My little androids

So, it's been a week since the flood, and it's pretty much over. I am much luckier than a slew of people in the Midwest -- I only lost a bunch of junk in my basement. I didn't lose my home or anything of value. Chin up, tits out, two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it.

Of course my children are all whiny about not being able to watch TV in the basement, but they've adapted remarkably well. They've even (gasp!) turned off the tube and gone outside to ride bikes and shoot baskets. My 13-year-old daughter, AKA Little Monster Diva, has suffered the most in her Highly Dramatic Fashion -- she can barely drag herself through a day without constant electronic input from her iPod and her cellphone, and no TV is the equivalent of living in the 14th century with chamber pots and muslin undergarments and leeches to take away your evil spirits.

It seems to me that TV is going to become passe fairly soon. We went to get the LMD an upgraded cell phone, and all the new ones play YouTube and other videos. Who needs TV when you can veg out with your phone?

Anyway, the kids were bouncing around the cellphone store, agog at all the gadgets and tricked-out screens and such. My daughter was actually polite and thankful when she got her new phone, although I was in shock at the price. I must have looked like a ghost, even after being assured I was getting a rebate that cut the price in half, because she looked at me with concern and said "Mom? Are you OK?" in a voice that scared her little brother. They both came up to me and worriedly asked me what was wrong.

I snapped out of my sticker-shock, assured them that nothing was wrong, and they went back to playing with the new phone. Only later did my son come up to me and fake-casually ask, "Mom, what's wrong? You looked really upset." I told him again absent-mindedly that nothing was wrong and he put his head closer to me and said "listen, Mom. I'm your son. You can tell me anything."

Ten years old, and he gets it. No phone, no iPod, no TV in the world can compete.