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My 70ish FIL knows everything. I know nothing. Been an issue between us for years. Once he was instructing his 1st year driver granddaughter to be sure and shift her automatic transmission car into neutral if her car ever started to slide on ice. I suggested that feet off the pedals and looking / steering in the direction she wanted to go until the car straightened up was more in line with what I had learned attending several driving schools. He made it clear that his driving knowledge /skill was way beyond anything I could have learned in a school.
My favorite "discussion" we had was after a big wind storm. He said one of the vent covers had been blown off the roof of his house. I went in the back yard and found a large metal square. Looking up, I see the chimney cap is missing from the chimney and that the expanded metal is bent. I look at the piece of metal in my hand and can see the marks on the bottom where the expanded metal was once welded. I made my best attempt at tact when I went in the house and said, "Yah know... I took a look and I'm pretty sure that's your chimney cap, not a vent cover." Without so much as leaving his chair, he declared, "Naw... it's a vent cover." He got very angry when I asked him to come outside and take a look. The MIL shut him down and told him get out of the chair and go outside. It was fun to watch him squirm when he realized I was right. I played it cool and told him we should run over the Lowes and pick up a replacement so I could install it while we were there. Never got an apology, but he was a lot nicer to me the rest of the visit.
What did I refrain from saying? "I want you to remember how wrong your were about this. In the future, when you think I'm an idiot and have no idea what I'm talking about, keep in mind that you may be just as wrong in the future as you were today."
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Lee
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