Now, I've told all of you how much of a mental and emotional drain being on the phone with My Mother can be. I think that planning a long phone call ahead of time, like it obviously was going to be when dealing with an online passport renewal application over the phone and not while I'm sitting next to her, helps remind me that I need to be patient. What I didn't know, however, was that my sister just so happened to be visiting my parents in Las Vegas for a few days. Awesome! She basically became my on-site translator and extra set of hands!! So sis, can you do the application process for the 'Rents ... and ooh, by the way, can you help me install a new modem and router in their condo, too?
This problem of theirs goes back at least a year. Mother complains of dead spots, namely their dining room table, which is at the opposite end of the part of their condo where their old, slow, obsolete modem resides. It needed a new one, I suspected, and then it needed something to boost its range and help the signal break through the condo's walls. But I wasn't planning on going out there anytime soon, not as long as this Republican administration has the gall to snatch up anyone at the airport they decided they don't like, so I figured my folks would have to just suck it up. My sister being there, however, changes everything. I could tell her what the problem is and how to fix it. So once I decided she could do this (and my sis made the online application process for both Mother and Father go so smoothly), I spent the rest of the night looking up the best modem and router to buy at an electronics store and bought them, then I texted her all the information for the three of them to pick up, bring home, and set up so Mother can finally stop bitching about their shitty wi-fi.
That part did not go smoothly. First of all, the modem I bought for them has to be hooked up with a coaxial cable. I thought every place had a coax, but apparently this condo only connects to the Internet outside via Ethernet. My sister tried to see if the modem would work just hooked up through Ethernet, but she told me (on the phone Tuesday night while I was at the Timberwolves Game) that it didn't. Also, the router I got for them was just one unit of those "meshes" or "pods" or whatever you call it. I thought one would be enough. I thought that if I bought them a second (which, presumably, would be placed as far away as the first "mesh" or "pod," which has to be connected to the modem, in order to maximize the range), they would complain that, like, "It looks bad," or something. My folks can be that shallow. Well, Mother complained (after my sis attached this new router to the old modem, which she had a bit of trouble reconnecting) that there still wasn't any range.
My sister was leaving Thursday, and there was no way my parents would even dare try hooking up this second router, so my sister got my brother to buy that second router, which could be delivered the next day (which was Wednesday) because he has Amazon Prime. (This is where I expand the universe of this blog post by reminding you that after I got home from the Game, I saw that my thermostat didn't work and, ironically, decided to accept a free trial of Amazon Prime in order to buy the same brand of thermostat so that I didn't have to do any wire work to put in a different brand of thermostat, and get it delivered as soon as possible ... even though I put in a second different set of batteries which made the old thermostat finally work.) My sister got this second router, she installed it Wednesday, and it ... well, I haven't asked Mother yet if the range is better.
All through this ordeal, I profusely thanked my sister for doing this favor -- for our Mother, because our Mother wanted it, but frankly, for me, too. I don't think she had running to Best Buy and spending a good chunk of one afternoon installing new wi-fi as part of her plans while visiting my parents. I recognize that I ask ... no, use my sister a lot when I want something done. Most notably, when I feel like I can't talk to my brother about something I need him to know, I tell my sister and she tells him. We were in Hong Kong for Grandmother's funeral several years ago, and we were not on speaking terms then, so we asked our sis to relay any messages we needed the other to know. She recognized that; the night after the funeral service, when I took her to this bar I wanted to go to because I needed a drink, she told me she knows what both of us are asking her to do in order to keep the peace between us. And she almost broke down crying. The gravity of burying Grandmother had something to do with it, of course, but being the peacemaker brings its own anguish, and that is something we make her do.
She acted as if she didn't mind putting in a new modem and router, even though she had no previous experience. Still, besides thanking her a lot for being my proxy, I wonder if there's something else I could do for her ... or does she have a favor I'll have to pay her in kind. Either way, that's an obligation I should do for her. She did this for me, after all.
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