I got home from work today to discover the girls playing Sonic All Stars on the Playstation that’s been broken for almost two years. G had fixed it…Hooray! While they duked it out with controllers, Carlos played matching and sorting games on his iPad mini, just like the one they use in school.

After dinner, Carlos played with his robot puppy. Yes, Santa brought Vivi a Zoomer puppy–the world’s loudest, most annoying toy. Then G went out THE NEXT DAY and bought Carlos one for his birthday. Now we have TWO of the world’s loudest, most annoying toy. I got on my notebook and downloaded some Bobbsey Twins books to Vivi’s new Kindle from our Kindle Unlimited subscription. Vivi clicked a little too soon and sent The Boxcar Children: Cupcake Caper to my old Kindle (not my new one), but I moved it between devices. While I was at it, I downloaded the Fitbit app to my phone.

So we’ve got one kid with a robot puppy, one kid reading books that fly through the air in seconds, and one kid downstairs watching football and talking to her friends on her phone.

And right in the middle of it, G is setting up a Roku…because lord knows, we need some distraction up in this house.

He fiddled with it and mashed buttons and typed in secret codes. I turned off the robot dog, got the Bobbsey Twins in their proper spots, synced my Fitbit, charged my Kindle and phone. I got the kids in their pajamas and teeth brushed. G read Carlos a story then sat down on the sofa with the Roku remote and a galaxy of entertainment at his fingertips.

He started scrolling while I played Scrabble. He scrolled.

And he scrolled.

And he scrolled.

My friend, Saralyn, posted on FB that her fella was setting up a Roku. I posted updates to her status every fifteen minutes….”still scrolling.”

G scrolled past movies, British TV, the NASA channel, the documentary channel (I even saw Spencer flash by for “How to Survive a Plague.”), Ninja Turtles, Pandora, Brasil TV.

He kept on a scrollin’.

TWO HOURS. Paralyzed by choices.

Finally? At almost 11 p.m., he settled on a show.
Space: 1999 from 1975. It’s a British sci-fi series starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. It’s set in a distant future of cardboard computer terminals with three blinking red lights. Apparently, all the futuristic technology of that time had been focused on developing breathable pantsuits for the active man.

I gawped at the clunky visual effects. I snorted at the dialogue.

I looked over and saw that G was fast asleep on the couch. Seventeen minutes into the episode.

There I was, laughing at the outdated idea of technology from 1975, while surrounded by gadgets and gizmos that they hadn’t even dreamed of forty years ago. All so commonplace now that they put us to sleep.

At least that’s what I told the robot puppy before I went to bed.