The Trouble with Dad

Dad knows a guy from work who was selling his washer and dryer for $200. We've never had one and I've been after Shawn for a couple years to get a couple used ones. Dad took us out to the guy's place and paid half. He would have no part in helping us if he didn't do it. He was being a real turd about the whole thing.

Don't get me wrong, now. It's not that were not appreciative of his generosity. The problem is that we see it as a kind of charity. We had the money. But Dad insisted saying that he and Mom felt bad for helping out my sister and not me. But I felt weird doing it. I would never ask them for money, let alone let them just buy something like that.

They are both more stubborn than mules. Dad said he was proud of the way we've been able to hold our own and do for ourselves. I shouted a great "I told you so!" to Shawn. I knew that was one of my parents' angle. All the other brothers and sisters seem to fall more and more behind. We do to, it's just that we refuse to ask anyone other than our banker for help. Get the drift? I'm trying to be nice, here.

So that was that. Once we got home with the set, Shawn discovered that we didn't have the juice for them. We'll have to spend another hundred on a new breaker box, all new breakers and Shawn will have to spend a entire day unconnecting and reconnecting wires.

We'll have to spend another hundred for the box in the bedroom. Bedroom? Yes, the bedroom. The house is OLD and when it was added onto years and years ago, they did some odd things. As for the breaker box in the bedroom, they don't make those breakers anymore. If we blow a breaker anytime soon, we're screwed.

I suggested to Shawn that we search eBay for the rare breakers and for now, spend the money on the box for the washer and dryer.

Oh, the connections are there, all right. It's just that someone at some time never finished the job. They've even got a 2-20 running into the den for an ac unit that runs on a 1-10. In English: Fire Hazard.

But there is a bright side. If Shawn didn't know how to do all this, we'd have pay an electrician literally thousands to correct the problem. He'll have to shut the power to the entire house so I might decide to take Mom to the next city over for some shopping. I hate shopping but I know how this goes.

He says, "Oh, it's not a hard job, just time consuming."
Then you see some random object fly across the room and hear some cussing from the back room.
Then it's time for me to go, "Oh, didn't we need some milk? I'll just run to the store and get that!" And then I'll return about 6 hours later when the cussing and the throwing of the random objects has subsided.

I just wonder how long this will take to actually get started. We went to Wal-Mart and bought wiper blades for my car about 2 months ago. I kept asking Shawn to do it and kept getting, "Yeah, ok, I will." Oh, I could put them on myself, but there are principalities involved here. Yes, PRINCIPALITIES.

Shawn broke the socket on the back porch light removing a burnt out light bulb. We have a new socket. We have new bulbs. But no fixed light! He broke it sometime before Christmas. That's all I can remember.