Holding the Light

It is hard to work with relatives I think, especially our elders. This weekend I needed to replace the battery in my wifes car. A simple enough task till you add in kids and relatives it goes from easy to aggravating to finally finished. I got back to the house with the battery and started to scrounge up the necessary tools. A crescent wrench was about the extent of the tools I could find that my father-in-law owned, along with a weird assortment of box-end and open-end wrenches that seemed to mysteriously skip all the sizes I needed. 10 mm on one side and 13 mm on the opposite side wrenches seemed most prevalent but were really unhelpful. Then my father in law got involved. Was it bad? Not really the Job got done. Was it fun? Oh hell no! Involving my father-in-law is worse than having my own father help. At least I understand my dad. Regardless I had no choice my fight or flight instinct had taken hold but I couldn't run ........ the battery was 1/2 out of the car and I had dropped one of the posts that holds the battery into the underpart of the car. Escape was not a option. Now my father-in-law was in there with his hands grabbing everything I was working on. I excepted my fate and relegated myself to holding the light. I have been holding the light since I was 5 and now some 30 years later I hate it even more. I know I can but the idea of shoving one of my elders out of my way is not what I am about. I respect my elders even if sometimes I want to strangle them. While he made himself busy trying to loosen the clamps on the battery posts I got under the car with a light to find the piece that was missing. I located the part quickly and gave Eric the credit for finding it. As I got up I noticed that there was now a socket set. My eyes must have gleamed a little when I saw it cause my father-in-law saw me look at it and gave me a slightly disapproving look. We finished mounting the battery firmly in place with the help of the socket wrenches and went inside for dinner. The whole ordeal only took maybe 30 minutes. There was minimal yelling. Mostly because A. he is not my father. B. he would not understand what I was saying if I started to yell. And C. it just was not worth it.... I was just holding the light. When we were inside I handed my father-in-law one of my beers and thanked him for the help. I drank one too and told him he could have the rest of my 6 pack. 2 beers I think. To which my mother-in-law said "Don't you want to take thous with you?" Funny. E./