They say opposites attract.
“They” tend to say a lot of dumb crap, so I usually ignore “they”. However, in the case of me and my wife… there
may be a grain of truth in what "they" say. The thing is, we’re
definitely not complete opposites. We
agree on most major things (where we want to live, how to raise our children, that
Superman would totally kick Batman’s ass in a fight, etc.).
Advantage Kal El
The majority of our “opposite-ness” centers around one topic. We don’t always see eye-to-eye on the proper
disposal of our disposable income. Until
the last few years, this wasn’t a big deal.
The reason being… there was no
disposable income. The problem took
care of itself. But through hard work
and diligence, we’ve recently been able to inch ever so slightly into the black. And of course when I say “hard work and diligence”,
I mean her hard work and diligence. And by “in the black” I mean not drowning in
debt.
For the first few years of our marriage, I handled the
family finances. I was relieved of those
duties during the Great Bossart Financial Coup of 1997 (you may have read about
it). It was a bloodless takeover… really
more of a change in management styles.
Regardless… since then she has worked hard to right our financial ship,
and I have worked equally hard to tip it over.
Put down the checkbook
Here’s the thing. My
wife is practical. Point: The first present my wife (then girlfriend)
ever bought me was coasters (you know the $15 items you put under cold drinks to
keep them from leaving rings on your $10 coffee table). That was for Christmas. A week later on my birthday, she got me salt
and pepper shakers (the plastic ones I had been using since college were admittedly too “ghetto”). Counterpoint: The first present I remember buying her was a
VCR that I really wanted. That thing was
sweet! As I said… we simply have different
styles.
This brings us to a month ago. Point:
There was a little extra money left over. After doing significant research and
obtaining several competitive bids, my wife decided we needed new gutters on
the house. I wasn’t even aware that we
had gutters on our house, but apparently we did… and they needed to be
replaced. Once the decision was made,
the operation went smoothly as the old gutters came down and the new gutters
went up in less than a day (at a fair and competitive price). Counterpoint: Around that same time I bought a 1972 Dr
Pepper vending machine off of Craigslist.
And... after owning it for several weeks, not only does it still NOT work… it’s
in about 1,000 pieces in our garage waiting for the vending machine fairies to sprinkle
it with magic dust and bring it back to life.
You big dummy
Who’s to say who’s right and who’s wrong? The point I’m trying to make is… she made a
really bad decision choosing her life partner… and I forgive her for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment