Nuria Homeward Bound

My partner, Nuria, is flying back from Costa Rica to Richmond, VA, today. Her plane left Juan Santamaria International airport at 1:21PM CST and is due into Fort Lauderdale International airport at 5:30PM EST. Her next flight leaves at 10:05PM and takes her to Orlando, FL at 11:22PM. Then she gets on a flight at 9:10AM tomorrow morning and arrives in Richmond at 11:33AM.

After all that traveling and spending two days awake, I know she'll be tired. I hope, when she arrives here, she has enough energy left to go to the grocery store, buy food, then come home and cook a meal, clean the house, change the sheets on the bed, and wash and dry the laundry.

I know what you're thinking. Why don't I do some of those things? The answer is: because I'm a man, and men don't know how to do any of that stuff.

The odd thing is, before Nuria moved in with me, I used to do all those things. Come to think of it, I mostly ate frozen dinners, I didn't clean the house, but I did wash and dry the laundry. The washing machine and the clothes dryer did most of the work, but I did have to push a button and turn a dial. Cooking a meal usually involved pushing a button or turning a dial, too. That's my strong suit: pushing buttons and turning dials. If Nuria can carry the dirty clothes to the cellar and put them into the washer and add soap, I can handle the rest. "Hey Nuria, where do you set the dial on the washing machine?" After she answers me, I can handle the rest. And people say cooking and cleaning is a lot of work!

The truth is, Nuria is very old-fashioned in some ways. She feels certain things are her job, and everything else is my job. I mow the yard. I call a roofer to fix a leak (I don't climb on roofs any longer). I call a technician to clean the boiler every year. I keep the oil tank filled with #2 heating oil. I paid to replace ten windows on the ground floor ($8300). I paid for a new sliding patio door ($2430). I paid for a new garage door ($1900). If you're a homeowner, you know the list goes on and on. I'm glad that Nuria wants to cook and clean. I just hope she doesn't read this blog post and get some new ideas.

5:30PM:  

Nuria just landed at Fort Lauderdale. She sent me this photo as the jet was arriving. Next leg of the flight: 10:05PM to 11:22PM. It will, of course, be dark, so probably no photo.