Go Web Young Man

02/13/08 – Today’s installment of Five Quirky Things We’ve Taught Each Other features my new-found affinity for tea and Beth’s concern for her ears when she is blowing her hair dry:

3. Michael’s List: Tea with milk and sugar is a sweet nectar.
Out of the blue, I started drinking coffee in December of 2005. Having never drank more than three or four cups of coffee a year prior to that, all of the sudden I found myself craving two cups each morning. This was despite Beth’s light-hearted insistence that coffee is gross.

Fast-forward to the fall of 2007 when Beth re-discovered her affinity for hot tea. Often I would return from working out in the morning and hear Beth in the shower. I would put the kettle on the stove and have a sippy cup of English Breakfast Tea ready for her as she walked out the door.

This daily ritual peeked my curiosity. So, one day I made a cup for myself, and I haven’t brewed a cup of coffee since. During the intervening weeks and months, I’ve sampled many flavors before settling into a rhythm of Twining’s Earl Grey one week followed by Twining’s Lady Grey the next. Through it all, Beth has maintained her allegiance to Twining’s English Breakfast. However we both agree that a dash of milk along with “two lumps” is the only way to take our tea.

3. Beth’s List: Protect your ears when using a hairdryer.
While we were dating, one of my biggest pet peeves with Michael was his “safety consciousness.” “Beth, did you put on sun screen?” “Beth, did you leave the dryer on?” “Always wear eye protection when you’re mowing the lawn.” No matter the circumstance, Michael did things the safe way. He even wore earplugs while vacuuming.

No matter how hard he tried, I wasn’t following his lead. Call it a stubborn streak, but life is too short to worry about every little thing.

All this changed one day as we were backing out of the garage. “Did you remember to turn off the dryer?” he asked.

“No, why?”

“Beth, the house can catch on fire if you leave it on.”

“Why doesn’t it catch on fire when we’re home?”

“It can, and it does. You’re not even supposed to sleep with the dryer on.”

“How come I’ve never heard of this?”

“Shoot!,” he half-chuckled, “I’ll do it myself.” Parking the car, he went inside and turned the dryer off.

Later that day, I happened to Google “clothes dryers and house fires” or something to that effect. It turns out he was right. There were article after article about houses that caught fire due to various problems with the dryer.

I didn’t want to give in so I just made sure that the vent was always free of lent. But, the problem was that every time I left the house with the dryer on, I worried that I’d come home to a pile of ashes. So, I finally relented and gave in to Michael’s dryer safety policy.

What’s worse, the changes don’t stop there. Once my safety paranoia was awakened, I started worrying about other things. Take the hair dryer for instance. Michael said that “high frequency noises like vacuums and weedeaters can contribute to long term hearing loss.” Once I knew that, I couldn’t dry my hair without thinking about it. The only way to stop worrying was to buy a box of ear plugs and keep them in the bathroom. Now, whenever I dry my hair, you’ll find me with a piece of purple foam sticking out of each ear.

Read the next post in this series: Five Quirky Thinks: Part IV