Free range

Yesterday was this beautiful picture perfect fall day, not to be wasted. So I went for a bike ride in Burns Bog, a massive nature preserve located a block from my house full of walking/riding trails. I figured the ride would fulfill my exercise requirement for the day, and also my need to spend some time in the great outdoors. And it did, it was a great ride. Later on I posted a quick blurb on my facebook page commenting on the amazing bike ride I had taken, and then moved on to making dinner, getting kids organized for soccer practice etc. Then my hubby arrives home after practice with the kids and says, so I heard you went for a bike ride today. I know he doesn't look at his facebook page ever, but his friends do, so I one of them has relayed my comment to him. I say yes I did, it was great, I guess so and so told you? And then he went off on a rant about how he's the last one to hear about my day, blah blah blah. THIS is why I started this blog in the first place. So I don't have certain people hanging over my shoulder, reading my ramblings and then relaying the info back to my hubby, who has a bizarre fear that I am going to post something terrible and earth shattering on a blog, or facebook for all the world to see, BEFORE he does. Now I know I have made a few bitchy comments on this blog already, but that's what it's for. That's why it's called The Hen House. It's a place for me to vent my womanly rage/frustrations/whatever without fear of having to explain myself to my other half, who doesn't get it. Which is crap, because there's the whole man cave trend right now, suggesting that it's perfectly okay for men to gather in an men only inclusive environment where they are free to drink beer, look at the nudie calendars on the wall, watch porn, watch football, play video games, etc. I don't think I'm too far off the mark on my assumption of what happens in a man cave, or why men want one. Well, I think women need their own version too, which I have dubbed The Hen House. A place just for the girls, where we can drink our wine and bitch about our men and our children, etc. This is what we do. This is what we need to do, so we don't take it all out on them.

Anyway, my hubby then managed to seque his argument regarding me posting my life on facebook to how unsafe it is for me to go bike riding alone in the bog. (I am pretty sure he switched gears because of me saying oh sorry Mr. Man, I guess I'll call you first before I tell anyone else about anything that I do in my day, I'll just keep calling in with updates on what I'm doing, where I am, will that make you happy?) So now he is giving me shit for riding alone. When I asked why he felt it was unsafe, he said because someone could jump out of the bush and knock me off my bike....which I suppose technically could happen, but really? I already have him and certain other people telling me I can't go walking alone in the bog, even with my 100 pound dog at my side. Now I can't ride my bike? What am supposed to do, wait around for him to come with me - hell will freeze over before that happens. No. If some psycho reads this and decides to wait for me to pedal by in the bog, well, so be it. I am so tired of being told what I can and cannot do, according to his rules, or anybody else's. For god's sake, what does he think I did before I met him, never leave my house? Because somebody bad might get me? I will not be penned in. Nor will I be made to be afraid. I am not foolish, I do not put myself into potentially dangerous situations. But I will not be a happy mother hen if I am not allowed to range free now and then.

So there.