We have some friends, Pat and Ron, from our car rider line at Southeast Middle School. At least four days a week we park next to each other (if we can) while waiting for our grandkids. Now, I’ve got to warn you about Pat and Ron… they are UNC fans, have a grandson who plays football (#60) for UNC, have UNC stickers on their car (on the outside so people can see them) and Ron wears a UNC ball cap every… I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY.
They are nice people and we love to talk with them. We sit there and talk about most everything except politics. Usually it has to do with what bad drivers all the other parents are and how they get on their cell phones before they get out of the parking lot which has 6th, 7th and 8th graders all over the place… it is just too unsafe. But that is the 2016 crazy world.
Today the conversation went something like this: Pat says to Shirley. Got your Christmas shopping done yet? Not all. Still got a few things yet to find. I just don’t want to get in all those crowds out there shopping. Pat responds; Yea, I know. I did a lot of my shopping “off line.” I heard her say that and wasn’t really sure what she meant. Then she clarified it by saying; “I got so and so’s present off the line.” I just grinned as I pictured Pat out at the clothes line “getting presents off the line.”
We all, as we get older, experience something I call word dropsy or identification confusion. Well that is the way it seems to happen to me. Sometimes I will get so hung up on one syllable in a word that it takes a while to pronounce it correctly. Other times I will misidentify something I have known for years or some new thing I have only heard about.
Here is the real fun part. Add poor hearing to the mix and the wonderful world of words becomes a hoot and a half. Shirley and I can be watching TV and we will hear something said on a program or commercial and immediately look at each other and together say; “What did he say?” There are times I know they could not have said what I thought I heard… they don’t allow that on network TV.
Have you ever got something off the line? Have you ever gotten words a little mixed up? Having problems with your hearing? If you are don’t worry, it will get worse. So what do you do? Learn how to laugh at yourself and enjoy the moment. Laugh so hard that you wet your pants. That will give you even more to laugh about.
We haven’t purchased all our son’s gifts yet. I think tomorrow afternoon we will go out to the clothes line and get something off the line. Maybe we’ll run into you there?
I have some funny, down to earth happenings in all my books. Hope you will take a look. They are actually ON-LINE at:
Filed under: Faith |
The Journey 
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