MY View

BY JOHN McLOONE

Super Dad saves the day

It was a bad week.

Not for me, though. I actually had a pretty good week, with the exception of a few phone calls from a college student in crisis.

These were all manageable situations. A lot worse could obviously happen, and thank God it didn’t. All in all, it was a good lesson for my youngest on “adulting.”

Lots of weird and unusual things happen in Madison, where she resides, so you have to be alert at all times. Two weeks ago, someone was shot a block from her home, so these situations were definitely minor in comparison. And I have to admit that it’s nice to hear from my kids. They expect dear old dad to solve the problems, and I do my best.

It all started to unfold in the wee hours last Tuesday. My kids all know that I operate best in the wee hours. At 9 p.m., I’m probably sleeping. At 3 a.m., I’m ready to roll. Still, it was a surprise to get a Facetime call at 4 a.m. I assumed it was some kind of a mistake, but when I saw my daughter’s fearful face, I knew Super Dad had to spring into action.

“Dad,” she screamed. “There’s a bat in my room!”

A lot of things went through my mind in that instance. First and foremost, I was glad she was in Madison and not at home. Super Dad’s kryptonite just very well could be bats. I hate them. I still knew I had to give her advice. I know you’re not suppose to kill bats, but I’ve also known of instances where if a person stands still with something like a tennis racket, that bat just may commit suicide. Given that there was a three-day grieving period for this kid’s goldfish, I didn’t think that was a good alternative.

So, I just told her to admit defeat for now.

“Close your door and go sleep on the couch,” was my wisdom.

That at least bought me a few hours of peace, I figured.

When the rest of her roommates were up and around later, they rousted the evil little beast from its daytime slumber, and it flew out a door.

Super Dad solves the day!

The next problem is going to be a little more complicated. Late Sunday night, I got a text message of screen shots from her bank account. It was hacked.

“First of all,” I asked, “do you have any money to live on?”

“They left $4 in checking and 88 cents in savings,” she said.

I immediately thought back to when I was a college student. That $4.88 could get me through the weekend. A case of Red, White and Blue was $3.50. Senior year, I had a roommate who oversaw an event that didn’t do so well. He had this huge box of leftover hotdogs, and three of us lived almost exclusively on them for a couple months.

Times have changed, however, and I know kids probably need a little more pocket change than they used to. She contacted the bank, and they told her it would take a few days to resolve things on their end.

Super Dad came through with a hundred bucks to get her through the initial crisis. I think cyber criminals are a lot like bats, except if I had an opportunity to whack one of them in the face with a tennis racket, I’d volunteer for that duty.

I’m hoping not to have to turn back into Super Dad for a while now.