Relatives Are Relatively Stupid

(My husband is a LAN administrator for a large telecommunications company. Both of our families know this and expect him to work on their computers with little or no notice. The phone rings at 2 am. We both jump, thinking a call at this time of night can only mean bad news. I get to the phone first. It’s my sister.)

Me: “What’s wrong?”

Sister: “Is [Husband] there?”

(I hand the phone to my husband.)

Husband: “Hello, [Sister]. What’s wrong?… No, I can’t come over right now. It’s 2 am… I’ll be over some time in the morning. Bye.” *hangs up*

Me: “What was that about?”

Husband: “She got a new printer and it won’t work. She wanted me to come over now and fix it.”

Me: “What did she say when you mentioned the time?”

Husband: “That she knew we would be up.”

(The next morning he drives to her place to look at the printer. When he gets home I ask him what the problem was.)

Husband: “Some people should be banned from having computers.”

Me: “Why?”

Husband: “The printer cable was plugged into the computer and then the other end was plugged into another socket next to it.”

Me: “Both ends were plugged into the computer?”

Husband: “Yeah. She couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t work.”