Hi Tom,

This is one of my favorite songs.  I posted this in July when my husband recently reminded me of an argument we had 3 yrs ago...yep THREE YEARS AGO...when he refused to clean up chicken blood that had leaked in the fridge.  He said its the womans job to clean the inside of the house and the mans job to take care of the outside. Blah blah. 

Well I didnt clean up that leaked chicken blood, it was a big puddle, and he didnt clean it up either, for 3 days...and it was on the 2nd shelf of the fridge and eventually dripped onto other food under it, which we then had to throw out good food.

Now he told me he was recently telling his men friends at work about that situation 3 yrs ago and they all agreed with him.

I said..."Did you tell them YOU are the only one who BUYS meat and brings meat home from the store, and the only person who puts raw meat in our fridge?"  NO!  Of course he didnt tell them THAT part!

As for his idea that men take care of the outside, our house is the only one on the block with peeling paint, he painted PART of it a couple yrs ago then ran out of paint and left some peely spots.  Our driveway is the only driveway on our block with foot-high weeds growing thru the cracks in the cement.

You see the reasons why I didnt clean up the chicken blood in the fridge?

I WON'T BACK DOWN! 

He cleaned it up on the third day when it dripped on other food that we had to throw away.  He then had to follow his own advice "Hit men in the wallet, that's where it REALLY hurts!"  Throwing away food is the same as throwing away money! 

He has never let meat leak in the fridge again since then.

He didn't tell all his friends at work THAT.  He's the one who ultimately cleaned it up.  He never let it happen again.  He doesn't take care of the outside either.

He thinks its funny when I won't back down to my older sisters and brothers, my father or anyone else on this world, but not funny when I won't back down to him.

It took 3 days of relentless antagonism, but he cleaned up his own mess and never let it happen again.

Hi Roger,

That was Tom Petty, the song is "I Won't Back Down".

(My title of "testing tom" was because I wanted to see if a YouTube video would really show up for me!  Every time I try anything new, nothing works for me!  But that actually worked.)

Why would someone who never touches raw meat, clean up chicken blood?  Of course I touch cooked meat and I eat it!  I just have hangups about raw meat!  "Who put dead farm animal parts in my fridge?" ... The grocery clerks are always amused when I refuse to take the pack of meat out of the cart, my husband goes with me, he HAS to go to the store and choose the meat himself, and handle all packages of raw meat.  LOL!  You knew I had to have an imperfection somehow!  But I HAVE perfected how to open packs of meat with a knife and fork and get the entire cooking process done without having to touch it while raw!  You'd never guess that my father grew up on a farm and my mom cooked meat every night.  I didnt always have this hangup, it just progressed over the last 10 yrs or so.  I have memories of buying and cooking meat without the drama, a long long time ago.

My husband used to vacuum the carpets and dust down the cobwebs a long time ago also.  I think it all went south when his mother moved far away.  We don't have any parents or in-laws near us to keep us on our toes, we regressed back into big kids.