Twenty Minutes Of My Life Lost

As I was working yesterday, a strange looking man passed me who looked vaguely familiar. He went into the house next door from where I was working and I spent the next few minutes trying to wrap my head around where I knew him from. Just then he came back out of the house and in passing asked, “Who you shuttin’ off?”
“No one.” I said.
He then gave me a toothless grin, “I bet you love this weather don’t ya?”
I gave a sarcastic, “Yeah, it’s great.”
He got in his car to leave and halfway down the block the car stopped and began to back up. He stopped in the middle of the street and got out with the car still running. “Hey, I’ve got one of those high definition boxes….” he said in his loud annoying voice, “and I can’t tell the difference between the high def channels and the regular channels. What would cause that?” He wreaked of alcohol and looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week.
“It’s probably not hooked up with a high def cable.” I explained.
“Oh, like an HDMI cable?” I was surprised he even knew what an HDMI cable was.
“That’s exactly what you need.”
“Well, I’ve got one for my Xbox.”
“Yeah, just use that on your DVR and see if you can tell a difference.”
“I can’t right now because I loaned my TV to my sister but I should be getting it back this weekend and when I do I’ll try that.”
“They probably just used the standard cable when they installed it.”
“Yeah, they did. Why did they do that? They should’ve known it needed an HDMI cable.”
“Because those HDMI cables cost $11 a piece or they may have been out of cables.”
“The cable company ought to give us those cables. What’s the point of having a high definition box if it don’t come with high definition cables?” A point I’ve tried making with them for years but to no avail. Still I sympathized with him.
Then it hit me where I knew him from. I was related to this guy and he had no idea who I was. I had a little background info on him so I thought I‘d test him. “Hey, do you know Chase Matthews?”
“Yeah, I do some work for him every now and then.”
“What’s your last name?”
“Gibson.”
“Yeah, so is mine.” His toothless mouth fell wide open, while he stared at me blankly. I imagined a buffering bar across his forehead that said “Loading” while he trying to figure out who I was. “I’m Robert’s son, Corbin.”
His confusion turned to excitement as he held his hand out to shake mine. “Aw, wasup cuz.”