I'm Sending My Husband Back to His Mom...

A few days ago I was scrambling at work to keep up and stop running so late with my patients. I can't stand to be late, but the longer I've been a PT.... the longer it takes me to complete a patient visit. Anyway, the office manager tells me that my husband is on the phone and he said "Tell Stephanie Not to be mad at me but that I have a question if she is around." RED FLAG! Actually there is more than one red flag in this situation.
1: Dusty only calls the clinic phone when its "important". After several years of not understanding that I don't keep my cell phone with me while I"m working with patients he is finally trained to realize that he needs to call the clinic for important stuff.
2: He starts his phrase with "Tell Stephanie Not to be Mad"
Hmmm...

When I get on the phone I get some speedy sentences about some guy showing up selling new alarm systems in the neighborhood and how if he sells so many today he gets extra points towards a trip. (This is one reason I may eventually allow my husband to have an off-site office... so he can't answer the door). I also am informed that there is a 3 day window yada yada yada. Now keep in mind that we already have an alarm system installed. So I tell him that I am busy and that I really just want to talk about this tonight. He keeps on about the  fascinating electronic features this system has. He can name 100 I'm sure. I can probably only repeat about 4. None of them are necessities. Just nice amenities. After a couple minutes of him telling me the guy has to know today and its a great deal.... just $15 a month (this seems unrealistic to me considering the increased features and that it will cost less than our current monitoring system)... I finally say "Just do whatever you want then. We can talk about it later"

Lesson for the Guys... DO NOT JUST TAKE MY WORD WHEN I SAY THAT. It really means ... I am tired of you pestering me. Make the decision you want AT YOUR OWN RISK.

After picking up the boys from daycare I make my usual call home to Dusty. He tells me that the installer is there. I pretty much repeated that sentence. Said I'll see you later. Hung up. We have been together for almost 14 years now. He should have this when it is okay to make a decision alone down.

I come home to find this poor college kid installing our alarm system. He had apparently started not too long before I got off of work. I don't know where Dusty got the idea that these things are installed in a short period of time, but since this is the 3rd system we've installed I have noted that it takes more than just a couple hours. Something inevitably doesn't wire up correctly or something.

Problem #1. I have 2 hungry kids. I am hungry. I have a college kid working at my house who will likely be there past dinner time. Do I (A) make dinner and feed my children (B) Take the kids out to eat and let Dad starve ... looking good for option B at this point... or (C) Make dinner and offer some to the kid. After a few minutes of ensuring that Dusty is aware of how I feel about this situation, I choose C. But I make Dusty find enough food in the cabinet and he chooses wisely to be the last to eat to make sure there is plenty.

Problem #2. Installer is still there after 8 pm and is working on taking something or other out of our current glass break sensors. One of these is in Braxton's bedroom. And... its nearing bedtime. I make Dusty tell him he has to come back.

Problem #3. There are lots of questions popping up about this company I have never heard of. These are resolved after several google searches and concerned messages to the sales person (who Dusty politely tells that he was wrong for making this decision alone and is not sure that it will stand up to my concerns) A WISE DECISION

For the great part of this story... Dusty is very trusting. Everyone is "A great guy" until proven otherwise. This is opposite of how I work. The sales guy would never have gotten the opportunity to sell anything to me if I had opened the door. Especially if he started talking about earning a trip. My friends are all aware of Dusty's nature. One of them even remarked when I said that we were getting a new system and I wasn't sure about the company or sales people that "Dusty probably invited the guy over for dinner" Pretty funny considering he ate a couple tacos the night before at my house :-)

And by the way, the system is $15 more a month than our current one. Somehow this miscommunication may have been avoided if he had just listened and read between the lines.

I do still love the poor boy, but I almost sent him back home to his momma for a few days. Let her try to fix the kinks.