Wednesday, March 23, 2011

CLEANING DAY

My son and his business partner Matt, and possibly Matt's daughter are coming tomorrow, late, for the Glass Art Exhibit that I have been begging people to attend.
That means I have to clean.
I only clean under extreme duress. Unlike my Mother, I am good at cleaning anything except dog harnesses, saddles and bridles. Crates, crate pads, food bowls....not ours-- the dog's.
Laundry gets done when there is nothing left to wear that even faintly appears to be clean, or we have somewhere we have to go that requires a modicum of middle-classism.
I have no shoes that are not sneakers.
At least none that fit.

Ok so now I have to clean. I have cleaned the kitchen counters with bleach, thrown out a buncha things that we were "saving" and was horrified at the bits and pieces of junk I found hidden beneath the toaster, behind the crockpot, under the knife block. I felt as if I should perhaps give thanks to Mother Nature for not blessing me with bugs. I have vowed to keep the counters cleaner.
Then I scoured the sink. And I mean scoured. My God, they're stainless steel! I thought they were some kind of mossy metal I had not encountered before.
I have not done the stove yet, but I will-- that is something I do, believe it or not, fairly regularly. I have to wipe the mud off the fridge, as well. And off the washing machine, dryer, and cabinet that grace the side entrance to the house.
So that you may understand, I will provide photos of my backyard at the moment:

The result of this is that the dogs dash through the water on their way to the house, where they jump on the back door:

This is the back door. There are four dogs that do this. The hope of trapping each one as he comes in and clean feet, bellies, ears and sometimes heads is not high. They come in and shake. Hence the need to continually clean the dryer, the washing machine, the big freezer und so weiter.
In case you are having trouble grasping the depth of this problem, this is what our muck boots look like :


So I am cleaning, hoping that my son and his business partner are perhaps unobservant (Unlikely for an artist) or SOMETHING that causes them to overlook whatever I miss, and there will be quite a bit.
And of course, the one day I would welcome phone calls, emails, meetings,
even cooking---there are no interruptions. DRAT!!!