“Parents have got to chill out. Let your kid eat dirt – they’re gonna be fine! “
The rain came last night, stayed a while then left earlier this morning. In its wake is a dank day, a sweatshirt to stave off the cold day. I don’t see much hope of sun. Gracie and I are going to the dump. Days like today are perfect dump days because most people are smarter than I and stay away when it rains. I don’t really care. I’ll dry. Gracie cares even less: she stays in the car.
Gracie’s water dish and my toilet bowl looked a bit like the beach yesterday. Gracie buried her chew bone outside, and her face and jowls acted as a shovel to push dirt over her treasure. She came inside and drank to clean her face and left behind sand, lots of sand.
When I was a kid, I never minded being dirty. My hands were sometimes filthy because I caught grasshoppers in the field who left what I figured was brown poop on my hands and grabbed frogs out of the swamp water covered with bugs and algae. I usually had black blots on my fingers and hands from my bike’s handlebars grips. My pants had grass stains and dirty knees. None of it bothered me. We played hard when we were young. It was proof of a day well spent.
I always think the amount of dirt you can tolerate is directly proportional to your age. The younger you are, the dirtier you don’t mind being. I think that makes life easier. Now I hate it if my clothes have stains or if I drop a bit of lunch on my shirt. Out comes the Tide Pen. I used to carry Shout Wipes, but the pen is much easier to use. I now espouse the cleanliness next to Godliness maxim.
I do look forward to being really old simply because stains will no longer matter. The 90-year-old on my library board often wears a shirt with a stain. I chalk it up to her age and think nothing of it. It’s a sort of freedom granted to the very young and the very old. I am stuck in the middle.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: being dirty, dank day, dump day, rain, stains on clothes, swampy water, sweatshirt day, youth
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 2, 2015 at 1:15 pm
I’m dirty all the time 🙂 At work I’m more or less covered in powder pain and here at home I’m always dirty on my hands and clothes since I spend a lot of time in the garden or take photos while lying down or standing on my knees 🙂 The dogs don’t help either since for instance Sune gladely strokes against me after taking a bath in mud 🙂
Autumn weather here today, very windy, heavy showers and between pouring rain 🙂 Today is a cocoa day!
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 3, 2015 at 11:17 am
Hi Kat,
To be honest, I’ve always been in the stained shirt stage. Stained jeans and dirty hands, too. When you grow up with animals and play in the mud puddles and have a fabulous swamp for a back yard and acres of woods to play in, it’s a natural state.
I do have a Tide Pen on hand for those times when I’m supposed to be civilized. 🙂
Weather is blah today. Cold, dark and damp but not actually raining. The dogs have had enough of confinement and I have errands to do so we’ll be heading out soon.
Enjoy the day.
June 3, 2015 at 11:58 am
Caryn,
Now that I am retired I am leaving civilization behind me. I still hate spots on my clothes when I’m out and about but there are no restrictions when I’m home. ON my sloth days anything goes.
It is ugly, cold and damp here as well. I was bundled then I checked the heat and it was only 63˚ in here. I just turned on the heat for one cycle, but Gracie and I are heading out for errands too. The house will be toasty when I get home.
Enjoy the day right back at you!