“Oh, man....oh, man...!” The agitated tap tapping of feet and squeaking roll of the office chair comes from the computer room. I’m sitting in bed trying to read the same sentence for the third or fourth time and wondering to myself - what’s wrong this time?
Through the closed bedroom door, I hear him pacing up and down the hallway, still muttering “oh man” once in a while. He finally decides to take a drink of water from the refrigerator. I tell myself that I don’t want to know what the latest setback is all about. I have an exam to study for and I can’t afford any outside interference. But as usual, I can’t help myself. “What’s the matter this time?” I yell. “It’s nothing,” he answers. This of course means that I should immediately open the door and investigate, which I do. He tells me he’s mistakenly deleted some files and he’ll have to start all over again. A part of me wants to say, “How can you do such a stupid thing?” But of course I’m no idiot and I’m not heartless either. No need to beat the man over the head when he’s obviously down and out for the moment.
So I try to do the wifely thing by asking helpfully in all my computer ignorant sweetness, “Isn’t there a way you can retrieve what you lost?” The sad down-and-outer shakes his head no, says he’ll have to get those files from his backup tapes. It’ll probably take him 2 to 3 days just to get back to where he was before that fatal keystroke of a few minutes ago.
I’m thoroughly sick of reading this auditing material. I wish the exams were over with already. Let’s see, there’s the Christmas tree to buy, laundry that’s steadily piling up, the agony over what to fix for dinner tonight, the bathroom to clean, the floor to sweep, the rug to vacuum - oh god, I need help! He’s still picking away at the keyboard but I don’t hear any agonized moans so far. Things must be going pretty well. When he takes a break, perhaps we’ll go out and grab a couple of hamburgers from Burger King. Dinner dilemma solved. “Double whopper with cheese, heavy onion, and slices of bacon for him, and a whopper jr. for me. Oh, and 2 waters please.”
Thinking about food always makes me hungry and just when I’m about to pester him to go get some, he comes walking out with a satisfied smile on his face. “Did you finish?” I ask. He nods and says, “Yup, just about.” Ha, so much for slaving away for the next 3 days. “Did you save your work?” the ever cautious me asks. “I’m going to do a backup now. Want to have hamburgers for tonight?” he asks. Ah...my hero. How well he reads my mind. I give him a quick happy hug and say, “Sure, let me put on my Burger King clothes.”