Ditching a perfectly good Valentines

This is Nick stepping in for a post.

I feel as though I have an important story with a lesson to be learned.

One would think that a veteran of seven married years and 10 previous shared Valentine's Days that I'd be in a rhythm by now and know how to make the day go smoothly. One would think... but instead I crashed and managed to put this year's Day of Romance in the ditch.

To really wreck the day a guy has to start early. For me that was Wednesday night, the 11th. I worked late, forgot about the 29-inch deep pothole south of town and hit it squarely with our rusty, 176,000-mile Cavalier. The shock absorber punched a hole into the right rear wheelwell.

For the weekend, Michelle and I had an agreement that we would not "get anything" for Valentine's Day. Fellas, agreements like this should always be ignored.

I still hoped for a dinner-for-two Friday night thanks to our church's Parent's Night Out program where we could drop off the kids. But Friday it snowed all afternoon and that was cancelled. Since it was now the 13th, I hastily drove to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of Valentine's cards and some chocolate. As the snowfall reached its climax, I headed north to New Sharon, the hole in my wheelwell and broken shock absorber still not fixed. By now I had effectively crashed and burned Valentine's Day already and when I spun the Cavalier into the ditch, that was also where I put any hint of romance for the evening.

So I hope all others fared better than I did on Valentine's Day this year. At the very least the guys have an example of how not to handle this Day of Romance.