She would get up early, get dressed and bake fresh cookies before they arrived. They are Alpha who is 5, Omega who is 3, and Oops who is 18 months. She loved them dearly.

She thought she was fooling her daughter, Julie, by being dressed every time when she brought the grandchildren. But the neighbors knew how Heather was when no one came to visit. They were worried about her and talked to Heather about her mother

One day Heather came up with a plan. She bought her mother a computer. At first Heather wanted nothing to do with it. That is until Julie put her in AARP chat room. Heather chose ChatLady as her screen name.

ChatLady: I am new here.

BowLeggedBeau: Well, ChatLady, come on in and welcome to you.

HandsomeHarry: Chat glad you are here, no profile tho, where are you?

BettyBink: Hello everyone! I see we have a newbie, Chat good to see a new face.

StinkBug: Welcome Chat, Hi Betty.

ChatLady: This might be fun….I hope I do not make mistakes. I live in LaLa Land.

BowLeggedBeau: Chat so do I, in State of Confusion. We might be neighbors.

SorrowfulSally: Welcome Chat…now you watch out for that Bow…he is a lady killer.

BowLeggedBeau: Sal how can you say that? Everyone knows how adorable I am.

StinkBug: Lets all be on our good behavior this morning….we do not want to frighten Chat.

HandsomeHarry: Oh well, she might as well get to know us as we are.

BowLeggedBeau: ROFL Hands, right on.

ChatLady: What does ROFL mean?

BowLeggedBeau: Rolling On Floor Laughing.

Hootie: I have to go now…. Bye everyone.

HandsomeHarry: Bye Hoot

BettyBink: Later Hoot

StinkBug: CU Hoot

BowLeggedBeau: Bye Hootie

ChatLady: I will leave now, too. I hope you will let me come back again.

BowLeggedBeau: You Bet Chat…come back anytime.

StinkBug: Sure Chat..come on back.

HandsomeHarry: Bye for now Chat

BettyBink: Hurry back Chat…nice meeting you.

And so it started. ChatLady went back many, many times to the Chat Room. In fact by the following Tuesday, she was well on the way to becoming addicted. But by the time Julie brought the children, Heather was up dressed, had the house in some order and was already in the Chat Room. She told the room BRB and went to let the grandchildren in.

The first thing they wanted was cookies. Of course none had been baked. There was no time for that. She gave Al money and told him to go down the street two blocks and buy 3 packages of cookies. He was gone a long time. When he got back he was panting and very red in the face. "Grandma", he said "I was so scared all the time I was gone. First of all there was a great big dog barking at me. He lives down the street two doors away. Well, I ran past his house. Then when I got to the big road, the policeman told me I was not allowed to cross the freeway. Grandma, what is a freeway? Then when I got to the store, I could not find the cookies. A nice lady helped me and even got them off the shelf for me. When I tried to pay for them, I could not reach the counter. There might be some broken ones because I had to throw them up real high to get them on the counter. I just gave the grouchy lady there the money and took the bag she handed me. She yelled something at me as I left but I just wanted to get away from there and ran out of the store. I think it was something about money.

I did good crossing the big road this time. I waited until the policeman was standing beside a car talking to the man inside, then I ran across the big road. Some of those people do not know how to drive. I heard lots of brakes squealing and even one car hit another one. But I just ran on toward your house. This time that big dog was really mad at me. So I gave him a package of cookies. While he was busy tearing the package open, I ran here."

Heather opened the packages, gave all three of them a plate of crumbs and a glass of milk. She could hardly wait till they finished so she could once again become ChatLady. They all told her they liked the ones she baked better. They did not eat much and were soon ready for their naps.

Heather pulled a big rocking chair over by the computer and put all three of them in it. She told them that they should stop rocking if one of them got sleepy. Of course, they did not. Oops went to sleep and fell out of the chair. He just stretched out on the floor and continued to sleep. Alpha and Omega both climbed down and lay beside him to sleep. Meanwhile ChatLady was enjoying her friends in the Chat Room.

It was finally time for Julie to pick up the children, so ChatLady once again went on BRB. She finally got them all out the door and was on her way back to chat when the phone rang. It was her neighbor lady, two doors down. She was very angry. She said "Your grandson made my dog sick. Who would give a tiny Chihuahua a whole package of cookies?"

Chat Lady: Back ….has been a very quiet day here at my house.