Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

 

I’m such a cliché!  I don’t know how to do so many things around our house because Charlie takes care of them and does them!

The other day we got up at the same time, which is an unusual thing.  I opened all of our curtains (which I DO know how to do!) while Charlie fed Coco.  Then, I sat down on the couch and waited for him to turn on the TV and make coffee.  Here’s the conversation:

“What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“I want to listen to the news,” I replied (Hurricane Sandy update).

“Well, turn on the TV.”

“I don’t know how!”

“Well, I’m making coffee and I can’t do both at the same time.  So, what do you want – coffee or TV?”

“Both.”

“Well, you’d better learn how to do some of this stuff before I die!  In fact, you should write a post about things you need to learn before your husband dies!”

I’m NOT kidding – this is what Charlie said to me!  I started laughing (he always makes me laugh AND makes me coffee!).

Anyway, here’s my list of things I need to learn how to do before Charlie knocks on heaven’s door:

1. Make coffee
2. Turn on (and off) the TV
3. Turn on (and off) the DVD player
4. Turn on (and off) the house alarm
5. Do the laundry (yes, he does ALL the laundry and I don’t know how to use our washer and dryer – well, actually I do; but I only know the bare minimum about the washer and dryer, which is “hit the button” because they are fancy-dancy, with self-loading laundry soap, and they “talk” to each other because they are like, well, computers)
6. Turn on (and off) our heating and air-conditioning system
7. Turn on (and off) our landscape watering system
8. Pay our bills (I haven’t paid our bills for about 15 years.  I did this in the early years of our marriage, but then went “on strike” and Charlie took over.)
9. Do our taxes (I haven’t done taxes in 23 years)
10. Start our John Deere Gator (I DO know how to drive it)
11. Start our John Deere Tractor and learn to drive it (I DON’T know how to drive it)
12. Turn on (and off) our water heater
13. Turn on (and off) the propane tank (operates our water heater, house heater, stove top, fireplaces, pool, outdoor barbeque)
14. Manually open our front gate (it’s electric)
15. Learn how to check the electrical breakers and what they mean
16. Turn off the propane to the generators
17. Learn how to put potassium cubes in the whole-house water filtration system
18. Turn on (and off) the landscape lighting
19. Manually open the garage doors (in case of a power failure, including our back-up generators)
20. Change the heating/air-conditioning filters
21. Learn who to call to take care of all of the household maintenance issues

So, this is my list – My Project #13 to my Emergency Planning Project Checklist!

More than likely, Charlie will continue to do these things for me (for us).  So, once he shows me, I’ll probably forget how.  So, this particular checklist needs to be practiced on a regular basis so that each of these things stays put in my mind.  So, I’ve decided quarterly is what I need to do in order to reinforce this stuff in my brain.  And, I’ve chosen the first day of each season as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door Training Day.”  The first day of Winter is December 21st, so Charlie and I have a date!

 

What do you need to learn to do before your significant other goes “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”?  I’d like you to share – maybe I forgot something!

Tootles,