Re: NANFA-L-- Brindled...now Tolerant Spouses


Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Brindled...now Tolerant Spouses
From: Todd D. Crail (tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu)
Date: Thu Dec 23 2004 - 11:26:38 CST


----- Original Message -----
From: "Stott Noble" <stottn-in-ncgconsulting.com>
> My wife refers to this behavior as "rivernecking".

Man Stott, she has it down!

The other day we were rationalizing what our wives have to put up with.
Jeff was supposed to be-in-home AT 3:45pm to pick up his suit from the
cleaners, try and resemble something presentable, and go to dinner and the
Siberian Orchestra or something classy like that, where gentlemen like
ourselves only have credibility because we're accompanied by our wives.

We WERE on time, for once... but then it occurred we would be driving by a
DNR and SW&C site where a two-stage ditch was installed, and it'd just be a
waste of gas to drive back to look-in-it another time... And that's not
sound conservation ethic, right? We just _had_ to stop!

Which turned into... We _had_ to get out of the car and look. Which turned
into... We _had_ to put on our waders and look-in-the substrate.. Which
turned... You get the idea. ;)

So 45 minutes later, we're back on the road, Jeff is on the phone (which it
is now 3:45) trying to diffuse what he'd gotten himself into again (we're 45
minutes out, mind you), weasel his wife into picking up his suit, and I was
chuckling to myself because my personal Purgatorio that night was to learn
how to swing dance (I'm not sure which of us had it worse ;)

He made a very smart move midstride... He said "My excuse is, well... There
is no excuse. I'm sorry." (Read: Remember that one! It works! :)

So he gets off the phone and I said:

"Well... Did you get the riot act, or did she just call you an idiot?"
"The usual. 'You're an idiot'."

Phew. A small amount of shame as penance, episode over.

Which is where we come back to my main thought and our rationalizations.

We coulda been in a bar, gettin' drunk, pickin' up women, gettin' in fights,
gamblin' our paychecks away on pool. OR, as your wife has played,
rubberneckin' other womens as we drive by (Lizard Thicket experiences not
withstanding ;)

Nope. We get lost for hours in ditches, swerve over 3 lanes of highway
'cause "there's a trickle down there!", and come home all excited, running
straight past their loving arms to the computer to see how the day's
pictures of fish turned out, as if a photo of a spotted darter were somehow
more sexy than a smooch from your sweetie.

How lucky they are, huh? ;)

Happy Holidays to you and your families!

Todd
The Muddy Maumee Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com

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: Sat Jan 01 2005 - 12:42:03 CST