Wood Splitting

Well, it's wood splitting (and stacking and moving and stacking some more) time at my house. I have handled more wood in the last few days than I care to remember. (That doesn't sound quite right, but you know what I'm talking about so grow up already!) We heat our house all winter long with only our woodstoves so getting this all pulled together is kind of a big deal. I was in charge of running the splitter today. Joe puts the log up there and then I pull the lever that makes the hydraulic, super strong splitter, split the log. I think it should be mentioned here that Joe and I have been "fighting" for the past couple of days. Interestingly enough, we've been "fighting" about communication issues. But I digress.

Anyway, my job is to keep my eyes on Joe's hands to make sure that I don't crush them in the splitter. My job sounds easy but it's not. It's complicated because the instructions that I receive while doing my job is sketchy at best. Joe communicates to me while we're splitting wood through a series of head nods, grunts, and gestures, none of which are very clear. You can understand why I've been pushing for us to work on "better communication". Anyway, I was running the splitter and he was nodding and grunting and gesturing and I guess I misunderstood what he was trying to say (BECAUSE HE WASN'T ACTUALLY SAYING ANYTHING) and I pulled the lever when I shouldn't have. Let me be clear - he wasn't injured. Luckily. Still, based on the situation, the probability was high that he COULD have been injured, which was enough to make him yell at me. 

I don't respond well when people yell at me. Even if I might have almost just accidentally crushed that persons' hand - I don't like to be yelled at. This brings me back to my original issue with the whole thing which is that Joe needs a boy friend to split wood with. Boys seem to get, nay cherish, the idea that there's not a lot of talking involved in wood splitting. I figure it's a good time to catch up with each other, albeit over the sound of a huge John Deere tractor running in the background. Boys don't see it that way. They like the fact that they can spend time together and not have to speak. I will never understand men, I swear. Anyway, after the near crushing and the yelling, my feelings were hurt and I didn't want to work anymore. I'm not a total baby. I kept at it and got the job done, but now I'm waiting for flowers and an apology. I suppose that men will never understand women either...