It’s
been an exciting day for my 90-year old father. He finally agreed to get the
cataract surgery recommended when he was 70, and he sailed through it,
analyzing the doctor’s technique and insisting on pictures afterwards. Heck,
what’s 20 years, it’s not like he was driving, right? (See prior posts on that
sorry chapter). With this latest episode, my brother flew across the country to
do the errands, driving and cajoling. For a change, I was off the hook. But it
gets better. Somehow my brother accomplished something I’ve been trying to do
for years. He convinced my folks to get a new washer and dryer. Wow!
b) Lowe’s actually gave my father a military discount – note that Dad served in WWII as an office clerk in Kentucky.
c) My father gave up his senior discount – he tried to double dip, then acquiesced because the store offered free delivery/setup (standard, but don’t tell Dad).
d) I think Dad had some powerful anesthesia in his eyeball and was in a blissful state where the idea of a good sale was just too much to resist.
The
washer/dryer was 28 years old – it took 3 rounds to wash anything because there
was no spin cycle, and it took 5 rounds of dryer time (around 3 hours) to dry a
few towels. Dad has literally spent whole days and evenings in the garage,
hunched over, mumbling about how engineering has gone downhill. He saw no point
in getting new appliances when he was going to die soon anyway. I tried to
convince him that he was wasting electricity along with valuable hours that
could be spent reading old Scientific American issues. So how did my brother Dan do
it?
b) Lowe’s actually gave my father a military discount – note that Dad served in WWII as an office clerk in Kentucky.
c) My father gave up his senior discount – he tried to double dip, then acquiesced because the store offered free delivery/setup (standard, but don’t tell Dad).
d) I think Dad had some powerful anesthesia in his eyeball and was in a blissful state where the idea of a good sale was just too much to resist.
I’m
so happy for our whole family. I’m really impressed with my brother, and I have
never said that in 5 decades – I thanked him profusely. Maybe one day I’ll even
let him read this blog. In the meantime, Dad is getting his other eye fixed at
the end of August, and I’m on duty to visit and deal with it. I’m going to try
to replace their sagging broken bed.
