The Family

This story begins on Monday.   On Monday, Kevin met with a new cleaning lady.   We’d had a service before he was unemployed.  Dropped it while he was.   Restarted it now that he isn’t.

Not with the same service (a little iffy with them), but with a new lady that does the houses of several of his new coworkers and came highly recommended.

She cleaned the house on Monday.  She was, as stated, thorough and conscientious.   Let me rephrase that.   She was VERY thorough and VERY conscientious.  Just how thorough and conscientious took me four days to discover.

Fast forward four days.  Friday morning.   I wake up; get up.   Took Kevin to the airport the night before, so it’s a qiuiet morning.  Get all dressed.   Feed the cats.   Get the paper before starting in on the cereal.  We have a weekend subscription to the paper – Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  It’s a nice treat to read the paper on Fridays while eating breakfast.

So.  Out to get the paper, back to the porch to discover just how Very Thorough and Very Coscientious our new cleaning lady is.  She wants to make sure the house is secure when she leaves.  She uses her new key to lock the deadbolt – and the door.   The doorknob.  Which we never lock.   Which we never check because we never lock it.  Which is now locked.

Which puts me and the newspaper outside, without a coat, without a key, without a phone, without a spouse – locked out of my house.

It’s hovering around 40 degrees.   It’s 7:15 in the morning.   The Kroger – nearest source of a phone and a phone book – is a mile away.

So yes.   I walk.   A mile there.   A mile back.  A two mile stroll in two inch heels.   On the jogging trail, which I am grateful exists and am very grateful it is level, but would have liked it to have been paved.      I tell myself I am glad I am fully dressed.   I list the five pairs of shoes in my wardrobe that would be less comfortable to hike in.

While I am walking, the temperature is actually a good thing.  Then I get back to the house, and wait for the locksmith.  He arrives at 9:00, but as I have no watch I have no idea of how much time passes.    All I know is that sitting still, it is cold outside.

Locksmith gets out of his enclosed truck, walks up all friendly, says ‘Beautiful day, isn’t it?  Wonderful weather.’   Sigh.

He comes, happy ending, I get back into the house (only $50, which is nice).  I warm up.  I go to work and adjust my timesheet to show 1 1/2 hours of personal leave.   I discover that I have blisters on both of my feet.  I am glad I have a desk job.

I eat fast food for lunch, and I biggie size it.  I’ve earned those calories, drat it, and I need comfort food.

And yes.   The rest of my day seemed just marvelous.    Made my to-do list for the weekend with the most unflappable aplomb.

To Do.

Item 1.  Make extra house keys.

Well.    I’ve waited days and days to see a new post, so that “Grailing .. bad news” isn’t the first thing I see when I load the page.

Guess I’ll just have to post it myself.

So let’s see.    The carry case for my telescope finally arrived.  As much as I enjoyed getting the telescope set up, I am looking forward to breaking it down into the proper porting pieces.   It’s a wonderful bag.  I can proudly take my place with all the other beginning amateur astronomers.    I have a fine telescope.

And yes, Saturn is way cool to look at.  But I am going to have to get some more eyepieces.

Ordered stuff from e-bay (it’s my second order).   Think it should arrive soon; it was theoretically shipped Monday.  Will leave my glowing seller feedback when it arrives.

Donated three formal dresses to the Cinderella project here in Raleigh.   They gather formals and have a big party thing where qualifying girls get to come in and try stuff on and find a dress they like for the prom.   All free.   Gave them the used-to-be matching shoes, too, though I hestiated on the shoes.  They really aren’t the best .. but perhaps they will find some use.

Like FreeCycle, I liked donating to the Cinderella Project more than I would have enjoyed simply donating to Goodwill.    Though I have a couple of boxes to take in there, too.

Weekend is coming.  Plan to make all those donation trips on Saturday.  I’m also planning to shuffle my fish around.   One has been in the kitchen tank, the other has been upstairs.  I think they should switch for a while.   I might get a fancy guppy to put in the tank with the frog.   I just feel like it must get boring, sitting in a tank all day.  Perhaps the frog and guppy won’t speak the same language, but it will be something.   Something is less boring than nothing.    Or I might get a second frog.  But I think it would be important to have two frogs of the same size, and I don’t know if I can judge which store frogs are the same size as my frog at home.   Which is why I generally come back to the guppy idea.   And I like guppies.  They are colorful.

I got a new Tolkien book for myself.  Haven’t read it yet – so many books from the library, and they have due dates.   But it is so pleasant to have a Tolkien book waiting for me.

Was talking to Mom about Hawaii, trying to be motivational and all that.   Then suddenly it dawned on me – I’d be going too.   I’d probably have to wear a swimsuit.  In public.   And I only have a year to become posterially fabulous.    So now I have a goal, and I wasn’t even looking for one.   Should I be thankful or vexed??  😉

Did you guys know Ann now has an employee in her business?  Getting very official.  The new hire is only for a few hours in the middle of the day, and Ann is amusingly managerial about how slow they are, but with all that I was greatly impressed.   An employee.  So many orders Ann and David can’t keep up with the business on their own.

I’m going to start saying only nice things about my good and clever friend, Ann.

Well, I guess I’ll wind it down now.   I really didn’t have anything to say, just putting something new up there.