A Daily Dose of the Doldrum

Alarm clock buzzing........huh??...........coffee pot starts brewing.......oh..........another early morning. As I rub my eyes and try to adjust to the darkness of the day, I can hear my older brother moving in the next room. He has to be at work at 5am. It is 4:30am now. I will give him a ride, because he has no valid license. Afterwards, it is back home to get myself ready for the day. Mom will be off to swimming and my other brother will be off to work, also. So, this is the bulk of the day that gets monotonous. I work for nine hours, which isn't bad, I do enjoy the work. My mom comes home and spends most of her day sitting around watching television. My older brother sits around and gets drunk. Same story, five days a week. I know that we all have resposibilities and I can't make those go away anytime soon. What I want to know is how to spice up our lives a little bit. I have my own few tricks up my sleeve, but I need to infuse this family with some different vigor, something to which we can all look forward. Acknowledging to myself, that my older brother is a liability in the homecare department, the bulk of the chores around the house fall to me. No sweat, I can delagate those out to someone else, even if it is hired help. What I want help with is providing my mom with some variety in her life. I want to mentally stimulate her. I want her to lok forward to things like a trip to see her grandkids, or a trip to an outdoor lawn concert, maybe even a tour of the museum. She has a few hobbies that she enjoys and I can help her with those too; but first the chores must be finished. Today, though, is a Friday. That means dinner and a cold beer down at the local watering hole. This is the place where my mom and I go to catch up with her and my late father's older friends. There is some cordial visitation, and talk on all the local gossip. Eventually, we get around to the latest political and economics talk. Thats where they lose me (and I think my mom too). I am interested, just not interested in bitching about it. Talk is cheap, do somomething. That is where the audience participation comes in. In the future, I will hold a suggestion competition for the next week for something to do with my mom (me, not you). This weekend I have a major digging project to try to complete, so I will start brainstorming for next weekends winners prize. I like the photo caption contests also, so I will start running a regular caption contest too. Until then, make a good day!!