Every Girl Should Have One

Meet George. He is one of The Husband's best friends and my own personal emergency back-up husband. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about some kind of polygamist arrangement a la Big Love (although if we could find a man who was an excellent chef, was celibate, and just loved to mind the children, I might be tempted to start my own religion). Nor are we wild and crazy swingers; it's a strictly platonic relationship.

George's role as emergency back-up husband really developed last year when The Husband had his accident and suffered from short-term physical and cognitive damage. In other words, he couldn't remember squat and was physically impaired. All he could do was take his meds, go get MRI's and eventually let time heal his wounds (which it did, more or less, thankfully).

Luckily for us, George was a there to lend a helping hand. He came by to check on the The Husband almost every day, fixed anything that needed fixing around the house, and most importantly, brought me beer when the occasion demanded it (every day). He and his wonderful children have truly become part of our family and we are grateful for that.

Even though The Husband has now pretty much recovered, George still plays a vital role. Despite the fact that he and The Husband are total opposites - think Grasshopper and Ant opposites - they work very well together.

For example, I have been extremely busy the last few weeks working more hours than usual and have been unable to help with the ongoing construction that is my future fabulous-attic-master-bedroom-with built-in-bathroom. It's been a slow process over the last year, but The Husband had at last finished putting the the insulation in and was ready to take the next step of installing pipes for plumbing. So he, of course, decided to go fishing over the weekend instead.

George, who is by trade a plumber, managed to talk him out of that idea. He had the (correct) gut feeling that I would be quite cross if they did that, and instead arrived here early Saturday morning ready to plumb. And they did! It took them two days of work and scrounging supplies, but they did it! I arrived home tired from work on Sunday evening to find my bathroom ready for the next step. See those little pipes sticking up? They are where the shower, toilet and sink will be going! I know it doesn't look like much now, but those pipes represent hours and hours of hard work.

And here us the view from the bathroom. The room runs the entire length of our house, which is pretty big. When it's done, it's going to be spectacular! Most importantly, it takes us one level up from children! Plus, we will have a great view! And did I mention we will be getting away from the children? I did? Oh.


In case you're wondering what George thinks of being my emergency back-up husband, he's cool with it. He claims he has sworn off getting married again saying, "My first wife left me because I didn't tell her what where I was going or what I was thinking, and my second wife left me because I did".

He's a handsome and witty man, with a good job, who is in the dating pool in a non-serious way, so he says, but I think he'd make a lovely real husband for some lucky lady one day. Not that I'm trying to be a matchmaker, oh no, not me, I wouldn't dream of meddling in his love-life, merely describing a nice guy, is all .... yeah, that's it, that's the ticket, no matchmaking going on here! But just in case, I will keep my emergency back-up husband and take good care of him until he gets snatched up! I mean, *if* he gets snatched up *coughs*.