Mom & Me Five Archive

    The Convair Millenia Advantage evaporative cooler is working again. The fan belt probably didn't need replacing. When I compared the new with the old, well, you could'a fooled me if there was any stretch between the two. I lubed where it said to lube. Finally, I figured, it's got to be a clog in one of the hoses. I looked up the company on the web and found both the schematic and yet another owner's manual, the manual online being the same as the one I have except it's in four more languages than mine. Turns out, though, the schematic shows three hoses, none of which are replaceable parts, nor with a description of which hose leads where. So, I recalled the distributors, Seeley International in Glendale, Arizona. Phone message saying to leave a message. I did. I have never been so glad that I left a message! The tech support was one of two co-owners of the company. She talked me through unclogging the hoses, waiting with me while I dropped one behind the fan casing, which is officially not removable, but I can see that it is, I just wouldn't want to have to do it. I didn't. When we were done, the cooler worked great and she gave me some tips on additional seasonal maintenance, like running a vinegar bath through it before drying and storing it.
    I awoke Mom earlier, today, much earlier, than she's lately been arising. I wanted to make sure, when the return call came, it wasn't interrupted by her arising because, believe me, when she's up, it's time and that's that. She was with me, looking at the cooler through the "irremovable" casing when the call came through. She moved to take her walker into the kitchen and wait for me, but when she understood that Seeley was going to walk me through fixing it, she decided to watch what I was about to do. She sat to my back right and leaned as far forward as possible to get the cleanest view of my machinations without getting my elbow in her nose or glasses. I noticed, a couple of times, her hands subconsciously working as I fiddled through the casing, trying to catch up the wayward hose. She exclaimed when the clogs came through, then examined them. At one point she handed me a large flat head screw driver without me asking when it was obvious I was going to need two implements to get the hose out from behind the casing. It was exactly what I needed.
    Truth is, it shouldn't surprise me that she should take such a keen interest in watching me do things. Aside from the fact that she always has, in a quiet way, seemed to know how to fix things (although she usually takes the sloppy route, since that is the fastest, thus, my father did most of the fixing in our born-into family), she continues to like the mental "feel" of confronting a problem and thinking about it. As well, watching me today is, for her, I imagine, as good or better than any one of her educational channels, the difference being that at the end of watching and helping me, she feels some satisfaction in a task well plied.
    As well, I think I've mentioned this before: When my mother really works her brain, you can tell it in how her body reacts. She breathes more deeply. If she becomes mentally frustrated her breathing becomes faster and shallower. When the task is completed, she sighs as though she's run a marathon training session. Within a half hour after fixing the evaporative cooler, she decided she needed to take a nap.
    Ah. I hear her reconnaissance coughing, now. Time to get her up and think about lunch.
    One more errand, today, involving a short trip and yet another repair job, this time outside. Maybe I can get her interested in that job, too.
    Later.