The Network Administrator

The Husband is a techno-geek. When my wireless connection acts up, a window pops up telling me there is a problem and to contact the person who manages my network, and I shout, “Husband!” When my sister had to reformat her entire computer and hit a problem while reinstalling the operating system, she called The Husband. When my mother-in-law has difficulties with the computer that The Husband built for her… well, you get the idea.

So that’s why it was unusual to hear him struggling with the cell phone charger last week. Our cell phones are old, and the batteries are starting to act up, and he couldn't get his to start charging. “Stupid piece of… charge, dammit!” he cursed.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him from the living room.

“The stupid cell phone won’t charge! I hate this cell phone! We need to get new cell phones!” he answered.

“Can I help?” I said.

“Sure, if you can get the stupid thing to charge,” he said, but by the tone of his voice I could tell that he was pretty sure that if he couldn’t get it to charge, I certainly wouldn’t be able to. Then he gave up and walked into the office. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try to fix it, so I went over to the outlet where he had been trying to charge the phone and took a look.

About fifteen seconds later, the cell phone was merrily charging away, and I went into the office. “Husband,” I said, “in order to charge the phone, you have to plug the charger into the wall.”