Can a Relationship Survive This Much Stress?

How much stress can a new relationship survive?  I am fond of quoting the cliché that most of us would rather keep our own problems vs. trade with someone else.  Yet, lately, I wonder.  Okay, I’ll keep our troubles, but it does raise the notion of enough is enough.

I just had a ski accident in which I fell so hard that I was knocked unconscious.  There were apparently no witnesses and I still don’t remember exactly what happened since the only thing I recall is waking up on the emergency toboggan, zooming down the mountain, being loaded into the ambulance, and taken to the Emergency Room.  After a bit of prodding, I knew my name and began to feel the hurt in my shoulder.  Later, all my memory returned except for the accident itself, which remains a mystery. read more

African Reflections, Part One: The Lion Mates Tonight

ShortRib (my wife) and I went on our honeymoon, shortly after getting married at the end of last year. It was an exotic african reflections trip and one we wouldn’t have undertaken, given the subsequent economic collapse, had we not already paid for the trip (which was non-refundable). We were thoroughly excited, with my only concern being leaving GuitarHero (my 15-year-old) and JugHead (my 12-year-old) with an adult friend, for so long, with us so far away. read more