Lost Without You

on my drive into work this morning I was listening to the yammering banter
of the morning DJs. the topic of discussion was, as usual, about who drank
the most or who had the worst hang over.

at one point the started specifically picking on one of the guys on the
show. the main thing they were picking on him for was his appearance. they
described him as wearing a beat up Heart Of Huntington t-shit, a old
baseball hat, and looking quite malnourished.

after a bit of probing they finally got the back story out of him. it turns
out that he's been married for a while and his wife left to go see family or
something (he couldn't recall why she left.)

she's been gone for over a week and since she's been gone he's:
a) been living off a diet consisting only of Macaroni and Cheese (he cant'
cook for himself)
b) drinking beer, including ones that have been sitting (he doesn't go
shopping) out on the counter for the
duration of the week.
c) been wearing nothing but dirty clothes (he can't do laundry)
d) forgotten to flush the toilet (his wife reminds him to)
e) lost a goat (he decided to buy a goat, paint it like a zebra, and take it
to an Iron Maiden concert

my first thought about this was that this guy is kinda pathetic. (actually,
my first thought was "why a goat? sheep are much softer...")

but after a while I started to think about it further, there are a lot of
guys who become completely helpless without someone (wife/mother) to take
care of them.

personally, I've lived "on my own" my whole life. I learned to do my own
laundry in elementary school and I also learned to "cook" for my self about
the same time. (my mom prides her self on my independence, but really it's
because she didn't do any of it.) so I've never been in the situation where
I've need to depend on someone for my survival. and save for a few pet
though out my life time, no one has ever depended on me for their survival.

the thing I'm wondering now is what is it like on both ends of this? how
does it feel to be that dependant, or even, what's it like to be so needed?

So I think I'm going to put these questions out there to all my minions, and
lurkers. (answer whichever one you fit into.)

1. Are you the kind of person who depends on some else for the majority of
your daily home life? if so, what is that like.

2. Do you have another person (or persons) who you know that if you weren't
there to care for them for a week or two they would become savages,
defecating on the front lawn?

(btw, they asked the guy on the radio "so how long until your wife gets
back." to which he replied "I have no idea, she keeps track of those things
too."