Saturday, August 01, 2009

Help!


I had fallen asleep on the sofa when I was rudely awakened by the phone. By the time I realized what that noise was, the ringing had stopped and I was too late to answer it. I can never remember which button it is that I push to see who tried to call me, so I don't know who it was. They'll have to call back, but now I'm sort of half awake trying to decide what to do. Do I go to bed and continue sleeping or do I stay up for a while now and go to bed at a more normal time? It's a toss up.

My stubborn me says to stay up and make myself a cup of coffee and have a good time sitting here for a while. My sensible me says to put on my pajamas and go to bed. Tell you what I'll do, I'll put my pajamas on and meet myself halfway.

After I was awakened by the phone, Jesker decided that he needed to go for a walk, so I took my half awake body and went for a walk with him. I thought this might wake me up completely, but it did no such thing and Jesker led the way around the field while I obediently followed him. At least he didn't lead me astray and straight back to the apartment. He could have easily taken me for a long meander through the neighborhood, I would not have protested very much, but he's a creature of habit and keeps turning left until he is home again.

I never did change the sheets on my bed when I said I would, so I will do it tonight and put the dirty ones in the empty washing machine right away, so they can be washed tonight and hung up to dry in the morning. I won't be able to hang them outside, because it is going to rain. But at least I have the resolve now to have clean sheets tonight and just to make sure I do, I'm going to strip my bed now.

There, everything is in the washing machine and it will be churning away in a minute. Now I can't change my mind about changing the bed, I'll just have to do it. It will be my last housewifely act before I go to sleep tonight. Maybe I will also sweep the floors before I go to bed, because I still haven't done those. I'm getting an amazing surge of energy now. That sleep on the sofa must have done me some good.

I remember scrubbing the kitchen floor at midnight when my kids were little and I thought it was because that's when I had time to do it. Or working in the garden at 11 o'clock at night to get some rocks exactly in the right place, in the sense of inches away from perfection. I also used to change the living room furniture around all the time. I would manhandle all the bigger pieces by myself until I got them all in the "right" place and could surprise my family with a brand new lay out, and they would come home and say, "Oh no, not again!" I've completely gotten over that. My furniture has been in the same place for quite a while now.

I also used to paint whole rooms in one day while the kids were at school. If I didn't like the color, I got new paint and painted the whole room with time to spare. I can't imagine now where I got the energy and the muscle power. I used to wallpaper too.

Ah, that was when I was a young and energetic person and I did whatever came into my head. Now I ponder things for a long time before I do them. I take a long time to undertake a project. That's because I know I don't have the mental and physical energy anymore that I used to have. I have to paint my bedroom, but I know it will take me months before I do it and I will want help when I do. I don't see me taking on that project by myself. I will be a broken woman if I do.

I remember in one house not liking a wall where it was, so I took a sledge hammer and a crowbar and removed it. I knew it wasn't a load bearing wall. Those were my "do it yourself days." I hammered and sawed and drilled and did whatever needed to get done to improve the house we were living in then. It was fun while it lasted and we sold it for nearly double than what we paid for it and moved to a bigger and better house.

The house that we worked on so hard, was in a small town in the mountains, we'd call it a village. It was in California, but we got snow there in the wintertime, which was great for the kids, who wore snow suits and snow boots and dug forts in the snow, which was piled up quite high at times. Sometimes we had power outages and we heated the house with a wood stove and our light came from oil lamps. We always had dogs and cats, but if your cat disappeared, you could bet that a coyote got it. They hung around in the woods behind the house at night.

Well, so much for reminiscing. It all started with laundry and I can hear the washing machine doing its work. The fun part is picking out the clean duvet cover. Which one shall it be? I usually pick the one that's easiest to put on, but sometimes I pick the most romantic one, just for me, all by myself. I'm glad I'm laying there by myself in my own bed and I don't have to share it with anybody who has strange habits like sleeping with his socks on or who snores at night, because only Jesker is allowed to snore and he does it so civilized. He has a quiet, gentle snore. I don't think I will ever share my bed again with anyone, except another dog.

I have made my plan. Since tomorrow is Sunday and I can sleep late, I am going to do some chores tonight, now that I'm in the mood for them. I never want to do things during the day, because I always look for excuses not to do them, but I won't be now. It will be a perfect opportunity to sweep the floors and do the dishes and whatever else I can think of, oh yes, make the bed, of course. I won't take the last of my medicines until later when I'm ready to go to bed. Isn't that just grand?

I know you must all think I've gone off my rocker, but I think It's a good idea. It's nice to be up and about when the rest of the world around me is asleep and if I stay up long enough, I can hang up the laundry to dry.

Toby is asleep on the kitchen counter. I ran out of that food in pouches a day ago and I haven't got any new ones. I've got some very good and appetizing kibbles that the cats will just have to like. I am not sponsoring them with the expensive food anymore. They wanted it three times a day! Money still does not grow on trees, although I wish I had a Euro tree on my back patio. Wouldn't it be nice to go pick your daily harvest of fresh Euros every morning and all you had to do was iron them?

Okay, I'm going to work now. Wish me luck in getting a lot of things done. It will be so satisfying. I think I'll do the bed first, just in case I topple over. Nah, I'm not planning on that, really. I feel full of spit and vinegar.

Sleep tight!

Ciao...

3 comments:

Gail said...

Wow! Maybe a nap is what I need! Have fun.

Maureen said...

At least you won't be waking anyone else in your apartment; and hopefully none of your neighbors!

Which reminds me; I need to go get the drying out of the dryer - but it's only 9 pm here ;)

Have a relaxing Sunday Irene!

Babaloo said...

If you ever figure out where to get a Euro tree, please let me know. I'll plant two or three in our back garden straight away.

Your long gone DIY days sound a bit manic to me, am I right? How can anyone have so much energy? Raise kids, take care of a household and do all this painting and decorating stuff?

I have already read your following posts, so I know that you've had a very productive night. Hope you now have a relaxing Sunday, now that you've done all the cleaning!