Working together

Wow, we spent nearly a whole day painting together. We actually had lots of laughs too! Angela managed to paint one side of my jeans with the roller as she "helped" me move it. I managed to paint a couple spots on the ceiling. We both ended up with paint in our hair, on our faces, and on our clothes and shoes too. Believe it or not, we even had fun cleaning each other up afterwards. Go ahead, let your imagination run free - okay, truth be told, we we were too tired for any of "that." All of this took place at our daughter and son-in-law's home, so we had a 19th month old "helping" too. We all survived in good humor! Brooke threw a ball into the paint, and we all lost ourselves in laughter. We had lots of "you missed a spot" teasing, plus lots of helpful hints and, yes, touching and carrying on. In short, it turned out to be a delightful day, as virtually all days are with Angela. That's not to say there were good days when the "evil twin" (David) was around, (there were great!) but, now there is JOY instead of "some-light-moments". Now there is actual sharing of (and in) the work, and we actually enjoy doing these kinds of things together. Yes, when both people are who they need to be, life goes on like Real Life should be (or at least my version of "should). I'm so glad I'm married to a T - and so, guess what: here's another Best Thing About Being Married to a T! Oh yes, we got a great dinner out of the deal. Aud made a supurb chicken dish we'd have had to pay big bucks for at a restaurant.

Don't be a gaycist - or a Transist!

Great video, if you're interested: http://jointheimpact.com/
Join in, be a part of the courage campaign. Fresno will be having a courage camp next month, and I'll be there.
Here's the deal, we're all in this together, and it's NOT 'just about marriage' - it's about Civil Rights. Everyone in the GLBTQI+ communities deserve the rights others have. We , whether you are straight (but not narrow) or already a part of the community/family, have to get everyone on board the civil rights bandwagon. There is no reason everyone who is committed can't file joint income tax returns, be recognized as a family member/couple when one of them goes to a hospital, dies, or is jailed. There is no reason they can't marry. There is no reason their marriage shouldn't be recognized in a state outside of the one they were married in. There are hundreds of reasons GLBTQI+ folks don't share the same rights as others, and it is just plain WRONG. Years from now, folks will look back and wonder what the hubub was about, and some will be ashame of the side they were on, just as happened with the last civil rights movement. Unfortunately, it was the folks who should have been in the forefront (the religious right) that were fighting against civil right for Blacks. Now, they're fighting against civil right for those in the GLBTQI+ community. It's time folks just decided people are people. Yep, there are bad and good eggs in each group, but that's no reason to hold up civil rights for anyone. Speak out, step out and help the cause. Get on board!

Computers are wonderful but it's good to have a T too

Okay, I admit I am no computer whiz. The good news is that Angela is. She's been knowlegeable about computers all the way back to the DOS days when she wrote her own programs. A few years later, she became a computer engineer through Netscape systems while she was teaching. So her coming to my rescue is not a new thing. Recently, while working on an 82 page document using a couple different computers, I pushed a couple buttons incorrectly and lost the whole thing. I fiddled with it awhile and then called on Angela for help. Yep, she came to my rescue and got almost all of the file back. As you might image, I wasn't particularly happy about that, so I decided to take the rest of the day off. She kept at it.

Today, there's good news in the Pettit household again! The file came up good as new on the portable! I don't know what voo-doo Angela did, but she saved my neck again! Now, this may not be a remarkable thing around some houses, but it is around here. That is so because, you see, there were lots of giggles, jokes and good natured fun going on while all that 'saving my neck' got done. That's just one of the delightful things about having a T around!

The Cure

Angela's cured of that one last compulsive aspect of her former life. David was such a clean freak that it drove me nuts sometimes(most times). I mean it was just below the white glove inspection, typical serviceman, clean. This last year, that has disappeared completely. Now, I find I have to watch that I don't turn into the "you missed a spot" nut. I can't help but chuckling though, when the sweeper just hits the high spots, or the baseboards aren't done. I do have to bite my tongue when there are fingerprints on the light switches and fridge door handles. I do get after her about missing my shower. Showers should just be kept after in my book. Okay, some of the compulsiveness rubbed off, I guess. I really don't know why that is the one thing that hung on with me, but it did. I think it's because my parent's home always seemed to have a mildew problem, so we all had to keep after it. My sister and I took turns as we got older, and my mother, at least until she was over 70, was a clean freak too. She used to iron underware and ties. Does that give you any idea what I mean? All the furniture was moved every two months, without fail, and rearranged too. I don't think our furniture gets rearranged at all, except to make room for the Christmas Tree. It seldom gets moved for cleaning these days either, and that's okay. Don't get me wrong, all the couches do get swept under with the extention hose, just not moved. Anyway, some days I get a bigger kick out of Angela's housecleaning tasks than others. She usually does it on the day I'm out of the house for the better part of the day, probably so I can't kibbitz. So, I think it's safe to say, Angela is a completely normal woman who has lots of things to do, and housecleaning gets done, but not to the near white glove perfection that used to be required. I'm so pleased! Aren't Ts wonderful? I just love the fact that she prefers to do the housecleaning. Yep, that's another Best Thing About Being Married to a T.

Computers are time eaters

Boy, it's been three weeks since I last posted, and it feels like it's been ten minutes - well okay, ten days maybe! I've been on the computer a lot. I've found that means time seems to scream by. Before one knows it, hours have passed. I've been going to bed at midnight. I sit down at the computer around ten p.m., and the next thing I know, I can hardly keep my eyes open. The old clock on the wall (or on the computer) reads midnight or later, and I think I've hardly begun my project for the evening. I've been looking up recent pamphlets available for Ts as I'm updating my list. You see, I wrote a book about Angela's transition from my viewpoint. I think it's important that a wife's view is out there, particularly since our marriage is thriving since the transition. The only problem is that, for me, working on the computer makes time disappear! When I'm concentrating on something, I get lost in the project, and days can go by, not just hours. I love talking about Angela since her transition on this blog, and I miss doing it. But, as you can see, days have skipped by while I spent time on the computer. All I can say is I'm sorry! I'll try not to get so wrapped up in the computer that I let weeks get by me again.

It's a Gloomy, Glorious Day!

Rain! Gads how I love it, even if it leaves the skies overcast and gloomy. Angela and I have been out cutting shoots around the olive trees that line the western side of our yard between rain showers. There are five of them. We got the largest done a couple of weeks ago; three done today, and the last will have to wait until our big dumpster is emptied. Damp weather and hard work may not be the picture most folks see for a glorious day, but I do. I do because Angela have fun when we work together. There's a bit of kibitzing going on, along with a fair amount of "let me help with that," happening too. After all these years, we've got this job down to something of a science, so we work well as a team. These lovely trees are great shade trees, even though they are messy. They send up loads of shoots, and they drop olives for half the year. Yet I love them almost as much as I love gloomy, glorious days like today.

I also love working in my garden when it's damp out. I like the smell of the earth, and I like knowing I'm helping a plant grow better when I yank out a weed. It's nice to hear, "that' lettuce is really doing pretty well," from Angela too. This is the first year I've tried lettuce. We don't get much time for "cool weather crops" around here. Besides that, the rabbits, moles, gophers, and birds have a heyday in the garden too - not to mention ants and insects.

I guess I like being outside in general, unless it is way too cold or hot. We don't get many of the way too cold days, but we do get the hot ones. So, today was a perfect day. We got some of the rain we needed. We got another portion of a big job, the trees, done, and my small lettuce patch is weeded. I'm tired and happy. Now I must hit the grocery store before the kids come over for dinner. We'll have a nice steak, and we'll play with Brooke, and we'll catch up on what Aud and Daniel have been up to for the last week.

What more could someone ask from a gloomy, glorious day?

Saved by the T!

Whew! Talk about being lucky, Angela saved the day again! Not only did she save the day, she saved our lives. On top of all that, she made us very comfortable as well! Okay, here's the story. You know we go RVing, and this past week was no exception. We had a lovely stay with the Rainbow RV group at Morro Bay. We had glorious SUN (which we don't see a lot of in Fresno), too much wind, just the right amount of wind, and perfect temps mid day.

The first day started out just fine except for a cold wind which pretty much ruined our evening gathering since it was outdoors. Because it was so windy, we pulled our 4 slides in (it was too noisy otherwise). When we did that, we noticed we had no heat in the front of the coach. After putting the slide in and out a couple times, everything was working fine again, so we went to bed. The next morning, Angela said she'd "worried through the night." So, she decided to "check it out." Good thing! What we had was a kinked gas line! I don't know if you know much about propane, but it's deadly - as is most gas when it gets out in an enclosed space. We hadn't sprung a leak yet, but because the hose flexed and kinked-depending on where the slide was, it was obvious it was eventually going to break/spring a leak/open a hole. Of course, it was Saturday, and we were in a small town we weren't familiar with. It was also 4:30 p.m. which meant anything open was likely to be closed in 30 minutes. Angela turned off the gas and set about removing the line. The RV folks told us of a local hardware store, and Angela dashed off to find them. The nice folks at this ACE Hardware (that's a plug folks) helped her get all the connectors and so forth. She was soon back to work replacing the whole thing, and redesigning how it would be routed so we wouldn't have the same problem again. After it was all said and done, she admitted, "I didn't think I'd be able to do that." That's a first for her! She can fix almost anything, and I just assumed, because of that, that she had worked with gas lines before! I was blithely unworried as I handed her tools and held the flashlight for her. As usual, though, she did a perfect job. So, she saved the day, our lives, and our comfort, as we'd have frozen our buns off if we hadn't had heat all night! She is a wonder, and yep, this is just another "Best Thing About Being Married to a T!" I am very thankful for her "can do" attitude, and her willingness to tackle new projects. Her mechanical abilities never cease to amaze me. She later said it was because she had so often replaced hoses on cars that she was willing to tackle this job without fear. Most of us "girls" don't have the experience with cars that most guys do, so again her "guy knowledge" came to our rescue - without the attitude though! Boy, am I lucky to be married to a T!