The difference between us.

[MooseMom]

Hubby had bought a bottle of champers last week, and we chose tonight to open it and to have it with dinner.  No reason, no celebration...it was just there and tonight seemed as good a night as any to have some bubbly.  We sat down to eat and had the TV on in the background so that we could listen to the Cubs vs Sox game.  All of a sudden, the TV's sound went out and was replaced by a National Weather Service warning; a tornado warning had been issued for our area.  And then the tornado sirens went off.  It was quite frightening, particularly in light of the devastating tornadoes the US has seen in the past few months.  I've been plagued by dreams about tornadoes for as long as I can remember, so I was particularly wary.  I immediately ran into the bedroom and grabbed our battery operated/hand-cranked weather radio that has built in sirens and lights...you know, one of those emergency radios.  I also grabbed our two large battery operated flashlights, one for me and one for hubby.  I made for the basement.

Hubby grabbed the champagne.  Then he opened the front door to have a look.

And that illustrates the difference between us.  My motto is "the devil is in the details", and his is, "What owner's manual?"

As grateful as I am that hubby insists he is willing to train with me for NxStage, and as smart as I know he is, I do sometimes wonder about his priorities.   His grasp of the details is tenuous, I fear.

So my question to you all is, what is the difference between you and your spouse/partner?  In a sudden emergency, what do you think you'd automatically do, and what do you think your partner would automatically do?

[jbeany]

I don't think it's the details - it's the priorities!

I babysat for a dear friend's kids for years.  She and her husband have a gift shop with a ramp in the back up to the shipping dock.  We were standing outside on the dock, talking and watching the kids zip around on their bikes in the back alley where we parked.  Their son Jamie couldn't resist the temptation and tried to do a flying jump off the ramp.  He fell off the bike and slide halfway down the ramp, stopping only when he and the tangled bike ran into the husband's sport car's front bumper.  My friend yelled, "Jamie!" and took off down the ramp to his side.  Her husband was right behind her - yelling, "My Porsche!"   

[Jean]

My hubby and I have so many differences, it would be hard to pinpoint one.However, we get along very very well. In a crisis of any kind, he is the one I want standing with me. He stays calm and cool under pressure of any kind. I, on the other hand, don't!!

[billybags]

My husband is more laid back than me, to him half a glass of wine is half full to me it is half empty. I am perhaps a control freak, every thing has to be so so. Appointments, you have to be there early, tablets you have to put the prescription in early , those daft sort of things. I know what to do in an emergency.,Brings to mind when I tripped backwards helping him move a heavy TV set a couple of years ago, I caught my slipper in the carpet gripper and fell with such a bang on my back and could not move, I thought I had broken my hip. What did he do? Looked down at me for ages, I had to yell at him to call 999 he said "why  can't you get up". MEN

[Rerun]

These are funny!  I'm divorced.  Enough said!   

[kitkatz]

If hubby ever figures out he can do research on the internet, I will never see him again!

[rsudock]

Aaron over all is the level headed one. Always has an answer. Takes things to serously. He is so worried about the destination, that he forgets to stop and enjoy the journey.

When it came to NxStage he didn't seem overly concerned about doing it saying, "I am still in school." Now to me that shouldn't matter but to him we just weren't in a good place in our lives to start the training.

Last Saturday we went to Put in Bay and were playing mini golf.  All of a sudden a bird started attacking my head. Like dive bombing me...what does Aaron do....run away and freak out!! He has a phobia of birds so if the end of the world has to do with birds I am pretty much SOL!!

xo,
R

[Chris]

Well I'm with hubby, I wouldn't panic, I'd grab the Champaign too, take a lok to see how bad it is out, then maybe go to the basement if warranted. Could be just the way I was brought up and/ or experiences I have had with bad weather and tornados.

[MooseMom]

Well I'm with hubby, I wouldn't panic, I'd grab the Champaign too, take a lok to see how bad it is out, then maybe go to the basement if warranted. Could be just the way I was brought up and/ or experiences I have had with bad weather and tornados.

Do you remember a couple (maybe three) years ago when that enormous lightning storm hit Chicago?  Well, I remember that it was during August because my son was visiting during his school holidays.  My elderly, dialyzing mother was here, too.  We were just pootling about the house, and I had on the Astros vs Cubs game, and suddenly we get one of those tornado warnings going across the TV.  I looked outside, and it was just pitch black even though it was the afternoon.  The sirens started going, and down we went into the basement.  Of course the power goes out, and here I am with my elderly frail mother, my autistic teenaged son, two flashlights and the emergency weather radio, and that was the first time I'd ever been really frightened of the weather, and I've been through several hurricanes!  It was just so sudden!  Hurricanes you can plan for; you can get out of their way.  But tornadoes are tempermental.

(I remember reading that during the baseball game, Lance Berkman was first baseman for the Astros, and there was this enormous flash of lightning.  He freaked out, screamed and ran off the field!  That's when they called the game.)

On that occasion, hubby was at work, and they all hung out in the stairwells and didn't actually see much of the storm.  So last week when we had this freaky gale, it was his first time experiencing anything like this because he was at home.  He got more nervous once he could hear the weather reports.  He stopped drinking the champagne...

[lmunchkin]

I think Jay and I are like Billybags analogy!  Hubby is definately a laid back guy and has always been that way.  Her speaking about the TV event, reminded me when we took our motorcycle rides up through W. Kentucky "Land Between the Lakes", and we pulled up to a Waffle House for breckfast, and when dismounting my bike, I had failed to put my Kickstand down, and there Iwas lying on the asphalt with a 500lb machine on top of my leg.

Instead of getting the bike off of me, he just looked at me and said "why didn't you put the Kick stand down?".  I shot him a look that would Kill, and he just helped to get if off, and he said nothing more!  Funny, when looking back on it!

lmunchkin        :cheer

P.S. Not to mention how embarrassed I was with patrons in resturant watching this "biker chick" lying on the ground cause "idiot" forgot to put kickstand down.

[Chris]

MooseMom, I guess you need to stop watchng the cubs games then 
I remember that storm, we had to huddle in the hallway at my college which was literlaaly pointless since we had glass on both ends. Glass wall to the west and the glass doors to the east of us. A few of us went outside to look, then security pulled us all in to lock us down. However, I'm not the time of person to be a storm chaser, just like to observe nature at work. On a couple occasions the storms during the day made it look gren out and on the other occassion orange. During one night storm, it was light out still after 9 pm, but once the storm passed over it became night as usual.. The most exciting thing I have seen was two tornados side by side in 1991 that came down in a farm fiels in Lisle by St Benedictine College. Those days I wish I had a modern cellphone.

[jbeany]

Well, I've got one that wasn't an emergency, but it was certainly a massive gender difference under stress...

My husband and I had spent endless days glued to the television set, just like everyone else in America following 9/11.  The constant replay of the attacks, the buildings collapsing, the bleeding survivors, the futile search in the rubble. We didn't have cable at the time, so our TV selection was limited to big networks and little else.  Somewhere about the 4th day, I turned to my hubby and said, "I can't handle another minute of this.  Go get a movie so we can watch something else, just for a while."

All our movies were stored in a cupboard in another room.  He went down, shuffled around for a bit making a selection, and came back with one and popped it in the player.

"What did you pick?"

"Saving Private Ryan."

Oh, yeah, no gruesome scenes in that.

[Bruno]

When we lived in Darwin, we had a lot of fun watching the electrical storms of the monsoon season from our balcony. Since 1973 and typhoon Tracy buildings in Darwin have been built to resist a category 4 cyclone, certainly our house would have resisted an atomic bomb, I reckon. But we always had our cyclone kit at hand: water, flashlight, portable radio.
As far as marriage is concerned, I think we have it worked out...I handle the practical stuff, she handles the social stuff. That doesn't mean we go our different ways, it means when a difficult life situation arises I know to listen to her, and if it practical, like rising damp, usually the conference outcome means I have the final say.
Marriage isn't about him and her, it's about what's best for your family, about keeping bridges open, about not going too far that you can't get back.
Most of all, it's not hurting the one you love

[The Noob]

well heres a little story along similar lines. not about me and hubby, but back when i first started my first EMS job. we had a frequent patient who was a former pharmacist. he was getting along in age and we transported him about every 2 weeks to ER.
we get to the home and wife is frantic (looks exhausted) about getting him there quick and worried for him. he is having trouble breathing. my partner and i load him and go. i'm in the back and she is driving.
i am rushing around in the back doing what i can for him, and he keeps pulling on my sleeve to ask me something, i lean down and he says "can we stop at a quick stop"..
i gape at him and tell him "hon, we have to get to ER". he keeps whispering this to me so i ask my partner upfront who running lights and sirens. she gives me a horrified look. at this point i almost chuckled to my patient but reassured whatever he needed we would take care of once he was safely in the ER docs care.
so we get there, get him settled in his room, staff is rocking and rolling for him. as i go to leave, i lean down, hug him a little and tell him he is in good hands and is there anything i can do for him?
he pulls my sleeve again and reaches up with his other very weak hand, hands me a $20 and says.."split this"..

[Riki]

you mean, he wanted you to stop at a store to break a $20?  That's hilarious! Actually sounds like something I'd do... only I'd be asking them if they could stop at the closest Tim Horton's for an ice cap.. *LOL*

[The Noob]

  yea bless his heart he wanted to give us a "tip"

[Riki]

ok, that is just too cute...

[rsudock]

maybe that is a way to get better care...start tipping?!  This made me chuckle too!

xo,
R

[Riki]

I tip in cookies.. don't think it changes the minds of those who believe I sabotage kidneys, though

[The Noob]

hehehe truly..alot of patients who were frequent tried to tip over the years. but its illegal to accept that.
however, i have accepted a few homemade cookies from time to time. giving the patients family hugs and compassion was all i needed.

[Chris]

I use to be a frequent flyer so after my transplant, I sent 4 pizza's over. I felt I should have done something since they came so often.