I know the person with the TV converter box (!) and the joy of singing about a transvestite

Remember all the hoo-ha last year about the conversion from analog to digital TV signals? Remember seeing those ads warning that if you didn't have a digital TV or cable/satellite service you’d better get yourself a converter box or you’d be shit out of luck next time you tried to watch your Family Guy reruns? Remember thinking everyone on earth has cable, so who the hell would need a converter box?

I’ll tell you who. It’s not my 75-year old mother or even my 89-year-old ex-mother-in-law. Nope. Those ads, which cost taxpayers well into the trillions of dollars, were all for one person: my son, Christopher.

Yep, he’s the one. I told you in this post a while back that my boy’s not big into technology. Since I wrote that, I’m happy to report that he has taken up text messaging (!) and there’s actually a laptop in his place now, thanks to his girlfriend. But I bet Chris checks his email maybe once a month, if that. There are some things he just can’t be bothered with.

Anyway, at Courtney’s baby shower a few weeks ago we all had a good laugh about the converter box (beats tin foil hanging off the antenna). Court’s due date is April 17, so any day now…

What a great time I had during that visit, especially since I got to spend a lot of quality time with my 11-year-old grandson, Connor. One day in the car he had me listen to a selection from his iPod. The song was “Yoda,” Weird Al Yankovic’s parody of The Kinks’ classic, “Lola.” As we drove along through the hill towns of Albany County, we broke into a duet of sorts, with Connor singing the Weird Al lyrics

"I saw the little runt sitting there on the log
I asked him his name and in a raspy voice he said, “Yoda”
Y-O-D-A, Yoda
Yo-yo-yo-yo Yoda"

while I sang the original Ray Davies version.

From then on, every time we got in the car together, Connor cued up the song and was ready to sing. It struck me. Jeez, I thought, Connor’s 11. How much longer will he want to sing duets about a transvestite with his granny?

I’ll be making a big announcement next week. I know you can figure it out.

Purgefest 2010 continues…