Just a good ol' boy, never meanin' no harm

I'm supposed to be the good son, right? Then imagine this: I did not visit my mother over Labor Day weekend.

I was going to. I had planned to. The car was filled with gas. I was half packed.

I dropped my friend Gimpy off at the El Paso airport on Saturday. That still left me Sunday & Monday to visit my mom in Albuquerque. Barely a minute after I walked in the door after returning from ELP, my mom phoned and told me not to visit.

Sure, she relied on the old standbys. "It's too far to drive." "I'll worry about you because you won't have a passenger." "You'll just have to drive back the next day." "You saw me just a month ago." All those should be countermanded by it being a productive weekend by just me visiting, even if we don't get all the weeds pulled or figure out what to do with my dad's car.

She didn't have to mention the ultimate mom card, the one every mother plays early on in her child's life, and the one that lasts a lifetime. "Do what your mother says."

I was, as they say, screwed. Do I be the good son and visit her anyway, or do I be the good son and obey?

I stayed home and dithered much of the weekend if I made the right choice. (Who but me could inflate this into so big an issue?)