Progress

Yesterday, Lauri and her children came to spend the day. That doesn't happen often when one lives only two miles down the road. It is a pop in pop out relationship. Lauri said the kids needed a change of scenery and that they could help me do some things I can't do with only my own physical power. It didn't take long before I knew what projects we would attempt to accomplish. The Asian rug in the dining area needed to be picked up and vacuum under. A kind of white dust seems to collect under those types of rugs and I wanted that cleaned up. That required clearing the room of chairs and the table which was done in a jiffy. Then we flipped the rug, clean the floor under the rug and vacuum the bottom of the carpet. One job complete. Next project was to carry in another Asian rug that daughter Jennifer had willed to me. It is very large and completely heavy. It took five of us to bear that thing on our shoulders and bring it down into our family room. It matches the furniture and the wall color perfectly. It, too, needed vacuuming and a few spot cleanings. Looks great and gives the room a cozy and finished look.

When Ken's mother moved out of her house, a Maytag washing machine was in the basement and Ken couldn't part with that relic. It held many memories for him and so it ended up in our family room as an antique of sorts. That thing in the corner has driven me crazy for a few years now and we finally got it moved out the door yesterday. My dad said he could use it to wring out rags. For what I have no idea but I jumped at the chance to bring it away. My step mother wasn't any more excited about housing it as I. It was placed in their shed but she bristled. She rather threw up her hands and said, "WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOWNSIZING......WE ARE GOING TO DIE AND YOU GUYS WON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS STUFF!" I felt sorry for her but I felt sorrier for my dad as he held his ground and showed us where to put it.

We got much accomplished and had great goofy fun in the process. On the way to my dad's we rode in the back of the pickup with the Maytag. It wasn't until we were half way there when I realized that is no longer lawful. I always found that to be such fun when I was a kid and was trying to give my grandkids the same joy. I told them we had to have a plan if we saw a police or sherrif on the horizon. The plan was that when I said "hit the floor" everyone would lie down on the floor of the truck bed. We practiced our plan and all but one person complied. We managed to get the three miles there without any spoiler and I was relieved once there.

When we got home, Isaiah asked if he could get out the pool. What pool? The one you bought a long time ago. It is one of those blue easy set up kind of pools. I told them to have a go at it. By themselves, the kids got it out of the garage and all set up, filled with water, albeit a big lopsided as they chose a not so level place in the yard. I decided it is really nice to have grandchildren old enough to do things like that for themselves. Once they got it up they made comments about how they remember it was much bigger. I told them the difference is that they are many years older and bigger now. Beside that, all our memories loom bigger than the reality of them.

There are two extra people in our beds this morning. A couple of those grandkids didn't want to leave last night so we had an overnighter. All went well except for a bag of really burned popcorn that Grandpa had a fit over. The house reeked. I kept my bedroom door closed and mananged to fall asleep. I tried to remind husband that he has had his own problems in that area......like the time about nine months ago that he put eggs on to boil and left the house. Ugh. This morning, the sickening smell still lingers but not nearly as bad. Funny how a smell can make everything feel dirty. It isn't dirty but it certainly smells like it.