The Mind is pretty much riding solo at the office this week. That’s trouble.

My main man Mr. Moore currently finds himself submersed in the World of Disney, making friends with Mickey and the gang. Meanwhile, Bob the intern has officially signed off…and suddenly I realize that this ship known as HSSTM can’t possibly be run by a one-man show.

But I’m sure as heck going to try.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, dealing with being the lone ranger this week wasn’t my first sign that the apocalypse is upon us. It was actually a series of phone calls this past weekend between myself, John and Cathy. Who’s John and Cathy? My parents.

Growing up, and just until about four years ago, video games took up a decent chunk of my free time. I can vividly remember my brother, almost eight years my elder, always finding a way to belittle yours truly when it came to video games…and Cathy hated it. Cathy hated how much time we spent staring at a TV screen with controllers in our hands. Cathy hated how her youngest (once again, yours truly) got his faced rubbed in the sand when it came to virtual competition.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s all starting to change. All thanks to the Nintendo Wii.

Talking to my dad on the phone on Sunday, and this is all brief summary, he explained that my brother was coming out to their house for dinner that night…and they were going to play some Wii. This has turned into a family activity, apparently.

But what’s more is that my dad goes on to tell me that Cathy, the same mother who despised video games, got caught red handed not too long ago. She was alone at the house, or so she thought, and dad walked downstairs only to find her showing amateur form at the virtual bowling alley.

Now I must say, Cathy tells this story a little bit differently. As far as she’s concerned, she’s got nothing to hide. But what’s more is that she’s turned quite competitive with the whole thing, as I sat in my car having this conversation with her just before going into a real bowling alley.

“I’m about to walk into a charity bowling event,” I said.

“Well I got three strikes in row yesterday,” Cathy responds.

“What? What are you talking about?” I quickly asked.

“Wii. I was bowling on the Wii last night and I got three strikes in a row,” Cathy says, very nonchalantly. “I’m getting pretty good and I’m going to beat your brother tonight.”

Oh, how the tables have tuned. And I love it. Cathy is hooked on Nintendo Wii, and the apocalypse is upon us.