Update September 6 Labor Day (yeah, right)

Rich is again at work, and I've been scurrying around the house, trying to "clean" it. "How do you clean around all those boxes, with all that sheetrock dust and construction debris in the way?" you might ask. That's a darn good question. It basically entails taking out the vacuum cleaner, using the wand end, turning it on, and pointing it at anything that seems that perhaps it shouldn't be there. Items included on the list are "tubes" of rolling fur (instead of fur tumble-weeds), loose cat claw shreds, litter, some small items that look like dust, shreds of leaves or grass, and the occasional dead bug. There's such a small avenue of clear floor, it's nearly impossible to run a vacuum in the old fashioned way, meaning back and forth. After a suitable amount of time, I examined the contents of my see-through canister on the vacuum and it seemed to be filling up with things, so once it was three-quarters full, I stopped. That seemed a satisfactory level.

Cleaned toilets, vacuumed hair off the floor (how can I shed that much and not be bald is beyond me!), and wiped down our all-purpose-bathroom-kitchen sink in the half bath. Lovingly wiped the gorgeous bathroom down, scooped litter, did five loads of laundry, cleaned mirrors, and took out the trash. After surveying the domicile apres work, there seemed to be no tell-tale difference. Sigh.

Rich seemed motivated on the phone today to keep working tonight, so I'm going along with it. Spirit willing, flesh weak, that sort of thing. I keep trying to find motivation. Perhaps this will do it:

Currently, our morning routine involves a procedure close to the re-starting of the LEM after days of darkness on the Apollo 13 mission. It appears that the entire dance hall AND the half bath are all wired together. So if we have the TV on to watch the morning news, we can only have a certain combination of appliances on at the same time. Coffee maker, electric tea pot, TV and perhaps the fridge. Better to cycle it while the fridge is not running, though. No lamps, no fan, no microwave, no hairdryer, no toaster oven. If you want to watch TV with lamps and a fan on to drown out the crying kitties at night, you better not want to dry your hair or toast a bagel. And God forbid you want to dry your hair and anything else, or microwave and anything else, or toast and anything else. It's fascinating how you can refine a technique to a certain sequence at 7 am . . . we're getting quite adept. I start my water while Rich is in the shower. Then I toast or microwave whatever we need for breakfast, and then finally start his coffee by the time he's getting out of the shower. If his breakfast needs any more heating, however, he has to shut off the coffee maker before starting the microwave. Then we eat. And I don't shower or dry my hair until he's gone.

It'll be great when I can cook breakfast on the stove and toast something and run both the teapot and coffee maker at the same time. On a countertop. With a sink.