Rainy Days and Mondays

[The Walker]

For those of you new to this forum let me explain. My husband is the greatest man on earth and I love him dearly. But he can be hard to handle when he is forced to stay inside with little to do. He is usually almost constantly doing something and when the weather keeps him inside and he does not have a project to work on he is a bother.

Today it is raining lightly, what he calls drizzling. It is not a heavy rain that comes and goes, but the sort that rains steadily all day and probably all night, too. It is not too windy but it is cold and clammy and I despise this sort of weather. I like it warm and sunny. My darling does not care if it is wet or cold or hot, but he does hate to be kept indoors. After the morning chores and feeding the animals and all that he has had nothing to do this time of year. The grandson is not over here today since it is a school day and there is nothing new on television. I am busy with housework, but there is nothing for him to do. Nothing is broken or needs maintenance. He has already cleaned all his guns and straightened out his den, Mr. Mayor is out of town, it is gray and gloomy and wet so we cannot take a ride and look at the beautiful colors of the trees, he will not take the horse out in this weather just because he is bored, he will not bother Jose' just because he is bored.

He has just finished bathing the dog and she is lying in front of the fireplace keeping warm and finishing drying. There is no one else in the house except me and the maid and after the maid leaves I think I am going to be in trouble shortly. That sort of trouble I like but afterwards he will be just as bad and constantly underfoot. I almost wish that the cows would break a fence and stampede a little to give him something to do but I do not want them hurt or him to catch a cold.

Later tonight it will not be as bad. We will sit in by the fire and watch old movies or listen to music and cuddle. He will massage my shoulders and my feet right before we get frisky again. He gives the best foot rubs and I almost melt when he does that after I have been on my feet all day. When he is sore he gets me to walk on his back and rub it with my feet and jump up and down on it as that is the only way I can put enough pressure on his back and muscles to relax them and jumping is the only way I can "crack" his back. When I use my hands I cannot make an impression the muscles are harder than my hands. I tell him I feel like a Thai massage girl and then he says "will you love me long time?" and I laugh so hard I cannot stay balanced and have to step off his back to keep from falling.

What do the rest of you American men do when you cannot perform the regular work or outdoor hobbies because of bad weather? I mean besides get fresh with your wives, of course. I have to find something to keep this man of mine busy on gloomy days when all his work is caught up. He does a little woodworking but the shop is in a building adjacent to the barn. He says that when it rains for long periods like hours the wood swells from the dampness and is unreliable to put together as it will surely shrink later. He cannot go shooting or do much hunting, it is too clammy to take a nice ride even in the cars let alone the horses. He just wanders the house and gets underfoot and only has one thing on his mind but I do have housework to do so I cannot oblige him constantly. Besides the maid is here. He calls her Hazel here on the board I do not understand, is Hazel a common maid name?

Later: I am posting this later at night as I forgot to do it earlier. As soon as Hazel left I was in really really big trouble ;-) and afterwards we lounged around in our pajamas, drinking hot cocoa and watching old movies until it was time to go to bed. For a 50 year old man my love is very lively as I was in trouble again at bedtime. But I am having trouble sleeping which is odd as I should be exhausted and I am but just not sleepy. I slept for a little while and now I am awake so I decided to post this here. I heard an owl hooting outside the window and it bothered me because that is a bad omen back home but Don says for his tribe it is a good omen. So he sleeps through the owl's serenade and I get up for a little while. If I am not back in bed shortly he will wake up and come looking for me. That is a very satisfying thing for a woman to be loved like that. It makes me feel so good. If I just get up and go to the bathroom or get a drink of water and come back to bed he does not really wake up. He knows I have stirred but he stays half asleep. When I get back into bed he reaches one arm over and scoops me up and pulls me to him. If I lie quietly he will go back to deep sleep in a minute and roll over. He never snores but sometimes he growls in his sleep a little. Yet he can get out of bed and not wake me early in the morning. If it is a little cold in the house he will turn up the thermostat for me and go down and make his own breakfast. I hate getting out of bed when it is cold and the bed is so warm, but if left alone to rummage in the pantry and the fridge he is dangerous. I am sure he will poison himself one day the way he throws food together on occasion. I had never in my life heard of a cheese, sausage, sardine, onion and hot pepper omelette before. And he mixes orange juice, a little milk, a raw egg, some Tabasco, a banana and a spoonful of instant coffee in the blender. Then he wizzes it up and drinks it while he eats the deadly omelette. I try to keep biscuits always handy. He dearly loves biscuits in all forms and eats them with almost any meal at home that does not feature sandwiches. So he will add a couple of warmed biscuits with peanut butter on them, to the deadly omelette and the deadly smoothie drink and several cups of coffee. Is it any wonder I try to get up and make his breakfast for him? The man will wind up killing himself with that sort of food. But at that he stays very slim, too slim for me and mother's taste. And he has blood drawn twice a year and the doctor says he is okay even if he does eat like a hyena if left alone.

Well, here he comes I have been out of bed too long. Time to go back to sleep I am sleepy now anyway. Goodbye and good night.

VICKY

[SteveG]

... in response to Rainy Days and Mondays, posted by The Walker on Nov 5, 2002

Vicky,
 I've given your Rainy Day predicament some serious thought and have a suggestion or two.  You said speaking of Don:

"He just wanders the house and gets underfoot and only has one thing on his mind but I do have housework to do so I cannot oblige him constantly."

 I have tried and tried to speculate exactly what it could be that could posses a man's mind so consistently and I think I have it.   It's the HOUSEWORK, right???  Tell me I'm right.   Don obviously has a thing for cleaning house but he's just too polite to tell you.  Well, since he has this passion for housework I think you should fire the maid as a first step towards solving the problem and then out of respect for your dear husband, you should maybe even make a mess or two for him to clean up.     Ahhhhh, wait a minute, maybe he has something else on his mind?!   Nahhhhhh, couldn't be THAT!!  NaaaAAAAA!  OK, maybe I WILL admit that us men do tend to be that way now and then.  The solution is the same though.  Get rid of the maid for the day and well, uhhh, you know....work on the problem.  LOL

  Seriously, Surely with a farm there is always some machine that needs to be reworked.   I spend almost every weekend helping my father do wome sort of machine repair on his farm.   Building a part or repairing, restoring is better than a vacation to me.   I love to hear and smell the frying of a welder as much as bacon in the skillet!  I love the satisfaction of being able to build or modify something on our lathe or milling machine.  From what you say about Don, I bet he too has lots of things to do outside but that errrrrr Housework is just laying too heavily on his mind and the rainy days are an excuse.  LOL

 Oh yeah, his thing of fooling with the guns is another of my pastimes too.   Working on cars - I have 5 to maintain besides the 4 tractors, two old trucks and many small engines belonging to my father that keep me busy too.  I don't think it would even be possible to have them all working perfectly at the same time.
                                      SteveG

[The Walker]

... in response to Suggestion, posted by SteveG on Nov 6, 2002


Haha you are right, it must be the housework!

We have had some rainy days close together where he actually got caught up on about everything. We do not have a lot of farm machinery as we only grow enough crops for ourselves and the animals. This rainy day was the last of several over the last two weeks. He did all his daily chores early and then was left to drive me to distraction. He read some things and wandered, then he played on the internet and wandered, then he cleaned his guns and wandered. Trying to find sixteen hours worth of indoor things to occupy him was impossible. Every time he passed within reach of me I got a grab and a kiss. That is nice, but distracting and slightly embarassing in front of the maid. Then he sat down early and was about to make a sandwich of heaven alone knows what when I stopped what I was doing and made him an early lunch. It is not safe to allow him to rummage in the kitchen unsupervised. Peanut butter, swiss cheese and pastrami and apple slices with jalapeno jelly? Not while I am in the house and able to lift a hand.

I shooed him from the kitchen and made him a chef salad and a pimento cheese sandwich and reheated some chicken soup. And I allowed him to eat the apple in a normal way.

VICKY

[SteveG]

... in response to Re: Suggestion, posted by The Walker on Nov 6, 2002

Vicky,
 Yep, I have to agree that Don does need a keeper in the kitchen.   Man, I thought I had a cast iron stomach but the combinations you have mentioned make me think he must be part goat!  LOL   This reminds me of one of the Three Stooges lines about Pancakes and Vinegar.  Yuck!  

                                             SteveG

PS - Besides it IS hard to do ‘Housework’ for 16 hours
    straight................

[Dave H]

... in response to Rainy Days and Mondays, posted by The Walker on Nov 5, 2002

Hi Vicky,

If there are "Type A" and "Type B" personalities, Don would have to be a "AAA." ;o) Those cold drizzling days can be torture. I think location (weather), as Jeff mentioned, is the key. Living in South Florida (just north of The Keys), I rarely have to deal with those days myself. The weather here usually doesn't slow me down a bit. It is rare that it rains all day or everywhere at the same time. If it's raining inland, the beach may be sunny, etc. Rain is often a welcome relief from the heat.

Dave H.

[Humabdos]

... in response to Rain, Rain, Go Away..., posted by Dave H on Nov 5, 2002

OK Dave and Jeff your making me jealous up here! We've had a real nice October but the foul weather has returned, it was 20 the other morning and now we have a week of rain predicted. 40 and raining for the next five months! :-( Hum

[Jeff S]

... in response to Re: Rain, Rain, Go Away..., posted by Humabdos on Nov 5, 2002

It'll barely hit 75 today, but the sun's out so it's tolerable.

- Jeff

[Jeff S]

... in response to Rainy Days and Mondays, posted by The Walker on Nov 5, 2002

I'm kind of fond of reading when there's not much else going on. Lately, I've gotten away from my usual hi-tech mysteries like Tom Clancy, Steven Coonts, and Robert Ludlum and gone back to the classics - books I hadn't read since adolescence like R. L. Stevenson, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. Not that I get too much spare time with my day job, several business sidelines, writing, teaching, regular offshore fishing trips and family obligations. Out here in Southern California, there just aren't that many days each year when you need to hibernate.

-- Jeff S.