My Name Is Mychal And I’m A Wife of Turf

There’s something I don’t really talk about too much, that’s being married to a golf course superintendent. I don’t talk about how much his job sucks this time of year in fear that the owners of his course will find my blog, read it and fire my husband for having an ungrateful bitch for a wife. I don’t talk about the mood swings that come along with every God forsaken heatwave in fear that his mood will swing even more wildly. I don’t talk about the strain that the job puts on us as a family in fear of sounding ungrateful for all Bill’s hard work.

I think it’s time I start talking about it. Bill’s job is a major part of our life and our family, so why is it one of the few things I will not write about?

I used to love the summertime. Carefree days (when I wasn’t working) spent by the pool or with my toes in the sand. Hot nights out having fun in cute clothes. Longer days to enjoy. Summer used to rock.

Then I had to go and fall in love with an agronomist.

Summer days are now mostly spent alone with the kids. I can’t even remember the last time I went to the beach or sat by a pool. OK, I sat by the pool Monday night, but it was the indoor pool and I was watching Cameron’s swim lesson. My once carefree days are now spent wondering what kind of mood Bill will come home in and what major disaster did he have to make it through today? Those nights out? They’ve been replaced with early bedtimes in preparation for early mornings. Most nights we’re in bed before the sun has even set. Sure I could stay up…alone…and do what?

The course and it’s needs come before all else, and I know that it has to be that way, but that doesn’t mean I like it. Without that golf course there will be no food on our table or clothes on our backs. Without that golf course there would be no dream house on The Hill. So we tolerate the calls back to the course in the middle of our son’s birthday party. We’ve grown accustomed to planning our weekends around when the greens need to be watered. We usually don’t stray too far from home in the summertime just incase the course needs Bill.

I’m sure you must think of my husband and a crazed workaholic, and I can assure you that’s not (really) the case. He’s not a workaholic, he’s just eager to keep his job in this craptastic economic climate.

The summer months that I used to live for are now the loneliest time of my year. The sunny days of summer are now my saddest days.

Of course, there is always a flip side to things. We do have winter. Winter usually means less time on the course, but it also means more travel time for hubby. Of course there are still responsibilities that need to be taken care of in the winter, one of which is snow removal. With the winters we’ve been having here in southeastern Pennsylvania, there’s been more than enough snow to remove.

We spent our first anniversary in the clubhouse parking lot cleaning up snow. I was pregnant with Cameron and sat my ass in the plow truck because I didn’t want to spend our first anniversary apart. Our anniversary dinner was hoagies from WAWA since everything else was closed due to the bad weather. While the memory of what we did on other anniversaries has faded with the passing of time, I will never forget that first one. Not only because it was our first, but because I sat bundled up like an eskimo on the pleather seat of the course’s ancient Ford truck. I’ll never forget eating my hoagie in that front seat while listening to the radio.

Sure, being married to the guy who runs the golf course can have it perks. He’s usually flexible enough to make it to school functions when most of the other fathers can’t. If I need to go somewhere and I can’t bring the kids with me, I can sometimes get Bill to come home or leave the kids at the course with him. We always have somewhere we can go for a ride on the gator, which is one of the boy’s favorite things to do.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, I’m not really complaining. There are times when I know what my husband does beats the 9 to 5 grind. I just wish that work could stay at work, but that’s not how it works in his business. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, I am grateful Bill has a job when so many are out of work.

Does you husband have one of those “outside the box” kind of jobs? Is he a turf guy too?