October 2021 (Page 11)

I spent a lot more than two hours installing the storm door. Lion wanted to hire a handy man to do it but I figured we could do it. “We” could do it. I asked Lion for a little help but did most of it myself. Lion said it wasn’t exactly how he wanted to spend his birthday. Agreed.

He was down in the dumps. I know birthdays are hard for him. He said this one just didn’t seem special. I guess if I had given him all of his present at once rather than waiting for the rest to arrive Tuesday, gotten him a birthday card, gotten him a birthday cake and ridden him, it might have been a good birthday. Oh, and if I hadn’t installed the storm door or the pipe didn’t burst.

You know, I don’t think Lion is selfish when sex is one-sided. I don’t think he asks for too much wanting to be tied up and spanked. I think he’s selfish when he acts like a spoiled brat. He pouts when things don’t go his way. I apologized for not giving him the birthday he wanted and he said it was fine. He wasn’t disappointed. Then he acted disappointed. Maybe this is where my background of managing disappointment serves me well. Was I disappointed when Lion spent my birthday making the travel arrangements for my son’s wedding and grumbling because I wasn’t moving fast enough for his requests or that he was paying for everything? Aside from the fact that I thought I was going to make the arrangements, no. Was I disappointed when he didn’t get me an anniversary present this year? No.

I suppose you could say that by bringing up those instances, I really am disappointed. I don’t think so. They are just examples of how things didn’t go my way (whatever way that was supposed to be) and I didn’t pout. Things go my way often enough. I think they go Lion’s way often enough too. I can understand being upset about your birthday not going the way you wanted it to go, but you have to be able to pull up your big boy pants and move on. Not everything is about him or me. Things happen.

Today, we’ll go out to dinner and get him a birthday cake. Life will go on.

[Lion — Birthdays are tough for me. I was disappointed. Yes, I didn’t get an anniversary present for Mrs. Lion. I didn’t get one either. [Mrs. Lion — I got him some silly signs from New York City to make him feel more at home.] I can only shop online. This birthday did let me down. I don’t care about the gifts. Mrs. Lion got me a new terrarium for some air plants. She ordered me a pizza from a restaurant I like. Nice gifts. She had no plans for dinner. I figured she would either cook something nice or we would go out. Neither happened. A cake is a big deal only because she always got me one from a bakery in Seattle. Again, not a big deal. My point is that there were absolutely no plans to celebrate. None at all. That disappointed me. I was going to say we could go to the casino for dinner. But Mrs. Lion was in a foul mood. Installing the door was a huge job for her. All I wanted was to be remembered and have something planned. Honestly, the gifts were nice. It was that nothing was planned. I thought that Mrs. Lion would appreciate my birthday gift to her which was arranging for her to go to her son’s wedding. We have some gaps in understanding one another. [Mrs. Lion — I didn’t realize this was my present given all the grumbling.] ]

Happy birthday, Lion! I gave him part of his present. The rest is being delivered Tuesday. That’s not all the excitement, though. We had planned on installing a storm door with a doggie door this morning before rain started. It would only have taken a few hours. However, now the aftermath of the burst pipe is coming back to bite us. We need to move things out of the basement area so the landlord can have the damage fixed. Unfortunately, our insurance doesn’t have an adjustor available until Monday. The longer things stay on the wet carpet, the more they will absorb water. Lion has been on the phone arguing with people for over an hour. Again, happy birthday, Lion.

I’m still planning on giving Lion his birthday ride. Planning being the operative word. I have no idea what’s actually going to happen between now and then. If we manage to get some help, I’ll probably be running around all day. I’ve already aggravated my butt muscle somehow. It won’t keep me from riding Lion, but I have no idea how tired I’ll be. Lion has already said he doesn’t know about being ridden. Stupid life intruding.

Of course, all this means I’ll be staying home from work to coordinate cleaning/moving our belongings. Naturally, I won’t be doing the moving. I’m just pointing and answering questions. It’s mostly a waste of time, but it has to be done. I wish I could get the approval to work from home when I’m not pointing or answering questions. Oh well. What can you do?

I’m waiting to hear what the rest of my day entails. It sounds like, from eavesdropping on Lion’s phone conversation, we’ll be waiting until Monday for things to start moving. So I guess I’m on door installation duty. That was already going to be a ton of fun. The water damage has just added more drama.