Eight days ago, I had the furnace on at our house. On Victoria Day (last Monday), I brought the boys to the Agriculture Museum and it was sleeting – kids were dressed in coats and mittens and a few were in those fleece one-piece thingees. Last night, we discussed turning the air-conditioning on as the humidex topped 35C (100F) and the boys sweated in their beds.
Ah, summer in Ottawa. Ya gotta love it!
Actually, I do love this weather. My absolute favourite kind of day is warm and humid and hazy, especially between sunrise and 10 am or so, when the air is soft and heavy and fragrant. Oh, the smell of lilacs and tree blossoms on a sticky May morning! I’m a summer child – the heat rarely bothers me, and a stretch of sultry summer days does more for my mood than a whole bottle of xanax would.
We spent the whole weekend outside. On Saturday, we had a garage sale and although it wasn’t the most profitable enterprise ever, we cleared close to $100. More importantly, though, we cleared out junk. Goodbye boxes of clothes that were donated to us but never used (at 50 cents a piece, our most popular item). Goodbye espresso maker wedding gift that was only used five times and still managed to give me a steam burn three times (a steal at $5). Goodbye half-sized pine deacon bench ($8) and Bateman House solid pine spice rack ($6), both acquired last year at garage sales and still sitting unused exactly where they landed in our garage a year later. Goodbye paperbacks by the pound – at 50 cents each we didn’t sell half of what we have and still probably made $20 or more. (My mother is a paperback addict, and I benefit from her cast-offs. You need some Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, John Grisham or Michael Connelly, you come see me and I’ll set you up.)
Sunday, I figured 25C plus humidity was a great time to spend sprawled in the sun on blue plastic, scrubbing last year’s algae out of the seams of our oversized kiddie pool. You should be proud of me, because algae is one of those botanical things that scares the bejesus out of me, like several weeds in my garden. I don’t know why I get the creeping heebie jeebies from algae and moss and weeds (only some weeds, and especially seaweed) but I do, so getting up close and personal enough to scrub dried algae out of the pool seams was an act of commendable intestinal fortitude. Not like rescuing kittens from a burning building or anything, but we are all heroic in our own ways.
And then since the pool was clean, I decided we might as well fill the damn thing, so I spent another couple of hours setting it up and smoothing out the wrinkles, and left the hose on for six hours to fill it. Can’t wait to see the municipal services bill this month!
So, after completely rehabilitating our outdoor environment, we’re ready for summer. (Well, almost ready. Still gotta wash the patio furniture and weed the back garden beds, and get some annuals. And get my bike tuned up. And plant my sunflowers. But we’re close!)
And after spending two glorious days selling, hauling, cleaning, digging, soaking, and scrubbing, I come in the house on Sunday evening after celebrating my dad’s birthday with my folks and take a look at the inside of my house and want to cry.
There’s grass on the carpet. There’s dirty footprints on the linoleum. There’s dishes stacked in the sink. There’s unfolded laundry spilling out of the basket, now hopelessly wrinkled. Drawers full of toys have been dumped and shelves of books have been emptied. The few garage sale no-sales that I allowed back into the house are stacked in a corner, awaiting re-assimilation. The place is a war zone, and at 8 pm on a Sunday night, bodily exhausted, there’s no way I’m going to start cleaning it.
Maybe I should just pitch a tent in the back yard and forbid the kids from entering the house until September. Because if I can’t keep the inside of the house clean when we’re housebound by winter, there’s no way I can keep up with indoor and outdoor domestic chores.
It’s a good thing these summer days are so long. I’m going to need the extra hours!
OH can I come by and see the books?
Never have to many books. I may bring Paul when he gets back he is always looking for something new to read.
Shit just sell me the box. I’m serious!
I hear you about the house. Weekends are awful here. I can keep my house cleaner monday to Friday but not on the weekend to many people runnning in and out.
I can’t wait to get my screen doors up so i can enjoy all the weather too.
Hugs
OK, actual event yesterday:
1. Kids go out into yard to play.
2. I follow them into yard.
3. I discover that invasive weeds are staging an uprising in the yard.
4. I spend an hour pulling up some minute fraction of the yard’s invasive weeds.
5. The phone rings. I go inside to answer it, noting that the kitchen is a complete and total two-hours-to-clean-up disaster.
6. It’s my parents. They’re calling from the road. Good news! Traffic is light! They’ll be early! They are only 30 minutes away.
7. I hang up phone, take one look at kitchen, and weep.
Conclusion: either the yard can look presentable, or the house can look presentable. Not both.
Although in this case, neither one ended up looking presentable. Damn you, nice weather!
You like this weather? Wow. I’m miserable already. And looking forward to WEdnesday’s thunderstorms, which should cool things off a bit.
No comments on housework. My main accomplishment was to clean the bathroom.
We had a very similar weekend, minus the garage sale. I almost couldn’t sleep Sunday night because the house was such a mess. Yes, seriously. But, I made it to Monday and cleaned then. I am loving the weather so much, I can’t believe it isn’t even June yet!!!
Our house is a sandy/sunscreeny/buggy mess all summer. Glad we’re not the only ones! Good posts over the last few days (I’ve been a lazy commenter).
Jen
About a month ago we would run the a/c in the day time and the heat at night…I hate those times!
You hate algae, huh? Then you’ll no doubt be appalled that I noticed today there was algae growing IN THE BOTTOM OF OUR WATER PITCHER! That we drink from! Even I, who doesn’t scrub toilets til they have an orange ring around them, was horrified. But hopefully it means we have really powerful immune systems in my household, right? Right?
Are you sure you didn’t come into my house by mistake? I have the same grass (and mud), dirty dishes, laundry and weeds!
Filth and sunshine go together. You are not alone. I am still trying to explain that he shouldn’t bring pocketfuls of sand even though “we don’t have any at home.”
I just won a small victory: convinced Steve to let me roll up the area rugs for the summer. It’s so Martha Stewarty, except that I won’t be replacing them with sisal or anything. But I’ve realized that not only will I not have do deal with the toddler/sticky/sandy/crumby ANT issues – but that she actually likes dustmopping and so I can do things like send her crawling behind the sofa with the Swiffer and it will be like genuine help!
I usually refuse to turn on the AC before late June, but it went on Monday night.
Tonight we had a tornado/twister touch down (in Almonte). I took photos of the aftermath and I’m still in shock!