned impressed. 

Posing with his sister – who, yes, DOES have a lip… stud?? Piercing of some sort. And multicolored hair, although you can’t tell it here. She’s kind of a goth chick. And is the sweetest kid ever. She’s been carting my parents around for doctor’s appointments lately when my father had to have some minor eye work done, and has taken Mama out to lunch a number of times. She works three jobs AND goes to school full time.

The oldest niece’s little boy. Who had a way cuter expression a half second before I pressed the shutter button.

And finally, Nephew and my mother. Awwwwww.

So that was a large chunk of our day. After the ceremony Baker B and I went to Best Buy with the parents to buy them a new TV. Their old TV, which they bought when I was in college, died not long ago. They’ve been using a borrowed one, but it’s small and hard to see since it’s way across the room from where they sit.  So it was time for a replacement.

I haven’t been TV shopping in awhile. I thought TVs had gotten really cheap. Last time we bought a TV you could get one for practically nothing – we payed more than we planned but got this garganto 32 inch one with a great picture for a very reasonable price. Well, apparently that was because HD was coming in and everything else was becoming obsolete. Now they are ALL flat screen. That’s all Best Buy has – walls of black, sleek, flat screen TVs. Fancy expensive TVs. Fortunately Daddy did know what they cost, so I was the only one who was shocked. He ended up with a $750 one, but it’s 32" and has a wonderful clear picture. Even without the HD package from Direct TV and the fancy cables they try to sell you. As people who don’t like paying for Direct TV period and until very recently were just using an antenna so they got three channels and had horrible reception, it’s all they need.

Amusingly, I’d told Daddy we probably couldn’t get a 32 inch in the car, and told him how last time we bought one we paid for it and THEN found out it wouldn’t fit in the car no matter how we tried, and we had to take it right back. And borrow the truck and go to Hickory AGAIN to buy one the next weekend. Because they’re REALLY big! Well, not any more. We just stuck it in the trunk, and Baker B could carry it all by himself.

I sure hope we don’t need a TV any time soon. At least not until the next new thing comes out and these prices go down. They’re really really nice, and very pretty, and I’d LOVE a flat screen instead of Monster TV that takes up half the livingroom and weighs three tons, but that’s a LOT of money.

Well, I’m exhausted now. We didn’t stop all day. We had to hook up the TV for them, of course. That was the big reason Daddy wanted to go today – so we could hook it up. Which actually was easy. Attaching the base to the TV was the hard part. And he wanted me to balance the checkbook and wash some clothes for him and really hoped I could vacuum and mop but everything else took so long that I didn’t have time. The whole house is a cesspool of filth, so I guess I’m going to have to go back down soon and clean. Unless Daddy can bestir himself to do it, and there’s not much danger of that. The air is alive with cat hair, so I hope he’ll at least vacuum.

I guess it’s an age thing, but my father seems to have lost the ability to make decisions. I felt like The Answer Channel. All day long it was "What time should we leave? Where should we park? How will we find John? Where should we go eat? What should we order? What kind of TV should we get? How much money should we spend?" We went to Fudruckers for lunch, and it was like having three giant toddlers – I had to figure out what everyone wanted to eat, what everyone wanted to drink, where the drinks were, what name to tell the cashier so they could call it out when the food was ready, where the silverware was, herd them all around, drive the car… it never ended!!!!

And since I try really hard not to get snappish with my parents no matter how badly they are getting on my nerves, I’m afraid I sometimes take it out on poor Baker B. Who has a tendency himself to ask where we should go and what we should do and where is this and where is that. So when I’ve herded everyone through the Fudruckers line and explained hamburgers to my mother and told my father that yes, a 1/3 pound is plenty big enough and no it’s not Monday-Friday so the special is not on today and yes fries are extra and yes they ARE kind of pricey but that’s OKAY and the cashier is right there and yes you need to just tell him what you want and yes they have good burgers and if that’s what you want get that and if you don’t want a burger there’s all this other stuff and at this point there are thirty people behind us and the cashiers are all looking at us with that "will you hurry the hell UP" look on their faces…. and then Baker B says, "What kind of beer should I order?" I am afraid I kind of tend to say something along the lines of "OH for fuck SAKE, look at the LIST and order what you WANT and if one more person asks me ONE MORE QUESTION about what the hell they WANT I AM GOING TO SCREAM!!!! AND GIVE ME THAT BEER!!!!!"

Although of course I only say it loud enough for him to hear me. I will say that he gets lots of points, though, for putting the TV stand together with practically no signs of annoyance even though my father was helping and my mother was helping and a very very annoying neighbor was riding a motorcycle up and down the street and it was INSANELY LOUD and it was 100 degrees inside the livingroom because god forbid anyone ever crack a window in that house, and he couldn’t see what in the hell he was doing because A) he’s blind without his reading glasses and B) we were in the House of Unbelievably Bad Lighting where you have to hold flashlights in the middle of the day to put a TV standtogether.

And he never has a cross word to say, despite hating to do things like that. So, yeah, lots and lots of points. And I am SO GLAD to be back home.