Legal Eagle

As I mentioned before, Dad had a secretary named Janet. He loved Janet's efficiency and how she took care of the nitty gritty of his office. I've been helping Dad with his finances and paying the bills, and I'm his new Janet.

On a recent visit he handed me papers he received from the Board of Bar Overseers, forms for license renewal.

"I want to renew my license to practice law," he said. He signed the forms. "Send these out for me, will you? And see that the fee is paid."


"No worries."

Tonight my boss called.

"Did you take care of the thing?"

"For your license renewal?" Dad is sometimes vague about what he talks about.

"Yes."

"Yup, made copies for you and mailed everything out this morning."

"Good. You know this will be my 60th. year practicing before the Bar. I want to keep it up because it will look good in the paper."

"The paper? You mean your obituary?"

"Yeah."

Palm to forehead.

Sorry Wrong Number

If I am going to be out of the house for more than an hour, I transfer the home telephone calls to my cell phone. While running errands, a call came through. Dad. Since Dad's calls tend to be 43 minutes or longer, I told him I would call him back.

(Note: this is an interactive blog. Click on the links. You will need to use your browser's back button to continue reading the blog.)

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ma. It's me. How are you?"

"Eh." ( similar to "meh", not the Canadian "eh")

"Dad called me while I was out. Is he in?"

"Yes." And she began shrieking his name until he picked up the extension.

"Hello?"

"Hi Dad. It's me. What's up?"

There was a long pause as if he was listening to something.

"I just wanted to know when my doctor appointment is this week."

"Your appointment is...."

"When?"

"Thursday."

"Is that you huffing?" Dad asked. He was clearly irritated. I could tell he wanted to talk to me. Mostly to vent about Ma, but he was leery.

"Me? No."

"Who is it then?"

"I think it's Darth Mater"

Change

Himself, as usual, was patiently listening to me whine about the Weebles.

"Remember in the old days you would hear parents complaining about their kids?" He said it more as a statement of fact than as a question. "Now the kids are complaining about their parents. Times they are a changing."