The Understanding Wife

“If the drywall gets wet it’s going to swell and crumble, then the drywall will need to be repaired.”

His response, “No, it’s fine, nothing will happen”. I said the same thing about my refrigerator that was starting to rust. It wasn’t that old and worked fine. I knew it just needed a special type of paint.

So finally, I came up with a plan. I bought the paint for the refrigerator and the bathroom without telling him. I even bought a new medicine cabinet because the old one that the builder put in was rusting and it was too small for all the stuff I needed to keep in there. Then I said to my husband, “You haven’t gone fishing with your brothers in a long time. The weather is going to be nice up at the lake where you usually go. Why don’t you call your brothers and plan a fishing trip?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he said. “We’ll go this weekend. I’ll call them right now. You’re such an understanding wife to suggest it and not complain of being left alone all weekend.”

“Oh honey,” I purred, “I know you need guy time and I’m not much for camping and fishing, so you go ahead and have a good time.”

‘The die was cast’ as Sherlock Holmes has been known to say. As soon as he left on his trip, I pulled the refrigerator out and began preparing it for painting. I painted it with the special paint I got from ‘Home Depot’. I had to leave it out of its cubby until the paint dried. Next, I prepared the bathroom walls and pulled out the medicine cabinet. I painted all weekend long in between caring for my children, cooking their meals, washing clothes, also watering the grass and flowerbeds. My husband doesn’t believe in having a sprinkler system. In fact, he was against planting a lawn or other plants and flowers. I wasn’t going to let all my work dry up. I loved my garden, and the kids enjoyed it too.

On Sunday afternoon I had almost finished painting the bathroom. I just had to paint behind the toilet. I also hadn’t hung the new medicine cabinet. My husband came home that afternoon before I was finished.

“What have you done! Can’t I leave you alone without you causing trouble?” “I’m tired and now I have to finish what you started woman.”

His nostrils were flaring. He turned all kinds of colors. I thought he was going to have a stroke. But he didn’t. Instead, he finished the painting (grumbling all the while) while I prepared dinner, and he helped me push the refrigerator back in place and hung the new medicine cabinet. He even went with me at my suggestion to buy a new vanity and sink.

After that when he would go away for the weekend fishing or on his Army National Guard drills, I would tease him and ask what color I should paint the bathroom this time.