Rocks in the Gears

I had a beautiful shotgun once. I would clean it every time i would use it. To hunt the marsh is expensive and a major production. One winter hunt, after up at 3am...thirty minute cold boat ride... setting out decoys...i was sitting in my pirogue. Here come a flock of beautiful pintails. I aim and pull the trigger-"nothing", "frozen". So my friend shot my limit while i sat, cold and wet. Back at the camp, my friend showed me after disassembling the trigger there were twenty years worth of small crushed rocks. He said for twenty dollars a year, a gunsmith would have cleaned it if i could not.

A beautiful useless gun. PS the gun was worth thousands.

Sort of like relationships, all shiny and beautiful on the outside. Rocks crushing the gears on the inside. Even if it was difficult to remove the rocks, a counselor (gunsmith) might have helped... early on.