I had a wretched sinus infection today. Last week Marcia3 scored a headache-free sinus infection that made itself known when her uvula touched the back of her tongue. The headache for this one is unfazed by Sudafed, Advil, and saline spray. So of course, my initial biological reaction to pain is to have sex. (It makes sense. Head feels bad? Make other part(s) feel good.) Unfortunately, I wanted some male cooperation, and I knew I’d have to shower, and instead I chose to go with my second biological reaction: Clean the house. Usually the cleaning follows as a natural result from the afterglow, but this time it was because I can’t be sick in a dirty house.
As I was cleaning, and scrubbing, and replacing the sheet that covers the box springs, and sanding and refinishing part of the wood floor, I thought how my housecleaning skills have declined.
When I Was First Married:
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After I cleaned the sink, I rubbed Turtle Wax all over it to give it that extra shine.
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I glutted my wood furniture with Lemon Pledge until it took an hour to absorb each time.
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I dusted the light bulbs.
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I wiped the water spots off the butter knives with Windex.
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I dusted the tracks of the windows.
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I took compressed air to the knick-knacks.
I don’t do any of those things anymore, whether I’m sick or not. And even with those reduced expectations, I only got one room clean anyway. Still, I’ll be sleeping off my headache in a sterile environment.
12 responses to “When I Was First Married”
Jammies will tell you I used to keep a spotless house. Now the house has small clean areas. I am old and tired.
Yeah, as the years go by you realise time’s too short to waste dusting skirting boards and fussing over mould in the fridge door seals. Also, your eyesight gets worse, so you don’t really see that sort of stuff so well anymore. Swings and roundabouts.
Sex or cleaning? I think I would have picked differently…
These days, I opt for cleaning way more often. I think I need to address this. TMI?
No, swings and roundabouts is better because what you lose with deteriorating eyesight you gain with not seeing so much dirt to clean.
But I hope you’re headache’s better.
Augh! YOUR headache!
Big Dot – Well .. okay … six of one doesn’t have that nuance. And yes, it got better this morning out of the blue. And my deteriorating eyesight made that “you’re” look like a “your” anyway.
Zayrina – I know. My house is every grandmas house.Big Dot – I had to look up swings and roundabouts – http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swings_and_roundabouts but of course, why say that? It’s six of one, half-dozen of the other..75 – You didn’t smell like I did.Candy – I stank, really. It would be cruel to Gary.
You turtle waxed the sink. I am in confused awe.
This post made me look twice at my kettle this morning, and I ended up cleaning and polishing it, like I used to in the old days. It’s beautifully shiny now – but of course it wouldn’t have been so satisfying if I hadn’t left it for so long beforehand.
Suebob – You should try it for the holidays. It does look quite nice. It was a trick I picked up when I cleaned the rich folk’s houses.Big Dot – True. I hate cleaning the silverware if there isn’t that nice buildup of tarnish.