THE IDIOSYNCRASIES OF THE GENIUS:
AND THERE ARE PLENTY!

Picture this: a girl who has been raised to think (i.e. worry) about what other people think, and pair her up with a guy who doesn’t care in the least and who also has some very strange habits to boot, and what happens? Either she bails out of the relationship quickly, or she elects to grin and bear it --- over and over and over again. I chose to do the latter and here I am forty-eight years later still doing it. But it has become somewhat easier; I pray a lot and consequently, have become more tolerant.

Where do I even begin in describing the genius and his idiosyncrasies? Some of them I have already related, but it was just the tip of the iceberg. So here goes with an attempt to describe more and this may take several days’ worth of writing.

First of all, he is extremely goal-oriented, which he says began when he was in the Boy Scouts. I can just imagine him going after all those badges, even the ones he wasn’t good at. For instance, he tells about the time he was going for the fitness badge and he had to do a standing jump of a certain length. He kept trying and trying in front of his scout master, and finally the man told him to go home and keep at it until he got it; he would trust him to tell the truth. The genius tried all summer long every day until finally one day toward the end of the season, he did it! Of course, he went on to persevere on all the other badges as well, until he reached the Eagle level.

And that trait of reaching goals has remained with him. I have mentioned before how consistent he is about riding a bike every day, either outdoors on the street or on one indoors. For over seven years he hasn’t missed a day and quite frankly, this has not been easy for me. I would like to get an early start on trips we take, but no, the bike riding comes first. And that’s just one example where it has interfered with our schedules. But, over the years I have learned to become more understanding about his workouts.

I’ll tell about one other thing he does that is not like most people and that is the way he parks the car. First, he likes to back into every parking place he possibly can (I call his method “nerding” it in). This would be fine if he just backed it in quickly, but noooo, it takes him forever. Then before he turns the motor off, he has to switch everything --- AC, heater, seat warmers, radio --- into the off position. Many times I am out of the door while the car is still running, which I know is dangerous, but I get so tired of waiting for him to finish all his little duties!

As I said, this will take a few days, so stay tuned for more. BTW, it is his birthday, so I feel obligated to begin this series on him on his special day of all days.