TheBanyanTree: A Typical Weekend

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I hate cleaning house, but I do find comfort in doing a few Saturday chores,
like cleaning out the litter boxes, taking out the trash, and gathering up
the recyclables and placing them in the bins in the garage.  I feel like I’m
removing the week’s clutter from our house and preparing it for the new
week.

Every Saturday we strip the sheets off of our bed and put on fresh laundered
smelling sheets that have a crisp feel as we hunker down for the night.  I
wash the sheets, towels, and a week’s worth of clothes on Saturdays.  As you
can imagine, with just the two of us, there isn’t too much.  I don’t like
letting laundry get out of control.  I used to do that when I was in my 20s,
when I literally would have to wash and dry every item of clothing that I
owned.  That’s where laundromats come in handy.  You can do hundreds of
loads at the same time.  But when you have a washer and dryer at home, it
could take DAYS to do loads and loads of laundry.  So I have a system like
my mother did, a designated laundry day, to get it done.

I water all the indoor plants on Saturdays.  No matter what kind of plant
you are, no matter how much or how little water you need, you get watered on
Saturday.  It’s kind of like the Saturday bath.  It seems to work, we lose
very few plants, unless Shadow eats them.

Ray and I divide the vacuuming.  Ray does the main level – kitchen, dining
room, living room, and his office.  I do the upper level, which is basically
the hallway and my office.  I might zip the vacuum through our bedroom just
to get rid of Shadow’s hair congregating in corners.  It’s true, beagles don
’t shed much, but labs sure do.  Once a month I vacuum the basement stairs
and the carpeted part of the basement.

Gosh, I sound like Martha Stewart, don’t I?  We don’t dust or scrub out the
bathrooms.  Our cleaning service does that.  I told you I don’t like to
clean.  The Saturday cleaning I do is just perfect for me – it’s enough to
keep me engaged with the house, but not enough to be overwhelming and take
up a lot of my Saturday.

I usually balance the checkbook on Saturdays.  I pay bills.  I enter our
financial data on Microsoft Money.  Believe me, we don’t have a lot of money
to manage, but I find if I don’t pay attention, we can easily overspend.
And nothing is more painful than the bounced check fees.  $35 a pop which
can add up quick.

After my chores are completed, I can do anything I want if I don’t have
other plans.  In the summer, I go for a bike ride or for a walk.  Sometimes
I’ll sit on the deck and read.  Now that it’s fall, I find myself drawn to
indoor activities.

We’re at the cusp of summer and fall here in Minnesota.  Yesterday was a day
of almost summer-like storms moving through. It would get very dark and then
we’d have a quick downpour.  We heard thunder and saw lightning through our
bedroom blinds last night.  The temps are relatively mild and it’s humid.  I
love watching the battle between the seasons being fought in the sky above
us and sometimes it can get quite intense.

Since it was a rainy day, I decided to finally get the four rolls of film I
had developed about two months ago into the photo albums.  I’m actually one
of those people who do put their pictures into albums, loads the pictures
from the CDs onto a special hard drive, and files away the negatives into
photo boxes.  I know I’m overly organized sometimes.

I keep an album for us, and one album each for the boys.  I don’t make a
complicated big deal out of it.  I just organize the pictures by date,
separate them into various piles for the albums, and shove them in.  Then I
give the leftover duplicates of the boys’ pictures to Susan, where they
probably end up in a drawer somewhere.  All I have to do today is to load
the CDs onto my photo hard drive and then upload them to Photobucket and I’
ll be done with that.

Today looks it’s going to be another off and on rainy day, so after working
out, I’m planning to enjoy the Twins’ last game of the season.  I’ll ignore
the Vikings playing the Packers, because the Vikings suck and will for years
to come.

I don’t have any plans with the grandsons.  The younger is coming into his
own socially and has a play date this afternoon with one of his first grade
class cronies.   The older one and his mom are planning on either miniature
golf if it’s not raining or a movie if it is.  Dad will sit home and torture
himself watching the Vikings.

And I’ll be here in my freshly vacuumed house working on my photos and doing
some other interesting indoor activities.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can
steal.
~Author Unknown