Thursday Thirteen

I've been married for 30 years and almost a month now, and my husband and I still share things like newlyweds. What do we share?

1. Colds and viruses. Ta da! He developed an upper respiratory infection last weekend and guess who has it now! Yes, yours truly. Thank you, dear.

2. My car. He has his truck but when we go out together, we take what is affectionately called "my car." However, it is really "our car" and "his truck." I can't even *get* into his truck.

3. The bed. We sleep in a nice queen-sized cherry four-poster, and he steals the covers.

4. Cleaning duties. Mostly I clean, but since my surgery in late June and subsequent poor recovery, I have had to rely on him more for chores involving lifting and pulling. He has been very accommodating when I need him.

5. T-shirts. He wears white T-shirts that are actually my leftover nighties. I love sleeping in a huge T-shirt as they are comfortable (and cheaper) than nightgowns. Once I have worn one a little thin, I pass it on to him to use on the farm. Some of them go on his back, others become rags.

6. A checkbook. I know some couples split their money but we have always had an "ours" checkbook. We also have business checking accounts but the main bills are paid out of the joint account.

7. Doctors. We use the same family doctor most of the time. Sometimes he goes to the urgent care because of his working hours, though.

8. Audiobooks. My husband is not a reader but I have turned him on to audiobooks. He loves them. He is especially fond of Stuart Woods, who writes a series of books about a character named Stone Barrington. Hubby thinks he is da bomb.

9. TV shows. Generally we enjoy the same shows - The Big Bang Theory, Survivor, The Newsroom, Masters of Sex - so we don't have to fight over the telly or sit in separate rooms. Mostly he watches TV and I read, though.

10. The newspaper. Both of us were raised to read the newspaper every day. Every single day! And neither of us is interested in giving up our subscription to that wonderful bit of information that appears each morning in our box at the foot of the driveway.

11. Similar tastes in music. Okay, so he's a little bit more rock 'n roll than I am (I like disco, sorry.). But for the most part we can sit and listen to the same radio station without the other one changing the channel. That's because we listen to the 1970s stations.

12. Gardening. We both enjoy working in the garden. We most enjoy eating the fruits of our labor, though. This summer's garden was abundant but unfortunately because of weather and my health, we only planted four things. But what a mountain of those four things spewed forth from Mother Earth.

13. Living in beautiful Botetourt County. We both have long roots here - our families go back generations on each side, and in fact intermingle at one point (making us, truthfully, 5th cousins). Neither of us could imagine living anywhere else, even as the people, the politics, and the lifestyles change around us. We still farm land that was in my husband's family in 1859. The county may be more suburban, but we are firmly entrenched here.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 323rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.