Interdependence versus self-reliance

When I arrived home last weekend, it was to news that Husband has successfully installed a new water treatment unit - which involved a fair bit of old-fashioned plumbing and rewiring. He was rightly proud of his accomplishment since it was a beautiful thing to behold.

Then on Sunday the toilet in the upstairs bathroom began misbehaving, so he spent a good part of yesterday buying parts and doing the necessary repairs. 

In between, he was busy chopping and hauling wood, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, packing the car for my return to the city and seeing to various other chores, while I mostly hung out by the fire keeping Jackie Blue company. 

When I stop to think about it, it's scary how dependent I've become on him to do home repairs and other chores, and seriously doubt my contributions to our household are even remotely comparable.  These days, those contributions are largely financial and organizational, with a little gardening, cooking, puppy care and cleaning thrown in. Clearly, there'll need to be a significant reassignment of  household tasks when I retire. 

And I'm okay with that. I look forward to doing more chores, not to mention tackling projects neither of us has had time for - like dealing with the stuff that's accumulated in the attic over the past 10 years. I'm hoping too to put my tool-belt to good use - helping with various building and renovation projects - though I may need to spend time at the gym first regaining upper body strength. 

In principle, I've nothing against interdependence like ours but, since none of us knows what the future holds, maintaining capacity to be self-reliant is important too.  Fortunately, I have a few more months of living on my own part-time to get used to doing household chores again, which should make the transition easier when the time comes. In the meantime, living alone has made me more appreciative of all Husband does to make our life together so comfortable.