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I think my sister Nancy asked my Dad to give a report on what Mom and Dad do in a typical day. Our parents - Bob and Lois are retired, empty - nesters that live in the same house that we moved into in 1966 with five kids.  This is Dad's e-mail report. 

Subject: Day in the Life of my Parents

Hello Everybody

Due to popular demand - it's up to one and counting - I thought that we
ought to bring you up to date on what has been going on at 1202 Berry.

Hang on.

Today was typical:
Mom up at 7:00 am to tune into channel 9 with their new "happy people"
format. Dad arrives about 8:00 am and then it's off to Quick Mart to pick up the
Tribune.  We don't  get it delivered in the Summer because, with
going to New Buffalo, it's too much trouble  canceling and starting it.
Back to the house where Mom sits at one end of the couch in the living
room and Dad at the other end for coffee, tea, toast and reading the
tribune from cover to cover.  There are some stimulating comments on
articles with only one argument resulting.

Then its mom off to Walts to pick up a spice for dinner while Dad heads
down to the laundry room for a half hour on the treadmill while watching
CNBC.  Will he (Greenspan) or won't he raise rates?  Mom returns from
Walts and asks, "How is Kevin doing?" (at the Merc)  "How do I know, I'm
worried about my own account."  Mom bought some fish at Walt's so there
is now much discussion about how to cook it without leaving a fish smell
in the house for the next week.

Bertha arrives to do the ironing.  She took Bobettes place but she looks
exactly like her - six foot four, about 200-pounds with thinning hair,
very thinning (note from Mark, this is inside joke, Dad is talking about himself doing the ironing).

Mom putters around the kitchen while Dad heads up to his office for some
more of CNBC and computer time. It's approaching noon so Dad heads down to the kitchen for lunch.  Micro some left over pasta followed by homemade apple pie and ice cream.  Mom's still on the same diet she has been on for the last 40-years so she has a
few canned apricots.

At 1:00 pm, Dad gets down to some heavy work around the house.  He grabs
the file out of the tool box and heads for the front door that has been
sticking.  He files down the head of a screw on the bottom of the door
and it now works fine.  At 1:10, he returns the file to the toolbox and
heads back to his office to rest.

Mom is watching a baseball game and there are cheers and groans coming up
out of the family room.  Either the Cubs or Sox must be winning because
there are more cheers than groans.

Mom is planning dinner and, as she does every day, all of the ingredients
are laid out on the counter ready to go by 3:00.

At 4:30, Dad heads down to pour a glass of Earnest and Julio Gallo,
Chardonnay for Mom.  Only the best.  Walgreen's stocks it especially for
us and we watch for the discount coupons.  There hasn't been one lately
so we may be running out soon. Then we both head down to the family room for the early news.

At 5:30, Mom heads for the kitchen to prepare dinner and we eat watching
TV.  That way, we don't miss the onside account of a single shooting in
Chicago.  It was quite exciting a few days ago when twelve people were
shot in Jackson Park in one night.  That's our old neighborhood but we've
heard that it has changed some.

After the news, we watch reruns of the Seinfield show.  Most of them have
been seen 4 or 5 times so we cue each other on what is coming up so we
won't miss a single laugh.

After dinner, Dad goes back to his office to work on his ever running
World War II book while Mom works the remote looking for some sporting
event.

At 10:00, dad goes back down for some more shooting scenes and to pick up
the next days weather forecast.  Will he need his slicker to go get the
Tribune or not?  It's important to know. because it is at least twelve
feet from the car to the Quick Mart door and doubling that  for the round
trip - well, you see why it is important.

The news is all about Elian returning to Cuba which is interesting but
not as exciting as the three or four murder scenes we could have been
watching.

At 10:30, there is a debate about whether to watch David Letterman or not.
 Dave looses out about 9 out of 10 times.  "Why don't we record it?"
Well, there's a problem there.  We have a new VCR that we bought about
two months ago but we haven't figured out how to use it yet.  At least
Mike programmed in the time so it is not a complete loss.  Now there is
some question about where the instructions are.

Now, It's off to bed and another busy day is ended.  We are both looking
forward to tomorrow when that busy schedule will be repeated less the
trip to Walts.  Dad hopes that the front door doesn't stick again.

Love Dad


June 28, 2000


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