The dreaded request by a spouse for additional assistance

Every time Bob opens the door and hollers in, "hey Mare, I need some help out here," it is the last thing I ever want to hear. It is not 'music to my ears', in fact I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is not going to be a good day. I do not profess to be mechanical minded, not by a long shot. In fact, if they were giving away prizes for the least mechanical minded person, I am sure I would win.

I know that Bob would not ask for my assistance unless he was really desperate. So, I hurry to the door to hear him say "come out here and I will tell you just exactly what I want you to do." I know I am a goner. There is no way out. He knows as well as I do that I am just about as helpful as a new born baby. It is not just one thing he wants me to help with but two.

Now to digress a bit. He and son Rob recently hauled in a hunting tree house from out in the woods that needed some major repairs. They hauled it in on Bob's trailer and parked it in his wood shed. It now needed to be hauled out of the shed and into another shed to make room for his tractor which he was using all afternoon to mow trails with his brush hog. The tractor just stopped and refused to start.

"Now," he says, "all you have to do is" (oh boy I hate it when he says that). "I will pull the trailer with the tree house on it out of the shed with my ATV and all you have to do is hang on to this rope which is tied around the tree house and make sure it doesn't fall forward on me and the ATV. OK?"

He is putting his life in my hands and it will be my fault if it falls on him and crushes him to death. Let me tell you I did a lot of prayin'. Whee! It was finally moved and I was so proud of myself, it didn't fall on Bob and he was still in one piece. "Now," he says, "this next job is a little trickier. I want you to drive the van after I hook a chain to the tractor, and pull me and the tractor into the shed where I can work on it.

"Be sure and swing wide when you turn into the shed and try not to knock the mirrors off or get the tractor catawampus in the door way. Just keep driving through the shed 'til I tell you to stop, any questions?"

Is he kidding? "Well," I said, "would you mind going through it one more time?" After seeing the look on his face, I was already sorry I had opened my mouth. "Now don't stop real abruptly because I don't want to run into the van with the tractor," he said. I asked, "are there any other options?" The look he gave me could have killed a cat. How fast shall I go? Another withering look. Well ... I thought that was a legitimate question. More praying, by now I was really sweatin' bullets.

Finally it was done. Like I said, the only reason he asks me is because I am his one and only option. He said, "if Ben, our grandson had been here and had been asked, he would have said, sure I can do it Papa, do you want me to drive the van or the tractor?" Out of the mouths of babes. Ben is just ten years old.