Mid-March!?

See what I was saying about time? Gone before you know it. I'm going to try to get a real blog in this weekend, although it'll have to be in sections, between cleaning spurts. I desperately need to clean the house. Between migraines and business trips, I've let things slack off. I'm beginning to feel like one of my old college roommates. She felt that if you could still get through the door, the place was fine. Not the neatest person in the world. I'm not sure if she was better or worse than another roommate that liked to put the dishes in a sink of soapy water ... and then leave them there for three days. Ever stuck your hand into cold greasy water to reach the drain to drain it? *shudders*

Anyway, I haven't started cleaning yet because I haven't had adeqate coffee, nor become educated (read the comics section of the newspaper). In fact I haven't gone out to get the newspaper yet because it's cold, dark and wet out there. I'm complaining about the cold part of that. We really need the rain so that I'm not unhappy about. Dark will fix itself in an hour or so. *laughing* Actually in a few hours it'll all fix itself. Cold and wet is supposed to move out today.

Okay, got my papers. I get two newspapers every day. Not because I'm a news fanatic, because I can't decide which one I like better. Each one has features I like. Anyway, I've developed a fondness for maple and brown sugar instant oatmeal, so I'll take a break here and eat and get educated.

*pause*

Expect a lot of these pauses. I'll clean, but I won't enjoy it, and I'll be taking breaks in between stuff. My least favorite is the bathrooms, but I suppose that's pretty standard. And I could pay someone to clean my house for me, but it doesn't seem right. It's not like I don't have time to do it. I'm just lazy. Or maybe another way to look at it is that I prefer to spend my down-time not working. And cleaning is working. So I'm not the greatest housekeeper in the world. I don't dust every week. I vacuum when it looks like it needs it. But I keep the place fairly picked up and the kitchen clean (not too hard since I don't cook). Every once in a while I give the place a good cleaning though, and it's currently past due. So that's what this weekend is. *sigh* Occasionally it just has to be done. *grinning* Usually I leave it for just before when I know my mother will be visiting.

The trick to major cleaning is not only to get into the mood to do it, but to stay in the mood to do it. The first stuff I start cleaning is always spotless, but as the day goes on I tend to slack off and do the least I can get by with. So one of my chores is to keep myself focused on the right attitude to clean with ..... which is "everything gets cleaned", and "stuff gets thrown away that I don't feel like cleaning the dust off of". So far I've thrown away several things, and re-arranged other things. That's another one of the dangers. I can (and do) easily get side-tracked by moving one piece. That one piece re-positioned can lead to a frenzy of re-arranging that can consume a whole day. Must .. keep ... cleaning ... focused!

Whew. Break. Time to take a moment ..... hmmmm .... actually, time to switch from coffee to coke and eat lunch. I can probably type and eat at the same time.

I have wrinkled hands. I know, I know. I should wear gloves, but I hate those things. I still lack the shower stalls and tubs in the two bathrooms and of course floors all over the house will be last. *laughing* So you're thinking, 'what have you been doing in there?' Oh, counters, sinks, toilets, mirrors, fixtures, just a few minor things. I have wrinkled hands. I've been trying to intersperse some dusting in the rest of the house with the bathrooms to give my hands a break from chemicals, but if you have to scrub, you have to scrub.

It's stopped raining outside but is still completely overcast. At least it didn't freeze. My peach tree still stands a chance of having peaches this year. I think I may move my aloe vera from their winter quarters (garage) to the patio this weekend. We could feasibly still get a freeze, but not one that couldn't be dealt with by covering the aloe vera. I'll have to see if moving them fits into my busy cleaning schedule. Can't let myself get side-tracked. It's going to be hard enough to go back to cleaning when I have a full little belly after eating. *grimace* I have this nasty purple gatorade stuff. The store didn't have my usual purple so I grabbed this "G2" one. It's diet, or "low calorie" if you prefer, and it has that sweetener after-taste, which they seem to try to hide by making it as sweet as they could. Gyah! I'm not that fond of "diet" drinks anyway (translates as: won't touch), and these are ... nasty. But I have an 8-pack of the damn things, so I'm drinking them. Gyah!

Yatta! Bathrooms are done except for floors. I may not get to them until tomorrow, but I'll work for a while yet today on various other parts of the house .... after I take a little break.

Last weekend I planted a rose bush, and it looks like it might make it. When I moved into this house, I planted a red and a yellow rose bush. The red thrives every year, blooming from fairly early in the Spring until the first frost .... which for us may be December. The yellow only lived a year or so. The one I planted last weekend is yellow, so I hope it does better than the last one. This picture is of the red and the new yellow roses. The red has lots of growth on it considering it's mid-March. The new one is the barely visible small bush to the right in the darker dirt patch. You'll notice I don't do gardens. I wanted roses by my fence so I put them there. I didn't make a garden for them to go in. It seems to work. The roses are happy and I'm happy that I don't have to keep a garden weed-free. I just keep the grass weed-whacked around them and everyone's happy. You might also notice that the grass is coming back up already. The front yard needs mowing already but the bermuda grass in the front grows faster in the Spring than the St. Augustine grass in the back yard does. Here's a better image of the new rosebush. It's just starting to grow, but it's got new growth on it in the last week so it should do all right.

Here's a picture of what my peach tree looks like right now ..... blossoms everywhere. I'm hoping for a good peach crop this year so with any luck it won't freeze now that this tree has decided to go ahead and bloom.

Well, I suppose I've taken enough of a break. And since I'm supposed to keep focused on cleaning I guess I'll post this blog and get back to it.

Later.