....In Shining Armour

I've been wanting to share this story for awhile now, and just haven't done it yet.

This summer Rich wanted me to go fishing with him. I hate going fishing, I am so not an outdoorsy person (there's bugs and it's hot and physical, and you can't really look pretty doing all this stuff with the humidity, etc)! But I went with him, because he wanted me too.

We went to a creek and donned hip waders. They are the kind that go up over your hips and have these suspender things attached to them. I'm not a tall person (only 5'2") so his spare pair of waders were huge on my feet (I wear a size 7 and the boots were a size 11) and went clear up to my boobs. I'm sure I made a lovely picture in them, LOL! He also wore his fishing vest which was loaded down with bait and hooks, stuff like that, plus he carried his fishing pole. I carried the net, and my pole (why do I have a pole when I don't like to fish, because everyone in our family has to have one of course, it wouldn't be practical not to have one).

So we're loaded down with all this equipment. It's hard to walk in the water. Especially in big honkin', heavy boots. The water isn't deep in some places, but I'm freaking out, cause I can't swim. We're trying to fish. He caught a couple of fish, but they were little ones, so he threw them back in. He's asking me to give him worms to bait his hook. I can't stand it. I'm such a girly girl!

We walk for what seems like miles. I'm sure he is frustrated with all my whining. He tells me there's a bridge not too far and we can get out of the water and hike back to the car. So we're walking and walking and we don't see any bridge. It's getting darker now, the sun is setting and we're in some woods. He asks me if I want to keep going or climb out of the water and just hike it back from where we were. I say I've had enough and we start to climb out. Only it's all uphill. My boots were so heavy and felt like they were pulling me back down into the water, which now looks so dark like an abyss or something. I'm sliding all over the place and bitching about it.

Rich is all calm and just keeps plowing ahead. We get to this huge steep hill about 9 or 10 feet up pure hill and it's the only way out. Rich just scales right up it, and I get about half way. When my feet start going out from under me, I'm sliding down the hill and it's really dark down there, so I'm crying and grasping my way slowly up this big ass hill...

When all of a sudden I see this hand come down in front of me. It was like God reaching down to help me up. Only when I look up it's my darling husband - reaching for me. I started to cry harder now. I was worried I would hurt his back being fat and heavy (see my other blog). And his back is already hurt, so I really don't want to have him help me. He pulls the fishing pole and net out of my hand. And reaches down for me again. He just simply said "Charlene take my hand, I won't let you fall." So I'm crying and saying Richard, I don't want to hurt you. And he grabs my hand and pulls me up.

Now this is kind of symbolic of our realationship. He is always rescuing me, and saving me, reaching down and pulling me up. But for some reason, I was overcome by the whole thing. I cried and sobbed the whole way to the car. Rich was trying to make me laugh and singing. Always trying to help me.

We walked for miles (or at least it seemed that way, over rail road tracks, we came to a rail trussle and of course since we had to climb up that huge hill to get out of the water, we now have to go down a huge hill to get to the car. Rich made his way down, said he would catch me if I fall. But I was so scared because the boots were dragging me down, making do splits with my legs. I was so afraid. I eventually made my way down, when Rich pointed out how close I was to the ground and I wouldn't have really fallen because he would have caught me anyway. I start crying all over again.

Why does he constantly stand up and save me, reach down and help me up, when I fall, he's right there to help pull me up? Over and over again. I know I'm not the best wife, I constantly do things that annoy him. Things that would probably drive any other man over the edge. But he's still here and he loves me. Really loves me. I really am the luckiest girl on the planet!

I'm sure it will be a couple of years before he will ask me to fishing with him again...