Sorry, I don't do laundry

Those could have been words Ray might have said to me when we first got married. True, he doesn't do laundry. In fact in the twenty-nine and a half years we've been married, he's only done the laundry one time, when I was gone for three weeks taking Audrey to college.

I had Audrey, Debby and Beth with me, and the two Ray's were left home alone. Mid-trip I got a call from Ray, asking how to work the washing machine. Now, this is a man who can figure out how anything works by looking at it - heaven forbid an instruction manual should get in the way. I had to laugh, and realized then (10 years ago) that he'd never done the laundry since we were married. He's still only done it that once.

Does that bother me? Not in the least. Ray is a much harder worker than I am. I'm sure he's mopped our floors more than I have, and he cleans bathrooms like nobody's business. Just today, in fact, he mopped all our tile floors (and there are a lot!). What a treat for me. Yup, just like I said, he makes every day feel like it's my birthday.