No wonder.

Most weeks, i clean Ms. P's house on Thursdays.

Every once in a while, they throw me for a loop and ask me to come on Wednesday instead.  That's what happened yesterday.

When i arrived, i found 7 loads of laundry waiting.  So i sorted and got that started, then went through the rest of the house.

With stops to reboot the laundry, washing, drying, and folding, i managed to clean the bathrooms, wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, sweep and vacuum and mop floors, sanitize surfaces, get the garbage out, and even clean the inside of the refrigerator.

This was done in a matter of 8 1/2 hours.

At the end, i wondered to myself, self, why can't i get this much done at my own house in one day?

Then it hit me.  First, when i'm there, i don't have anyone in the house undoing what i've just done as fast as i can do it, if not faster.  No one to come behind me and cook a full meal as soon as i've washed all the dishes.  No one to decide to do a project that gets spread out all over an entire room or two, and ends up with glitter spilled everywhere.

Second, there are no cats.  There's very little dust and no cat hair all over, no cleaning an area just to turn around and find some critter baptized it with tinkle or barf, no looking at a just cleaned area to see even more cat hair.  (Seriously, i think i sweep and vacuum up enough cat hair in this house each week to knit myself another litter of kittens, if i ever needed another litter of kittens, which i don't.)

Third, when i'm done, i'm done.  There's a sense of finality to cleaning someone else's house, i find, that just isn't there when cleaning my own.  Yes, i'll be doing Ms. P's again next week, i hope, but there's still a sense that i got stuff done and it's done.  At home, i'm watching it deteriorate, and there is no done.

Finally, at home, i'm not paid!  That, i think, is one of the biggest factors.  When they come up with pay, i'll probably be more interested!

Yes, i know, that'll be the day.  Anyway, it's no wonder it takes me days to do at home what i can do there in one day.

Now i'm going to wonder if there's money in the budget for me to pay myself.  It might be worth a look. 


Today is:

Blue and Pink Day -- Fairy Calendar

Bubblegum Sculpture Day -- commonly listed on ecard sites, and not to be confused with National Bubble Gum Day, coming in February

Carnation Day -- in honor of William McKinley; also on the date of his assassination each year, Sept. 14

Curmudgeons' Day -- W.C. Field's birth anniversary

National Corn Chip Day

National Puzzle Day -- because they are just fun

Sahid Diwash -- Nepal (Martyrs' Day)

St. Constantius of Perugia (Patron of Perugia, Italy)

St. Gildas the Wise's Day (one of the earliest British historians)

St. Moritz Polo world Cup on Snow -- St. Moritz, Switzerland (winter polo on the frozen lake of St. Moritz; through Sunday)

Thomas Paine Day/Freethinkers' Day -- birth anniversary of Thomas Paine



Anniversaries Today:

Establishment of The Seeing Eye, 1929 (first US guide dog school)
Kansas becomes the 34th US state, 1861


Birthdays Today:

Adam Lambert, 1982
Jonny Lang, 1981
Andrew Keegan, 1979
Sara Gilbert, 1975
Heather Graham, 1970
Bobby Phillips, 1968
Nick Turturro, 1962
Greg Louganis, 1960
Oprah Winfrey, 1954
Teresa Teng, 1953
Ann Jillian, 1950
Tom Selleck, 1945
Katharine Ross, 1942
Germaine Greer, 1939
John Forsythe, 1918
Victor Mature, 1913
Huddie William "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, 1885
W.C. Fields, 1880
Anton Chekhov, 1860
William McKinley, 1843
Henry Morton Stanley, 1841
Thomas Paine, 1737
Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sweet Charity"(Musical), 1966
Dr. Strangelove(Film), 1964
Sleeping Beauty(Cartoon movie), 1959
"The Potting Shed"(Play), 1957
"All My Sons"(Play), 1947
"The Raven"(publication date), 1845
"Idomeneo"(Mozart Opera), 1781
"The Beggar's Opera"(Gay Ballad Opera), 1728


Today in History:

The first performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1595
John Beckley of Virginia is appointed the first Librarian of Congress, 1802
Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" is first published, 1845
The Victoria Cross is established to acknowledge bravery, 1856
Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, 1886
Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch, 1891
Walt Disney starts his first job as an artist, earning $40/week with the KC Slide Co, 1920
North America's first guide dog school, The Seeing Eye, is incorporated in Nashville, Tennessee, 1929
The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced, 1936
The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced, 1963
Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so, 1989
President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing, 1996
La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire, 1996
The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing, 2005