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“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.”

February 8, 2018

Today is a beautiful day, chilly but still beautiful. Yesterday we had rain, a deluge at times. Off cape got snow so I was happy for the rain. We were just too warm for snow, 10˚ warmer than Boston.

I have nothing on my dance card for today. I’m going to stay around the house. I have some books to keep me busy, and the bird feeders need to be filled. Those are enough accomplishments for today.

My cleaning couple haven’t been here in a month. They usually come every two weeks, but they were in Florida for the second two weeks. Last night Lee called and said they couldn’t come today. I immediately panicked. Visions of the vacuum cleaner, dust rags and mops jumped into my head, and I was the one using them. It was a daytime nightmare. When I told Lee, he promised they’d come on Monday, and I was to do nothing. That’s when I stopped hyperventilating.

When I was little, the house was always vacuumed and dusted, and the dishes were always washed. When I left for school in the morning, my bed was a mess. When I came home, it was made. I never ran out of clean underwear. All day long my mother worked in the house and did the same things every single day. She washed the breakfast dishes, left them to dry in the strainer, made all the beds upstairs, collected laundry, brought the clothes to the cellar to wash, came back upstairs and cleaned the living room. Some time later, she’d go back down to the cellar and put the clothes through the wringer a couple of times. Finally she’d go outside and hang the clothes on the line.

I seldom saw my mother do all these things as I was usually in school. It seemed sort of like the elves and the shoemaker to me. Leave dirty clothes. Find clean clothes. It was a daily miracle I never appreciated until I was older.

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“You can’t teach people to be lazy – either they have it, or they don’t.”

February 6, 2018

We’re back to clouds. Everything out my window looks grey, particularly the pine branches and the sky. Today has no wind. Every branch, even the smallest, is still. The air feels damp even though rain is not in the forecast. I have to do a couple of errands. Getting cat food is at the top of my list.

Lately I just haven’t wanted to do anything. I’m calling it my winter doldrums. Up until early January was almost a frenzy with Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking and entertaining. My house is dusty. My laundry is unwashed. Recycled newspapers, cardboard boxes and a trash bag sit by the front door. I think they’re growing roots. I wake up every day resolved to get stuff done, but I go to bed without having done much of anything. I’m glad Maddie needs food so I’ll definitely have to go out, and I’ll take all the trash and stuff to the car when I go. The dump isn’t open until Thursday.

Maddie is still driving me crazy. She meows at me all the time. She sounds insistent and a bit angry. I change the water, give her a little roast beef, fill her dish and pat her almost endlessly but she still meows. I think she misses Gracie. This is the first time in her 18 1/2 years she has been the only pet. Right now she is sitting beside me on the couch while I pat her and scratch her ears. She’s purring.

I woke up at 6 this morning, looked out the window and saw how dark it was so I turned over and went back to sleep. I woke up at ten.

The TV news was interesting today. A woman found a lizard in her salad mix from the grocery store. She poked her fork into an avocado or what she thought was an avocado and out came a lizard, a lizard from California. It seems the controversy about Doritos being un- friendly to ladies continues. Women it seems don’t like to crunch too loudly in public so Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, said the company is preparing to launch chips for women that will be “low-crunch” with a “full taste profile” that will “not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers” and can fit in a handbag because “women love to carry a snack.” Doiritos responded, “We already have Doritos for women – they’re called Doritos, and they’re enjoyed by millions of people every day.” Snow is coming but the Cape will have the least amount, 0-2 inches.

Well, I need to finish here. Maddie is stirring. I know she wants something. She just howled at me.

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“To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.”

September 3, 2017

It has been raining since the early morning. The dampness coupled with the strong breeze has made it a cold day. The house is chilly. I put on a sweatshirt. The heat is off but were it on, the temperature is 1˚ from triggering the furnace.

When I first went to take Gracie out, she backed away from the door. I had to grab her by the halter to get her outside. She squatted right by the walkway.

Gracie needs canned food, and the bird feeder needs thistle so we’ll be heading to Agway sometime later. I think I’ll stop at the new Thai place and treat myself to lunch. I know I’ll order coconut shrimp then I’ll check out the menu to see what else appeals to me.

This room is so dusty I could write my name on just about any surface. Actually, on the larger surfaces I could write adages, messages and things like Wash Me or Dust Me with several exclamation points following behind. I used to feel guilty about the dust, but now I don’t care. I subscribe to the if I clean it now, it will be dusty again by tonight school of thought.

I got a few boxes yesterday from Amazon. I haven’t opened them yet. They’re still on the floor by the door. My lack of curiosity is explained by the e-mail confirming my orders have been delivered. I bought two balsa airplane kits for two of my grandnephews. I remembered flying the same sort of plane when I was a kid. I’d buy it at Woolworth’s for ten cents. The plane had to be put together slowly and gently or the wood would split. The front had a red plastic nose to give the plane a bit of weight. The back had two pieces: one like a fin and the other a small wing-like piece. The pieces had to be slid into their positions. The main part was the wing. It was slid through the middle of the plane really slowly and required a deft hand or the wing would split. Moving the wing up and down in the slit made the plane fly different ways like in loops. We’d fly the planes in a field so they could land on grass. The wood was too flimsy to save the planes if they hit anything. We hated losing the planes but knew a dime would buy us another one.

Both the boys have grown up with electronics, but maybe the novelty of the planes will pique their interest. Watching them loop and fly was the best fun. I hope it still is.

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“You can’t eliminate the dust, only move it somewhere else.”

November 1, 2016

Maddie is missing Fern. This morning, around 5, Maddie just kept meowing in the deep, throaty meow she has. She never did that before this. I called to her, but it took a while before she settled down and was quiet. Now she is sleeping on the back cushion of the couch in the living room, one of Fern’s favorite spots. This is the first time Maddie has slept there. She and Fern had been together the whole of their lives.

Good thing I bought my favorite candy bars to give out last night as I have so many left over. I should put them away just as I did the anise bears. I never did find them.

Today is a beautiful day, sunny and bright, in the 50’s. Last night was really cold, and I think we had our first frost, but by the time I got outside this morning, the frost had pretty much melted. The car windows, however, were still wet and opaque.

My house is really dusty, especially the bookshelves. When I worked, I tended to get far more housework done in less time. Now I figure I have all day today or all day tomorrow or even next week to finish. The key is not to mind the dust. Proudly I can boast I have mastered the art of ignoring it.

Yesterday I changed the bed. The sheets had been sitting on the chest at the foot of the bed for four or five days. I have also learned to ignore them, but a new bedspread and shams arrived so I was eager to put them on the bed and figured I might as well change the sheets at the same time.

After reading what I’ve just written about being a sloth, a happy sloth, I decided to describe what I do all day. Well, you know I start the day with two papers and two cups of coffee. I then get to my e-mail and after that, I write Coffee. Depending upon when I got out of bed and how active my muse is, it could be late morning or even early afternoon before I finish. If I have no errands, I stay in my comfy clothes all day. Sometimes I read the day away or watch programs I DVR’ed. I go through magazines and cut out recipes I probably will never try despite my good intentions. Lately, I have been browsing catalogs with Christmas in mind. Notice, cleaning is not mentioned. Neither is laundry which gets done only when the bag is overflowing or I am close to running out of unmentionables. I have also left out showers, brushing my teeth and making my bed. I will mention that I sometimes enjoy an afternoon nap which is the reason I don’t make my bed. I figure I’d only mess up the bed again if I napped or maybe I should say when I napped.

I retired twelve years ago so I have perfected a variety of ways to spend my days. I am no longer feeling any guilt at what I don’t accomplish. Dust always returns.

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“One who has hope lives differently.”

March 13, 2016

Today is another pretty day, warmer than it has been. I have feeders to fill so I’ll go out for a bit later.

I think I have a virus. It’s manifested by cleaning places not usually cleaned. Yesterday I took everything off my desk, which included snow globes and small wind-up toys from collecting phases. I could have written a short story in the dust. I cleaned the desk and washed all the globes and toys. I threw away papers from piles on the desk top. I organized everything. Next I lemon oiled the antique child’s desk in the bathroom. It holds all the guest towels. The den was next and I threw aways papers from a pile on the table. I had no idea why I saved what I did. There were phone numbers without names, old receipts and cards from different holidays. I threw away so much it can no longer be called a pile.

Today I am going to clean the cabinet under the bathroom sink. It serves a variety of purposes including being a liquor cabinet. I haven’t seen the back of that cabinet in years.

My sister diagnosed my virus as boredom. I think she is probably right. I think boredom is the whole reason for spring cleaning. I’ve been shut up in the house because of freezing days and snow. I have gotten tired of TV and have spent too many days just sitting around and reading. I need to be doing.

I saw a purple crocus this morning, and there are now three yellow ones. The dafs are close to blooming. The garden’s winter slumber is over. Every day I see something new. With morning papers in hand I walk around all the beds to make sure I haven’t missed anything. The purple crocus is hope springing to mind.

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“There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse.”

January 17, 2012

The warmth is back but no sun. The day is cloudy, a leftover from last night’s rain. The breeze is slight and the tops of the pine trees sway just a bit. Yesterday I didn’t leave the house. I cleaned this room. It took a long while as the room is filled with hats, snow globes, books and old toys. Gumby and Pokey were especially dusty as were the B-movie people  and the wind-up toys. I felt accomplished when I was finished.

These spurts of energy are sporadic. For that I am thankful. I hate wasting my time cleaning the house though I love a clean house. Every other week Rosana and Lee come to clean, but they don’t do the shelves in this room and my room or the top of the desk filled as it is with the wind-ups. I am stuck with those. When I can write a novel in the dust, I know it’s time to clean. Rosana always notices.

I never thought about a clean house when I was a kid. My mother did the cleaning when we were in school so it was like magic. Leave in the morning to a dusty house and come home to a clean one. Sometimes I wish I were Samantha, and I could just wiggle my nose and everything would get done. Not only that but I’d wiggle my nose and travel: dinner in Marrakech or breakfast on a rooftop overlooking the pyramids. I wouldn’t even need a dog and cat sitter.

Last night I watched Alcatraz. Inmates and guards disappeared in 1963. Their disappearance was covered up in a variety of ways, but now the inmates are reappearing and are deadly. Last night had a high body count. Those who have reappeared haven’t aged and are still wearing their prison uniforms. I wondered if the families of the guards disappeared too as they lived on the island. Nobody mentioned that. The reappeared have what they need in their pockets. One had a ticket off the island on the tourist boat, money and a key to a locker. He knew exactly where to go to find and open the locker. I like strange programs.

Poor Gracie hasn’t been herself the last couple of days. She was sick three times, didn’t eat and had nausea most of the early part of last night. Today she seems her chipper self. We’ve already played throw the toy down the hall, and she ate a couple of lamb bits. She’s sleeping now and has been for a while. Yesterday she never slept too long: she’d start swallowing then get up and go outside. I always worry when one of my animals gets sick.

Well, that’s it for today. I think all that cleaning drained my creativity.

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