Thursday, April 24, 2025

When Laughter Works Better Than Tears

          Sometimes, you just gotta laugh. Things aren't going well, so you get frustrated or even angry. But whatever is going on, you just have to make the best of it and laugh when you can.

          I maybe shouldn't be sharing this for the world to read, but my brother's forgetfulness has turned into full-blown dementia. Hubby and I are doing our best, but I'm not gonna cry about it, so I'm gonna have to laugh instead.

          A couple of months ago, my brother called one morning to say his record player wasn't working, and he couldn't figure out why because it was working fine the day before. He asked if we could run out and buy him a new one, even though we had just bought it for him a few months before.

          I told him we'd come over to see what was wrong and if we could fix it. We got there, and it's not plugged in.

          We asked, "Where's the cord to plug it in?"

          Tom: "It's never been plugged in. It must be on a battery."

          Us: "No, there was a cord for it when we bought it for you three months ago. We plugged it in when we set it up for you. So, where is the cord?"

          Tom: "There never was one."

          And there was none. We looked around his house as much as we felt safe (not going in his drawers for any reason), but nowhere in his house could we find it. No clue what he could have done with it. He had two razors with similar plugs, and we tried both of them, but neither fit.

          After ten more minutes of conversations that continued to go in circles ("but it has never been plugged in"), we told him we would take it home and see what we could do. We were sure that somewhere in our bags full of misfit electronics, we had a plug that would fit.

          So, we brought the record player home and dug through our stuff. I found three likely candidates.

          The first one fit but didn't bring the turn table to life.

          The second one fit, and as soon as we plugged it in, the device made a little sighing noise. Yeah! Success.

          Before I could get the record on the turn table and check for music, I smelled smoke. Sure enough, smoke was rolling out of a tiny hole in the back of the device.

          I pulled the plug from the wall, and Hubby pulled the cord from the record player. 

          Hubby: "I guess we'll have to buy him a whole new record player."

          Me: "I could try the third cord."

          Hubby: "NOOOO!"

(The picture above is the box the new record player came in. I thought we should save it for awhile in case we had to take it back to the store when my brother couldn't figure out how to work it. I think it's time for the box to go, before I am listed off my rocker as well. Also, I keep reading "Big Bass" like the fish and rhymes with another name for donkey, instead of bass as in bass, tenor, soprano.)

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