THE SONIC BOOMER
March has been a heck of a month! They say it either comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb — or the reverse. It came in like a lamb, so now I’m trembling in my boots.
The first week, I was in Wisconsin, relocating my mother to a memory care center. Everything moves slowly with mom, like those dreams you have where something is chasing you but you can’t run very fast, like you’re a stapler inside a Jell-O mold. I eventually adapted.
The second week, my daughter Jen and I drove to Austin for “South by Southwest” — a music, film and art festival that also includes technology. At SXSW (as they write it), everything moves quickly — traffic, conversation, ideas, everything. I eventually adapted.
The third week, it was back to Wisconsin to sit by mom’s side and see how she was doing before slowly and carefully moving in her furniture, slowly and carefully placing her knick-knacks on her shelves, and slowly and carefully matching up her socks. I eventually adapted, yes, but it was getting to be a mind game.
In Wisconsin, I was awakened every morning at 6 a.m. by a nurse who came in to give mom her meds. In Texas, I was awakened every morning at 6 a.m. by a daughter who came bouncing out of her room like a bunny rabbit with, “Let’s go-o-o-o!”
In Wisconsin, I drove slowly through town, adapting the same gentle pace as the other drivers. In Texas, I was zipping through town next to cars that had no drivers.
In Wisconsin, Mom and I would discuss things that happened 50 years ago by flipping through black and white (or brown!) photographs. In Texas, Jen and I would discuss things that could happen 50 years in the future by tuning in to an online lecture given by Artificial Intelligence.
In Wisconsin, mom sorted and re-sorted several decades’ worth of my old Town-Crier columns. In Texas, my daughter and I were interviewed by Tech Deck magazine, where they focus on “rising stars and cutting-edge brands, seamlessly blending technology with culture and creativity.”
A bit of an aside here. My daughter is a brilliant engineer about to launch a “cutting-edge” data-based company, and she definitely belongs in Tech Deck. I am a simple-minded goofball who does not. Case in point: the first thing I said into the little microphone was, “Oh, I know nothing about technology. I don’t even have a decent web site.” Fortunately, this particular interviewer seemed more interested in the mother/daughter connection and the fact that we are both entrepreneurs. Then he took our picture — because we are evidently the perfect blend of technology, culture, creativity and good looks (ha!).
It was a roller coaster of a month, and it’s time to find out what the fourth week will bring. Will it really be a lion of a week? Or will it be another lamb? Whatever it is, I know this for sure — I will eventually adapt.
