Every now and then. I make a weekend trip to Cleveland to visit the old bird. She claims it’s so I can ‘fix her computers and TVs’ but I think it’s because I’m her favorite granddaughter (I’m her only granddaughter). I always listen to her stories, even the ones I’ve heard a million times, and I always try to fix whatever I can around the house.
Last night, she called me while I was in the air (my plane was late) and left a message saying ‘I though you were on the ground.’ and then proceeded to give me the highlights of the Indians vs White Sox game. Which sucked (8-2, White Sox won). As it happened, on the taxi ride in, I asked the driver to turn on the game, so we were listening when a barehanded double play happened. Yeah, we lost, but we had the best play. The moment I got in, Taffy and I started shouting about the play. Hugging, cheering, and so on. As with most nights, this turned into a sit and kbitz time. How were we, how was life, how was work. Not that we don’t talk every week, but now it was face to face, and that’s important.
Things Taffy didn’t know about me:
- I can design websites. Apparently my aunt found my Dad’s new site, and showed it to Taffy, and then my cousin explained to her that I had designed it. So I had to show her other sites I’ve made.
- I can talk to people she knows on the internet. The woman who runs Eat In/Eat Out is a friend of Taffy’s, and I had found them on Twitter and said hello.
- I’m very good at Google.
Taffy used to be very tech-smart, but it’s been years since she had to care, so this whole Twitter thing is annoying and amusing. I told her she doesn’t have to care a bit, but she should know we can ‘talk’ on the internet. I explained it was like email, only in real-time, and she said ‘Oh, like the old messages we sent on the terminals my Stevey made!’ It took me a minute to remember she meant the old IBM green-text terminals (3270s, which curiously, we use in emulation mode at work!) they had at Taffy’s. I didn’t know we’d had a messaging app, until I realized she probably meant the old BBS. I had to tell her “Oh sure, like that, only anyone in the world can talk.” She leant back in her chair and said, simply, “Wow. Isn’t that amazing.”
Talking about Stevey, my Dad, she went on to tell me about how she was so proud of him, and wished he got recognition for being smart in the US, instead of just in Japan. His old school pretends to ignore him, and Dad claims he doesn’t mind, but I think he does and so does she. Then she says the kicker of the night.
I was so proud of him, the way he went to Japan and helped and stayed there, after the earthquake and the salami.
That’s Taffy, folks.