I've been married for more than a few years now so I like to think I know a little bit about the female mind. I'm not foolish enough to think I know a lot, though.

Here's my take: She wasn't looking for help, supplies, cash or anything material. She wanted EMPATHY. Not comfort, empathy. If he had said "Oh, thank God you're here, I was worried when I couldn't contact you too. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't find you. You must have been so scared. Every day, every hour, every minute away from you is like a lifetime, Margaret!"

And she whould have responded: "My name is Cindy, you $@#$!"

Great one! This thread needed a little lightening up. Thanks!

Sorry about that. Long day at the office.

Heat + humidity + big project = pounding headache on top of a migraine.

And you're right. I do cherish and respect women and their presence in my life. I make sure they realize this.

Too many women are unappreciated -- or underappreciated -- by the men in their lives.

I think you should be get an award for trying to enlighten your goddaughter. I wish I could get my sisters to think about this stuff.

Most people just don't think about preparedness, women or men. We all know friends and family that could not last 1 day with the water off. But in this case the BF should have reassured his GF by pulling out a flashlight, cranking up the emergancy radio, and then ask her what she would like to do. Either bug out or stay and drink some beer/wine. Not make her feel stupid or insignificant.

My wife of many years could survive if she had too, former girl scout, but when bad thinks happen she likes me to take care of it. This includes her car getting stick in the mud on a country road, power outage, and even when my son hurts himself. And when I whip out the BOB, Medical Kit, or what even is needed she is relieved. Later after the stress is gone she will laughs about it. She will say that maybe it was not a waste of money to put those things together.

All I am trying to say is in any relationship one person will take the lead for a specific task, be that cleaning, paying the bills, or preparedness. For we can not all be the leaders, and a good leader helps his charges.

There is a differance between taking stock and showing off. He could have mentally taken stock and then started to destress the situation. By telling her that they should prepare to bug out is not helping. Buging out is a serious decision to make. All parties should be mentally ready for it even before you start to gear up.

I guess my relationship is different than a lot. We don't really have a leader. We do everything together so we learn from each other. He taught me how to take a car apart and put it back together, I taught him how to cookand do laundry. We really are a great team. We don't have a womans job nor a mans job at home. We just consider it a job that needs to be done and we usually do it together because it's more fun and it makes the job go faster. I don't have a lot of patience with people that can't see past their own wants. The " ME ME ME" attitude makes for stressful situations. I have convinced my goddaughter to go camping with me this weekend for a few days and she doesn't know it yet but her make-up isn't coming with us. You all may be able to hear her scream when she realizes it.

My wife and I do not play well together unless one of us is in charge of the activity. That being said in my house we do not have his and her jobs. It is who can do the job with out complaining too much.

With your goddaugther, if you are out of the light pollution areas you can bring your binoculars and show her the moon, and after that give her a couple of glowsticks to play with. I have never met a child that does not like to play with glowsticks. The best part is that they are easier to track in the dark. Enjoy the camping trip.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

I came back to the original post so that no-one would take this as a direct, personal response, and I realizs that TEOTWAWKI is pretty much a forbidden subject here, but I just can't help myself... when the excrement does indeed contact the rotary wind propelling machine, I hope some of you folks think twice before walking into MY bivuac... be forwarned, your toes WILL be stepped on, and you WILL be told to grow a set or get down the road... oh, and, by the way, if I've got the goodies to get by, all the psycho-babble in the world won't get ya anything but a boot in the 'hind quarters... go cry on somebody else's shoulder.
{RANT OFF}

Troy

It's built into men to be protective, or at least into the ones who should be allowed to breed. It's a good survival/courtship strategy when viewed from outside of the slightly less modern perspective. I try to be chivalrous in my every day life.

That being said, the kind of girls I'm attracted to are gear heads and she-geeks whos' idea of a good time is a week camping out of the survival bag, or an afternoon spent burning up a thousand rounds of WWII era ammunition on the range, and has a strong sense of honor and a wide survivor streak.

I don't think the two concepts are incompatable. If I ever find someone, and a guy is running his mouth about her, I'm likely to toss him into traffic. If the roles are reversed, I plan on bailing her out for pretty much the same reason. I feel no shame in admiting that I've gone to my little sister and said "could you look at my car? I swear, I didn't hit it." This is the same little sister who's ex'es have been told "look, if I find out you were even thinking loudly about annoying her, you'll want to find a nice hole in a far country." Chivalry can go both ways, I think. I don't NEED to be helped most of the time, and I wouldn't want to have to help someone most of the time. But there is difference between NEEDING help and WANTING it.

Oh, and you can't deny that most women find us handy for dealing with items on the tops shelf. Sure you can find a ladder or one of those grabby sticks, but we're convenient. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This is one of the funniest threads I've seen here!

I read all the posts, then went back to the original, to make sure I hadn't missed something. I heard there was a storm and some power outages and flooding in St. Louis on the TV at work. Is this the big deal?

Not a terrorist attack, not a major hurricane, not a big cluster of tornadoes, not a major earthquake, volcano eruption, super tsunami or massive alien attack.

It's just a storm and the power went out. What kind of big friggin' deal is THAT?!

This dimwit of the female persuasion lives in the Storm Center of America, and is bawling because the power went out? And this is Number What of how many times this has happened in her poor little life?

She had shelter, the storm would probably pass in a few hours, and BF had just arrived. So.... exactly where was the problem?

Drama queens like this aren't born, they're made. They've learned how to manipulate people (esp guys) far better than most. It's all about them: So what are you going to do for me NOW?

The guy has just offered to provide her with light, shelter, food, warmth and money. But that wasn't enough. She wanted him to baby her, commiserate with her about how badly the gods were treating her, and heaven knows what else.

This wasn't a survival situation, it was a stage.

Sue