Friday, October 21, 2016

RADIO'S BROKEN

My son Alex and I were headed out to pick up breakfast. I grabbed my keys from the kitchen counter. “I'll drive if you run in and pick up the bagels.” I said as I headed for the front door.
Alex slipped on his shoes and grabbed a baseball cap, “Sounds good to me.” he followed me to the car.
We weren't even half way down our street before Alex had the radio on and was quickly switching from station to station.
“Oh, I like that song.” I said.
But he'd already moved on to the next station. “There has to be something better than that.” he reasoned as he hit button after button.
“Wait,” I complained “You're switching too fast. I can't figure out what song it is before you switch again.”
“Don't worry. I'll find the right station.” The switching continued for a few more minutes before he finally turned the radio off and leaned back against the seat. “The radio's broken.” he sighed.
I looked over at him. “Broken?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I can't find anything worth listening to. So as far as I'm concerned it's broken.”
I could only shake my head. “You know when I was growing up the person who decided what was listened to in the car was the person driving.” I reached over and turned the radio back on. The first station I clicked on was a classical station. “See I fixed the broken radio.”
“Humm...” Alex leaned over and turned the air conditioning off and opened his window.
I reached over and turned the air back on. “The temperature of the car was also decided by the person driving.” I explained as I pushed the button on my door that closed his window.
“But it's beautiful out.” he said. “Wouldn't you rather have the windows open?”
I had to admit he was right. I'd been using the air conditioning for so long it had become a habit. “I guess we could try the windows.”
He turned the air off while I lowered the windows.
We'd only driven for a few minutes before I pulled up next to another car at a stop light. Alex quickly reached over and turned off the radio. “Hey!” I cried. “I was listening to that.”
“In a minute.” He began putting his window up. “Can you close your window, I'll turn the air back on.”
“What?” I looked over at him. “You just said you wanted the windows down because it's a beautiful day?”
“I know.” He nodded his head to the car next to us at the stop light. It was filled with a group of guys about his age.
It took me a minute to figure out the problem but when I finally did I happily put my window up. “Sorry about that.” I started to laugh. “I guess sitting in a car listening to classical music with your Mom is a little tough on the image huh?”
“The classical station is a little embarrassing.” he admitted. “But hanging out with you isn't bad at all.”
“Ahhh.” I almost felt a little teary. “Thanks, I like hanging out with you too!” I reached over and turned off the radio. “Looks like it's broken again.” I laughed as I opened the windows.

Alex smiled. “I told you, that thing breaks all the time.”

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