Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I love my grandparents.

Fox News was not on due to it being lunch time and my grandma's favorite cooking show was on instead. I was making a sandwich before leaving the house and my grandma was cooking up a soup. As my grandpa walks into the kitchen he hears this old cook lady on TV talking with a huge southern accent and dropping "Y'alls" left and right.
"Y'ALL." my grandpa said. "Y'ALL." The second time he smiled a bit more while saying it looking for a reaction. My grandma slowly turned around, probably offended somehow, responds.
"Well they wouldn't like the way you talk down there either!"
"Well, why not?" My grandpa is not going down without a fight.
"...well, because you don't talk like they do."
My grandpa pauses for effect and says, "I've never had anyone tell me they don't like the way I talk."
My grandma still stuck on the subject is walking away saying "the south is still fighting the civil war." I however notice that my grandpa is putting Rice Chex in his soup.
"Grandpa, what - what are you doing?"
He clearly states, "I'm putting cereal in my soup." He looks up and smiles at me and says, "It's easier than making toast."
We shared a small laugh, or, a chortle if you will. I soon finished my sandwich and was on my way with not a sound of Fox News Alerts to be heard, because Fox News was not on.

Monday, January 10, 2011

What?

Fox News was on in the dining room while the BCS bowl game was on in the living room. My grandpa was in the dining room with the lights off sitting approximately three feet from the TV screen. My grandma and I were sitting in the living room with the lights on at a healthy distance of one living room's width. TVs blaring loudly in both rooms, naturally.
I had been sitting watching the game for about 15 minutes noticing that there was a beeping noise coming from somewhere. I had just assumed it was from some clip on Fox News. But after hearing it for that 15 minutes, I realized that something in the house was beeping. I got up and quickly realized it was coming from the kitchen stove. I turned on the lights and my grandpa turned around in his chair looking at me. I stopped and looked at the beeping stove which read "F1" on its screen.
M grandpa, not having heard the beeping, asked, "Are you wanting to make something?"
Somewhat surprised that he didn't hear this beeping, I said, "Nah, the stove is beeping and it says F1 on the screen here. Has that ever happened before?"
"Boy, I don't think so. Grandma did the self-cleaning mode on this yesterday, I wonder if that messed it up somehow."
By this time my grandma had made it to the kitchen wondering what the fuss was about. It's about to go off...
"Gloria, what did you do for the self-cleaning mode."
"What?"
"Did the self-cleaning mode mess up the oven here?"
"WHAT??"
"WHAT DID YOU DO FOR THE SELF-CLEANING MODE??"
I had pinned myself against the counter trying to get out of the way of the eyesight between my grandparents. After hearing them raise their voices, I wondered if we would have to be yelling if the two TVs that were twenty feet from each other did not have their volumes up at 46. It was really loud in this house! But my grandma cooly replied, "Well, I just pushed this and flipped this."
We didn't figure out the problem, but after resetting the power, it stopped beeping. And really, it only helped me out because I was the only one who could hear the beeping in the first place! The lights were turned off again and they resumed their respected seats at their respected TVs. The house was again ringing with sounds from blaring TVs of bowl games and Fox News.

Monday, January 3, 2011

OMG NO ICE CREAM??!

Fox News was on. It was also time for dinner. And in this particular occasion, my cousin was able to join in on this wonderful "Dinner with Fox News" tradition. The main course was pretty uneventful, the dessert however, almost saw some rolling heads.
"Drew, why don't you go get three small plates and bring over the apple turnovers?"
"Sure" I replied to my grandma. As I was getting up I heard my grandpa start.
"Go get some ice cream too to go with the apple turnovers." After hearing this, my cousin and I both politely objected to putting ice cream on our desserts.
"But do you want ice cream, Grandpa?" I asked him.
"No." He said nodding his head and shrugging his shoulders. My grandma sounded almost offended by this.
"You don't want any ICE CREAM?!"
"I was just seeing if they wanted ice cream on their apple TURNOVERS!"
By then, in the following silence, I'd frozen, halfway to the table with plates and turnovers. My cousin and I were both bug-eyed.
Just as the audio of Fox News was retaking the room, I slowly got back to my normal pace. I had set the plates down with the turnovers and we ate in silence as if nothing happened.
Fox News was on.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Déjà vu

Fox News was not on and I'm beginning to see more and more of this (unless it's 3:30, then you can hear Glenn Beck shouting from some lone TV in the house). I had just walked upstairs to get a glass of water. Just as I was about to return to the basement I hear from my Grandma exclaim my name.
"Drew?"
"Yeah, grandma?" I replied as I walked back up the top two stairs and into the living room.
"Do you ever find yourself wanting hot cocoa?"
"... ...I guess I've probably thought about it, at some point."
"Well sometimes it's so cold outside and it seems really nice to have some hot cocoa!"
I wanted to say, "Well, grandma, on cold days I like to have a small glass of scotch to end my day!" but instead, I said, "Yeah, okay!"
After a little more small talk, I returned to the basement, leaving them to their evening programs.