I'm sitting in my latte/read-the-paper chair -- of course, there's no real "paper" any more, as the Oregonian has been swept away by the great digital river of our times. Start over.
I'm sitting in the living room having my coffee, my hair matted from the overnight pillow, an ancient fleece pulled over mis-matched p.j.'s. You get the picture. Well, in fact, I hope you don't.
Larry walks by on his way out the door. A strange electronic tone sounds from his pocket. Puzzled, he extracts his phone and we hear our daughter say, "Hi, Dad."
"Did you change your ring tone?" I ask.
"I don't think so." (We never actually know, when this sort of thing happens, what may have occurred.)
"Nice shirt," Jenny says. "Where're you going?"
Huh? How does she know what shirt he's wearing? And, by the way, why can I hear her?
"Did you just call me?" Larry asks.
"No, Dad. You FaceTimed me."
"No I didn't."
"Well, apparently you did. See us? Will, say hi to Grandpa."
"Um, no, I can't," Larry says. "Am I supposed to?"
"Yes! Hey, Will, what does Grandpa have to do so he can see us?"
At this point, Larry hands the phone to me. "Here. You deal with this."
"Oh no you don't," I say, and hot-potato the thing back to him. Like I want anybody seeing me. Seriously, whose bright idea was this, anyway?
We can hear Jenny laughing. "Guess you butt-dialed me, Dad," she says. "But I have to get Will to school. I'll call you later."
By now you probably realize that if we wouldn't know how to FaceTime someone, we also wouldn't know how to disconnect at the end of whatever you call this activity. But the phone goes back in Larry's pocket.
"Oh, wait a second," I say as he gathers his jacket and keys. "I need you to open that coconut I bought the other day."
Back when, I used to love fresh coconut meat, and when I saw some coconuts at the new market down the street, I bought one. But I didn't remember how you were supposed to crack the things. Something about an ice pick, but who has an ice pick any more? I thought a cleaver would be about right, and had it and a cutting board on the counter.
Ever obliging, Larry gives the thing a whack or two and nothing happens.
"I think you have to really smack it," I say helpfully.
He does. The coconut explodes and the juice (water?) inside flies all over the counter, everything on the counter, the floor, the refrigerator, his nice shirt. He swears some Minnesota-type profanity and reaches for the dish cloth.
"No! I'll clean it up," I say. "You just go change your shirt and leave. My fault. Go!" I try not to laugh.
He goes, but is not mollified. As he pulls the door closed behind him, moments later, he tells me, "don't you ever buy another coconut."
Now, alone, I lose it. A mad woman, mopping up coconut juice, snorting laughter.
What we didn't know is that Jenny and Will were enjoying this little domestic scene as well. We still don't know how a person could butt-dial a passcode-protected cell phone, don't know how it eventually turned off, but when we were in Sedona last week with Jenny and Will, they asked me, greatly amused and pleased with themselves, if I'd purchased any more coconuts lately.
"Wait a minute. What the . . . how did you . . .? The whole time?"
Wretched children. Here they are. I just checked to make sure I don't have FaceTime on my phone, and am glad to report that I do not. If you want to talk to me, let's do it the old fashioned way. Deal?