We had a leak in the bathroom for a while, and mom was talking on the computer to her Fiancé Jo on the webcam again. She had been complaining and starting up conversations about the leak in the bathroom which she hadn’t reported ever, which she just complained about and then blamed the caretaker and the maintenance man. Finally they came over for a fire inspection and the caretaker noticed the dampness in the bathroom, and called in the Maintenance guy.
Mom: “Bill was here and found the leak. It’s a shut off valve and all he has to do is cut it and replace the valve. But to me that sounds like more trouble.”
JO: “Why?”
Mom: “Because he is using PVC piping,”
Mom: “Because he is using PVC piping,”
I chime in: “It’s Pex piping, there’s nothing wrong with
that method..”
Mom: “Because it’s hard to seal pVC piping to metal!”
sounding defensive.
Me: “No, that’s fine. I’ve installed it into an entire apartment building, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s a metal ring that you clamp down, compressing the PEX tubing that seals the line.”
Mom: “No.” She is looking at me with this frustrated look, like I am making her look stupid. I take the hint to back off before anything goes crazy, and things… do get crazy.
Me:“Okay, Yeah, no I will shut up sorry, I am good at that.” I put my headphones in so I don’t have to listen to the course of the rest of the conversation about why installing a new Shut off valve with pex will just be more trouble, and make her life even more horrible.. but I manage to hear this:
Mom: "It's that this is an old building! There are really old pipes here! And all kinds of different ones. It's a conglomerate of pipes!" ... I'm not even going to touch on that one.
Twenty Minutes later on her way outside for a cigarette, she comes over to the bed, kisses my head (the computer is still on, so Jo can still hear the entire conversation on the other end)
“I love you.”
Me: “No, that’s fine. I’ve installed it into an entire apartment building, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s a metal ring that you clamp down, compressing the PEX tubing that seals the line.”
Mom: “No.” She is looking at me with this frustrated look, like I am making her look stupid. I take the hint to back off before anything goes crazy, and things… do get crazy.
Me:“Okay, Yeah, no I will shut up sorry, I am good at that.” I put my headphones in so I don’t have to listen to the course of the rest of the conversation about why installing a new Shut off valve with pex will just be more trouble, and make her life even more horrible.. but I manage to hear this:
Mom: "It's that this is an old building! There are really old pipes here! And all kinds of different ones. It's a conglomerate of pipes!" ... I'm not even going to touch on that one.
Twenty Minutes later on her way outside for a cigarette, she comes over to the bed, kisses my head (the computer is still on, so Jo can still hear the entire conversation on the other end)
“I love you.”
“Don’t judge what I am thinking, because you deprive me of
the experience of your knowledge. I wasn’t thinking you were stupid, I was
thinking you’re very smart and I should listen to you, because you are very
smart. You are here for a reason, and that reason is to share with me. Stop
shutting me out, because it drives me crazy.”
She says this in a loud tone, close to my face. It feels like I am being
scolded for being bad.
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