Mrs. Lion told me that she is generally more annoyed at things. Those things include me. I wouldn’t say that my transgressions rise to a very high level, but they pissed her off. There have been two this week. She’s been torn between being unfair and wanting to send me a message. The incidents in question are in the first case, I wasn’t aware she had come home and needed my help. She didn’t call out to me but wondered why I wasn’t aware she was home. I was deep in configuring a laptop at the time.

The second case occurred yesterday. I needed some information to complete an insurance claim. I sent her an email asking her to update me right away. This upset her because she felt I expected her to stop what she was doing in order to help me. I was hoping she would do just that. The reason was that I had logged into my insurance site and hat all the data I needed except for one number. I didn’t realize she would be annoyed at my urgency. As it was, I figured out what the number could be and submitted it. I was off by a few dollars.

The events aren’t really the issue. The quandary for Mrs. Lion is when she should discipline me for essentially random events that annoy her. At the time, I felt that it would be unfair to punish me for what I did, or didn’t do. After all, there were mitigating factors each time. I now realize I was wrong. I should be more aware of how my actions might affect her.

It isn’t that I shouldn’t ask her to provide me with needed information. But I really should consider how my request might affect her. I believe I should have emailed her and asked if she had time to help me with the insurance claim before I began working on the insurance company’s site. I didn’t respect her time. I was too involved with mine.

In the other case, I still believe that wasn’t a punishable offense. If she had called me and I failed to come out to say hello and help her, then I would deserve toasted buns. But in this case, I had no idea there was any need for me to go to her. Normally, if I am in the bedroom or my office, she will stop by on her way to change into her around-the-house clothes. I expected that the other night.

I think that the net outcome gets me a spanking and gives her a reminder to let me know what she wants. I do deserve to be punished for expecting her to drop everything in order to help me with the claim. I was wrong and naughty. She’ll probably report on my punishment in her post later.

The fact that these events came up at all is evidence that 3.0 is here more and more. The first step in this sort of growth is to recognize when something is wrong and verbalize it. The next step is to ascribe fault. The third step is to take corrective action. In the case of me not coming out to help, the correction is, I think, to call me. In the second case, I believe that I deserve to be punished for failing to respect her time.

Both events  provide real learning. My learning is reinforced with a paddle. Hers by thinking about solutions rather than just feeling upset. Of course, 3.0 knows that.