strangely personal -- no comment required

[Dave (imported)]

Gee, my Cleaning Ladies got all knew employees and they did a spectacularly good job today giving my house the monthly cleaning. So good I got to tell someone.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Speaking of cleaning house, time for that spring cleaning to be done, I would have done this sooner however we have yet to get into spring. I guess I will call it Summer cleaning.

River

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

Sorry Dave, can't resist commenting!!

I had / have a cleaning lady too. She used to come twice a month, now just on call, but...

...See, I live in the Bible Belt of central Canada, in a town that has a gaggle of Mennonites.

My cleaning lady is this awesome, old, swollen-ankled, colorful-old-fashioned-dress-wearin', 150-pound-overweight, fully-haired grandma of many, many dozens of grandchildren and children, Old Colony Mennonite woman.

She is meek. She is mild. She cleans a bathroom like a woman POSESSED, and berates me with loud, admonishing vitriol if I have not at least 'picked up after myself'. If she sees I've not got supper on and it happens to be 6:00pm, it doesn't matter that I normally eat supper at 10:00pm; she rushes home "Ach, I vorgot somth-ting" and returns with a meal ready for the oven for me.

She will say, "You got five bucks, you pay dat. You not got on you, then free. You eat!! Skinny man. No wonder no wife." (or some such).

I can't afford her, I shouldn't NEED her, my house is small, but I can't go a month without having her take over my house and life for a couple brief hours.

I think she knows it, too. I smell another rate increase coming.... !

[butterflyjack (imported)]

Beautiful Stefan..I love this woman, too..Jackie

[Dave (imported)]

That made me smile.

I got them to go to my mother's house. She's 90 y/o and it's the best thing I did.

[Dave (imported)]

IT seems that it's time once again to post about what I found weird, strange and very, very unusual this week...

a) The 100th Tour De France started today and guess what...

One of the team buses got stuck under the giant finish line banner that is placed above the track for the cyclists to ride under.

It was freaky to see because it's obvious the bus was too tall and the superstructure in the banner was too low. Punctured the crap out of the air conditioner on top the bus and you could see AC coolant spraying everywhere. They got it out of the way but the receiver that takes the time of every biker was damaged, SO the tour officials had to deal with the bus and then how to time the riders on the very first stage.

Also, two big crashes that took out the lead sprinters.

What a strange accident.

b) Scott Turow in his novel PRESUMED INNOCENT has an entire chapter where the lead character discusses how he opens a murder case. He's a prosecutor and he has a formula.

http://www.e-reading.mobi/chapter.php/1 ... ocent.html

It's worth a read.

[considering (imported)]

I have a housekeeper who comes everyday, seven days a week. She is my friend, my companion, the person with whom I laugh the most often. Yesterday, when I became 73, she kept hiding the myriad cupcakes that kind friends kept bringing. She changes my sheets everyday-is there a greater luxury? She makes sure I have no less than two bath sheets near my shower and that the hospital tables by my bed and my chair aways have the things I will want on them. It was she who tied a string to everything that could fall so that if I could see it, I could pulll it up. She is keeping secrets for me that she feels she needs to keep. Although she cannot understand my homosexuality or my castration, she accepts me and has decided that God felt this was best for me. There are days when I feel so emotionally indebted to her that I almost cannot let her work here without doing something more than pay her. Her answer to that is to comment that she feels needed here and that accepting money is her way of expressing her thanks to me; I know she gives all of it to Mennonite Disaster Relief Fund and, not infrequently, when something grim has happened, I find how much of a donation I might make. I'm given a sum and told specifically what I am endowing, whether it's the gas for six trucks to get to Moore, Oklahoma, or buy tents for people in Joplin or buy food for the workers who are going. But no more. She believes that there is no such thing as charity and to give more is to "show off". She has a wonderful smile and on days when my MS is distressing, she sits quietly and lets me tell her where and how it hurts and, oddly, I feel better. When she cannot be here she arranges with another lady from her church to "drop in" and make sure I'm alright. When I'm able I no longer go to St. James Episcopal but to First Mennonite. Their quiet, gracious good hearted service and their genuine hospitality are in and of itself a religious experience. She never acknowldeges I'm ill or fading or less than the man she's helped for a great many years, I'm just a friend with whom she can spend a few hours each day; She says it relieves the boredom of her own housework. Somedays she "borrows" Fred's pickup and we go out for rides in the country. Just now she's assisting with feeding the hands at harvest and so we have lunch there; Those harvesters work hard and if I ate one meal as they do I'd be at the ER. She always brings home a plate meal-the other ladies are concerned that my not consuming my plate full and the plate were a sign that the food was not good and so a meal for later is "red up", artfully wrapped in hand spun linen napkins and sent home. Along with a pie or a cake...

Not infrequently after we've had lunch together she'll suggest a nap and, since there are fresh sheets, scattered with lavender, what a good idea. I'm not too old to be tucked him, she quietly says a brief prayer, closes the blinds, puts Flip and Flop my cats, beside me and then.....I suppose she leaves as I'm asleep.

She is everything a good person should be because she has no idea that she is. She leads her life according to what she thinks she should do and doesn't concern herself with other issues. If Goodness And Mercy follow someone, it is she. I cannot tell her that she makes Terminal MS good or acceptable but she does. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and has knitted me a sweater with a Jayhawk in the centre although she acknowledges USC exists. We follow the Chiefs games and not infrequently I give her my season tickets for her or for whomever she chooses to use them.

And now that I think about it, she's not my housekeeper, she's my best friend. I suspect she knows that but she would just assume it, not be worthy of mention. Maybe that's true of all friendship, it simply exists without any necessity to mention it one to another. What a good friend. What a good life she makes for me. How truly lucky and blessed I am.