The Thin End of the Wedge - 2

I wrote out our agreement about computer shutdown time and after showing it to Rose and negotiating some more, we settled on using the last event log of the day as the final shutdown, but added three minutes as it does sometimes take quite a long time to shut down.

Last evening Rose was late in shutting down her computer.  She doesn't do this from defiance, but because she gets so immersed in what she is reading that she forgets the time.  I do that myself, too.  I saw she had it open at 10:36, looking at a web page, so that was more than six minutes late, entailing seven smacks with the hairbrush.  But the last event log was at 10:37:13, so taking into account the extra three iinutes allowed, that made 5 smacks.  We did have an argument over this: Rose wanted only four,  and I was pissed off about this as arguing is the very thing I want to avoid, especially as I am a very slow thinker, and let pass what I should not let pass.

So she got five smacks with the hairbrush after I had checked the last event log.  I was terribly nervous about this as the one thing Rose hates is not so much the smacks, but the idea she deserves punishment.  After that she found it difficult not to sulk a bit and get distant (I think that has been a coping device since early childhood); but later, after about half an hour, she recovered and gave me a hug and a kiss - not something she does often.  I felt more optimistic.  Actually I felt very loving towards her.

By the time we were ready to go to sleep it was after midnight.  I suggested a goodnight kiss - something many couples do but we never have.  She complied readily and agreed to make it a rule.

This morning I determined to do something to avoid further arguments, so after a long search online ( I am not a computer geek) I found out how to enable logon/logoff events on her computer, which were not previously recorded.  Today I will re-draft our agreement to revert to the 10:30 shutdown time, using her logoff time, which will now be recorded on her computer automatically...

All this might seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill; but I am a very diffident man and before imposing sanctions have to be absolutely certain that I am right, and that however much Rose argues, I am not going to change my decision.  It's something I really need to learn as I have suffered from indecision and diffidence since my teenage years.

I may be an old man by the calendar but I am a newbie at DD.  Rose has not been enthusiastic to take it up, but I have persisted as I want our marriage to shine and not descend into mediocrity during my last years in this incarnation.  So any advice will be gratefully considered.