I selected my aunt and uncle for this exercise because I felt uncomfortable doing it with my parents. I felt that I would run less risk of being too judgmental with my aunt or uncle than with my parents. There was a situation in which my aunt and uncle were working together to install a replacement windowpane for a very old one that had broken because of the cold.
Aunt: You try to give a hint, but he wouldn't have even started on it if I hadn't gone in there with a screwdriver and started getting the putty off.
Me: So you felt like you were working alone. Pretty isolated there at the window.
Uncle: You start making enough of noise, nobody can be alone in this house.
Aunt: I'll tell you isolated. That good window glass for three days up against the wall, until I got cold enough from the bad one.
Aunt: Yes, broken. A whole section in the upper left corner cracked and fell out. I guess the putty fell out of on the outside. Then the snow came, and the ice came, and when we turned on the heater the little section cracked out, and the whole window cracked across. . . . I measured the size in the window and went to Home Depot to get a replacement and set it on the wall next to the broken window. When [my uncle] got home from work I asked him to replace it. He said he'd do it, but he never "got around to it."
Uncle: And that's what I mean. Making noise about a window shouldn't get put in until it gets warmer. Making noise.
Aunt: He never gets around to anything. Rain or shine, cold or hot or warm.
Me: Sounds like you're in a holding pattern. Have to wait a long time to get things accomplished, huh?
Aunt: Well, it was cold all in the house!
Uncle: You should take a little tape and put on it until after it gets warmer.
Aunt: Oh, he was cold, too. It was cold that whole week here!
Me: When you're at the mercy of the elements, doesn't that just make you feel exasperated?
Aunt: . . . Taking the garbage, puttin...