Hours, there's always a reason

I was not allowed any say in the decision to start with the Xmas decorations, it's above my pay grade I was told.
So the boss and the lad , mostly the lad, dragged everything out from the garage and it was my job to put one of the trees together. (That's right, there's more than one.The tree already had the lights attached when we bought it afew years back.)
Obviously, not all the lights worked, well, they never do, do they, so after a few attempts reconnecting the different plugs this way and that way, it was plain to see that we weren't getting anywhere.
My suggestion to take all the lights off the tree to give a better chance to see where the problem was fell on resoundingly deaf ears, but not silent vocal chords.
So, one or two heated discussions later, it was agreed that all the lights would come off, and if couldn't be fixed, simply buy new light strings.
That's what took hours. And looking at the tangled, jumbled, rats nest of looping wires afterwards told us that untanglement was an impossible job.
Good thing really, because their replacements are supposed to work even with  bulbs missing or broken.
I guess we'll find that out next year.


Ah well...