Keeping the Health Department Out

My wife and I agreed early on, with her insisting first, that she was going to be a stay-with-kids mother. She was going to give up her job.

This was to allow her to raise our children with love, care, and the best caretaking, and to keep the home, and still have enough energy for me.

HA!

What crock.

I have always helped out around the house. One of the ways we split things was that she would wash the dishes and I would put them away after they dried. Every once in a while, I just couldn't take the dishes piling up any more and I'd wash them, knowing full well I was running the risk her stopping her washing of the dishes entirely. Well, it appears she's done just that.

To get around the issue, we have been using disposable plates, cups, and utensils.

How lazy can someone get, really?

I'm the full-time sole breadwinner. I come home after working and I don't want to clean up. One of my sisters says, "Hey, suck it up. Single mothers do it." Yeah, but I'm not a single parent. The law says that I'm paying my wife half of my frickin' income and I sure as Hell expect that buys something. Not the most romantic thought, but my wife hasn't given me any reason lately to think romantically.

So, I've seen our place get worse and worse. I come home and I don't want to clean up. I don't want to discuss it with my wife. I don't want to discuss it with my kids. My wife should be teaching my kids to clean up after themselves. She should be cleaning up, too.

As a kid, I didn't keep the cleanest room. However, unlike my kids, I did not keep any food or used plates, cups, etc. in my room. My room might have gotten cluttered, but it wasn't unhealthy.

I have no training as social worker or code enforcement expert, but I would expect my daughter's room to be condemned. I'm not exaggerating.

So... my wife scheduled a visit from my mother and one of my sisters, so they can clean up our home. And on top of that, she still scheduled a woman we've previously hired to get there an hour before my family, so we could pay that woman money to do what my family members were coming to do for free.

So in addition to half of my pay going to my wife, I'm paying a stranger on top of that. My sister brought along one of her friends to help, so she could see the disaster as well.

They didn't exactly finish, but they did manage to lose some items my daughter considers important. And they did stay late enough that, after I finished  putting the kids to bed per their requests, I wasn't going to get nearly enough sleep.

At least my wife finally did start cleaning (and I helped out, mostly by taking out trash, doing the dishes, and cleaning a bathtub). I should tell her I've arranged for my family to come by and clean, even when I haven't, just to get her to clean.

My wife has been cooking maybe once every three weeks. And by cooking I'm talking about throwing something in the crock pot.

My wife lets the laundry pile up to a ridiculous point, preferring to put it into the washer and dryer when both of our kids are with my family.

There is plenty of time she's not supervising the kids, because she stays up too late and sleeps in a lot.

She's reduced our sexual encounters to about once every two weeks, for as short as she can keep them, and she's repeatedly indicated to me she only does it as an act of mercy to me. For example, here's a gem of a quote, when I called her out on looking for excuses to avoid sex:

"It isn't about finding an excuse not to have sex with you. It's about finding a reason TO."

In other words, she can't think of a reason to have sex with me. It doesn't matter that I pay the bills. It doesn't matter that I play with the kids in ways she can't or won't. It doesn't matter that I'm her husband. It doesn't matter that I pay the insurance and bills that allow her to visit many different doctors on a frequent basis.

Yeah, I've done the romance her thing. Yeah, I've done the sit and cuddle and rub her legs with no expectation of sex thing. You know what those things got me? A lot less sleep and no sex.

Once again, I can think back to my wayward youth and be comforted in knowing this is not about me. It's her problem. Plenty of women were very eager to have sex with me on a regular basis.

So, I'm probably going to be responding to some of her requests with, "No, I just don't feel like doing that." Childish? Perhaps. But I have no other recourse. One way or the other, I will be forced to hold up my end of the bargain. I have to keep my end of the deal to provide.

So while she:
Doesn't clean
Doesn't cook
Doesn't do laundry in a timely way
Doesn't supervise the kids all of the time they're home
Doesn't accept my sexual advances often enough...

... I'm still keeping my end of the deal. I don't have much of a choice.

I see our situation and I think we're raising our children to be spoiled, useless, and difficult to live with monsters. But at this point, I'm thinking I'm going to strongly advise my son against marrying, so at least he will not inflict himself on someone else.

A Terrestrial Radio Format I Want For Los Angeles

Terrestrial radio ain't what it used to be. Anyone can you that. Tom Leykis gives much insight into how sausage is made when it comes to terrestrial radio, and he frequently points out that the two largest companies are, together, mired in staggering debt. With satellite radio, various apps providing customized listening, and MP3s, etc., and, on the flip side, advertisers having more delivery methods than ever, terrestrial radio has some major troubles. I really like Leykis' model, and his show is so much better since it came back as an Internet show.

In Los Angeles, CBS ended up with both major "all news" stations, AM 1070 KNX and AM 980 KFWB. I remember when I used to listen to KFWB. They had a 20-minute news cycle, with sports twice and hour, and traffic reports every ten minutes. This was 24/7/365. Then things started to change, and I stopped listening, except for when they picked up Dr. Laura after her long run on KFI (and before she went to satellite, where her show is even better.) KFI has gone downhill since she left, except for, perhaps, giving Gary Hoffman the 5-6am weekday hour.

Since CBS owned "too many" radio and television states in the Los Angeles market, KFWB had to be treated as the stepchild. Now it is taking on a sports format, so it can play catchup with Clear Channel's AM 570 and ESPN and whatever other sports stations there are. (Can you tell I don't listen to that stuff?)

Here's what we need in the Greater Los Angeles radio market: An all-traffic station. I'm serious. Now, maybe eventually Internet delivery to moving vehicles will get to the point and penetration where people will be able to do this via automation using their smart phones or part of their vehicle dashboard, but for the time being, Los Angeles needs an all-traffic station. Most traffic reports currently heard on terrestrial radio in Los Angeles are woefully inadequate. They are not timely, or too short, or whatever else - but since they're really there so you can hear a billboard, the companies don't really care.

But if there is an entire station, one with a far-reaching signal, that focuses primarily on traffic reports and covers the entirely of the Los Angeles-Ventura-San Bernardino-Riverside-Orange County area, it would be worthwhile to listeners and worthwhile to advertisers.

Rush "hour" in the Los Angeles area is MANY hours, twice per day. And when it isn't rush "hour", there's construction and cleaning. Traffic is bad on the weekends, too.

With a format like this, we can get detailed information about where an accident is, how many lanes are closed how far the backup is, what speeds there are, and an estimated time of clearance. We can get detailed suggestions of ways around the traffic problem. We can get more information about problems on surface streets. Presidential visits, parades, and other special events can also be detailed. And yes, the time can be filled in with weather reports and other news, especially news that might have an impact on traffic. We can even get told which freeways and streets are wide-open.

Please, someone make this happen. It's not like the existing frequencies are all filled up with highly successful formats.