My wife and I did not just simply get married, we took a vow of marriage.
Through thick or thin.
UPS has not taken any time away from our marriage.
When we were first married, I was working two jobs and they were 20 miles apart and my wife worked 50hrs a week.
Then, I quit those jobs and worked 12hrs a day 6 days a week at one job.
We scrimped and saved ever penny, so we could buy 20 acres in the middle of no where.
We spent all our savings to bring electric lines and drill a water well.
We parked a 52ft mobile home on the land and made it a home.
My wife stayed in Houston and worked because we only had $200.00 left and it was going to be 2 weeks to get my first check from working in the coal mine. I got my first check and she came on up.
I worked 7 day rotating shifts with 1 day off in between shifts and 3 days off after the shift cycle.
My wife worked for a veterinarian (that's a whole thread, nothing like going to a dairy at 9 o'clock at night and palpating cows).
This thread is about marriage and I can address only my own, but I wanted to give a little background to mine.
Helenofcalifornia summed it up well with her analogy of two people walking on the same path going the same direction.
Take today, for example.
I am off this week and my mission was to clean my filthy dirt floor shop/barn out and re organize.
My wife was at my side all day. During a break, I told her that she did not need to be in all this filth and she just smiled at me and said I like to be near you.
So,
UPS has helped us stay on our 20 acres, but it has not taken away from our married life.
Quality over quantity, of time together, has been our secret of 31yrs of marriage.
A one second glance and smile from my wife can erase an 11hr day at UPS.
Two things are true in my life;
If I had not met Lu in 1975, I would have been dead by 1978.
The day I married Lu, I became a man.
UPS is just a means to an end, in my married life.