As we get older we have a tendency to lose important stuff.  Like our minds.  Younger people find humor in senility and then, when they get old, it happens to them, too.  You can look at it as God’s payback plan.  Make the joke now, be the joke later.  Since I know it’s coming, I feel justified in telling this story.

    I once went with a guy to pick up an air condition that an elderly couple had donated to the church.  We drove up to the home, parked the truck and went to the front door.  An elderly lady answered and Larry, the guy I was with, told her we were there to pick up the air conditioner.  I remember this ladies appearance quite well.  She was rather tall and was wearing a purple flowered dress.  Beside the front door was a hat rack where she kept her cane and her wig.  She grabbed the wig and slapped it on her head, took the cane from the rack and headed out the door.  As we followed her, her husband showed up behind us and we all walked around to the garage apartment tucked away on the back side of the house.

    The lady didn’t waste time knocking; she just fumbled around with the key for a few seconds and opened the door. It was obvious that someone was living in the apartment and equally obvious that they weren’t expecting company.  There was an air conditioning unit sitting in the window just as you entered the room.  When I saw it, the first thing that ran through my mind was the fact that we didn’t go over there expecting to have to remove an air conditioner, just pick one up, set it in the truck and leave.  We kept walking, around the unmade bed and into the kitchen where there were a few dirty dishes in the sink.  They explained that “he” wasn’t there, presumably speaking of the tenant that rented the place.

    Sitting on the kitchen table was a television.  I looked around and realized there wasn’t another room, just the kitchen we were standing in.  About that time the lady proclaimed, “This is it!” putting her hand on the TV set.

    I looked at Larry and he looked at me.  For an instant I thought maybe we were mistaken in what we were supposed to be picking up.

    “This is it?” Larry asked.  “This isn’t an air conditioner,” he explained to the elderly couple.

   “It’s not?” the lady said incredulously.

    “No Ma’am.  It’s a TV set,” Larry said.  At this point there was still a little confusion on our part but they cleared that right up for us.

    The old man said, “Well...it’s what he’s been using!”  At this point it was fairly difficult to keep a straight face.  Larry started folding up the rabbit ears and unplugging the TV from the electrical outlet.

Larry gave it one more shot, “Are you sure you want us to take it?”

“Yep!  That’s it!” was their reply.

    We loaded it up in the truck, thanked them and left.  By the time we got to the street we were laughing our heads off.  I asked Larry if he knew what channel you put it on for maximum cooling.  It was one of those situations when you’re torn between the wet pants sadness and the pants wetting hilarity of senility.  We just chose the hilarity.  Like I said, it’s a vicious cycle and our time is coming.  Laugh when you can, while you can.