7

But Dad wouldn't let it go. He said now that I'm getting older, I need to start being more "responsible." I've heard this sort of thing from Dad before. The last few weeks of the summer, our neighbor, Ms. Grove, hired me to take care of her plants while she was on a business trip. Well, I did it for the first few days, and then I guess you could say I got busy with other things. When Dad asked me how the plants were doing, I realized I hadn't been over there in at least a WEEK. I went to grab Ms. Grove's key so I could water her plants, but the key wasn't in its usual spot. I practically turned our house upside down looking for that key, but I couldn't find it. It turns out the reason I couldn't find the key was

但是爸爸不肯放手。 他说现在我越来越老了，我需要开始变得更“负责任”。 我以前听爸爸说过这种话。 夏天的最后几个星期，我们的邻居，史密斯女士。 格罗夫，雇我在她出差时照顾她的植物。 刚开始的几天我是这么做的，然后我想你可以说我忙于其他事情了。 当爸爸问我植物长得怎么样时，我意识到我至少有一个星期没去过那里了。 我去拿格罗夫女士的钥匙，好给她的植物浇水，但钥匙不在原来的位置。 为了找那把钥匙，我几乎把房子翻了个底朝天，但还是找不到。 原来我找不到钥匙的原因是

because it wasn't in our house. I'd left it at Ms. Grove's, and she found it when she got back from her trip. Ms. Grove was pretty mad that her key was in the front door, but the way I see it, she should've been happy nobody robbed her house. She was mad about her plants, too, because unfortunately most of them didn't make it. I suggested that maybe she should buy a cactus or another plant that doesn't need a lot of water to survive. That way, everything would be fine if I lost her key the NEXT time she went on a business trip.

因为它不在我们家。 我把它落在格罗夫女士家了，她旅行回来后发现了。 格罗夫女士很生气她的钥匙在前门，但在我看来，她应该很高兴没人抢她的房子。 她对她的植物也很生气，因为不幸的是，大多数植物都没有成功。 我建议她也许应该买一种仙人掌或其他不需要很多水就能存活的植物。 这样的话，如果下次她出差时我把她的钥匙弄丢了，一切都会好起来的。

But Ms. Grove said she wouldn't hire me again even if her life depended on it. Then she sent me home without paying, which stinks, because I really did spend a lot of time looking for that key. Anyway, I think that episode is still fresh in Dad's mind, and that's why I'm hearing this "responsibility" thing again. Hopefully, Dad will leave my socks on the television next time around and things won't get to this point. Thursday Well, Dad is really serious about me taking on more responsibility. And the first thing he wants me to do is start waking myself up in the morning.

但格罗夫女士说即使她命悬一线也不会再雇我了。 然后她没付钱就把我打发回家了，这太糟糕了，因为我真的花了很多时间找那把钥匙。 不管怎么说，我想那件事还历历在目，这就是为什么我又听到了“责任”这个词。 希望爸爸下次能把我的袜子放在电视上，这样事情就不会发展到这一步了。 星期四嗯，爸爸真的很认真地要我承担更多的责任。 他要我做的第一件事就是每天早上把自己叫醒。

That's actually a real problem, because I depend on HIM to wake me up. HUP HUP HUP. LET'S GO! That's the way we've been doing it for YEARS, and I really don't see any reason to change things now. Dad said that if I don't learn to wake myself up with an alarm clock, then I'm not gonna know how to do it when I go off to college. But I always figured that would be the way me and Dad would stay in touch.

这是一个真正的问题，因为我依靠他来唤醒我。 哈哈，哈哈。我们走吧!这是我们多年来一直在做的事情，我真的没有看到任何改变的理由。 爸爸说如果我不学会用闹钟叫醒自己，那我上大学的时候就不知道怎么做了。 但我一直认为这是我和爸爸保持联系的方式。

HELLO! HUP HUP HUP. LET'S GO! Yesterday was the first day I tried to wake myself up, and it didn't work out so well. My alarm went off and all, but the sound just worked its way into my dream. And today didn't go any better. I set my alarm to "radio" and tuned it to a classical music station because I didn't want to hear that annoying beep

你好!哈哈，哈哈。我们走吧!昨天是我第一天试着叫醒自己，结果不太好。 我的闹钟响了，但那声音还是进入了我的梦里。 今天也好不到哪去。 我把闹钟调到“收音机”，调到古典音乐台，因为我不想听到那烦人的哔哔声

first thing in the morning. But the music didn't wake me up, either. The problem is, without an actual human being waking me up, my brain is always gonna find some excuse to keep sleeping. But I think I might've figured out a solution to this alarm clock situation. I found one of those old-style windup clocks in the storage room today, and those clocks make a huge racket when they go off. I tested it out to see if it still worked, and sure enough, it did.

早上的第一件事。 但音乐也没能把我吵醒。 问题是，没有真人叫醒我，我的大脑总会找借口继续睡觉。 但我想我有办法解决闹钟的问题了。 我今天在储藏室里找到了一个老式发条钟，那些钟一响就会发出很大的响声。 我对它进行了测试，看看它是否还能工作，果然可以。