It’s me, is that you?

My FIL is coming to visit us this weekend. We didn’t know about this until sometime Saturday afternoon. Hubs got a phone call and began giving someone directions to our house from Birmingham. That’s a five hour trip and I couldn’t think of anyone coming from that direction that we knew.

Eventually, I was able to decipher who was coming and had to smile.

FIL is retired Air Force and is a real hoot.  He’s coming to Florida on family business, all the way from Arkansas… one long, boring drive, and he’s stopping by our place on his way further south.

Everytime we talk he tells me I’m his favorite daughter-in-law and I counter with my own declaration that he is my favorite father-in-law. It doesn’t matter that I am his only DIL and he’s my only FIL, it’s an inside joke just between the two of us.

When Hubs and I were first married, we lived in Tennessee and so did the in-laws, only a ½ hour or so down the road. FIL helped us move into our first place.

He and Hubs were in the kitchen unloading boxes and man-handling applicances into place, while I was at the other end of the house unpacking the bedrooms. Suddenly I noticed the smell of smoke. Worried that the long dormant A/C might be faulty, I went sniffing down the hallway looking for the source.

As I made my way to the kitchen, I found my ’smoke.’ FIL was standing in the middle of the room, lit cigarette in one hand, the other cupped beneath to catch falling ash. He turns to me and asks, ‘where’re your ashtrays?’

I’m not a smoker, never was, never will be. I lived with a chain-smoking dad and watched both of his parents die miserable deaths from emphysema. Hubs had never smoked, despite his parents and both sisters smoking. We had decided our home would be smoke free. I was faced with my first conflict.

Squaring my shoulders, facing my FIL, who I was still trying to get to know after only a few weeks, I replied, ‘they’re out in the backyard.’

FIL looks at me, turns to Hubs who just shrugs, ‘you’re serious?’

‘Yes.’

He got me back a few days later though.

The phone rings, and I answer, ‘hello?’

‘Hey, is that you?’

‘Yeah, who’s this?’

‘It’s me.’

‘No, really who is this?’

‘It’s me, is that you?’

By now, I’m totally freaked out. We had only been in this new house a short while and I’m getting weird phone calls. I hung up.

The phone rings again almost immediately, Hubs answers.

Pause… pause… ‘You can’t be doing that to her!’

And it began…

Now, whenever I answer the phone and it’s FIL, he says ‘it’s me, is that you?’

‘Yeah, it’s me, is that you?’

Both in-laws have thankfully quit smoking so I don’t have to exile FIL to the backyard any longer. But, the ol’ FIL and I have an understanding. I’m his favorite and he’s mine. 

I’m looking forward to this visit. Beside, you have to give the man props with a cool trailer like this…