Dawn Breaks on Marblehead
09/03/17 07:18
I knew this day was coming but I didn't expect it to come so soon. It represents a glacial shift in my thinking when it comes to giving advice, answering questions, and in general being helpful to Nancy. What could go wrong, you ask yourself? She asks and I respond. It's that simple. Or, is it? What I've come to realize is that she will ask for my advice then turn around at once and ignore it. As you can imagine, this has been somewhat frustrating for me being as I am her better half or so I thought. I've often said to her that I don't know why she asks since she never follows my advice anyway. "Does this blouse look good on me?", she would inquire. "Should I buy one gallon or two since we don't come here often?", she asked. "Which car should I take?", she asked as if though she already knew the answer but wanted my input anyway. Whenever she failed to follow my advice one way or another I took it in stride since it was not unusual for her to ignore my feedback. Nancy certainly has a mind of her own and one I encourage her to use and use often especially when it comes to decision making. What I am now realizing is that the advice she has been taking from me all along is not the advice I have been giving her but rather the opposite of that with I have been giving. This epiphany being what it is, I would ask the inevitable question given half a chance, "how is that working out for you?" Knowing what I now know about Nancy's contrarian mindset, I may well refrain from asking that question. In my now upsidedown world, assurances are few and far between. Just one more thing to get used to I suppose.
I don't think I quite get International Women's Day. In fact, the battle of the sexes is a little lost on me. I've never bought into the leftist's narrative that women are an oppressed group and incapable of achieving the same level of societal and financial success enjoyed by their male counterparts. Every societal change involving women going back to the industrial revolution has had its heroines and villains and political parties of all persuasions have never been shy about embracing those movements to advance their own causes. That is one possible explanation. This is otherwise a battle in search of a cause. It is true that without these disparate interest groups squarely in their camp the democrats would hardly qualify as a major opposition party. As such, they look to lock down certain constituencies with all too often unfulfilled promises of social justice, restitution for past grievances, and power in the halls of Congress to effect change going forward. I prefer to think that women are capable of seeing through these false promises but the throngs of women in attendance across the globe at these types of rallies suggests to me that we Conservatives still have work to do. When I see pictures on television of men in attendance at these rallies dressed up as vaginas with their children in tow I suspect that we as men have more work to do. In any movement worth its salt there is bound to be collateral damage. If that collateral damage involves the emasculation of the male species then it may well be a battle worth fighting. As a potential piñata in that fight, maybe the battle of the sexes isn't lost on me after all.
The snow storm this past week was nasty. The winds were seemingly hurricane force, the snow arrived on time just as forecasted, and the projected accumulations fell short by just a few inches. A couple of takeaways that are worth noting: We lost electricity for several hours and the town plow left a wall of snow at the end of our driveway the likes of which we've not seen in all the years that we've lived here. The temperatures hovered around freezing the entire day and the resulting snow was heavy and lay across the landscape like a wet blanket. Branches and debris of all kinds were violently ripped from their moorings by the winds which blew everything in sight horizontally at times. I had planned to take down the bird feeders with every expectation that not a one of god's creatures would wish to get caught up in this maelstrom of a storm heading our way.
There is usually an uptick of animal activity just prior to storms where the animals have not only the good sense to know a storm is coming but to adjust their dietary intake to compensate for leaner times. You can imagine my surprise when I saw birds flocking to the feeders during the height of the storm. As animated as they were, it was almost as though they delighted in being out in the storm. I was never happier that my instincts were wrong and my decision to leave the feeders up during the storm turned out to be providential indeed. Our power was out some 6 or 7 hours but our generator kicked in for the duration and we were not without lights, refrigeration, or heat. Our neighbor gave us a tankful of gas to use when getting out to a local gas station was not possible so that was great. Lastly, the town plow came down our street the following morning when we were hard at work chiseling away at the Mount Everest sitting at the end our driveway. He was good enough to clear the snow away and he saved us several hours of work. Yes, the big guy works in mysterious ways. Indeed he does.
I don't think I quite get International Women's Day. In fact, the battle of the sexes is a little lost on me. I've never bought into the leftist's narrative that women are an oppressed group and incapable of achieving the same level of societal and financial success enjoyed by their male counterparts. Every societal change involving women going back to the industrial revolution has had its heroines and villains and political parties of all persuasions have never been shy about embracing those movements to advance their own causes. That is one possible explanation. This is otherwise a battle in search of a cause. It is true that without these disparate interest groups squarely in their camp the democrats would hardly qualify as a major opposition party. As such, they look to lock down certain constituencies with all too often unfulfilled promises of social justice, restitution for past grievances, and power in the halls of Congress to effect change going forward. I prefer to think that women are capable of seeing through these false promises but the throngs of women in attendance across the globe at these types of rallies suggests to me that we Conservatives still have work to do. When I see pictures on television of men in attendance at these rallies dressed up as vaginas with their children in tow I suspect that we as men have more work to do. In any movement worth its salt there is bound to be collateral damage. If that collateral damage involves the emasculation of the male species then it may well be a battle worth fighting. As a potential piñata in that fight, maybe the battle of the sexes isn't lost on me after all.
The snow storm this past week was nasty. The winds were seemingly hurricane force, the snow arrived on time just as forecasted, and the projected accumulations fell short by just a few inches. A couple of takeaways that are worth noting: We lost electricity for several hours and the town plow left a wall of snow at the end of our driveway the likes of which we've not seen in all the years that we've lived here. The temperatures hovered around freezing the entire day and the resulting snow was heavy and lay across the landscape like a wet blanket. Branches and debris of all kinds were violently ripped from their moorings by the winds which blew everything in sight horizontally at times. I had planned to take down the bird feeders with every expectation that not a one of god's creatures would wish to get caught up in this maelstrom of a storm heading our way.
There is usually an uptick of animal activity just prior to storms where the animals have not only the good sense to know a storm is coming but to adjust their dietary intake to compensate for leaner times. You can imagine my surprise when I saw birds flocking to the feeders during the height of the storm. As animated as they were, it was almost as though they delighted in being out in the storm. I was never happier that my instincts were wrong and my decision to leave the feeders up during the storm turned out to be providential indeed. Our power was out some 6 or 7 hours but our generator kicked in for the duration and we were not without lights, refrigeration, or heat. Our neighbor gave us a tankful of gas to use when getting out to a local gas station was not possible so that was great. Lastly, the town plow came down our street the following morning when we were hard at work chiseling away at the Mount Everest sitting at the end our driveway. He was good enough to clear the snow away and he saved us several hours of work. Yes, the big guy works in mysterious ways. Indeed he does.