Hello. My name is Kate. I am a Wusband

What is a 'Wusband'? I know that is what you are asking...

Well before I answer that question, I want to clarify a couple of things:
a.) I am not a femi-Nazi (aka, I like men; love my hubby)
b.) I am a feminist (in the traditional sense of the word..I believe in equal pay for equal work etc, but I am not a man hater)
c.) I accept though that there are certain 'roles' in relationships for men and women (meaning, I don't want to take the trash out or fix the garbage disposal)

Okay...with all of that said....I have made up a term 'Wusband' to describe my current situation. I am a wife with husband responsibilities. My sweet hubby is one of those guys who can fix ANYTHING. I am not kidding. He is a genius at problem solving. Which is awesome...the only thing, well...he's just not here all the time. When we were first married, I (the one who is not-so-genuis at fixing and problem solving) was quite content to let things go for a couple of weeks until Shawn returned home to deal with a problem. The kitchen sink is stopped up? Just do the dishes in a plastic tub and dump the water outside afterwards. No prob. The only things is (if any of you are home owners, you know this) little projects pile up. Especially when you have just bought a house...everything goes wrong. Its a rule of thumb.

One day several months ago, Shawn was gone and I went to hop into the shower and it was ICE COLD. I mean the kind of ice cold that hurts when it comes into contact with a warm body. I nearly fell out of the shower. I wrapped a towel around myself and marched to the phone to call Seattle Power and Light. We have our bills directly taken out each month, so I demanded to know what was going on. 'Nothing', the operator told me, 'at least nothing on our end'. So I did what every girl who is newly married does: I called my dad. "Probably the water heater," he said. I went in search of the water heater and found it. After a few minutes of him trying to tell me some things to check over the phone with little success, he told me I'd have to call someone in Seattle. (He's in Ohio) I called down a big list of names in the phone book, all of whom wanted to charge me $100 fee for assessing the problem and $200/hr for work plus parts. I was stunned. Defiant. I wasn't going to pay that.

But I was also freezing. I called dad back. 'Honey, look for a handy man...not a big company with a logo." So I found what appeared to be a handy-man-ish type name and I called. This older Irish man answered the phone, promised not to charge me an arm and a leg, and came over that night. He showed me how to fix the water heater if it happened again and he was so nice, I got him to work on the stopped up kitchen sink as well.

Since that day, I have decided its nice if Shawn doesn't come home from weeks of traveling with lots to do here. So by default I decided to take over some of those husband-tasks when he is away from home. I take the trash out, break down the boxes, scoop puppy poop out of the yard...I have fixed the furnace thermostat once or twice, re-wired the on-the-wall thermostat, and other small projects when they were necessary.

But just now I became the ultimate Wusband. We moved into this house and apparently it had been full of JUNK prior to them trying to sell it. They (I don't know who 'they' are) moved the junk from the house to the yard. Its been the bain of our existance since we took over ownership, but we don't have a truck and haven't had the time to get rid of it all. Last night I got into contact with a company that hauls junk away for you. I made the appointment for the soonest they had available: 8am. It is time for the junk to go!

This company charges by how long it takes them to load the junk. I got up and looked out the window at the side yard...junk was everywhere: boards from only God knows what against the house, pots, random plates of glass, shower doors, bi-folding doors, a church-camp-looking matress, rusted tools, and a laundry hanger thing. I assessed the situation. It would take them 15 minutes if I moved everything together and more than 30 if I didn't. That's a price change of over $100. I sighed, put on my grubby shoes, rolled up my jeans, and found some yellow rubber gloves. Turns out the wood had grass grown over it in some spots. I pulled the peices up and revealed the hiding places of some weird looking bugs....and spiders. I just kept praying there wouldn't be any snakes. That's what I told myself over and over. 'As long as there are no snakes, Kate. You are fine.' There were no snakes, thank God. I would have fainted right then and there and landed in that nasty pile of muddy rubbish.

As I came into the house and tried to put the whole yard garbage out of my mind, that's when the whole Wusband thing came to me. So here's to all of the Wusbands out there! Here's a little pat on the back from me to you! (Casey, I know you are reading this *grin*)