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Mar. 4th, 2006 01:48 pmI'm going to categorise this as scenes from the family #s 11, 340, 675, 2200, and ONE JILLION OMG.
My mother is, for her generation, very technically inclined; she's pretty good with computers and she's asked for a pen scanner for her birthday. However, she absobloodylutely refuses to read an instruction manual, claiming that she's an Auditory Learner. Which, okay, she has a reading disability so I cut her some slack, but when the instructions to the digital thermostat are literally four sentences long, NO, YOU NEED TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. You managed it for the laundry machine, I promise it won't kill you to read the inside of the thermostat cover.
But she won't, so she doesn't know how to use our thermostat, which has a switch to go from "AC" to "Heat" and a button (with up and down arrows) to program in the preferred holding temperature. This would be fine; I am more than happy to adjust the thermostat, since all I have to do is hit a switch and press a button.
The problem comes in when she refuses to admit that she doesn't use the thermostat, which precludes her asking us to do it, since that would be an admission of ignorance and the whole structure of the family would collapse in on itself like an imploded sports arena.
Instead, she will turn to one of us, usually me, and say "Isn't it cold in here?" in a voice that suggests I am somehow morally responsible for the temperature of the house. I don't pay much attention to the temperature of the house since I run warm, but generally I'll agree.
The expectant silence that hangs between us after this pregnant statement could be cut with a knife and used as tunnel props.
However, even If asked if she wants me to turn the thermostat up, she will ignore the question and reply, instead, "I'm cold. Aren't you cold?"
If I don't feel like getting up and adjusting the thermostat without being asked, this can go on for ten, twenty minutes. Eventually she'll get out her final weapon: THE COUCH BLANKET. She will then huddle under the blanket that sits on the back of the couch, shivering and complaining of the cold, until one of us Males finally caves and adjusts the thermostat to her liking.
And y'all wonder WHY I AM BONKERS.
My mother is, for her generation, very technically inclined; she's pretty good with computers and she's asked for a pen scanner for her birthday. However, she absobloodylutely refuses to read an instruction manual, claiming that she's an Auditory Learner. Which, okay, she has a reading disability so I cut her some slack, but when the instructions to the digital thermostat are literally four sentences long, NO, YOU NEED TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. You managed it for the laundry machine, I promise it won't kill you to read the inside of the thermostat cover.
But she won't, so she doesn't know how to use our thermostat, which has a switch to go from "AC" to "Heat" and a button (with up and down arrows) to program in the preferred holding temperature. This would be fine; I am more than happy to adjust the thermostat, since all I have to do is hit a switch and press a button.
The problem comes in when she refuses to admit that she doesn't use the thermostat, which precludes her asking us to do it, since that would be an admission of ignorance and the whole structure of the family would collapse in on itself like an imploded sports arena.
Instead, she will turn to one of us, usually me, and say "Isn't it cold in here?" in a voice that suggests I am somehow morally responsible for the temperature of the house. I don't pay much attention to the temperature of the house since I run warm, but generally I'll agree.
The expectant silence that hangs between us after this pregnant statement could be cut with a knife and used as tunnel props.
However, even If asked if she wants me to turn the thermostat up, she will ignore the question and reply, instead, "I'm cold. Aren't you cold?"
If I don't feel like getting up and adjusting the thermostat without being asked, this can go on for ten, twenty minutes. Eventually she'll get out her final weapon: THE COUCH BLANKET. She will then huddle under the blanket that sits on the back of the couch, shivering and complaining of the cold, until one of us Males finally caves and adjusts the thermostat to her liking.
And y'all wonder WHY I AM BONKERS.
