Oh, just go do the dishes!
I don’t know how it is that this summer seems like such a long slog because when I look at the calendar, I can’t believe we are already marching along into August. This is not yet another rant about how awful life is. It is a bit of a slog right now and I am even sort of apprehensive about my upcoming paid (yes!) vacation albeit not for the reasons some of y’all might guess. Actually, it’s more that I am only taking a week right now. I am going where I almost always go on vacation, which is Fin Family Moominbeach. Yes, I am that boring. It’ll be fun but it will also be hectic with lots of people and aminals around. That’s all okay. The problem is that it will be over all too fast. Although there will be more trips up there in the coming months, they will be rocket trips squeezed out of bits and pieces of my remaining vacation time.
I admit I am feeling a bit wistful about the Good Old Days. When the beach urchins were safely within arms’ reach and if they got into trouble or danger, I could just pick them up. When the grandparents were still young and vigorously healthy. When we were there long enough that we (usually) experienced enough Beach Days in a row that we actually got sick of Beach Days and longed for rain or a good nor’wester so we could do some inside stuff or take a field trip without feeling guilty about wasting a perfectly good Beach Day. After all, this beach is on the shores of Gitchee Gumee and it is not always very warm there, even in summer, don’tcha know.
So. Before I can leave town, I have something on the order of 1000 pages of documents to publish. Will I make it? I think I will. Unless I am forgetting something big. But when I came dragging in the Landfill door this afternoon, I was happy to see some unwashed dishes hanging around. Only a few, mind you. I hate coming home (or getting up in the morning) to find the whole kitchen trashed. But today it wasn’t like that. My Mouse had made some pasta salad and she washed all but a few of the dishes. I was happy to wash the rest. Washing dishes almost always calms me down. It is a job that I can finish in one session. I can spy on look out the window at the Burke’s new neighbors’ back yard. I can daydream. Dishwasher? What dishwasher? There is a dishwasher here. The mechanical kind I mean. It hasn’t worked in at least five years. I mean, it was splashing water and soap around when I last used it but it wasn’t getting anything on the top rack anywhere near clean. So I don’t use it any more. You know what? I really don’t miss it.
Disclaimer: My kids haven’t left me massive piles of dirty dishes since they were teenagers.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Unfortunately, my kids still leave dishes for me to do.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I have to make VERY clear that I expect them to clean up right away, or they take their time getting to it. And by that time, Compulsive Mommy has done it for them, but resentfully. I think you’re mourning the changes when people get older and kids grow up. I am nostalgic too.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Since we have our office in our home and the “children” work here, the “dishes” means a coffee cup and maybe a plate or bowl in the sink. when you multiply that, sometimes the sink is half full at the end of the work day. They work hard too, and then have to get to the day care and pick up kids or there will be an extra charge for being late. I guess I don’t mind a few dishes really. If I complained I’m sure that they would try to do their dishes. At least they rinse them and put them in the sink.