Farmers Tans Are NOT Cool..Unless You Are A Farmer

Yesterday I got suckered into, no, actually I got asked to help my hubby get our new cable lines pulled. After all he said, 'it will take an hour tops!'

How hard can it be?  So I said sure, I would love to help.  Little did I realize the wonderful cool breeze until about 1:00 was lulling me into forgetting I had already been standing out in the sun for well over 3 hours and my sleeves were down!

Remember, I moved from Arizona because I do NOT like the heat, don't like sweating and I am a whiner and very honest about being a whiner when it is hot.

Granddaughter got home at 2:45, still pulling or should I say trying to pull cable and it wasn't working.  Let me tell you if you see a cable guy outside working, you need to immediately stop your car, pull over and say thank you!  Trust me their job is not an easy one when they are having to hand pull over 500' of cable by hand.

All I had to do was keep slack in the line and feed the cable into the conduit.  However, there was a blockage somewhere and the more he pulled, it would hang up.

Me, oh I was a big help!  My hands were swollen, my feet were swollen, my back hurt, my body ached and the worst part of this is I was sweating and I do not mean perspiring, the sweat was rolling down into my eyes and I wanted to go in.

My husband has such an amazing voice, such a sweet smile and always encouraging telling me I was helping him hugely and keep up the good work, but NOT once did he tell me roll up your sleeves to prevent a farmers tan while of course he was outside without a shirt something I would have been arrested for!

My granddaughter gotta love her, brought me out a glass of ice water, her Papa a glass of sweet tea and me a cool wet rag. 'Your face is all red Ranny, maybe you should come in the house.'  Every 5-10 minutes she would being out the water and tell me I should have a drink.

When the slave driver , errrr, hubby said I could finally come inside, I went to the bathroom and my face was red, my feet were black but it wasn't until I got ready to shower that I realized my neck hurt and it was flaming red, my face was red and then it happened!

I took off my shirt and shrieked!  Oh NO!!  It can't be!  Hubby comes running only to hear me say..'you let me get a Farmers tan! How could you not tell me?'

By now, he is rolling on the floor in hysterics. 'That's it, there was no giant snake in the toilet, no large rat in the sink to slay?  All this is about a farmers tan?'

He grins and says quickly as he closes the door knowing I will probably throw my sandal at him in mock rage...'don't forget we have to finish the job tomorrow!'

Today it is tomorrow. My head hurts because it appears I have a sun burn there as well. My pain medication and anti-inflammatories are not working and the walker had to be used this morning to initially get out of bed and move around.

Thank goodness, the kids are home from school today, I think they can take over the job I did yesterday while I sit and relax inside wondering how much it will cost me in tanning booth visits to remove this unjustice!

In all honesty, I saw a side of my husbands job I didn't know about, the frustration of not being able to get something to work, the difficulty in hand pulling long miles of cable through a buried pipe you cannot see so you cannot see where the problem is and lastly since he was a mentor for so many years in Phoenix, I saw the amazing patience he has when training someone who complains the entire day, 'it's to hot, my hands hurt, my feet hurt, I'm hungry, when can we have water, when is lunch, can I use the bathroom?'

Yes, that was me and I would not want his job for anything, but he loves it, is good at it and truly has amazing patience!  I forgot to say, most of the day, he brought me a chair so I could sit down and do my part!

Being a quilter is so much simpler!