Crumbs From the Corner: Adventures in Woolgathering

Friday, May 29, 2009

Pausing



Mater rarely sits long enough to watch a film, but I still insist, anyhow, on recommending she do so. Sit, I say, sit and take the time; ignore the telephone; ignore me if I call to check that you are watching it; immerse yourself in the film.
This evening she promised to try. But sitting for a whole two hours? Mater was wary.
I suggested the idea of a twenty minute interval where, mid-way through the show, Mater would pause the film, brew a cup of tea and have a biscuit.
It all sounded rather hopeful, but then I was struck by an all-too familiar vision of my mother: in my vision she becomes flustered in the dim light of the living room, squinting desperately at the remote control and making significant efforts to find the pause button which must be either too miniscule to identify or has been moved to another part of the device by magical means.
No sooner would she have the button located than it would be time to restart the feature. How terribly tragic to spend all of one's interval embroiled in a battle to find that rascally pause button!

4 comments:

Delena said...

My husband lays on the couch sometimes to watch tv with the remote control tightly crushed in his hand. He puts on a manly show and then promptly falls asleep. I venture over and try to pry the remote from his hand and he wakes up saying, "hey I was watching this show". You gotta love them!!!

Jaime said...

She would be lucky if she only had ONE remote to deal with...nowadays people seem to have to wrestle with which remote to use first, before finding that elusive pause button!

Pappy said...

Try buying her one of those Colossal Remotes at Walgreen's or some other chain drug store. I have to be home to operate the various remotes or no one watches a movie. All of the various brands have remotes that are proprietary and operate differently. It is a circus for anyone to try and learn the exact sequence of buttons and menus. Pappy

Phyllis Hunt McGowan said...

Del, I just laughed. What an image you painted!

Jaime, ah, a very, very good point. Now that would be too much. Mater would resign then and employ a remote-user instead.

Texican, Some of them are bigger than televisions. Really, they're frightening. A circus is what it is, indeed.

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