The Clean, Lavender-Scented Domicile
This was Leona's day to clean my house. She no longer employs the person assisting her last time. Today she showed up with three new helpers. She brought two of them indoors, took them over the house, top to bottom, instructing them what to do and what not to do. Carried in several buckets of cleaning implements and products. Then she and a third new assistant left for another house up the street. She whispered to me, "Please keep an eye on them. They're new." Hm.
I had things to do so I pretty much ignored them since I could hear them working upstairs, the vacuum going, etc. I tied little Porque on the porch since one lady claimed to be afraid of dogs; she'd been bitten.
After a while I took all my bedding out of the dryer where it was finally done. I carried it upstairs and left it on the bed, went back downstairs.
Mostly I worked on origami bats. I'm making white origami bats with red sequin eyes. Depending how a bat is folded, it can stand up, stand upside down, be in horizontal flying position. I was busy making decorations for the dinner here on Sunday evening.
After a few hours the ladies seemed to be nearly done. The one woman asked me where I go to church and when I told her I'm Episcopalian, she told me very sternly that I should obey the Bible where we are instructed to, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord." She added that she knows of scripture references which obligate us to dance before the Lord, too. She asked, suspiciously, "What do Episcopalians believe?"
I told her that Episcopalians believe pretty much what all other Christians believe, that our main difference is that we like a liturgical service, nice and quiet and restful.
Whacking the dust rag around wrathfully, she told me that this is not good enough. I need to put some energy into my worship or it isn't right. I told her that once I tried to visit a church with a three-hour service, plenty of noise and dancing, and it took me a week to recover. I've got to stick to the more soothing, quiet type of service. She shook her head admonishingly. Clearly, she thought I was about to go to hell because I attend a church where it's too darn quiet. She gave me a hard look and told me that her brother is pastor of a store-front church a few blocks away where people know how to do things right. She repeated the name of the church and added, encouragingly, that it's across from the hardware store. She thought of another good point, "It don' us'ally run mo'den' two oh free owuh." I replied, "Way too long for me." She looked disgusted.
After a while the hubub died down. The vacuum quieted. The ladies dragged all their stuff out onto the porch, then came back in looking uncertain. I thought they were waiting for Leona to come back and critique their work, so I told them to sit down and be comfortable...and I got diet Cokes for them.
Sitting there, both ladies told me horror stories about their physical and family problems. One woman has had so much surgery that she's a regular Frankenstein. More interestingly, she's lost 40 pounds and is still losing...and looks like she should continue along those lines for about another 100 pounds. The other lady told about awful trouble with rheumatism, broken bones that didn't heal right, pain and agony with each step she takes. Yeesh! I began to feel like Simon Legree, causing these folks to work and hurt themselves.
Finally, they stood up and left, telling me that Leona would return to get her cleaning supplies, but they had to get to their homes.
They were gone. The quiet was nice. The house looked good.
Shortly Leona came back. She looked around and blew up, "I knew it! Those two! Look at this floor!!! Look at the baseboards!!" Her helper ran upstairs and yelled, "They didn't make this bed!" The helper did that and some other things upstairs while Leona redid quite a bit of the other work downstairs. I paid Leona and she and her helper went home. That lady has a hard life. She works like few other people I've met.
Anyway, when everyone was really gone, I put pasta in the microwave, set a lavender-scented candle in the sink after running some water. I ate the pasta. The candle soon scented the entire house. Every surface gleams. It's all good. Ahhhhhhhh. I like cleaning-lady day.
I had things to do so I pretty much ignored them since I could hear them working upstairs, the vacuum going, etc. I tied little Porque on the porch since one lady claimed to be afraid of dogs; she'd been bitten.
After a while I took all my bedding out of the dryer where it was finally done. I carried it upstairs and left it on the bed, went back downstairs.
Mostly I worked on origami bats. I'm making white origami bats with red sequin eyes. Depending how a bat is folded, it can stand up, stand upside down, be in horizontal flying position. I was busy making decorations for the dinner here on Sunday evening.
After a few hours the ladies seemed to be nearly done. The one woman asked me where I go to church and when I told her I'm Episcopalian, she told me very sternly that I should obey the Bible where we are instructed to, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord." She added that she knows of scripture references which obligate us to dance before the Lord, too. She asked, suspiciously, "What do Episcopalians believe?"
I told her that Episcopalians believe pretty much what all other Christians believe, that our main difference is that we like a liturgical service, nice and quiet and restful.
Whacking the dust rag around wrathfully, she told me that this is not good enough. I need to put some energy into my worship or it isn't right. I told her that once I tried to visit a church with a three-hour service, plenty of noise and dancing, and it took me a week to recover. I've got to stick to the more soothing, quiet type of service. She shook her head admonishingly. Clearly, she thought I was about to go to hell because I attend a church where it's too darn quiet. She gave me a hard look and told me that her brother is pastor of a store-front church a few blocks away where people know how to do things right. She repeated the name of the church and added, encouragingly, that it's across from the hardware store. She thought of another good point, "It don' us'ally run mo'den' two oh free owuh." I replied, "Way too long for me." She looked disgusted.
After a while the hubub died down. The vacuum quieted. The ladies dragged all their stuff out onto the porch, then came back in looking uncertain. I thought they were waiting for Leona to come back and critique their work, so I told them to sit down and be comfortable...and I got diet Cokes for them.
Sitting there, both ladies told me horror stories about their physical and family problems. One woman has had so much surgery that she's a regular Frankenstein. More interestingly, she's lost 40 pounds and is still losing...and looks like she should continue along those lines for about another 100 pounds. The other lady told about awful trouble with rheumatism, broken bones that didn't heal right, pain and agony with each step she takes. Yeesh! I began to feel like Simon Legree, causing these folks to work and hurt themselves.
Finally, they stood up and left, telling me that Leona would return to get her cleaning supplies, but they had to get to their homes.
They were gone. The quiet was nice. The house looked good.
Shortly Leona came back. She looked around and blew up, "I knew it! Those two! Look at this floor!!! Look at the baseboards!!" Her helper ran upstairs and yelled, "They didn't make this bed!" The helper did that and some other things upstairs while Leona redid quite a bit of the other work downstairs. I paid Leona and she and her helper went home. That lady has a hard life. She works like few other people I've met.
Anyway, when everyone was really gone, I put pasta in the microwave, set a lavender-scented candle in the sink after running some water. I ate the pasta. The candle soon scented the entire house. Every surface gleams. It's all good. Ahhhhhhhh. I like cleaning-lady day.
5 Comments:
Can you post the bat orgami diagrams and/or directions? I would LOVE to see pictures of those!
http://art-smart.ci.manchester.ct.us/easy-bat/easy-bat.html
That link is to directions for an easy little bat. The way I make it, I cut out three scoops at the bottom of the wings. Also, I fold the wings in sections. Furthermore, I fold back legs andthen feet so the little guy can stand up balanced on his feet and wing tips. If while folding it, you begin with a corner of the paper down, you end with a bat to stand on it's head,wings up out of the way. Lydia said she'd take some pictures of a few I made.
Try making a joyful noise at our church and you'll get some pointed looks. An upright and well-considered noise, yes. Joyful, not really. Unless you're in the choir -- and then you have leave to be as joyful as the baroque composers allow. :D
So how did the dinner go? Enquiring minds want to know.
How did the dinner go?
Fun. It was a chilly night, so I turned on both fireplaces and some people ate holding a plate, huddled on the floor in front of a fireplace. The conversation at these events is always good, due to diversity of background among attendees. Among those present were a social worker, a probation officer, a psychiatrist, a college professor, a geologist, a singer in a rock group, a psychologist...and I don't know what the others do for a living. The food was interesting. Everyone brings a dish.
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