Eight weeks of vacation from the family - Part 2

(Week 5)

I have started exchanging manual labor for food and company. I will be going to a friend’s place on the weekend to help them make flower beds by tearing out their lawn, putting newspapers, and potting soil to make mounded flower and vegetable beds. In return, my gracious hostess will make lunch.

I brought home soymilk because dairy milk gets spoiled. When milk goes bad, the carton puffs up and gets all nasty. Eggs do the same thing. And there’s a cabbage in the fridge that I refuse to touch. Priya can get rid of it when she comes back.

I have the dishwashing down to an art. I do not use dishes. That cuts down on the dishwashing. Garbage is not a problem either. I generate so little garbage, I only have to put the garbage out once a fortnight. However, the recycling is a concern. All the (empty) beer bottles are taking up room and Something Needs To Be Done.

KidA – who is in India - misses me, and has reportedly taken to wiping her hands on her t-shirt with the statement, “Poppy taught me this.” Note to self: Avoid wiping hands on t-shirt when they come back from Desh.

Have abandoned the spreadsheet, though I will update it in a fit of pique one of these days. Read a history of the Oxford English Dictionary, and bought the OED on CDROM… loneliness breeds addiction to online shopping. Amazon.com is a dangerous place – I don’t think I’ve spent this much money on software ever before. Built a shelf with fluorescent lamps to germinate squashes (butternut, white pumpkin, globe, acorn) for the spring growing season, but it is too cold out to transplant them just yet.

Finally put away all the toys in the playroom, but haven’t decided if I should steam-clean. Maybe best to wait till KidB is toilet-trained, then go for some good bamboo floors. (Because they look good and are made from a renewable resource.)

Listening to some half-decent New Wave music (the canon, if New Wave can be described as having one). Also “Konichiwa Bitches,” by Robyn. Finally catching up with contemporary cinema (i.e., not being forced to watch Colonel Hathi sway his bottom to Colonel Hathi’s March in The Jungle Book). Watched “An Inconvenient Truth,” “CSA: The Confederate States of America,” and both the Woody Allen version of “Casino Royale,” and the modern version with Eva Green and whoever plays James Bond. Sigh.

Got depressed about Anil Kumble’s retirement.

By,
speck42[at]gmail[dot]com