I always thought it was very strange that she was so concerned with the extensive air vents
When I was growing up, it was impossible to pull the wool over my mom’s eyes. It felt like she was consistently five steps ahead of all of us. No matter what we were up to or what we were trying to get away with, she was constantly catching all of us kids in the act. Of course, at that time, I didn’t feel good about all of her checking. I simply wanted to be left alone and to go be a hooligan with my silly friends. As such, I tried absolutely everything I could possibly think of two outsmart my mom and flee from the house. Somehow, I never really got away with it. She was always on top of my plans, catching me red-handed. It wasn’t until a few decades later that I realized how she seemed to be omnipresent. In fact, it had nothing to do with intuition or seeing into the future. It had everything to do with our heating and cooling system and the extensive air ducts installed in our house. Growing up, we had central heating and cooling, like most people in the neighborhood. We didn’t operate the HVAC system very often because it was quite expensive on the energy bills. However, my mom insisted on having the air ducts cleaned out on a regular basis anyways. I always thought it was very strange that she was so concerned with the extensive air vents. Years later, I realized that she was so obsessed with the ductwork, not because of our indoor air quality, but because she utilized the air ducts to spy on her children. Whenever I was on the phone, making covert plans, she was listening to my conversation through the air vent.