There are several things that I miss while the Professor is away. First and foremost, I miss his love and companionship. He is absolutely a wonderful person who communicates his love every day in various ways, often times with the simple words, “I love you.”
I sometimes fail to notice the other ways in which the Professor communicates his love, or at least I get bogged down with my own day to day duties to absorb these things fully and let him know how much I really appreciate him. In his absence, though, these things are certainly more apparent to me, and I really can’t wait for him to return so that I can pass some (not all) of these duties back to him.
1. He feeds Charlie in the morning, leaving me ample time to get ready for work in an un-rushed fashion.
2. He greets us at the door when we return home and helps me tote all of our stuff back into the house.
3. He helps me make dinner and prepare Charlie’s meals for each day.
4. He helps fold and put away the laundry.
5. He scratches my back on demand.
6. He also rubs my feet if I ask him nicely.
7. He feeds the dogs, fills their water bowls, and gives Maggie her meds.
8. He mows the lawn.
9. He picks up the wretched dog doo in the backyard.
8. He even bathes Roxy after she rolls is said dog doo (yes, our dog is completely disgusting).
10. He kills the spiders and other creepy crawlers that find their way into our home (I have killed at least 6 spiders since he left).
I especially appreciate that he is brave enough to smash the brains out of those evil insects that are the cross between a spider, cricket, and, I am sure, a roach. I shudder as I write this. Wednesday morning, I drearily woke up an hour before Charlie rose. I let the dogs out, made a cup of tea, and headed toward the shower. As I opened the shower curtain with half shut eyes, I noticed a little hoppy thing in the damn tub. I screeched. I squealed! Then I cursed out loud. I am SUCH a girl when it comes to situations like these. I was alone with a spider/cricket/roach thingy. A Spricket, if you will. That’s the scientific name, you know.
Anyway, with my heart pounding, I assessed the situation. Could I get Maggie, my 12 year old English Setter, to come and wipe out this horrid creature? Well, even if her nimbly legs would allow, she was already busy with her morning nap. Roxy, the 3 year old Golden Retriever is just like me, I'm afraid. At first sight of the spricket, she would probably cower away and go whine in the corner. Then I immediately tried to imagine ways I could get my young strapping son to come and help me, but then gave up on the idea since he can't even walk yet. So, I had to turn to my own devices and decided that a smart, wedge, brown leather sandal might do the trick.
I was confident that I would get this nasty creepy crawler/hopper in one try, so I only brought one sandal back to the shower. I eyed the little bugger and BAM! threw the sand to miss him by about 3 inches. Crap, I thought. I went to get the second sandal, and then a third, and then a fourth (the second pair, also brown sandals). After three missed shots, I was getting a little nervous about whether or not I was going to be able to murder this gross spider. I really needed to take a shower and the clock with my precious morning minutes was clicking.
Those spiders are smart! That thing had inched up underneath one of the three shoes laying helpless in the shower. He was hiding! So, I summoned up all the courage and determination I could find at 6:00 in the morning and did a little maneuver that exposed the spider and allowed me to hit it dead on, squashing him senseless and dead. And then came the task of actually picking it up with tissues to flush it down the toilet. I must have used at least half a roll of toilet paper to ensure that none of his disgusting parts of innards touched my skin. My sissy demeanor when it comes to things like these took at least 15 minutes out of my morning. If the Professor was here, he would have had the whole mess taken care of in 30.2 seconds.
