The Flamingo on Marriage

We are all feeling puny at our house today. Casey is getting over his week-long chest cold. Mace is right in the middle of his. Though it's hard to say where I am in the process, I think I'm somewhere near the beginning and Joe is about a day and a half behind me. But in spite of our fight with the green gremlins, Joe made superhuman efforts today to get the lights finished on the house:

Mace desperately wanted to help, but if I showed you the picture of him halfway up the 20 foot ladder, one of you would certainly call DCF, so I have to tell you that we didn't let him help. I took this picture right before the cold front with the driving rain and 20 mile an hour winds came through.

And I took this next picture right after it came through:

Notice anything? Yep -- Joe is still up on that ladder hanging those lights. That's my man, taking one for the team. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor whiny baby, nor slippery ladder . . .

See, I was going to hang those (white) icicle lights myself, but I've tried climbing up that ladder before and I don't even get halfway up before I start shaking and crying and Joe has to rescue me, so me hanging the lights myself was out of the question. I did the girlie job of untangling the light strands and handing them to Joe and Joe acted like he actually needed me to do it for him. That's what marriage is all about, really; two people pretending like they need each other. Only in this case I really needed him to get the lights up and he didn't need me at all. So maybe that little nugget of matrimonial wisdom doesn't play out so well. No wait -- I can make this work -- I pretend I need him to pull the ticks off the dog because I'm too grossed out to do it when really --- no, that doesn't work either, cause I really am too grossed out to pull the ticks off the dog. How about this -- I pretend I really need him to wash my car because I can't get it clean like he can -- no, that doesn't work either. I mean it really doesn't work. He never washes my car even if I pretend I need him to. So perhaps we can all agree I have no real nuggets of wisdom to offer on marriage. No surprise there.

What's wrong? Oh right. No. I don't have a picture of the house all lit up and twinkly for you tonight. So sorry -- it's still raining. I might melt if I go out there in the rain to take a picture. But if it stops raining tomorrow, I promise I'll post a picture for you.