Sigh...now I'm a cycling push-over or whatever to this forum.

Groan. Am I putting my needs 2nd, 3rd, 4th rank to his? It doesn't feel like it.. not when I exercise independence over what I've earned after all these years. I'm not that naive. Maybe this explains some degree of independence in certain activities and how some money is spent for each of us vs. our shared areas of financial responsibility. (yea, Grog, this is not totally unrelated. )

yea, we're pretty wierd. Each of us are first-born in birth order within our respective families --the independent types who still love to share life together and are faithful to one another after all these years. No marriage papers could ever guarantee the latter.

The world of Internet strangers at this very moment on this forum feels like the galaxy /constellation ...distant and each person wondering about the other person from far away, not having enough information.