House Cleaning

Some say that spring is the time for house cleaning. Today is the middle of high summer, and I've been scrubbing away. My landlord just put in a new dishwasher, but he had to turn off the water in the entire building to hook it up to the water source. So, for now, I'm still in dish drainer territory.

Spent this morning scrubbing and washing. I also did some framing. I inherited a couple of years ago a pile of stuff from my parents. Pictures, diplomas (theirs and mine) and a bunch of other stuff--like the results of my father's typing test in the Army Airforce in 1947. Apparently, he was pretty good. I also inherited rather odd things like my the dinner menu of my father's airforce squadron for December 1946. Quite tasty, from what I can see. It's interesting looking at stuff from the 1940s. It's like it was a whole different world. Everything was in tan and black and white. It just feels different, less plastic, than our world. It was less plastic.

Also found pictures of my mother in a classroom, back in the eighties or nineties. She looks very sharp, sitting behind her desk, with a "Please Feed the Birds" sign on the bulletin board behind her. In addition, found a "pillow note" from an old girl friend, Anne. She was my very first serious girlfriend back in the 1980s. She was beautiful. We used to leave each other "pillow notes" in the morning. Quite beautiful. I saved one of them. I'm glad I did.

Anyway, cleaned the bathroom within an inch of its life, cleaned out the fridge (wasn't too bad except for the fruit from 1908). And I dusted off my trophies, medals, and book and magazine covers that I have on what somebody once called "the walls of Doug." Everything looks pretty good today.

Now, I'm off to the downstairs gym that my landlord put in. I usually bike in the mornings and listen to financial self help tapes. This afternoon, it's the stair climber. And I think I'm going to make my first quiche in a very long time this afternoon.

Doug