2026, Automotive, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

My Way

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Sometimes I think maybe I should have gone back to school to get a PhD in family manipulation.  I got my Masters training from the master – my mother.  Even when I could feel her working her magic on me, I succumbed time and time again. 

The inheritance of this talent is a two-edged sword.  It certainly works wonders sometimes but then I occasionally feel guilty.  I should probably feel badly that I don’t feel THAT guilty.  Some things are a slam dunk… if I ask YA to clean in the bathroom directly, she might or might not.  But if I leave a wet wash cloth on the edge of the tub or some hair from my brush on the counter – voila!  Bathroom cleaned in no time.  In the dining room (where she works from home on Mondays and Fridays), if I spread all her stuff (bills, junk mail, computer mouse, keys, etc) all over the table, then she cleans it up lickety split.  If I just organize it into a pile myself, the pile will sit there forever.  I never ask her to come help me with yardwork but if I ask for one thing – like moving a bag of mulch from the back to the front, she almost always stays to work.  My latest discovery is that if I just rinse out the kitty fountain and mention that I’ve done it, she will take the fountain apart and do an extremely thorough cleaning.  The funniest thing about all this is that if you saw her room or the sink after she’s been working in the kitchen, you couldn’t imagine she would have any cleanliness streaks in her.

We had two weeks between my mom’s passing and when we went down to St. Louis to clean the condo and have her service.  During that time, YA had two trips, one long work trip to Cancun and another for-fun trip to Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms.  She had planned it a couple of months back and was scheduled to get home on Sunday night and we were leaving very early on Monday morning for St. Louis.

A few days before she left for Washington DC, she told me that I should get the car washed and vacuumed before our trip.  Luckily I was on my game at that moment so I said “well, I’ll try but I have a lot to do for the service and getting ready for the trip.”  Three hours later, I looked out the back window and found her vacuuming my car – see the header photo.  Heaven forbid she should have to travel to Missouri and back in what she considers to be a health hazard.  (Brekke is NOT a health hazard unless you compare her to YA’s car, which is clean enough that you could eat off the seats!)  After she was done, I volunteered to run the car through the little car wash down on 54th while she was in DC. 

Win/win, right?  What chores do you prefer to outsource?

30 thoughts on “My Way”

  1. The dogs firmly believe that 6:00 AM is breakfast time. If I am lucky, Husband will get up with them. Today I knew he was sound asleep at 6, so got up with them. I hope I can go back to bed after he gets up

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    1. Now that it’s getting light earlier, Charlotte thinks it’s time to wake us up at 5:30. She doesn’t give up, so someone (me) has to get up, give her some wet food, and open the blind to the deck sliding door so she can look out. I go back to bed and shut the door behind me, hoping for another hour of sleep. It’s a job I’d gladly outsource.

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  2. debbie is a clean freak. her mom has her beat. early in our dating we visited her folks in chicago and deb made a comment about how her sister hadnt cleaned the stovetop. whats the use? mom would just come by and say i did it wrong and do it herself anyway.
    thats the angle i come to life in my house with. i get lots of comments on not doing it right and some on my not cleaning up but truth is i do clean up a substantial amount but that goes unnoticed only the undone registers. she does laundry, vacuuming kitchen detail mail and most organizing. it helps that ive been gone early til late for years and she works from the couch.
    i dont want to think about my bachelor life when i met deb with 2 kids and a house full of chronologically organized piles. my car is my current indicator. its all there but finding it after a week or two of shuffle is an interesting exercise
    my mom is getting ready to move in with my sister
    should be interesting .

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    2. Perish the thought. I used to work close enough that we would go to the Congressional fish market for a treat. Happy days.

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    4. “A big man came up to me, a truck driver or a grocer or something and he had tears in his eyes and he said, “Sir, nobody has ever seen those trees bloom like that. It’s like there’s some kind of fertilizer in the air. Thank you!””

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  4. I’d outsource a lot of the meal prep in a minute (isn’t there some phrase… in a _________ minute?). I love cooking when I’m in the mood, inspired, but that doesn’t happen three times a day. To his credit, Husband makes pancakes a couple of times a week, and would do more if I encouraged it, I think.

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    1. I am cooking today, but it is fun for me. I told Husband to stay out of the kitchen. He loves to cook but is happy to oblige me today. Making chicken salad from a chicken I roasted Sunday, and Huevos Enfrijolados.

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    3. “In a New York minute”….my research tells me the phrase originated in the south, referring to the frenetetic pace of life in the big city. “Late-night host Johnny Carson famously defined a New York minute as ‘the interval between a Manhattan traffic light turning green and the guy behind you honking his horn’.

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  5. There isn’t much domestically that I don’t do at least some of the time. I generally make dinner and keep track of the grocery inventory but that’s typically the only meal that is mutual. Otherwise we see to our own breakfasts and lunches if and when we are hungry.

    There was a time when I undertook car maintenance to the extent of changing the oil and some basic part replacement but I happily eschew all of that, even the washing of the vehicles.

    Robin maintains our financial records and organizes them for our tax person. We started using a tax person when I became self-employed and continue it now that our financial situation is simpler. It’s stress we are glad to outsource.

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  6. I have given over all ladder responsibilities at this point. My bathroom is being returned and it is all very mysterious. I am trying to figure out what I can by listening to noises, but mostly trying to just keep the knitting machine busy and mind my own business.

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    2. What do you mean by your bathroom being “returned”? Is it the process of renovation? Or has it been nonfunctional for some other reason?

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  7. Everything to do with Pete, my car.
    I used to change oil myself l. Now I get notifications on my phone that it’s time for service.

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  8. I’ve outsourced some of Maggie’s upbringing to the people at In the Dog House where she goes for daycare. Jacob is the trainer and dog sitter, and he does a tremendous job. I’m really grateful to them. They allow me time to pursue my favorite activities so that I don’t have to leave her at home in a kennel. I think it helps to socialize her too. I never worry about her when she’s there. I know she’s having fun.

    I try to fix very simple things. I’m really not handy at all. I outsource all car care, plumbing and electrical. I live in a HOA so all the exterior maintenance and lawn care/ snow removal is done for me.

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  9. The best thing about my new place is the walk in shower. I can buy lunch and supper for $7.50 each, but I have to order a week ahead. I don’t know when daughter and son in law are coming so have not done so yet. Most of the meals are strong on things I don’t care for or upset my digestion. I get a light maid service one day a week. Clean kitchen and bathroom sink and shower. Mop both floors. But I keep such a clean house she is only here for about 12 minutes,
    Clyde

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  11. Husband and I split housework like cleaning and laundry pretty evenly. I do most of the cooking, he does most of the finances (and taxes).

    Going back to yesterday’s post, I’d forgotten one more critter. We often have a tiny tree frog that lives on our deck in the summer. He hangs out in the plants or the watering can and sometimes ventures out onto the table and chairs or the walls of the house. He has a very distinctive croak that’s surprisingly loud for a tiny creature.

    A few days ago, we started hearing him inside the house. He seems to have jumped into one of the few pots we have outside in early spring (a pansy bowl, and a geranium and a mandevilla that wintered indoors). We’ve been bringing them inside on cold nights, and brought the frog with them. Because of Charlotte, we haven’t tried too hard to locate him. We hope he’s made it back outside, but Husband thought he heard him in the kitchen this morning.

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