An Inconvenient Truth

I realize that for the most part, a husband’s role is to make his wife’s life as easy as possible. Certainly my wife does that for me, as I can’t count the number of ways she makes my life great. Believe me, I do my best to reciprocate, but sometimes feel like I get the short end of the stick. Way short.

Our 15-year-old daughter’s hula halau will be performing at Disneyland this year, so the group is raising money to help offset the cost of the trip. We’ve been doing the usual fundraisers, and it always seems like we end up buying all the unsold products. But the group has found a way to raise some significant funds by staffing a water station for distance runs. When I heard what they can earn, I thought it was a terrific idea – because I wouldn’t have to peddle fundraising items to relatives, friends and co-workers. Since my wife is kind of a halau mom, she participates to help the girls. This was great news – finally there was a way to raise funds while I could sit back and go on cruise-control.

Nope, not gonna happen. At a recent marathon, my wife wanted me to drop them off at the race starting point where they would be working. That would be Kapiolani Park, and we live in Central Oahu. She said parking is a hassle because of the number of people. The race was on a Sunday.

I figured OK, it’s the least I can do. I asked what time they had to be there, and under her breath she said around 4 a.m. Knowing the make-ready time that both my wife and daughter need to go anywhere had me deduce that wakeup time was 3 a.m. Bingo! My wife said we had to pick up another girl, so we had to leave even earlier. I then asked what time they would be finished.

She said around 10 a.m. I wasn’t about to drop them and go all the way home only to turn around and pick them up. I asked my wife what I was supposed to do from 4 to 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning while I waited. “You’ll think of something,” was her calm reply. That tells me she wasn’t too concerned about how all this puts me out.

I mentally accepted the task. When I dropped them off, we needed to set where I would pick them up when I returned. My wife, in a saintly voice, said, “Wherever would be most convenient for you.”