Sometimes all it takes is the clarity of a 17 year old!

Every marriage has their pet peeves.  You know the kind of thing that your partner does that drives you up the freaking wall.  Like leaving the cap off of the tooth paste or leaving the lid up on the toilet; something along those lines.  Well for me, one of those things was Tom driving up to do the barn chores.  I mean he'd go out and start his truck, and let it idle to warm up, and then drive it up to the barn, and if it's cold, it idles while he does the chores and then he drives back down to the house.

Now, I don't know if you've spotted the title of this blog or not, but being "green" is something that is pretty close to my heart; so him driving back and forth to the damn barn was driving me flipping nuts!  Especially since he has been having to do it on a more regular basis with helping me out since my back surgery; which really doesn't make a lick of sense.  You'd think I would just be so happy for the help, it wouldn't bother me.  But NO!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that my 17 year old son caught me mumbling about it the other morning.  I was sitting in front of the fire, working I'm sure, when he came down to visit with me (and to warm up).  But the funniest thing of all, is that he very simply gave me the biggest insight into his Dad's psyche that I have had in a long time.  He told me that Tom is just trying to be like the big ranchers where the guys all go antelope hunting.  Bam, simple as that.  I got to thinking about it, and the boy is right.  

These are guys that Tom has the utmost respect for.  They are very conservative land managers, excellent at animal husbandry and huge on family (hey, lucky for me, all stuff I like too!).  And their ranch is huge...so big that when they have to do their choring, they go out in their trucks, each with their own dog (that jumps through an open window, no less), and do their chores.  Just like my husband...who hopes to have a great big ranch some day.  So who am I to mess with his pretending?

So now when Tom and Rosie head out to start the truck, I smile instead of grit my teeth.  Rosie may not jump through the window, but we're on our way to our own little dreams, in our own little way, and if we have to pretend a little bit on the way there, then who cares?