Thursday, February 10, 2011

My First Tent (or how to live comfortably with your wife)

My wife and I got our first tent before we were married.  She was living in Arcata, Califormia and I was living in St. Louis, Missouri, so we decided to get married in Fairfax, Virginia.  Our honeymoon was then driving her stuff in her car (1981 Subaru GL Hatchback w/o air conditioning) back to take up residence in St. Louis. 


We spent a couple of days in San Francisco at the Chancellor Hotel off Union Square, then went to camp for a couple of days in Yosemite National Park.  When we arrived at our campground along the Tioga Road (Yosemite Creek, I think), we started to break camp. 


We had purchased the tent in St. Louis when she visited earlier, and she had taken it camping a couple of times when she was in California and I was still working.  So she had an idea of how to set it up, but of course, since this was camping, I had my own ideas of how it should be set up as well. 


Needless to say, within a few minutes, we had a bunch of poles laying around and a couple of hurt feelings.  Each of us thought we knew best until we realized that we both did.  Either way would achieve the same result, we just had to both work in the same way, which meant that someone had to be in charge.  


To this day, when we're doing something that requires coordinated effort, we look at each other and decide who's in charge.  It's not always the same person in charge, but someone is always in charge. 


Words of wisdom:  If the goal is clear, it doesn't matter who gets you there. 

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Sound almost like the first time Becky and I tried to hang wallpaper. I ended up down the street while she and a friend finished the job. Once I figured out that she was in charge future wallpaper projects went very smooth.

    Gene

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