A sure sign that our marriage is good
Apr 30, 2016 20:29:07 GMT -5
Marshall, drlj, and 4 more like this
Post by Village Idiot on Apr 30, 2016 20:29:07 GMT -5
We were driving home from Cedar Rapids today, in the pouring rain, up the interstate. Kim looked at the dash and "what's going on!", I looked, all kinds of lights were flashing, a picture of a battery, system this and that, and then an alert that the engine was overheating. Damn. This thing will be paid off in one month. I pulled over in the rain, fortunately under a bridge.
Kim is smart. She keeps a local phone book, less than a quarter inch thick, in her car. We looked up the towing guy, gave him a call, and he said he'd be along presently. We both knew it'd be an hour wait. So we sat there, chatting about how drivers are supposed to veer to the lane away from a stopped car, but very few of them did. Even semis, driven by professionals, whipped right by us in the right lane with no traffic around them, the car shaking with each pass, so it took me a long time to be able to get out of the vehicle and look under the hood, an exercise all men do in these situations despite the fact that looking won't give them a clue as to what the problem is, and if looking does, what does the man do anyway.
And so we sat for an hour until the tow truck arrived. Sat there, biding the time. When the guy showed up I helped Kim make the 20 foot climb into the cab of the truck, then stood around getting in the guy's way while he cranked the car up the flatbed, tilted toward the ground, leveled it out for travel, he said he saw the serpentine belt dangling under the car, and off we went.
Nice guy, about 25. Kim mentioned that she was surprised it wasn't Craig, he said he graduated from tech school in body work and has been working for Craig for a few years towing and working in the body shop and she mentioned that the news meant that we haven't used them for a few years which was a surprise considering the pieces of crap I've been over the years, I saw the stupid wood-colored plastic molding around his instrument panel and asked him if it was genuine birds-eye maple, he chuckled, and in half an hour we were back in Vinton, where Kim's brother picked us up and took us home.
Years ago this might have been a different situation. Kim would have asked why I didn't keep an eye on the belts, I would have retorted with the idea that she takes it to Henkle's to have him check it out every month, we would have argued about what are we going to do now, but none of that happened. We just waited and chatted, had a nice conversation with the tow guy, and after Kim's brother brought us home we turned around and went back to Vinton for the grocery store, no complaints about I've been in the car too long I'm not going anywhere.
Sometimes I hear people my age talk about how their marriage is too complacent, about how boring it is and how they need to spice things up. As far as Kim and I are concerned, complacency is a wonderful thing.
Kim is smart. She keeps a local phone book, less than a quarter inch thick, in her car. We looked up the towing guy, gave him a call, and he said he'd be along presently. We both knew it'd be an hour wait. So we sat there, chatting about how drivers are supposed to veer to the lane away from a stopped car, but very few of them did. Even semis, driven by professionals, whipped right by us in the right lane with no traffic around them, the car shaking with each pass, so it took me a long time to be able to get out of the vehicle and look under the hood, an exercise all men do in these situations despite the fact that looking won't give them a clue as to what the problem is, and if looking does, what does the man do anyway.
And so we sat for an hour until the tow truck arrived. Sat there, biding the time. When the guy showed up I helped Kim make the 20 foot climb into the cab of the truck, then stood around getting in the guy's way while he cranked the car up the flatbed, tilted toward the ground, leveled it out for travel, he said he saw the serpentine belt dangling under the car, and off we went.
Nice guy, about 25. Kim mentioned that she was surprised it wasn't Craig, he said he graduated from tech school in body work and has been working for Craig for a few years towing and working in the body shop and she mentioned that the news meant that we haven't used them for a few years which was a surprise considering the pieces of crap I've been over the years, I saw the stupid wood-colored plastic molding around his instrument panel and asked him if it was genuine birds-eye maple, he chuckled, and in half an hour we were back in Vinton, where Kim's brother picked us up and took us home.
Years ago this might have been a different situation. Kim would have asked why I didn't keep an eye on the belts, I would have retorted with the idea that she takes it to Henkle's to have him check it out every month, we would have argued about what are we going to do now, but none of that happened. We just waited and chatted, had a nice conversation with the tow guy, and after Kim's brother brought us home we turned around and went back to Vinton for the grocery store, no complaints about I've been in the car too long I'm not going anywhere.
Sometimes I hear people my age talk about how their marriage is too complacent, about how boring it is and how they need to spice things up. As far as Kim and I are concerned, complacency is a wonderful thing.
