Postcards from (...The Unknown Father), (...The Son of A Rolling Stone), (...A Disgruntled Consumer)

Well, it's your lucky day! THREE (or more) posts in ONE!!

As kim announced to the world the other day, I returned from my conference late Saturday night. Not late enough though to miss the boy's evening ritual. I pulled in the driveway around 6:30ish just in time to see a quiet baby, turn in to a very very very loud baby.

I'm not exaggerating, or just looking for something to write about. He was very loud.

Normally he cries after his bath, (because lets face it, he's my son, and us loney folk don't like getting 'un'-naked), but it would be a HUGE understatement to say this was 'crying'. . . no, this was more like 'circumcision via cheese grater', 'wow I just realized how to make some REAL noise' noise.

It was new to us.

I couldn't help but take it personal, and kim really didn't help by flat out stating "Maybe he doesn't remember you!". . . thanks kim.

After a few minutes of frantically trying to dress him, while being told that my son is afraid of me, I passed him on for his feed, and sulked in the corner while Kim had to bring him up to bed - for risk of me 'scaring' him any further... I couldn't help but feel like a big sack of poo the rest of the night.

While I wallowed in my self-pity, I couldn't help but realize how crazy it is to be a father, and have this incredible connection with this little scream machine. While it would bother me to see another baby screaming like this, I would probably be more annoyed, and thankful that I wasn't the one who had to try and console him... but this was my kid, and it completely wrecked me to see my little boy in so much distress, with so little that I could do to remedy it.

Anyhow, 5 minutes later, he was full and flat on his back on his way to a great night of sleep. He only got up once that night before starting the day bright and early Sunday.

So completely unrelated... my parents decided last week to move to Florida. Being in timeshare, it is pretty easy to pack up and move where ever, and there was an opportunity for them in Sandestin Resort. So, they are on the move AGAIN... As kim puts it, no risk of moss growing on them.

Their plan is to live in Florida for 6 months and London the other 6 months. This plan should come in to full effect in 1 to 2 years. All the grandkids are making them realize how much they're missing, and with at least 2 or 3 more coming in the next few years, they are going to be needed for some serious babysitting.

And with Sharon getting up there, she OBVIOUSLY can't be living anywhere with stairs, so she is going to have to find a safe and level condo with rubber walls, no sharp corners, no teenage hooligans and wired with the 'help I've fallen and can't get up' medical alert system which can only be found here in London.

Then Burnie and Chris can get the hell out of dodge, by a Motorhome and park it in our driveway 1 for every 3 months out of the year, and we'll all be one happy family!

WATCHOUT - CHANGE OF SUBJECT

So, as part of my 101, I am to bring in my laptop before the warranty expires... well, considering yesterday the power adaptor started shooting sparks out of itself, I figured now was a good time. So, off to Future Shop I go.

Now I have the full warranty, covering EVERYTHING, including accessories (which the Power Adaptor classifies as), so it shouldn't be a problem. I also have 3 other things wrong with it including a crack in the panel/screen, a busted out infrared, and a dead battery. I wasn't prepared to hand over my laptop (because I want to back everything up first) but I guilelessly thought there was a chance that they would just hand me over a new laptop there on the spot. (My reasoning was just - if they can't fix the problem, then I do get a new laptop - and they definitely can not fix the crack in the screen panel... so I was hopeful). Anyhow, at the very least, I thought I was going to be able to get a new power adaptor because clearly the thing was broken - SPARKS were shooting out of it... it does not take a 'trained' technician to look at it, see the exposed wires, and conclude 'this ain't unbroken'...

Boy was I wrong!

Apparently, I need to hand over my ENTIRE laptop for 2 days before they will even look at the POWER ADAPTOR (A removable accessory I might add for anyone (Sharon) who knows nothing about computers) so that they can then ORDER a new power adaptor (if needed he claims!) which will then take an additional 2 WEEKS to a MONTH to arrive... all the while my laptop is sitting on their shelf.

Yeah, I tried to question this logic... however to no avail. I offered to sign off on any waivers, start the process, and come back in two days when the technician will eventually get around to looking at it, bla bla bla, but no. "Everyone waits in line sir - you are checking in the laptop, and the power adaptor is part of the laptop - we need to take responsibility of the laptop... and oh, you will need to sign off stating that it is alright if we erase/break your pc while it's in our possession".

F*#KERS!

So, we left Future Shop PC in hand. The crappy thing is, I can't even back up the information on my hard drive because I have no power. I think I may wrap the power cord with rubber though and try backing up my stuff. On the bright side, once I get the thing backed up, it's a new PC for me!

Anyhow, that's that!

Cheers.