Thursday, May 25, 2006

Men: Move Along. Nothing for You Here.- or - Give That Man a Hand

This is to the women in the audience. Particularily those of you who are married or in a long-term relationship. I love my husband with all of my heart. I know he loves me. Somewhere along the line it became the norm to never leave "honey-do" lists. I never ever leave one for him and he never ever ever leaves one for me. If I have something he mentions that needs to be done, I will make a note for myself. If he says, "remind me about this" then I will make him a note and stick it in his boot where he will see it right before he leaves the house. It does no good to leave it under his cell phone or on the counter, he'll see it and forget about it before he puts on his boots and leaves. IN the boot, he sees it right before he leaves, and, if I'm lucky, he will put it in his filing system known as his shirt pocket.

Today the man amazed me. Totally. Two days ago (two whole days ago) he spoke to a friend that has a tree service about getting some more mulch. This generally costs us nothing but a phone call. As hubs says, I'm "mulch woman". I use mulch on my gardens - which are extensive, as well as around the trees that are not in the 'forest' and in areas of the yard designated as walkways. I put it down at least twice a year. I hate to weed, and it keeps the weeds under control as well as keeping in much-needed moisture. At any rate, my youngest sons' girlfriend has gotten into gardening this year, too, and she also wanted mulch.

Back to the two days ago. Hubs called and made arrangements to take our loader tractor to this mans' house today, Thursday, morning. The man is going to load up his pickup that dumps and bring mulch to our houses. He just needed to borrow the tractor to load the pickup.

Jump to this morning. Hubs was up and out the door early to go to coffee. He mentioned he was then going to be trucking today, hauling grain out-of-town. I never thought twice about it until an hour later when I was up for the day. Then it dawned on me: I didn't leave him a note about the mulch. I didn't talk to him about it yesterday. He didn't say anything about it this morning before he left. Oh, damn. He forgot.

Two days. He's had two whole days to forget. I call him... dreading the cussing I fear is going to come out of the phone when I remind him of this task. I cringe as he answers. I tentatively mention the tractor, the mulch.

What? What am I hearing? He already did it? He delivered the tractor last night before he came home so he didn't forget? Without a reminder? Oh.My.God. What have you done with my husband?

Give that man a hand.... a pat on the back... a big wet kiss on the ... nevermind. Thanks, Hubs. You're the best!