Rain...

We just had a huge rainstorm and it felt like Noah's flood was about to happen all over again, but it didn't last for a long time, although a lot of water came down and things cooled off quite a bit. I now have the kitchen window wide open and I'm sitting in a pleasant draft and it feels good on my bare legs and I hope to get the temperature in the apartment down a little bit. It seems the thermometer hangs in the wrong draftless place, though, and the temperature never goes down, or maybe half a degree at most.

The system of doing three chores and then taking a break is working well, although I can cheat and change one of the chores and do another one instead if I want, as long as I do three chores. Today I didn't feel like ironing and got the trash ready to go instead. Before I go to sleep, I have to take the trash out and take a shower and do my hair. Those are the only three things I can think off right now. It will be too late to do anything else.

I've never thought of a reward system like this before and chopping my work up in little manageable chunks like this. Now, if I have to do a big job, like mopping the floors, I'll make myself mop three floors and then take a break before I go on. Almost everything can be divided up into chunks of threes. If you run out and only have two of something left, you just add an easy third one, because there is always something left to do.

I hope that pretty soon the apartment will start reflecting this system and that I will be able to keep it up, but I am stubborn enough to do it, so maybe it will work, When left to my own devices, I usually come up with some plan that works for me and that lets me get the best of all worlds. I used to be a top class housewife, after all. Even when I could afford a cleaning lady, I didn't have one.

Speaking of cleaning ladies, my grandmother always had one, but was very democratic and helped the cleaning lady clean. She was used to always having help in the household, but never shirked her own duties and felt that she could not uselessly sit by while someone else did all the work, so she did some of it herself. I don't know how much of this was actually helpful, but it made her feel useful to hold the stepladder while the cleaning lady washed the windows and my grandmother would then wash the windowsill, which meant that they had to remove all the plants together.

Despite the fact that my grandmother was Dutch Reformed and acutely aware of her position in life, I think she had the heart and soul of a salon socialist. She was also very much aware of the plight of the children in the third world countries and was forever knitting blankets and clothes for them and making donations to good causes, but when it came down to it, she took the afternoon off with her old maid and they went shopping together and had coffee and ice cream in a very decent establishment, so nobody could say she was cheap.

There, a little reminiscing about my maternal grandmother who died when she was in her nineties, as did my other grandmother, so longevity is in my genes.

With that memory, my dear people, I will leave you and go put out the trash and find the shower and the try and make my hair look pretty again, which is always a bit of a trick with just the right amount of wax.

Have a good night, I'm really hoping for some more rain.

Ciao...