FULL on Rant !!!

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I hope this sounds full on pissed off and not whiney.

I've been out and living as a woman since 2004, and have been treated by the normals (Muggles) amazingly well, though in the last year, it has been getting more and more difficult to pass well.

I've been helping my 66 year old, little brother with converting his van to an RV because I spent 32 years as an Electrician. I'm retired, and would love to be done with all that. He and his French wife are amazingly high strung and illogically crisis oriented. Listening to the two of them interact is a trial of megalithic proportions. AND, he tries to do everything the cheap way and has not one ounce of mechanical ability, though he thinks he does.

Yesterday, I was assisting them with the installation of a small, propane fueled, electric furnace, that to me is as simple as putting in a TV. We put it together, to "bench test" and it would not work. The issue is the air flow switch through the burner unit (5 blinks) and we eventually decided to not open up the unit to avoid, voiding the warranty, the unit is made in the UK. I was becoming disabused of the situation, and he found out that the unit was used when he bought it through Ebay.

After toiling with various aspects of this project for over a weeks elapsed time, I am sick of it. Then his wife and I are talking and she says I have the sleeping habits of a man (!!!!). I felt insulted and devalued and wonder why I abandoned my policy of not seeing relatives? Without saying anything, I said that I was tired and going on to take a nap.

Someone kick me. I brought this on myself and am feeling quite hurt.

Comments

Electrician

After all those years, I grew terrorized by Electricity, mostly because bosses would ask me to do the stupidest things. Ever stand by a 12.5 KV fuse panel when it blew? Ever see a 60 KV line shorted out by a squirrel? I watched a Billboard painter put an Aluminum ladder across a very high voltage line, and was surprised it didn't cook him.

I worked at INTEL for a while but they were too nutty for me and I told them so.

Give it straight to your brother

There are two ways of doing things. The right way and the wrong way.
You don't cut corners with Leccy or Gas. End of, and could very well be the end of him.

I can understand your frustration with him. He sounds like the typical PHB. Do everything on the cheap and the little knowledge he has makes him dangerous.

Buying a gas appliance off Ebay is a disaster waiting to happen unless you are a fully qualified Gas Engineer.
I'm not and nor are you so I'd probably have nothing to do with installing it. If you do and it goes horribly wrong (CO poison risk for example) then you have to take some responsibility for the end result.
Tell him straight to get a new and approved device or you will walk away. If that happens make sure that the old one is made totally U/S for good. A 5lb club hammer is a good way to work off some of the angst I can tell that you are feeling.
Be firm. It is their safety and lives at risk here. He/they also need to understand that it will need servicing as well. It is not fit and forget.
You did insist on a CO alarm being fitted didn't you?

Samantha

Someone mentioned

A CO alarm, I would suggest (even thought the gas is supposed to be odorized) that a gas appliance not be installed without a gas alarm as well!

Gwen

You have the sleeping habits of a man? Do you fall asleep on the sofa clutching the cable TV remote? Do you scratch your self upon waking?
If not, tell her to take a long hike carrying steaks in bear country.

Hand your kid brother a bill

It would cause trouble

But you ought to make sure that when you hand your brother a bill, that he knows you will take him to court (even if it is small claims court) to collect! He sounds about like my youngest sister, I E somewhat of a grifter.

You forgot the ultimate comeback

When she insulted your sleeping habits, you should have looked her straight in the eye and told her, "Yeah, well your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries."

That rarely fails, but on the occasions it does begin doing the Time Warp dance.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.