Rage Incorporated

I'm heading off with my Dad to take care of a tree. This thing has crossed us one too many times, and we're going to make the problem disappear. Actually, the tree died of old age a couple of years ago and my father is afraid that it is going to fall down and land on something important. He originally said that he was going to arrive at 1:00 pm, but I should have anticipated that he'd be three hours late. He has always been horribly late, and now that he is on his own, it's much worse.

I got up early this morning so that I could rake up the leaves around the house and get them to the curb before the garbage truck came by. I got changed into my running gear and took care of the yard waste and then went for a run. It was a cold morning, but I dressed too warmly and struggled. It is amazing how quickly a person can lose their fitness. I was able to run 20 kilometres five times a week and now I'm having a hard time running 8. It will come back in time, but it's a hard adjustment to be knocked back so soundly.

I went to bed late last night because I started watching the first five episodes of The Amazing Race. I am rooting for the single mothers and for the brothers simply because they seem like nice people. That's my only criteria. I can't stand it when the team shouts at each other, but I wonder if faced with all that stress and competition, if I might also lose my patience. Probably.

I went to bed but was awoken by the two upstairs neighbours having a scrap out. They fight like crazy up there and they aren't just little ones either. Screaming, yelling, stomping around. It's quite funny to listen to as a completely innocent bystander (even if it is 2:30 in the morning), but there is also something vaguely disturbing about it. I have never heard them do anything up there except yell at each other. They are recent newlyweds and from the sounds of it they are doing all the fighting and none of the making up. That doesn't bother me too much because I certainly don't want to hear them horizontally resolving their dispute, but it does make me wonder how much fighting is acceptable in a relationship.

My mother and father always seemed to be arguing with each other and they were married for 35 years. I don't know how they worked out their problems, and I know that some days were frosty between them. Still, you don't stay married to someone for 35 years if you can't find a way to live together. Perhaps a healthy screaming bout is how to make a relationship work.

I don't recall very many situations (if any) where I've yelled and screamed at my partner. I'm not a yeller, I guess. Maybe it's unhealthy, or maybe I just don't get bothered by things in the same way that other people do. I like to think that I'm fairly easy-going and very patient. I don't think that I could be in a relationship where someone feels like they can yell and scream and get into huge arguments at me. That's certainly the way it sounds upstairs. She seems to be doing most of the work. I'm not a person who relishes confrontation, and I can't ever see myself sleeping next to someone who has just unleashed spleen at me. Granted, I may deserve it, but I think that there are better ways to deal with anger than to pitch a fit.