Ours is a very successful marriage, as far as these things go. So far, neither of us has killed the other, nor even tried to. Heck, we haven’t even gotten down to throwing objects.
We are also still on speaking terms. Of course, since he is usually asleep when I come in from work, and I am usually asleep when he leaves for work, this doesn’t have to be tested, very often.
And then, there is the best of all reasons that we are still married. Many years ago, when Ely was in one of his really tantrummy 2 year old stages (and since he was a tantrummy 2 year old for two years, starting at 18 months and continuing unabated until he turned 3 1/2., there were plenty of these,) I, not so casually, threatened that if he ever left me, he had to take the kid.
After the addition of more children, of course, this threat metamorphosed into “ take the kids”, but it is still a very effective deterrent to divorce.
Even now. Just imagine, if he left me, now, there would be no diapers and no two-year-old temper tantrums, but he would have to deal with the public school…
So here we are at 26 years.
Along the way, we have developed many traditions.
Early on, we decided that we don’t like getting presents that we will not use, and are not big on surprises and extravagances, so we stopped buying presents for anniversaries, and birthdays and holidays. Well, for each other. Nowadays, we buy what we want, and give it to the other to wrap and to give back to us.
This works remarkably well. This past Hanukkah, I gave my husband two CDs that he really enjoyed. Not two CDs that I thought he might really enjoy, that I hoped he might really enjoy, or that I was worried he might not like as much as I was hoping, but two that were exactly what he wanted- obviously, since he picked them out. And I knew that his joy in receiving them was genuine.
Anniversaries are a little trickier. When we were newly married and had limited disposable income and had, at that time, not yet accumulated too much of everything, we would decide on something we both wanted for the house, and buy it as a mutual gift. One year, early on, we bought a bread machine this was back in the fairly early days of bread machines, and the thing cost much more than we would usually have spent on a kitchen item. But we also lived in a town with no kosher bakery, so no fresh challah, which we both love. And the bread machine was something we both enjoyed.
Another year, we bought a bookcase, which, since we are both bibliophiles, you might think a necessity, but this was a nice bookcase, not just one of our typical goodwill finds.
But after years of accumulating, we hit a point, a few years ago, when there was nothing we could think of to buy for ourselves. Okay, we could, but since we now have enough disposable income to get a new kitchen faucet when the old one cracks and starts spraying us with water whenever we want to wash dishes and we don’t have to wait until July 4th for a reason to splurge to replace it, we find ourselves plumb out of ideas for a gift. So last year, and the year before, and even the year before that, we exchanged our slightly deranged anniversary cards, and that was it.
This year, today, 4 days after our anniversary, we received some news. It, unfortunately, was not wonderful as in good news, and it wasn’t even a Happy Anniversary wish from someone we detest, it was a radon report.
About 8 months ago, we did a short interval radon test, and the results came back high. This was surprising, because the last time we did a radon test in our house - our old house, the house we lived in before this one, the test came back just fine.
Of course, you are probably wondering why I think a test from our previous home should have anything to do with the results from the test done in our current home, but our current home is sitting on the exact same piece of ground that our previous home sat upon. That is because our previous home burnt down and was bulldozed and rebuilt, and the rebuilt home is out current home. So, somehow, I expected that because the radon test results from our previous home had come back all right that this time would be the same. In fact, that little bit of logic is why we didn’t do the radon tests sooner, since we have been living in the rebuilt house for over 10 years.
And breathing in an awful lot of radon.
So, 4 days after our 26th wedding anniversary, we get this rather upsetting news that the radon level in the house is very high- both from the test done in the bedroom and the one done in the hallway.
And, after sharing this news with me via email, my husband sends me an additional message:
How about two of these for an anniversary gift?
Love,
Larry
http://www.armygasmasks.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AAAGAS-19
http://www.armygasmasks.com/PhotoDetails.asp?ShowDESC=N&ProductCode=AAAGAS-19
I told him, “No.”
Obviously, we should buy 4 for our anniversary gift, since we still have two children at home.
1 comment:
Way too much, even for you guys! I think your radon came from the heating of the goods inside your home when it burned and was probably mixed into the earth when it was bulldozed. However, you must buy more than 4 gas masks or your friends will think their deoderant failed them! (I have been around some people that I wish I could have had a mask) :)Liz
Post a Comment