Menopause Chronicles-part 5: Life with Boyz

The twins were growing up. No longer did I have to worry about the ceiling fan being used for batting practice. I also did not have to worry about cats being put in the dryer. Wet cats are never fun. Can you imagine how a wet cat feels after it has been spun in the dryer ? Can you imagine what the dryer looks like?

We had good kids. They did not get into trouble. They did not get bad grades. They had great friends…but they were the same age and what one did not think about the other did. They had their own language they learned it in-utero because I still don’t understand some of the “words” they speak to each other. They were also good friends who were very curious. I don’t know about all boys, but my boys wanted to learn how everything worked. Everything from a drawer to a computer. Taking apart a drawer was not a big deal. Taking about a computer, now that’s another story.

I’ll never forget the day that RedSon had fixed my computer. First off, I did not know that anything was wrong with it, but he assured me that something was. He had fixed it. On the outside it looked the same. It booted up the same, but I noticed that the Windows logo had a little thing flying around it now. It looked a little bit like a fly or a bee. I was more or less right…it was a bug. He had fiddled with the programming of the Windows logo so that it had a bug it in. That was not a big problem, but why did I have to have a real bug in my program?

Another surprise came on the first rainy day of the season. My bugged computer gets a message on the screen that says “There has been a leak. Your computer will go through the spin cycle to dry it out and then it will shut down.” I look at the ceiling in my office and I see that indeed there has been a leak or at least a splotch of what looks like drying water is on the ceiling. My computer then starts to make a bunch of strange sounds I’ve never heard before. It grumbles and gurgles and makes splishing sounds. Then I heard something that indeed sounds like the spin cycle on the washer. Finally the computer makes a sound like it’s squeezing out the last of the drips of water. The screen does a flip-flop and turns black.

I’m still not sure what is happening with the computer…will it turn on…where did the water come from.. when I hear RedSon and my secretary laughing. They are having a major case of giggles while looking at my expression of wonderment and puzzlement on my face…and that’s when I catch on that I had been had. My secretary knew that the "spin cycle" had been planted for weeks and she had made a deal to call RedSon when the cycle started.

He later told me he had programmed this spin cycle on a random basis. He planted the splotch on the ceiling (and I never saw it before). What was accidental was his timing...he did not think it would happen on a rainy day. Needless to say, I asked him to remove the bug and the spin cycle from the computer, which he did. I knew from then on, that his ability to work with computers far exceeded mine…that his ability to pull practical jokes was getting very good too…and that his brother would be up to something different but just as “bad” if I was not careful.

Life with boyz is interesting.