There are times when I don’t know why I try to explain things to my father-in-law. It always backfires.

Yesterday he happened to call at around 6 pm. He’d called earlier in the day, but since I hadn’t been feeling well all night and had had little sleep my husband unplugged the phone before he went to work. So my Father-in-law’s call went straight to the answering machine.

So I’m talking to my father in law and he says “I called you earlier“. I told him that Chris had unplugged the phone in the morning so I missed his call and didn’t get his message until the afternoon when I discovered that the phone was unplugged.

Here’s the conversation that followed:

“But it rang on my end” said my father-in-law.

“yeah, well it does ring, but it went straight to the built in answering machine” I told him.

“But it was ringing”

“Remember our answering service is through the telephone service (Bell Canada). Your call went straight to the answering machine. It doesn’t ring on our end … especially when the phone is unplugged.” I said. < sigh >

“But why would I hear it ringing. It rang over here … ”

We could have gone on like that for quite a while so I tried changing the subject. We’ve told him before that we don’t physically have an answering machine in the house, but that it’s tied to the phone line.

He doesn’t seem to understand that and he still leaves us messages that start with “Hello? … Hello … Anybody home? … ok, I guess your not home. I’m calling to tell you … ” and so on.

I’ve been having conversations like this, and other strange talks, with my father-in-law for oh about 10 or 15 years now. I’m not sure I’ll ever get through to him. (You should see him trying to work the remote control for the TV when he comes for a visit! Oh boy.)

Do you have strange go nowhere conversations with your parents, in-laws or other relatives similar to the one I’ve just described? Mind boggling isn’t it?