Journal bethanie's Journal: I been one poor correspondent, I been too too hard to find 12

Your answers describing WHITE are supposed to represent how you think/feel about heaven or the afterlife.
Your answers describing BLACK are representative of death (the physical aspects).
Your answers describing the ANIMAL symbolize how you view life and how you'd like to live it.
Your answers describing the WATERFALL... Well, you may have guessed already... Sex. And sexuality, too.

So there you have it. Fun at cocktail parties and at coffee houses everywhere.

As for my dishwasher, the guy came out on Tuesday afternoon and the insulation on the underneath part where the wires connect into the appliance had pretty much caught fire and burned up. It was all blackened -- and VERY stinky.

So on the one hand, I'm glad it was just a small repair (he re-tightened the wires and taped them up so that it wouldn't happen again). And on the other hand, I'm a little intimidated by the idea that this *could* have happened while I wasn't at home, or while we were asleep, or whenever -- and I wouldn't have been around to keep an eye on it.

But all in all, I'm considering the experience a blessing. Shit like this happens all the time -- crap that's kinda a bummer, but *really* could have been SO much worse. Like the tire that went flat *just* as I was going around the corner by the auto shop (where they very kindly swapped it out for my spare -- gratis -- so that I could drive down to the tire store to replace it). And this dishwasher thing that happened in the middle of the night with the kids asleep and me with plenty of time to hang out and make sure it wasn't disastrous.

And I've pretty much gotten over the irritation that I was feeling at ALL the people who were telling me that I needed to wake Hubby up to "take care" of things with the dishwasher. I spent the day considering why I should be so irritated about it, and figured out that not only does that idea offend my feminist sensibilities (that I should leave all that mechanical stuff to a man to take care of), but it *really* goes against my libertarian grain.

The idea that for *any*thing I should sit around and wait for someone else to come and take care of it -- NO. That just don't fly with me.

Now, it's true that Hubby knows more about electrical stuff and appliances than I do. And I'm going to come out and admit that I turned off the breakers for the GFI outlets in the kitchen (thinking that they applied to the dishwasher), not realizing that the breaker for the dishwasher was actually downstairs in the basement 'cause they'd run the wire down through the floor. But I learned about that the next morning when Hubby informed me of it -- he had paid much more attention to that sort of thing when the house was being built than I did, because, well, because I really did have other things to focus on. And I wasn't in the same place then as I am now.

In any case, I don't think any woman should be told to wait around for her husband to get home to look after a household problem -- nor should she be called upon to go wake him up out of a sound sleep. The roles would NEVER be reversed... and that means it's just a flat-out double standard.

AND it flouts the whole concept of personal accountability and responsibility. I'm an adult. Dealing with this stuff comes with the territory.

As it stands, having looked after the problem myself (consulting with Hubby in the morning, since it's his house, too) taught me a few things. Having simply turned it over to the "man of the house" would have taught me nothing. For the next appliance-related crisis, I am now better prepared. And that, in and of itself, is its own reward.

In other news, I got a front lawn installed and hired for a part-time job this past week. But those will have to wait until later.