Honey Dues

     Although it is not clearly spelled out in our marriage contract, there are only a certain amount of "honey do" hours allotted to a wife per year.  Fortunately, any project that the husband considers essential, in my husband's case lawn mowing, watering, and snow removal, do not count against the honey-do allotment. It is the chores the wife considers necessary and the husband considers nuisance that count. For that reason, I try to spend my allotment as frugally as I spend money.  Raking is one of the necessary/nuisance no-mans-land areas in our marriage. Reed, my manic mower, would be happy to let leaves litter the lawn indefinitely. After all, soon snow will fall and no one will see the slimy, sodden blanket beneath the snowy surface. This year, he was even doing internet research to justify not raking. I am willing to help rake as long as he understands I am helping him with his job. Chores are kind of like nicknames, accepting it one time may mean being stuck with it for life. The last thing I want at this low energy era of my life is extra responsibility.
     This year I encouraged my husband to buy an attachment for the riding mower that would do the raking for him. Associating raking with using power tools might make it more manly or, at least, less time consuming. Less honey-do time consuming. I use a simple method to make dreaded chores, like housecleaning, go faster. I lower my standards. What is the least I can get by with doing and still make the house look good? I also have a low standard for raking. All I want is a two hour power sweep of the main drag. My all-or-nothing hubbie, who would be perfectly content leaving every leaf on the lawn, now requires every cranny of our half acre yard to be leafless. Admittedly, being meticulous is a good trait in an aircraft mechanic, but not when he's using my honey-do hours.
    Because his raking job took twice as long as I was hoping, I will be forced to remove a two hour project from my honey-do list. . .but wait, I can offset those hours because I let him by a new tool. Marriage may be a two way street, but it is a toll road. One way or another you have to pay the honey dues.