He sees good where I see bad, beauty where I see not.

He saw me before I saw him.

He can fix anything, solve anything, even if it’s something he’s never done before. He says I exaggerate but I don’t. Need proof? There are too many stories to tell that prove this but I swear, when the zombie apocalypse hits, he’s the one you’re going to want by your side.

He does laundry and dishes and vacuums and is a better cook than me. Well, let me qualify that. He would vacuum if I let him near the vacuum. He’s hard on them.

He’s notoriously accident-prone.

Everyone who has ever been in contact with him believes in what we call ‘Art Karma’. Meaning, if anything can go wrong when he’s in the vicinity, it will. It’s become a bit of a family joke.

He’s tough and masculine and manly…and gets teary watching movies or commercials about dogs in shelters. He’s also not threatened by things other men can be. When I introduced him to a good friend who had a huge crush on him (male) his response later was to tell me it was rather flattering. Our yard is full of his roses.

His musical taste is a bit out there for most people. VNV Nation. Chrom. Assemblage 23. Blutengel. Mind In A Box. AFI. Agent Side Grinder. Empathy Test. But he also likes Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Tannahill Weavers, and Kitaro.

He is a big reader like me and like our son. Books are like old friends for him, so he keeps his favorites and re-reads them, just like I do. The Harry Potter series. The Expanse series. Tolkien. Anything by Heinlein. Any book I recommend. Any book lying around when he wants to read. And if I am reading near him, he likes to hold my hand.

You might not think it looking at that tough exterior, but he’s a soft romantic underneath. I’m not talking flowers here, which wouldn’t appeal to me anyway. It’s in all the little things he does that show how aware he is of what makes me happy, or what I might need. A quick example is when I went through radiation. Some of you know this story, but I had roughly a 45 minute window after getting zapped before vomiting started. Just about long enough to get home if traffic was light. I’d run in the house headed straight for the toilet…and a kneeling pad would be there waiting.

When my heart is broken, when my grief is soul-killing, he holds me and heals me.

And no one else can make me laugh until tears come.

This man. So grateful to the universe for helping him to sneak up on me when I wasn’t looking. I don’t deserve him. And he’s going to be so embarrassed by this post. Little does he know what I’m doing while he’s in the other room reading…