I confess to being a lousy housekeeper, a factor in how much effort I have to make before my Dutch friend Marianne arrives today.
Add into the “poor housekeeper” factor two Persian kitty boys, and you have a wastepaper basket full of hair mixed in with the normal dust in the carpets. And that’s just two of four rooms worth!
I need mention, too, that I found two dried poops, one dried vomit, and one wet poop in the guest bedroom – of course! – that would have been just one wet poop if I actually went in there more often. Ugh!
I knew about one dried poop and moved a litter box yesterday to the bathroom because there seems to be a problem “finding” it where it used to be by the bureau.
I nearly finished vacuuming the guest bedroom and front room when Andy came in to inspect my work. Behind the glider? A bit sloppy, Doug! But the broken scratcher that the kitty boys like to use as a box surrogate and scratching post met his high standards.
Have to finish cleaning, so, as much as I’d rather play on the Internet, I better get to it!
Sorry to still be so far behind on the news of you and the boys, but this clean-up and catch-up is going slow.
I’m getting bogged down myself. I actually missed posting one day recently!
OMG – are you feeling okay, Doug?
Yes, though I’ve been fatigued because of efforts to clean the apartment in preparation for a visit from my friend Marianne, who is “Nederlander” from Amsterdam. That and running into a wee writer’s block, a sense I’d told all the stories I could tell without repeating myself. The rest took care of that, and the kitty boys (thankfully!) come up with new ways to keep me interested in telling about them!
Coming up are two more posts already in the can, then I have possibly two or three days of tales of Marianne and my trip to the South Dakota Black Hills that turned out to be an incredible adventure, thanks to rainy, foggy weather (which actually improved the beauty of this area and its animals) and an accident with my car that involved complications that will one day be the stuff of legends but are at the moment a blinking pain in the butt.
Sorry you were down due to health, but glad you had a visit and trip to help break up your days.
It was an eventful day but a great adventure!
Careful, Doug! Watch your energy level.
You don’t know this yet because the fact won’t be posted till Tuesday, but I had a little accident with my car up in South Dakota. We had a bit of an adventure getting home (by taxi…) and my car was towed yesterday to the VW dealer in Rapid City, SD, a two and a half hour drive from where I live.
All of the Nebraska Panhandle places we were going to visit are of the schedule now. For that reason, I won’t get worn out during this visit: We’re stuck at home.
Marianne and I are happy to just talk, enjoy quiet meals, and read books. She’s in the habit of a daily walk, and has discovered Alliance is an easy walking town. She’s visited quite a lot of the town on foot. All in all, she’s a fun, easy guest to have.
I have arranged for her trip back to Scottsbluff Wednesday, where she will pick up a shuttle bus that will take her to the place where she needs to be at Denver International Airport.
A little background: The commuter airline that served Scottsbluff, the next town over and the place to fly to to get to Alliance – I was to pick her up at the airport there – declared bankruptcy, and stopped three days before Marianne was scheduled to arrive!
United, the airline she used to get to Denver and the one the commuter airline was associated with,arranged for passengers who had tickets on the defunct commuter airline to get to Scottsbluff on the Denver Shuttle. That’s how she will get back to Denver on Wednesday as well. I suspect she will be very happy to be in Amsterdam again!
You have had your adventures! Sorry for all the glitches! Wishing you both a pleasant visit, and for Marianne, a safe trip back to Amsterdam. Tell her Elbert’s garden is sleeping now. I do have one last photo I don’t think I have sent you yet, of a surprise purple gladiola that came up there in August.
Will do, Lavinia! The little accident is running up to around $5000 without the body work yet estimated. Whew!
Catch up with everyone is going slow for me too, GP! 🙂
We can only do what we can do, especially when some people post 10-20 posts a day!!
Yeah. I had to drop one interesting blog because more than half my reading time was spent on that one blog with lots of postings each day and it was starting to keep me from keeping up with others who posted just one a day.
On the plus side, it made more aware of how I should tighten up my postings, with more short ones with more photos being the result. I still have occasional long ones, but try to break really long ones into more than one day.
I have a few of those sites on my Reader page. I make it quite clear to them that I will read some, but not all – it’s not fair to the other sites.
I agree. It wears me out and I already follow quite a large number of blogs because I have eclectic interests that get away from me.
I know the feeling!!
I hate to unfollow other blogs, but it could come to that more and more. I have a life! LOL!
I think you have the same 9 lives as the boys!
That’d be nice, I think!
You proved it during your last stint in the hospital!!
Yes, I believe that’s true!
The biggest problem with Persian cats: The long, fat hair!!!
That is a fact!
House take intelligence
And for the most part
I’m mindless
Tell me about it Sheldon! I think next visitor I’ll call the senior services for someone to clean for me. Any amount of money would be acceptable.
I think it would work for me
My problem is I still don’t think of myself as a senior citizen who can call on these services! I need to get used to the idea there are people who’ll do thing for you (for a small fee), and that all you have to do is make a phone call!
Tell me about it
The first time I went to the movies
And said I was senior citizen it felt so strange, it’s that image in your mind
Which is something I constantly fight
With,it gets me into trouble I want to
Get up and go,now I have to sit a second
And think doing need to be doing this
There is so much around this…….makes
My mind spin
With me, it usually is simple forgetting to ask if there is a senior discount. More often than not, the discerning waiter or clerk will guess I’m eligible and mention it.
Everything will be allwright when your friend arrive
It has been. She’s less concerned about the clutter and mess than I (too late!) was.
Oooo the confessions of a real cat owner. You rule Doug and of course the boys do too.
The boys do and I obey! LOL!
I agree with Barbarella, carpet isn’t good with dogs and cats. But why pot carpeting in a kitchen? Yikes. Maybe your management will consent to removing and replacing the carpets with tile? I have a hard floor in my entire apartment sans the bedroom, good idea. Enjoy your friend!
Anyone with common sense would agree! I only thank Ye Gods that shag carpeting isn’t in style any longer. That would be hell of earth with two Persian kitties!
I agree on the carpet, a tight weave is best. Or hardwood, the real thing!
Yes, I prefer hardwood myself, from the aesthetic standpoint.
Why do we have to do all this cleaning up, and pretend we live like this every day?!!!
Ha! Ha! My mother used to be one of those people who believed in cleaning up after guests left. Of course, the house was usually pretty tidy anyway, s=considering she had four kids doing what four kids did.
The dried presents. I found two dried hairballs last week. I have mostly hardwood floors but a few area carpets and one carpeted room. Given a choice I would only do hardwood with a few area carpets that can be easily cleaned or washed. However, My oriental pattern hides things (like hairballs) so I have to be vigilant before visitors come.
That would be acceptable to me. I like area carpets that are easily cleaned. Unfortunately, all the carpets in this apartment are single colors with no patterns in them except pet stains. I definitely will not get my pet deposit back. Well, they keep it anyway, and I actually agree with them!
No worries, your guest will be so distracted by your adorable kitties that she won’t notice any
dirty areas.
Ha! Could be! My friend Deborah reports Marianne got along very well with Deborah’s cats. Of course, I remember she and her husband had a cat named William Cheerful at one time, so she’s a cat person. Andy and Dougy get along well with new people, and Marianne, no doubt , will have Andre and Charles scent on her from her visit in Maine with Deborah!
I only realised after moving to Lanzarote and having a home that is tiled, how disgusting carpets actually are! I mean, it’s not just the cat fur that you never completely get out, but all the other stuff like bits of food that get stuck in there forever, “shit” that gets trodden in on our shoes etc. etc. It’s so much easier to keep tiles (or floorboards even, which are more practical for heat in colder climes) clean! 🙂
The stupidest part of the carpeting in this apartment (not including the outdoor carpeting on the patio…!) is carpeting on the kitchen and dining room floors. Tile might not be as comfortable in Winter in this climate, but undertile heating is a reasonable and possible solution. Of course, so is wearing warm slippers on your feet!
Happy cleaning ! Think how good it will be when the boys have been to the groomer !
Oh, I am! (Come on September 22nd!)
I hear you… I feel like a witch on a broomstick when we get visitors, but I learnt my lesson after we got dog visitors with wet paws and wet furs LOL
I hope Santa can send us some of his elves… I mean they are just busy around christmas, so they can do the housework for the rest of the year ;o))))
I’d even pay those elves a competitive wage if they took care of things for me!