jimsjournal
I'm exhausted.
We are having our carpets cleaned... even as I type this at 3:25 on a sunny autumn afternoon, there is a SuperClean van parked in our driveway with hoses running into our living room where a carpet cleaner is whistling a happy tune while he shampoos our carpets.
So, you may ask, why am I exhausted when all I have to do is sit here while this guy does all the work? Who do you think cleaned things up before the man from SuperClean arrived? Yeah, me... okay, yesterday Nancy did our bedroom... which makes sense because that's also her home office and she had accumulations of books and papers and lesson plans, etc. so she straightened up that stuff... I mostly just ran the vacuum around. That's pretty much all I had to do to the living room as well, just pick up a few magazines and books and do a little vacuuming... so why am I so exhausted?
Two words: Sean and Jennifer.
I spent much of the day working through Sean's room... Had I but realized just how big a task it was (and had I realized earlier in the weekend that Nancy wanted to have the carpets cleaned in all of the bedrooms) I would have insisted that he shovel out his room himself over the weekend... but by the time I did realize that, he was deeply involved in writing some past-due assignments for Health class (the marking period is ending and he would fail if he didn't hand these three written reports plus a portfolio to his teacher this morning. Also, a teenage male's definition of a clean room might not quite meet the standard that Nancy and I would prefer. Normally our attitude is "it's your room and it's your mess, just keep the door closed so we don't have to see it" but Thanksgiving is coming... and the carpet cleaner was coming today.
I hadn't realized just how much stuff was, for example, under his bed. CDs, pens, pencils, more CDs, books, dirty socks, a skateboard, coils of wire, parts of disassembled speakers... It's not so much exhaustion (although I am tired) but a sore back from bending over and picking things up (and moving furniture around)... and under his desk... and under the table where he has his computer... and all of the speakers and subwoofers and electronic gear that is in his room. It took a long time... much longer than I had anticipated... and I got started later than I had expected because having vacuumed and straightened the living room, I also cleaned and straightened rooms that were not getting the carpet shampoo treatment, such as the dining room (which has a hardwood floor and throw rugs) and the hallway (also hardwood) and the den, which does have wall-to-wall carpeting but it had taken such a beating during the two years or so that it held the family computer (dirt tracked in as kids head for the computer, soda spilled, etc.) that Nancy felt it wasn't worthwhile trying to clean it up... so I can safely sit here in the den and type this entry without having to move for the cleaner.
Jennifer got home from school a little before two... this was after working third shift... and not having had much sleep yesterday... all she wanted to do was to sleep, not to have to clean her room. She started in on it, but the cleaner was coming at three so I pitched in too... and by the time the room was ready to be vacuumed, she was nowhere to be found. I finished vacuuming just as the SuperClean truck pulled into our driveway. Sean and a couple of friends were having a snack in the dining room and they didn't know where Jennifer had gone either... and then one of the kids looked out a front window and began to laugh -- Jennifer had gone out to her car to take a nap -- driver's seat reclined all the way back and there she is, sound asleep.
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