The Sons of Katie Elder Have Nothing on Mine!

Last Edit November 20, 1998

I asked my boys what they wanted for Christmas.
Big mistake.
There are, of course, big boxes stacked in my bedroom from an early foray into the realms of QVC. I got one covered.
I thought to be clever.
I thought I would beat the rush.
I thought shopping on the 23rd was a little late. Beats shopping on the 27th.
Of December.
My younger child, who saved my life, decided that there was not enough "good stuff" around. He has a list of suggestions. He posts it regularly. Top 20 Mac games. 56K modem. Bigger monitor. He spends hours reading Mac catalogs. If only Physics were that interesting.
And he hints that he wants a G3. (That's a Mac computer.)
Before I get mine!
I've been here before!
My other son, who also participated in the rescue of his mother, has told me my 3400C notebook is sick.
I have to trust him.
He's on the front desk at Cisco.
That's the support desk for those who do not know the lingo. He helps Cisco people with their computer problems.
He knows lots of computers.
He gets to take care of interesting problems.
My favorite is the guy who took the insides out of the floppy disk and put the little magnetic floppy film piece into his CD-ROM drive. And wondered why it did not work.
That's OK. I've had to teach men how to insert a floppy.
Disk, that is.
There's always the guy who called the front line in an emergency and wanted to know how to make his background blue.
He forwarded instructions to the poor man. The standard set.
He tells me he's "gotten away from Macs".
Boo. Hiss.
Then he tells me he wants a G3 notebook. Expandable.
Little gift.
$$$$$$$$
I took the four 35mm slides I received from Make-A-Wish (me and the tall one) in to the photo shop.
My younger son, realizing that surgery would keep me from shopping until the 23rd of December, hinted I should take care of one of his needs now.
A TitanII tripod.
To match the camera he got for this birthday.
Oh, why not.
So I asked about filters - to reduce glare.
Turns out, he has two zoom lenses - therefore, he needs two filters.
Oh well.
And they didn't cost $17 each. Try $30 and $40.
Just slipped them in.
Well, he did save me.
I reminded him that the 30-300 lens was an early Christmas present.
He denys all knowledge of that conversation.
The TitanII is tall enough that he can grow a few more inches. At his current 6'2" he's hard enough to handle!
While there, I decided that I wanted a better Polaroid camera - so I could take shots across the seat of the limo - or the table. Fabio will not escape being on film. Whatever. Instant gratification. Required at times.
So my younger son, never idle unless it's homework, decided to examine a $1600.00 camera and it's $800 lens. And to inform me that the camera has a universal mount - so his existing lenses can go on this big super Canon camera. And its lens could go on his considerably less expensive camera.
I suggested that his graduation from college would be a good time to remind me of that.
"For the lens?"
Yes, I said.
"What about the camera? I might like to earn my living that way," he added, clutching the tripod to his chest.
"On your graduation from law school," I counter.
He thinks a bit. "So, every time I graduate, I can get a camera."
Uh huh.
I remind him that the tripod and lenses cannot be played with until Christmas.
He said I didn't love him. I never get him anything.
Right.
I took him swiftly out of the store and got the Thanksgiving turkey.
My older son relented. Now he wants a camera.
I haven't told them what I want for Christmas.
Tall, blond, crystalline blue-eyes,........
Ah, well. I probably don't have to say anything!
They are not stupid children.
But he's too big for a butterfly net.
And he would be very hard to wrap.