Back in the saddle again

BENCHWARMER

Ramon S. Dacawi

(Years back, I used some of my son’s personal articles from his musashiboogie blog for this space. After reading them,  Camilo Candelario, my boyhood buddy now based in Fallon, Nevada, e-mailed me that the son feels and sees better than the father. Lawyer and real estate developer Alex Bangsoy, my godson in his wedding to journalist Annabelle Copdiase, also dropped a line, to the effect that my yielding this column to my son would give readers their due. Recently, Johann, my son, found reason to write again. Without his knowledge and consent, and conscious of those comments from Milo and Alex, I lifted this piece from his musashiboogie blog. It’s for young parents like him and his wife Lovelyn (nee Pontino)who gave me my grandsons Lukie and Dylan.  – RD.):

By Johann D. Dacawi

A couple of nights ago, while the boys were snoring peacefully in their room, my wife and I were busy with our tablets on the couch. Letting our fingers do the flicking and at the same time sharing the leftover vodka in the freezer with a single glass. I was reading an e-magazine; she was on Facebook and thinking this was the perfect way to spend the evening.

Then Lovelyn started to talk. She said that she got a notification in her e-mail that said another blogger has the same title blog as hers. Added that the blogger is from Taipei, who, like her, writes about her family, posting photos and everything that a blogger does on his/her site. Lovelyn’s blog is titled “A Raconteur’s Attempt” and the other one is “raConteurattempT”.

I took a sip of our concoction of carbonated orange with a squeeze of lemon juice and, of course vodka, hoping this won’t turn into a conversation. But after her swig at the drink she began to complain. Lovelyn’s  lament was not about the blog name, it was about how she couldn’t access her site no more.

Three years ago Blogger helped her get a new password for the one she lost. But after that she couldn’t control her dashboard and without it she couldn’t write. She didn’t get a response when she informed Blogger many times about this problem. Then she gave up. This wasn’t my first time to hear this and probably won’t be the last so I took a longer sip and my wife did the same.

I couldn’t understand what I was reading anymore so I ordered my mind to concentrate. At the corner of my eye I noticed her screen was showing her site. I was hoping again she would just stick to reading.

Suddenly Lovelyn began to giggle and laugh. I tried to ignore it but on the third time she laughed I asked which post in her blog was funny. It was a mistake. Now she was on a roll. She bothered me about what she wrote, the funny comments her readers left, the photos I took and everything she found interesting.

I was the designated bartender/waiter that night so I got up and made second round. While I was pouring it in the glass, I was having second thoughts of putting more alcohol or easing it up. I chose more.

So it went on like that, me struggling to read and my wife distracting me with her blog.

When my wife cried this time, I thought the vodka had really kicked in now in her system. But then she explained that her blog is full of memories, precious memories of our children that some some of which we even forgot it happened. 

Her words sank in. They made me put down my tablet. I placed an arm over her shoulder and handed her the drink. Then I tried to go back to reading but my mind was on what she rediscovered. May be we were to busy with the everyday routine, our work, problems here and there, the onset of early dementia or most probably it’s just the alcohol irreversibly burning our brain cells that we failed to remember. It’s good we have our blogs that serve also as a journal so we won’t forget. One day soon our kids will read them too and cherish the memories or just find out that their parents are alcoholicslol.

I got up to make the third round. When I came back I sat closely to my wife, snuggled in gently and gave her the glass. She gladly took her dose and I drank mine. After putting down the drink I rested my head on her shoulders and told her we needed to get back in the saddle again. (please e-mail comments to jhndacawi@yahoo.it and mondaxbench@yahoo.com)