Tuesday Thoughts About...

...working---with Butch! We can't work together. We've really never been able to work together. We both have different styles. And, yes, I'm going to say it---I know better! I do think I know it all when it comes to cleaning and organization. I'm quick and efficient. I can see immediately how to approach a job. Yes, there have been many times in the past when I took a job and thought, "what have I gotten myself into this time?" And then, I just roll up my sleeves and begin.

Well, I was feeling really lazy that we weren't getting any big jobs done while staying home. It's been all fun and games so far--literally! While sitting on the front porch last week, I suggested to Butch that we clean the porch together. Now, in the past, I've done the front porch. He was responsible for the pool and patio area. His job was definitely far more work than mine. But still, doing the porch is a lot.

We set our "date" for cleaning the porch for Saturday at 11 a.m. I wanted to do a little scrapbooking before the hard labor!

Saturday morning, I asked Butch if he would let me be the "boss!" He replied, "probably not." I wasn't sure how it was going to work. When I'm working, I just want someone to do what I want them to do.

By the time I got out there at 11 a.m., he had already cleaned all of the cushions and pillows. They were in the sun drying. Then I wanted him to bring out my sago palms so that I could get them trimmed and watered thoroughly. He didn't really want to do that, but he very calmly acquiesced. So far, so good.

Now our porch is a pretty good size. The French doors and windows have to be washed and scrubbed. Ditto the 8 columns. The coach lights have to be cleaned. Tables have to be washed down. All the furniture has to be scrubbed and the brick floor power washed. It takes a lot of time. We don't even do the upper porch anymore as it never gets used. It took us about an hour. Sure beats the two or more hours it would have taken me alone.

We'll be waiting until after the stay at home order is over before we get our flowers.

After the porch cleaning, I suggested we get started on the garage. I told you about that yesterday.

Anyway, we continued with the garage on Monday. He didn't really want to do it as we had just finished cleaning the house, but he did anyway. It was an awful job! It's so spider webby with lots of spider eggs, dead stink bugs and other bugs, dusty, just awful---all of this in the weird windows we have. There are two windows in the garage that are really unusual and almost impossible to clean. They are hard to explain. Let's just say that more than half of the tall windows are above the ceiling that are about 12" wide to actually get up there. No ladder will fit either. That's what makes them so nasty. You just can't get to them. Butch was a trooper. He vacuumed as high up as he could get. He used the broom---he worked hard and hit his head at least a dozen times. In the meantime, I did other cleaning like clean the steps, clean a couple rugs and tables. He ended up working at least an hour longer than me. He did way more than I had planned for today, but I wasn't about to discourage him! He was exhausted, but it looks great so far. We just have about 2/3 left to go---not counting his workroom! That's another story.

The most disappointing part of the day was when he went to haul a car full of crap to the dump and some to Good Will---all they were taking was regular trash and recycles. They've even cut down on what they'll accept for recycling. Now, he had to put all of that crap back in the garage!

Anyway, as it turns out, the quarantining has been working out really well for us. We've discovered that we really can work together. It started with house cleaning, then the porch and now on to the garage. Big jobs like that are better tackled in little chunks at a time. Even just setting a time limit helps. You can do anything for an hour. Pretty soon, those hours really add up.

Although, I'm really happy that we got so much accomplished, he didn't call me "darling" a single time! On the other hand, he didn't call me anything bad either---considering I was pretty darn bossy!

We'll see how it goes for the long run!