Mother-Son Reunions

Two moms met on a Monday, we both recently sent out sons off to college.  Sitting at the local coffee shop, conversation fueled by caffeine, we were both in a quandary about our reunion with our first born baby boys.  Both boys keep reminding us that they are 18.  Both boys are independent, capable and mature young men.  Both moms miss their boys like crazy, yet we both feel we need to play it cool.

We can't race across campus, wrap them in our arms and melt into an emotional pool of joyful tears on the ground.

But what if we don't?  Will our boys be disgusted, disappointed, delighted?  What oh strange breed are we?  Moms of these new adults that still carry our Visa cards and use our iTunes password?  We insure them, bankroll them, and would donate a kidney, too, if needed.  

Every stage as a parent, and as a person, we enter unchartered territory like we are reinventing the wheel, the steering column and the whole highway system.  I think of telling Doc, you will never be my age.  Times change so quickly and so much that I can say for certain my mom did not need to contemplate face time, cell phone or land line call.  ATMs, iphone stalker aps, online banking

The Canadian Chronicles 2014: I've Got the Power

Take this into consideration:  the last two weeks the hydro men have been replacing power poles around the south west part of the lake.  Only part of our lake has power and land line phone lines. The rest of the lake has literally been without phone access until this year when our brand spanking new cell tower with evil glowing red lights was erected.  Some think of it as a thing of beauty, like the Eiffel Tower.  It brings them 911 emergency contact at their fingertips and communique with the wired world.

I'm all for 911, but to be honest, this cell phone tower has been a curse, a $1300.00 curse to be exact. AT&T, for all of its fleecing, has been very nice to me.  My main problem is having 4 iphones and an iPad mini in international roaming territory.  Every time I call them, they are happy to talk to me, personable and chatty.  I think my gargantuan phone bill has afforded them comfortable chairs and a good working environment. Although the last woman customer service representative let me know that her nephew went into engineering and now was making 6 figures and it was good that my son was going into engineering, too.  After our 46 minutes chat, I thought maybe we should have coffee?  I mean, we are friends now, right?

It's also been a curse to have too much contact with the real world.  When you have to live in the middle of nowhere, you can't run out and pick up some celery seeds for your recipe.  You also can't avoid the bills and the school emails and the spam that is floating around in the ether.

Night skies will never be the same around here.  You can avoid the glowing red lights of the tower and the lightning mimicking flash of the landing strip strobe if you look only directly up the lake. This is the most light pollution has ever effected or annoyed me.

Back to our hydro men, yes, not being sexist.  I don't seem to find any hydro woman milling about out there.  Each day, for two weeks, our power is out 9-12 noon.  Then it is on from 12:00-12:30 (maybe the guys are out to lunch during that time?) and then it is turned back on at 2:00 for the rest of the day.

This calls for some pre planning if you want to do laundry or any other sort of electrical housework. It makes you charge every battery operated device to its fullest before the power magically disappears.  Also, you tend to get down to the coffee maker and make sure that you are caffeinated before you lose the window.

Clever List: The 5 Deadly Terms Used by a Woman

1.  Fine
This is the word women use to end an argument when she knows she is right and you need to shut up.

2.  Nothing
Means something and you need to be worried.

3.  Go Ahead
This is a dare.  Do not do it.

4.  Whatever
A woman's way of saying "screw you."

5.  That's OK
She is thinking long and hard on how and when you will pay for your mistake.

Bonus Word
Wow!
This is not a compliment.  She's amazed that one person could be so stupid.*

*This is available on a plaque I saw in Femail Creations.  Just had to share it!  Not sure who this is a good gift for, we don't want to give away all of our secrets.