There's a Syrian on my Roof

“There’s a Syrian on my roof,” I said to my girlfriend who wondered why I was late.
“And you can’t get him down?”
I knew the old joke about the man who left his cat with his brother and when he called to check on the feline, he was told, “The cat died.”
“That’s a terrible way to tell me,” the man complained.
“Well how should I do it?” the bad cat sitter asked.
“Well when I called, tell me that cat is on the roof and you are having trouble getting her down. Then tell me she fell, and then in a couple of days tell me the vet couldn’t save her. By the way, how is mother?”
“Mother is on the roof and we can’t get her down.”
Actually the Syrian was adjusting my satellite. He was amazed to discover that I loved his country, could say a few words of Arabic. We chatted about my experiences until he was almost misty-eyed.
I no longer have BBC Prime but I do have Sky News, one more new channel without losing AlJazerra in English, BBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN. France 24 is only in French, but that’s not a problem and I still have the French equivalent to C-span.
Oh, and we did get the Syrian down off my roof and safely on his way to Toulouse.