Warning: Newly Retired Husbands Can Be Dangerous

After selling our family business in 2007, my husband and I found ourselves with enough money to live comfortably and a lot of free time. I considered myself too young to retire (56) and set out to start my own internet business. This meant spending long hours in front of my computer trying to learn the ropes and find my focus. This also meant leaving my newly retired husband to find his own ways to fill his free time.

He soon established a routine of spending his days looking at things on Google Earth, checking his finances every hour or so and watching old movies. I started to grow concerned that his total lack of physical activity would contribute to his early demise. So, I encouraged (maybe he would use the word "nagged" here) him to find something to do.

Being the frugal type, he always wanted to make sure he'd saved enough for us to live well and, although he is a very generous man, he doesn't like to be considered wasteful. This gave birth to what we now laughingly refer to as the "$400 Candle Project."

After admiring a table centerpiece we had seen while out shopping, we decided we could make one of our own for less. We purchased a nice leather-look tray, filled it with pebbles from our own backyard and added an array of candles we'd purchased on sale. It looked as good to us as the "high end" one we had seen and we spent far less on ours. Great. Since he liked burning the candles each evening at dinner we soon found ourselves combing the discount stores looking for inexpensive candles to replenish our supply. That's when he had his "light bulb" moment that he could recycle the melted candle wax and make his own candles. (This could potentially save us, maybe $10 or so a month but it was good to see him being "productive.")

We made a trip to our local hobby store to buy wicks ($3 for 20 ft. -- this was going to be so much cheaper than buying all those candles!) and I was happy to see that he had a new interest. Each night after dinner he would pour the melted wax from the candles into little trays until he'd accumulated enough to make his new candle. Then he would carefully remelt the wax in our microwave and pour it into the various molds he recycled from household items. So far, so good. I didn't even mind that my once attractive centerpiece was now filled with candles that all had a look of Dixie cups. My husband was off his duff and doing something.

Fast forward several weeks and many, many candles later. I'm sitting at my computer as usual, he's melting candle wax in our microwave. However, he's now refined his technique and is melting the wax in one of our glass measuring cups. I hear what seems to be a few choice swear words coming from the kitchen followed by the sound of breaking glass. As I rush in to see what has happened I find my husband rather panicked looking and flames coming from our kitchen sink. Seems as though the wax had caught on fire in the microwave. Fortunately he'd been able to get it to the sink before the whole thing shattered, sending hot wax splashing and broken glass flying. But ok, at this point we'd only lost a $2-3 dollar glass measuring cup, right? Wrong. Turns out the fire had destroyed the microwave as well.

So, we've just returned from the appliance store where my generous husband has purchased a brand new ($400) microwave. (Of course ours is the type that fits over the stove and includes the vent.) It's very nice, top of the line, and is due to be installed next week. Next we're off to find some beautiful new candles for my table centerpiece. After that he will look at Google Earth, check on his finances and watch an old movie. I think I'll leave him alone for a while.