Let There Be Light…

Here in the Midwest it’s getting dark at about 4:30 p.m. so I asked younger son to turn on one of the lamps in the family room.  Now he has some fine motor issues so things like that can be a little challenging, but it’s not too big of a deal. And it wasn’t a rush.

After a few minutes, I called from the kitchen, “Did you turn the light on?”  “No,” he said, ” I, um, couldn’t get it.”  So I went into the room to do it myself and as I reached up under the lampshade, there was no little doodad there to turn the lamp on.  “Where is it?” I asked.  “The thing to turn on the light?  It’s getting dark in here.”   “I don’t know,” he said, “it fell on the floor.”   “Well, where on the floor??”  “I’m not sure, but I heard it fall somewhere…”

By now hubby came to help and said he’d get the little doodad from a lamp in the sunroom.  Which is right next to the family room.  Which has an overhead light you can turn on with a remote, but only, of course, if the light bulbs in the overhead fixture work because someone had replaced them.  Or not.

So, in the growing dark, hubby stepped carefully over dog bones and the three year old grandson’s toys like Legos and dinosaurs to get to the lamp on the ledge under the window.  He said, “I’ll unscrew this one and put it on the family room lamp.”

But did he turn that lamp on first, you ask? Why, no, no, he didn’t.  And did he drop the little lamp doodad behind the benches where the lamp is?  In among all the dinosaurs and puzzle pieces and books lurking in the dark?  Why, yes, yes, he did.

After some choice words that I was very glad grandson was not home to hear, hubby decided to go upstairs to get the flashlight to search with, which resulted in more choice words when he couldn’t find the flashlight.  By this time, we had just about given up on having light that night.

Then one of us who had steadier hands than the others (it might have been me) found another lamp switch doodad from a third lamp and, carrying it as if it were frankincense or myrrh, carefully screwed it onto the lamp in the family room and turned that light on, then oh so carefully unscrewed it and took it into the sunroom and screwed it onto that lamp to turn it on.  Yay, let there be light!

Eventually all the lamp doodads were found before one of the three dogs or a little boy could eat them.

So, how many people does it take to turn on a lamp?  At my house, the answer is at least three.

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