Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ouch!, Oh My Aching Body Parts!

Wednesday was the elated anticipated day for the house cleaner's deep cleaning our home.

We seem to be collectively clutterers. Both of us are allergic to dust, so we are confronted with the dilemma to remove, or let lie. The dust allergy is actually a microscopic fierce looking mite which leaves its even more microscopic body wastes mingled amid the dust to torment us.

Our house had not been thoroughly dusted since June when we allowed a lovely church teen to dust for a donation to her mission trip to Panama. We were going to give her a substantial donation, but she had made known she wished to earn her money. I admire young girls and boys who are willing to work for their needs. She worked 4 hours . I did not wish to be accused of violating child labor laws, but think we allowed her to feel she earned our donation. She was elated with the amount.

Today's housekeeper literally cleaned ceiling to floor, moved furniture, open windows from inside and cleaned the area between window and screen, vacuumed carpets and floors; wet mopped final flooring.

I worked along side the housekeeper moving clutter, primarily piles of paper from my many activities scattered and stacked all over the house/ Of course there are stacks of paper for city council papers, personal finances, TeleCare, EOBs of health insurance filings and medical copies of medical visits and procedures, and I keep a a personal file of my medical records which becomes valuable if you are referred to specialists. Mixed in these stacks is the proverbial backlog of filing. I am drastically reducing filing which I dislike.

Additionally I helped her moved furniture. All this activity which does no sound physically taxing, left me aching from literally from head to big toes. How my two big toes could become so sore, is beyond me, because I dropped NOTHING on them! My back which is why I avoid housework, especially and motion that is coordinated back and forth leg and arm motion, i.e., sweeping, vacuuming, mopping. Also changing bed linens is back breaking as well breath shortening.

The housekeeper was a wisp of a woman. She worked steadily eight hours except from a 30 minute lunch break. She is returning Friday. I hope my next post won't be from the hospital or morgue. I have not been this tired in a long, long time.

She said I exaggerated the dirtiness. If we had not thoroughly dusted since June, she said my house was tight for the amount of accumulated dust, especially since we also have and indoor/outdoor dog. In fact once she gets us caught up, she thinks we will only need a housekeeper once a month! I was elated, not because I'd save money, but because we weren't as dirty as imagined. Kinda silly, but true.

Sandwiched between Wednesday and Friday is the installation of a fiberoptic telephone line for extremely fast Internet. Our local phone company is installing underground fiberoptic lines in in the entire city. My section of town is completed and we are getting a free 90 day trial of what is said to be as fast or faster Internet as cable companies. Our current DSL rate continues.

All the above translates thus: my section of town is the first guinea pigs to get the kinks out of the system, but being the techie nut that I am , I'm looking forward to the challenge.

So there will be an interlude in my saga of Get Me to the Church On Time. There are 2-3 more parts. The next one is almost unbelievable.... It will be difficult to write as it involves repeated identical episodes in a short time frame. I will have to spend time formatting it in a manner it can be followed.

[PHOTOS: Internet]

11 comments:

Arkansas Patti said...

I don't suppose she is willing to travel?? Oh well, I must admit I am jealous. I have dusted and swept, but have not done serious cleaning for a while. Once a month sounds wonderful.
The best thing for sore muscles is to repeat the same exercise that made them sore in the first place. You are taking the right prescription.
Take care and enjoy a long soak and a big smile when she leaves.

Carol Murdock said...

CA....I know where you're coming from! We had a carpet cleaner here on Tuesday. We moved furniture and of course you know what lies behind and under unmoved furnitue so I had to clean, before he could clean!!
I fell into bed and could barely crawl out yesterday! I have cleaned this house top to bottom the last few weeks! XOXO

Jinksy said...

I thing spring cleaning is hitting blogland early... :0)

NitWit1 said...

AR Patti, Carol, Jinksy:
I was really tired. This was supposed to post Friday. OH WELL.....

And how on earth my big toe nails are sore in combination with aches is beyonc me!!!!

I collapsed in my lift chair which also heats and vibrates. I ran the vibrator for over an hour. It runs for 30 minutes and it has to have a rest period for the motor to cool, then I would run another 30 min.. This stretched into early morning so I blogged as I could not sleep.

Finally I was able to drift off for a few hours.

Carol, I now have to schedule a carpet/upholstery cleaner. We don't have any really good ones, but there are a couple of adequate ones. We only have one national brand one:ServiceMaster. They screwed up and slopped the job so bad I won't use them again. They did try to correct it but they sent the same lazy one man crew to correct it so I'm passing over them. I like the truck mounted steam ones, although they may not be the very best.

AR Patti: She might but you would not want to pay expense travel.

But just helping her I realized how much the dust bothered the asthma component of COPD. I wheezed all night.

Jinksy: I think most of us in US have already had a hard winter and think if we spring clean we'll fell better!!!! The southern US states are not acclimated to single digit temps with -0 wind chill factors.

I have got to start on my Part 3 of Get Me to The Church on Time. Y'all ain't gonna believe this one.

Patty said...

I think I need a cleaning person. I find it harder and harder to move things to clean under and behind them.

Patty said...

If I did hit the comment moderation on my first comment, then delete this one. Can't remember. LOL Now what is that a sign of?

As I was saying, I need someone like your cleaning lady, I find I can't move items to clean under or behind any longer. At least not alone like I use to be able to handle the cleaning.

Lisa said...

How great to find out your not as dirty as you thought. I don't think that is silly at all...I would be thrilled!

Jackie said...

My friend...you worked too hard and long...and....you almost LOST me with the posting of the dust mite! What a horrible looking creature...and to think that we all have them. OK...I'm going to try and go to sleep...thinking there is no 'dust' on my pillow!
Smiles,
Jackie

Arkansas Patti said...

I have something for you on my blog.

Amber Star said...

NW-1,
It is Friday...did you make it through the day? Reckon your toes are sore due to gout? The docs thought I might have had it before I was finally dxed with rheumatoid arthritis. Hope it ain't so in your case.

My ladies came today to clean. They have a team of 4 and can get done in an hour to one and a half hours than I can get accompished in a week. It is pretty pricey, but it is such a luxury. Actually hubby had to deal with them today. I went to the doc yesterday and he gave me a Medrol dosepack, cough medicine with codeine, antibiotics to go with all the stuff I'm already taking...like mucinex. I stayed upstairs because of the dusting, which I thought was going to put him over the edge just thinking about the dust in the air that I'd be breathing. I had to assure him I would stay out of it. I'm sort of achey tonight and all I did was pick up stuff before they got here.
They will clean but they don't put things away...that is my job.

Hope you feel better soon.

Lorna said...

Oh, take good care of yourself. dust mites are uglier but not worth hurting yourself