About one month ago Ma decided to carry a cup of tea (see The Buffalo Tea Party) into her room late at night in the dark. She fell and spilled tea everywhere which I cleaned up and I made sure she was alright before I went to bed. Sometime later she was complaining about not being able to turn on the TV. I found it unplugged and the cable had been removed. They just don't work so well without power. I plugged it in and fastened the cable and nothing. I move the set to look at the connections and I discovered the tea had been spilled into the back of the set. Another dead soldier. I put my TV in her room so she would have something to watch. My TV is as old as my mother. It has no outlet for earphones and it now marks the way for my new challenge. The volume. Once again I am the TV Volume Police.
My daily routine now includes monitoring the volume on Ma's TV. I walk in at night and the sound is max-ed out and Ma complains as I turn down the volume. I put on the closed captions despite her protests and she complains I am controlling her. She says "you might as well turn it off", I leave that for her. Sometimes she gets in a snit and turns it off and goes to bed. Other times she watches in silent scorn, stealthily increasing the volume till I come in and turn it down again. She renews her complaints and the cycle repeats. The truth is I think she sometimes does it to get me to engage her and other times she is just frustrated at the fact she is old and deaf.
Ma really can't figure anything out anymore. Not the simplest mechanical logic. It must be horribly frustrating and frightening for her. I left her watching TV in the living room the other day when I left for the weekend. I instructed her on turning off the large screen TV and returned to find everything unplugged. Cable box, computer, paper shredder, television, surround sound, dvd, and even my desk lamp. If you don't understand it, pull the plug. Pull all the plugs. I now know what I need to do with my tax return.
