by Harriett Bjaagesurid —

af

oe Dia ‘you know’ that too much stress ‘over a period of time will
ee | -. eventually buy you a one-way ticket to the morgue? This chilling fact
was recently borne home: to me when our family doctor told my husband that he must
. immediately reduce his stress levels. The “or else" was implicitly clear. et .
|. Since most of my husband’s stress is job-related, we began a minute study. of our lifestyle,

irying to find areas where we could reduce stress to compensate. We finally decided that an-

_.” in-depth discussion of what we saw as tension areas in each other’s lives would benefit both ‘8
= ofus. This seemed like a perfectly rational idea at the time. Someone should have reminded ‘ef
‘us about the Titanic before-we blithely sailed ahead into dangerous waters. a i
~ 7" T-began this discussion by: pointing out an irritating habit he has when driving. Like fe
many drivers in a hurry who are stopped behind a car waiting to make a turn, hubby likes
> to: spend this time constructively by. mouthing obscenities at the other driver. Now this
strikes me as a rather foolish thing to do, particularly since the other driver could be an
. “ffduty police officer who has. had ‘a bad day, and who is quite adept at reading license
- plates backwards in rearview mirrors. I politely explained that this stressful and potentially
- eriminal behaviour must stop immediately. BO . ;
-"- Nowit was hubby's turn. He said he couldn’t help noticing that I sometimes get stressed

_ out when taking a picture for the Pet of the Week slot. I grudgingly admitted this was true. ‘ae

i - . ‘Some animals aré stubbornly, camera shy, forcing you to perform embarrassing antics to get Ee

’*s- their attention, while others firmly believe that the hapless photographer should be covered . , .:

+ with a thousand doggy kisses or subjected to earth-shaking, let-me-wash-your-camera-lens ae
:’) “Burrs. I vowed to handle this situation better in future. eS i

-\ "Next I reminded hubby that he tends to get just a tad stressed when performing manly

_ things. that don’t go quite as planned, like making car repairs. This precipitated a heated
_. lecture about ail the things that can go wrong with a car, and spanned everything from

« battleships to cracked carburetors and faulty timing chains to spark plugs versus electronic 7
ignitions. Since Lhad no idea what an automobile was doing with a battleship or what chains i
had to-do with time, ! decided to let this one pass. It’s hard to make a point when you don't
speak the language. “+ re . | .
‘The ball was back in hubby’s court. Obviously he was still miffed about the car repairs.
-~He said he didn't mind all the little notes of reminders I insisted on writing him, but why,
"he demanded, did I feel it necessary to sign them? Was I really foolish enough to think that
. he wouldn’t recognize my handwriting after 22 extremely long years of marriage? His sneak
verbal attack was stunning. I felt a strong sense of admiration for approximately three -
“"" ~ geconds. | | 7
"1. “Well, at least I don’t foul up the air by eating smelly sardine sandwiches!" I shot back.
"Hah! And who is that names dust bunnies and apologizes every time she steps on a spider?" :
he shouted. "And who phones me at home and asks me how to spell stupid words instead of 7
“=; looking them up in the dictionary!?” I spat. "Yeah? Well, who makes me look under the bed
and in the-closets every time she reads a spooky book or watches a horror movie!?"..
After éircling each other like a pair of hungry hawks, we eventually agreed that our plan
é. v2 was not working. We decided that taking long walks and dragging the bikes out of their

My yo a “ - winter storage would be a lot less dangerous. Besides, we finally ran out of things to argue
= ~ . lL about. oo _ .
. 26 Ce Terrace Review — April 10, 1992 —
7 ao cree etna none cee eee eee me RA MRE I Soi EH amen ce ete me mee ee eee tone . ooo. eee vemalcnerey \