Now that we have had a tasty supper and there is a load of very soiled dish towels in the washing machine, I must say, Dennis and I are amazing.
First order of business this morning was, of course, coffee in the porch. We had talked last night about a few items in the job jar. Stripping both beds in the home down to the mattresses, meant that Dennis was on call. Dennis shook his piggy bank for quarters and he was off to the launderette with two very bulky mattress pads and one three yard long polar fleece blanket. Stackables do have their limits.
I began the hour-long process of sterilizing my supply of catheters. Yes, I would be able to receive free catheters that I need for the bladder augmentation of the late 1990s, now that I am on Medicare. My conservative nature knows that they can be used multiple times with the proper procedures. Not one to watch a boiling pot, I got the vacuum cleaner up from the basement to begin vacuuming the mattresses, inner springs and everything else up above and down below.
Dennis arrived home with a smile on his face and a huge basket of goodies. To begin the drying from the get go in our stackable would just not work, but to stuff in the bulky items one at a time, using the lower setting reset several times, finished the job. In the meantime, the Magtag was doing due diligence with the loads of sheets and pillowcases.
Dennis gathered equipment for washing his pickup in the driveway. It seemed that having it sit out for several weeks as we awaited a new garage door really put a layer of airborne gunk on the little red truck. Not to let me sit idle, Dennis had the wooden cover that we use to partially shade the Koi pond sitting in the garage ready for me to give it a new layer of paint. It will be quite a treat to take it out of the potting shed next spring, bright and white, ready to take its place on the pond.
So, how did we get a load of really dirty dish towels? Dennis had washed off the porch walls and three patio doors last night and today seemed like the right time to get the water spots, the bug spots and the kitty nose prints off of the patio doors. Our city water is really hard and the water spots are nasty on windows. Kevin had shared with us a product called Fresh Start. It has multiple uses in the home and it does wonders on water spots. Using a nylon scrubby with the Fresh Start is the first step, plus a bit of elbow grease and some dish towels. I have never known that there was a lot of difference between windshield washer fluid and Windex, and today, the windshield washer fluid was the next step to cut and clean the Fresh Start off of the glass. My sister, Elvera, swears by vinegar and today I put it to the test for the last test of sparkling windows. Vinegar in water followed by more dry dish towels. It was cloudy all day. The proof of the pudding will be when the sun shines either in the morning from the east or the afternoon from the west. Will they stay clean for a long time? No. They will stay clean long enough for Dennis and I to enjoy the porch after we get home from our road trip, which is coming up this weekend.
The forecast for the next two days is rain. Rain bouncing off a dirt-encrusted sidewalk means the patio door to the north will suffer. After Dennis looked over the situation, the dirt and the sidewalk were on an even level. Over time, the sidewalk that was several inches higher than the soil was no more. Dennis remembered that he and his brother Roger had put in three drain tiles along said sidewalk, many years ago. Dennis began digging a trench along the sidewalk, allowing rain a spillway and also to find the drains. Found them, he did. I raked all the extra dirt farther to the north and made nice.
Supper time was near and we decided on a great fast one. I highly advocate it: a batch of instant potatoes divided into two bowels, each covered with a divided can of Chicken Pot Pie soup.
I am very proud of Dennis and me. We are the amazing team on Stauffer Avenue, being good stewards.
