Lucy & Ethel - Smells Like Teen Supervision

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure which blog to post this to.  I decided to post it here, though, since I’d like to get the word out about Care Calendar.  It’s an invaluable resource to groups & churches who schedule providing services for the needy.  Many thanks to Michele for finding it.

If you’ve been reading my original blog, “The Brunette Lucy”, you know that two people take turns being the Ethel to my Lucy.  One is my daughter, Elyse, & the other, my best friend, Michele:

It seems that many of my friends have been asking her what they can do.  They want to send food to the house after my surgery & subsequent chemo.  I can’t begin to tell you how blessed I feel to have so many people care.

So, Michele went on line & found a really neat organizer for this type of thing called, “Care Calendar”.  It’s really awesome.  Once you set it up, everyone can go online & find out what’s needed.  They can enter what day they want to do what, such as bring a meal, cleaning, errand running, etc.  They’ve thought of things I never would have!  There’s too much to tell you about here.  Suffice it to say, we recommend using this service – big time!  But unfortunately, in our hands, we used it badly.

We were entering all the information & trying to navigate the calendar, when I hit something on the computer.  The stupid thing wouldn’t let us enter anymore information, no matter what we did.  So dumb & dumber were hitting every key on the keyboard, trying to undo whatever I’d done.  We must have looked like chimps poking at the keys of a contraption they’d never seen before.  Defeated, we knew what we had to do.  Almost in unison, we holler, “ELYSE”!  We started asking questions at the same time, however, we weren’t saying the same thing.  Elyse had to shout, “Mom, Michele – one crazy at a time”.  Then she rolled her eyes, sighed (heavily & audibly) & steeled herself to face her fate.

You have to feel sorry for Elyse, though.  She walked into the world of two twits, who have no earthly clue how technology works.  We understand just enough to get by, but most of it confuses us.  Anyway, Elyse immediately diagnosed the problem (although I can’t remember, or understand, what it was).  And that’s when I said, “While you’re here . . . .”.

I’d given Michele my old digital camera to use until she gets a new one.  Silly girl, she started asking me how to use it.  I pointed out that the reason I had to get a new one was BECAUSE I didn’t know how to use the one she had in her hand.  I’d been given a moron proof one – I think.  And that’s where Elyse was drawn even further into our little world of “crazy”.  Here’s a sample of our sparkling conversation:

Michele:       “What’s this do?”

Elyse:          “It turns it on.  Oh, & the one next to it takes the picture.  Don’t do what Mom always did.  She thought she was taking pictures, but she kept turning it off.”

Michele:       “How do I plug this doohickey into the computer?”

Elyse:          “Do you know what a memory card is?”

Me:              “I tried to find it to give to her, but I don’t know where it got to.”

At this point, Elyse retrieves my new camera, pulls out the memory card & holds it up.

Elyse:          “Mommy, this is the reason you couldn’t find the card.  Michele, you have to get one of these if you want to use the camera.  Then, you take the card out & plug it in here.  To get one, just go to electronics & show them the camera, point to here, & ask for what goes in there.  You won’t even have to remember what it’s called.  They’ll know just what to give you.  Then, when you leave, they’re going to laugh at you.”

Michele:       “What’s this round thing do?”

Elyse:          “That’s the menu navigation.  Don’t touch it.  Because when Mom did, she got confused, claimed that she didn’t do anything, that it was the stupid camera’s fault, & whined until I’d fix it.  If you touch it on accident, don’t do anything; just go get Alex (Michele’s son).”

The conversation went on for quite a while, but you get the general idea.  By the time Elyse was through, she left the room muttering.  We think we heard, “I can’t believe there’re two of them – and they FOUND each other!”

We finally got the calendar filled, two hours later.  It wasn’t because the calendar was hard to work; it wasn’t.  But in Lucy & Ethel’s world, finding the right button to turn the computer on can be a challenge.

On the bright side, at least we have each other.  And on an even brighter side, we’ve got kids who’ll put up with us & fix whatever we just screwed up.  For now.