Heading down to Virginia!

The family and I are heading to Williamsburg VA for the weekend. It's either fifes and tri-corner hats, or beer and roller coasters.

So I leave with this story.

Many moons ago, I was over my parents' home helping my dad put an air conditioner in the window (back in the days before central air). It was quite the struggle. It was the window in my parents' bedroom and the sill was just a slight bit sloped. He nailed a piece of wood on the sill so the unit would be somewhat level. To keep the unit in place, you had to screw it into the wood.

With that in mind, let's turn the camera to my mother. My mom can rival Doris Day - in looks and in mannerism. She is the incarnate of the 1950's. She was bustling around the room cleaning and dusting and basically keeping away from my father and I.

I was much skinnier back then (about thirty-five pounds lighter to be exact). I was the one who had to jam her arm between the opening of the window and the top the AC to hold it in place while dad put the screws in the wood. I darn near broke my arm as the AC kept slipping. While skinny-ass me was holding this thing, dad started to look around for the screws. They were no where to be found. He looked at me and said "Watch this". Then, with a sound of "here we go again" in his voice, he shouted:

dad: "P, have you seen a set of screws lying around?"

mom: no answer

dad: "P, are you there?"

mom: hurrying back into the room "Yes. What is it?"

dad: "Have you seen a bunch of screws lying around?"

(Mind you, I'm still holding the friggin AC out this window and quickly losing feeling in my arm)

mom: looking at me with a big stupid grin "Yeeeees."

dad: "Where are they?"

mom: with a slight chuckle in her voice "I threw them out."

My dad turned to me and said,

"And that's the joy of living in this house."