Hey, Now!

Copyright 2012:  singeronthesand

A nagging spouse is like the drip, drip, drip of a

leaky faucet.  You can't turn it off,

and your can't get away from it!

Proverbs 27:15

Last week I went to a local mulch company to get a load of "mix" - half topsoil and half compost - for the new super-raised flowerbeds on my back patio.  There were several trucks already clustered around the little office building, and two more turned in just as I was parking.  The tiny counter was already crowded with men, and there were a couple of good ole boys sitting by the window.  I slipped in the door and took a position in the corner behind the doorway.

One of the men sitting on the side was on the phone, talking very loudly, and obviously speaking with his wife.  Apparently the refrigerator had quit working, and she had called to ask her husband what to do.  The entire office was involved in the conversation, with men offering various tips for him to relay to his wife, with a couple of guys poking their heads out of the back room to add their two cents.  Finally the wife had heard enough and the call was terminated.  Plunking down the phone for added emphasis, the fellow loudly pronounced to his male audience, "I tell you what!  You can't tell a woman a *#@! thing!" Raising my voice to be heard above the growing laughter, I called out "Hey, Now!"

The sound of a woman's voice shot the gentleman straight up off his chair, just as the men parted like the Red Sea so that he could see me standing there in the corner.  Blushing a bright red, he said, "Well, good afternoon, m'am!  Now what can we get for you today?"  All of the men backed away from the counter, and suddenly I was the most important person in the office as my order was noted, my money taken, and my little female self hustled out the door to go get my dirt.  I laughed all the way to the truck.

You don't have to be a husband or wife to be a nag: children, co-workers, relatives of every stripe, and even queens can be constant complainers.  Curiously, King Solomon, often tagged as the wisest man who ever lived, fails to provide any solutions to this problem.  He just states the simple fact:  a nagging spouse will drive you nuts!