Dad’s New Reality
Recently,
My dad got yanked into a new experience …
By now having a daughter.
A few weeks ago,
I had some electrical work performed at my digs.
Out with the old fashioned fuse service …
Where I couldn’t have my George Foreman grill and microwave operating at the same time,
And in with a beautiful grey 100 amp (hehe, those are my initials) service circuit breaker box containing working circuit breakers.
Sweet !! 🙂
And since my mom and dad retired,
I’ve decided it is my responsibility to keep them busy by having them do things at my house …
I’m such a caring child, huh ?? 🙂
So I had Dad pick an electriciaaaaaan to do the work,
And asked mom and dad to hang out at the joint while the guy Dad decided on was doing the work.
Which was a much greater incovenience than I ever realized it would be …
Because,
It meant my dad couldn’t access the internet the entire time since his notebook’s battery is worthless lasting 90 minutes max …
And electrical was turned off during the installation for many, many hours.
Trust me …
If you think I’m bad when I’m denied internet access,
You should see my dad !!
Hooboy !! 🙂
Anyways,
On the day work was being done …
I was on my way back to the office from a guest appearance in an easterly county,
And decided to swing by my house to see how work was progressing.
I arrived just as it was being completed …
And met the electrician for all of 10 minutes,
After which I left mom, dad and electrician at my house to finish up …
And headed back into the office.
However,
Apparently those 10 minutes in my hallowed presence was enough of a magical moment for him …
That the aura of All Things Amy must have overcome him,
For about 30 minutes after I arrived back at my office …
Dad calls me.
“Hiiiiiiii Amy. 🙂”
“Hi Daaaaaaaaaaad. 🙂”
“The electrician wants you to call him. He said he needs to tell you something and I didn’t want to give him your phone numbers.”
Editor’s Note: I’ve got smart parents … they never give my number out. They always take a number and tell the party they will get it to me. 🙂
“What does he need? Why couldn’t he just tell you? It’s not like I’m not going to run anything he tells me past you or Baby Brother anyways. Just tell him I want him to talk to you about whatever it is.”
“I don’t know why he wants to talk to you, I asked him to tell me, but he just said it’s something he has to go over with you.”
“Yeah right, he just wants to ask me out.”
Of course,
My dad totally disregarded my last statement,
Mainly because no one takes me seriously when I say things like that …
And for good reason,
Because I really am never serious when I say things like that. 🙂
Anyways …
Knowing Dad would be calling me back at some point that night to find out what Mr. Electrician Dude wanted …
I decided I had best call him right away.
“Hello.”
“Hi. This is Amy Preston, you did an electrical service upgrade at my house earlier today. My dad just called me and told me you needed to speak with me about something?”
“Oh, hi, thanks for calling back so promptly. Can you hold on just one second?”
“Sure.”
Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dummmmm
Dum Dum Dum Dum Dummm
Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum
Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dummmmm
Dummm Dum Dumm Dummm Dummmm Dummmmm Dummmmmmm
Ah-hem. That was the theme to Jeopardy. What can I say … you kids know I can’t carry a tune !! 🙂
“Back. Sorry about that.”
“No problem.”
“Good. Glad to hear that. Actually, it’s not an emergency or anything, I was just wondering if you would like to go out to dinner sometime?”
Now at this particular moment …
Three things crossed my mind,
This time in the span of .84 seconds,
A little slower than normal,
But hey, I’m getting old :):
1. I’m soooooo going to laugh at Dad when I tell him the guy really did want to ask me out.
2. What is it with me and electricians ?? This is the third guy in less than a month that works in the electrical field that’s expressed an interest in me. Unfortunately, the one that had the best chance of getting a yes out of me never quite worked up the nerve.
3. I swear … every since I swore off dating guys in my hometown … guys have started asking me out !! Where were these offers when I might have said yes ??
“Thank you for asking. I can’t right now though.”
“I don’t mean today. I meant this weekend maybe.”
“Oh no, I understand. I’m sorry, that really is nice of you to ask, but I’m seeing someone right now.”
Lie or truth ?? It doesn’t matter, it’s my final fallback line in situatiooooons like that. ‘Member? I swore off dating guys in my hometown. Why you ask ?? Stay tuned. 🙂
“Oh, okay. Well, I just wanted to ask. You are very beautiful.”
Okay, just to beat everyone to the punch, yes, I know … apparently my dad hired an electrician that drinks on the job … ’cause clearly he was evaluating me through his beer goggles !! 😛
“🙂 Well, thank you. That’s nice of you to say. And thank you for your work at my house !!”
“You’re welcome. Bye.”
“Goodbye.”
I sooooooo love Told You So moments …
Even when I just stumble into them through sheer luck !! 🙂
Making the question:
Do I call dad right away and tell him what went down …
And that I was RIGHT about the reason for Mr. Electrician Dude’s requested phone call ??
Or do I just non-chalantly bring it up when my dad asks about the reason for the call request at his own pace??
I opted for the latter,
Thinking it could be funnier that way when I delivered the news to him.
You see,
At times I do have patience !! 🙂
So a few days later Dad asked the nature of the call …
“Hey, whatever happened with Mr. Electrician Dude. What did he want?”
“What did I tell you he wanted?”
“What? Oh, that he wanted to ask you out ??”
“There you go !! Just just like told ya !! 🙂” *snicker* *snicker*
“Are you serious? He didn’t even see you for what … 10 minutes at the most?”
“Something like that. But really … I have a very engaging personality Dad. ” 🙂
Obviously, I was laughing my ass off when tossing out that last comment. But not nearly as much as my dad was laughing his ass off !! Again, no one takes me seriously when I say things like that !! LOL 🙂
“You know,” interjected my mom, “I’ll bet that’s why the wire to your front doorbell wasn’t hooked back up at first?”
“What?”
“I went downstairs to check the box before he left and there was this wire dangling on the side. When I got him to check it out, he was all flustered and said it was just the front doorbell and he forgot to re-connect it … I’ll bet he did that on purpose so he’d have to come back and fix it !!”
Seriously, my mom and dad are really good are keeping a close eye on things, aren’t they? I’d have never noticed a wire wasn’t reconnected, and even if I did, the extent of my effort to address it would be to ask Baby Brother or Shaft to come over and check it out for me.
Now regular viewers here know that I’m really close with my family.
And you’d have thought I would of noticed this long before now …
But for the first time in my life, as my dad said:
“I’m not crazy about this at all.”
I noticed he had a holster on and was carrying a Blastech DL-44 !!!
Yeah … I know !!
Who wudda thunk !!
It was the exact same type gun that Han Solo was carrying when he blaster-slabbed Greedo at the cantina in Mos Eisley on Tatooine.
Totally …
Surprised me too !!! 🙂
Then Dad started to slowly unholster it …
“Maybe I need to have a little Father-Mr. Electrician Dude talk with him.”
“No no no Dad. It’s all fine. I told him no. He didn’t seem stalkish at all. I’m sure he won’t call you to have me call him again. It’s no big deal.”
“Well, okay,” he said as he reholstered the Blastech DL-44, “but still … he does know where you live.”
So dad got on the phone …
And an hour later,
Baby Brother stopped over:
“Hey Aim, Dad told me to drop off this R2 unit to keep an eye on things, well, actually, to keep an eye on you. Do you have enough electrical service so I can recharge him?”
“If I don’t, I know who to call !“
G, That’s wonderful advice for Amy. But I gotta tell ya, It is way scarey! Even as eager as most of us are for it to happen. I’m not as beautiful as ‘Kenna and Amy, but the few times that guys have hit on me have just about sent me into a panic. I wanted to kick their seeing eye dogs. It is very frightening. That fear of rejection, after someone finds out our past is a powerful inhibitor. Hopefully it’s easier after grs-I suspect it will be. But I still say I’m more frightened of dating than I am of grs and it’s accompanying pain. Laura A.
Nah, Captain Apollo came to retrieve his R2 unit, however when seeing Amy he proclaimed her to be his new star babe. So now there off “to boldly go where no one has gone before” … mhhh hold it, I’m mixing up somewhere …
Camping out waiting in line for tickets to “Revenge of the Sith”.
🙂
WHERE IS THE PADAWAN?
Having a padwan is better. You don’t have hurt feelings when there’s no Masters Day card because there’s no Masters Day. 🙂
So,
where’s that girl of mine lately? She never calls, she never writes.
Heck, the last time she posted here was 4/26!
You’d think she has a life or something!!
Hugzz on Mothers Day!
iMom
nice play. silly me.
Greg, I was explaining the silliness of the electronic word play:
PC board = Boredom with Political Correctness
ps. – where’s the promised mp3 from http://amynews.com/Blog/archives/001301.html
been WAITING……..
love & hugs,
ghf
Screw political correctness. Transformer fits, transistor works. What the hell. Shall I wax eloquent on my non-discrimation soapbox again?
Boredom with Political Correctness aside, being Bro’s trans-sister doesn’t preclude Amy being our transitor, does it? 🙂
Yodette,
Actually, Amy’s a trans-sister to Bro!
😉
Amy, a transformer? For the PC board, Amy’s a transitor.
Ohm my! I hope you didn’t have a black-out?? I’m sure the electrode up in a van — or did he rent a Hertz?
Tesla about him. Does he generate animal magnetism? Does he have the capacitor to be a good boyfriend? Can he generate heat? Can he
step-up to the plate? Or is he one of those off-peak kind of guys, you know, a brown-out, off the grid? Did your Dad ask how he got into the union? Self-induction? Is he AC or DC? Why your resistance?
Anode these are personal questions, but does he know you’re a transformer?
Amy,
Didn’t you think his body was AMPle? Or was it reVOLTing? WATT was your opinion? You might have been able to get your service done with no CHARGE!
Hey Amy, have you seen Darth Vader’s Blog (http://darthside.blogspot.com/) yet? It’s really well written, aside from being a whole bit silly.
Nice Def L. pic-no blue top!;-)
M
Greg dating for a while is a little like giving a hungry dog a rubber bone sometimes, if you catch my drift. 😉
“I said what I said, and I meant what I said – an elephant faithfull, 100%” (Dumbo)
Don’t you get it yet Amy? You’re cute. You’re intelligent. You’re single. You’re pretty. You’re vivacious. You’re appetizing (very).
[PS – I’m married – happily (I think – but both my wife and I believe that there is no reason we can’t check out the various menus)].
Why does every TS seem to have to reinvent the wheel every time she comes around? Take it, run with it for crying out loud.
Don’t say, “I’m seeng someone.”
SAY YES!
I tell this to my sister – but she’s such a butthead.
Get out there NOW, or you’ll still be 15 when you’re 50.
SAY YES! Undisphyoria the dysphoria. You’ll be happy!
ghf
Whoopsy! I meant to cancel my last comment and clicked on the wrong button. Serves me right for being silly.
The word play induced a revolted reactance to her current comment? The potential
My brain short circuited from all the electrical references, Sianna, resistance may have been futile, but my capacitance has potential!
I guess he thought you were hot, and the two of you might make sparks fly, so he made his best charge. too bad for him you’re grounded in reality, im sure that was a real negative. Illuminating story though. At least we know you’re livewire, eh?
Do you know what submachinegun was the basis for the baster rifle?
To look up the blaster rifle, swap blasterrifle.html for blasterpistol.html in the blaster pistol URL.
(The comment submission mech kicked back my attempt to include the URL directly with the error, “Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content: angelfire . com”.)
And you didn’t even ask if he could do more things around the house besides the electrical stuff … like plumbing, woodwork and you know the ‘chip you nail’ stuff. There is nothing more usefull then a guy who knows how to fix things, I have several things waiting for him when I find the right one.
I wonder if you would have gotten a discount if you traded the model named ‘Shaft’ for the new ‘electrical guy’ model.
The cigar Amy wins!
Nope Alice, that part of the post is just me exhibiting my geekness … though strong in the ways of the Force himself, Dad doesn’t have a Blastech DL-44 and is probably shaking his head as he’s reading this post asking mom … “Is she talking that Star Wars stuff again??” 🙂
That would be a Broomhandle Mauser if I’m not mistaken !! 🙂 Sadly, I know little about guns in real life, but I do know which ones where used for SW weaponry !! 🙂
I’m confused, your dad was carrying a Star Wars replica prop around?
In any event, that’s is such a great story!
I love that story.
Your dad couldn’t recharge his laptop with the electrical service shutoff? I see you inherited your connection to the force from your mom.
Star Wars techie question of the day: What type of actual pistol was modified by the Star Wars prop techies to become the Blastech DL-44? (Hint: Winston Churhill carried one during the Boer War.)
…make sure you check the R2 unit for any plans stashed away in its memory banks…those things are notorious for that…. 🙂