No Hot House Flower Here

"Mom didn't raise no hot house flower."

I had no idea what the hell that meant, but maybe it was because I was focusing less on what my wife had just said and still wide-eyed from watching her pull a tree out of the ground with her bare hands. Yeah, you read that right. She ripped a frickin tree down with her hands.

Apparently the saying refers to the fact that hot house flowers are delicate and wimpy and whatever, whatever, whatever. All I know is that I stood stunned at her newly discovered power, and she didn't have to turn 8 feet tall and green to do it.

Sure, the tree was nearly dead and it was only about 12 inches around, but ... wait a second. We're talking about a tree here. Not some crap little spindly weed or some ivy or dead flowers. We're talking about a tree. I've either married a sasquatch or the strongest woman ever. I'm betting on the latter. But I am clearly smart for always declining her offers to massage my feet when they are sore. She'd crush my toes into pulp.

One way or the other, we both laughed at this untapped strength she showed today, especially when 30 minutes later she proceeded to rip an entire bush out of the ground, roots included, and this was a helluva big bush. I'm not pissing her off for the next 72 hours at least. I gotta give this new-found strength time to wear off.