The Electrician

Gene and I were driving downtown on Sunday night when I spotted the hugest, widest, most beautiful tree with lights in it. (I didn't have my camera with me or you'd be seeing a picture of it!)  I commented that they must have hired a professional to place the lights in the tree because they were perfect and this tree overhangs well out into the street. He said it was an electrician, no doubt.   Apparently, when Gene was an apprentice electrician, he had to do some of those kinds of dirty jobs.  He went on to rant how he one time placed some lights up and was remembering how the woman was so picky about exactly "where the sons of bitches things went" ... and he said it like it was just yesterday.  This gave me a chuckle!

I have known Gene now for over 9 years and he still makes me laugh. And, I'm still learning new things about him. He hates macaroni & cheese and forbids me to cook it in the house ~ that's how much he hates it. He's not fond of tuna casserole either. He has sensitive feet and he hates getting his hands sticky -- like when you eat pancakes and get syrup on them!  He's a great car mechanic, although he'll tell you he's not.  He doesn't make snap decisions about what's wrong with a car, which I've seen pay off too numerous times to not mention it. 

Early in our relationship, we took off on a twenty two thousand (22,000) mile trip to Alaska and then across the United States to West Virginia, traveling through the mid-states like Kansas & Missouri to get there. We swung down and hit the tip of Florida, through New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico and home to AZ.  The day we took off from Yuma in my trusty old, blue girl-Ford F150, with 100,000+ miles on her already, she was making a funny noise and I voiced it.  Gene said "ah, just turn the radio up and ignore it".  "Really?", I said.  That truck got us there, housed us during most of that trip, and it's sitting in our driveway today. She's still running with over 200,000 miles on her. He's been working on her for the last year as we had sold her to a friend in Yuma and through circumstances we got her back. She was running pretty rough but he's got her on "smooth" again. Gene toodles around and waits and listens and he usually gets right to the source of the problem with vehicles but he waits until he knows for sure what the problem is.  He tells me it's because he had to fix his own cars when he was growing up and there wasn't money to waste on problems that didn't exist.

I love that about Gene. He's a steady-Eddy about things and he doesn't get his knickers in a twist about most stuff.  Except maybe if you ask him to hang up lights on a tree or try to serve him mac & cheese.  Tee hee!!

love, susan