Me and my big mouth.

Our' very nice computer man' who sorted out our router, called again last night. He is quite a shy man, very quietly spoken but not at all 'geeky'. He had bought a gizmo thingy with him so I made him a cup of tea and pottered about while he set about installing it for us.

After a while Husband came down, having put Small Sprog to bed. Small Sprog was taking ages to settle, it was hot and bright outside and he wanted to come down to see 'The man'!

Installation didn't take very long, so when the 'very nice man' had finished we sat about for a chat. Talk turned to technical stuff (as it would) and he started to tell us how you could attach a camera to your system, to make a web cam, which you could use for security purposes. 'You can access the pictures from another computer and see what is going on at home' he said. I think I looked less than impressed!
'It's quite useful' he insisted. 'I set one up at home so that I could see what the dog was up to.'
The dog...the dog?! Well, my imagination kicked in straight away with that line!
'Were you checking up which Internet site he was using?' I quipped, giggling 'Were you making sure he wasn't on 'inappropriate web sites'?!!'
I couldn't stop myself, it was Saturday night and I was feeling a little silly. I was imagining the said dog, bottom on the office chair, paws on the keyboard .....you can imagine the rest yourself! Laugh! Well, I chuckled away...

Then Husband, catching the silliness, proceeded to prance around the room David Brent style with a little 'wooof' dropped in for good measure! (I know, the mind boggles, but by now we were both caught up in the moment) 'Or he might spend the day dancing' he chuckled, still bouncing!

I think it dawned on both of us at roughly the same time that the 'very nice man' was not joining in!!! 'Did the system work well?' I said trying to pull myself together and be sensible.
'Yes,' he replied in his reserved sort of way, 'my dog was quite ill and I needed to keep an eye on him while I was at work. I only lived around the corner, so if there was a problem I could monitor him or rush home'.
That sobered me up! 'Oh' I back peddled somewhat, 'I'm so sorry, that's sad. Was he OK?'
'Oh, well, no', said the 'very nice man', 'He died.'

If I hadn't been standing in my own living room at that moment, I would have wished the ground could open up and swallow me! Where was that system restore button when you needed it, for goodness sake?

A little more small talk ensued as we all walked slowly to the front door. We started saying how sorry we were and wasn't it awful to lose an animal, and 'They're so much part of the family aren't they?'

At the door we solemnly said our good byes, shutting the front door finally. Poor man.

Guiltily we walked back into the living room, very quiet....without uttering a word!! That place where the gaping hole should have been was still there.