Somebody in our house didn’t get the memo. It was not me. Alas, I must confess, that like many people in this country, I long ago came to view Labor Day as the last hurrah of summer, and that continues into retirement. Some things do not change, any more than the vague grumpiness that accompanies every Monday, even though I no longer work (outside the home).
Inside the home is a different story, and, since I don’t think it’s much of a holiday (though I deeply respect the moving force behind the economy–workers), and it was Monday after all, I decided to put shoulder to the plow mop and carry on carrying on.
So we started the day as usual with our 2 1/3 mile jaunt through the Chihuahan desert. I was in the midst of taking a picture of the dawning rays of sunlight, when I heard a howling to my left and looked up to see one of the now common hunting dogs moving like a mountain lion was on its tail. I feared it had been hit by a rattler, when I saw its companion running hell-bent for Purina alongside him/her/or neutered it.
In that split second, I shifted my view a few yards ahead (a lot of yards actually) and spied a rabbit hippity-hopping its way to safety. It had a substantial lead. It crossed in front of us, and as I had dropped the leash in order to focus my attention on my camera work, Diego spied the rabbit and made a break for it. A stern NO brought him to a screeching halt and he meekly returned to my side. This of course only fueled the thinking of where he had come from. It’s a rare dog that responds to a command that instantaneously against such a powerful inducement.
So after than mildly amusing incident, we returned home. Now the dog lounged and the Contrarian tinkered with spray painting a chair, while I dug into the housework which consists on Monday of “doing” the floors and dusting the house. Doing the floors used to be easy before said Diego started dropping bits of hair hither and yon and tearing apart every toy that he receives into micro-pieces for our enjoyment.
So I dust mopped, then I tried the latest (try 5th installment) of some damn shit that will make my laminate fake wood colored cherry bedroom floor look shiny and bright. Everything looks good until it dries then it looks dull and streaky. Dust mopping, or moping which is just as good an explanation of how I feel when I do it, only works so-so. The dusties float and you end up swiping at them in the air, which makes everyone run for cover.
I got an area rug for the library which looks forlorn and bare (the library that is), and looks better with the 5 x 7 + rug, and so I went out to the garage to finally haul in the vacuum cleaner (which we had no need for before, but would now, just not right now, but next week and I thought I would put it into the closet). So, as I’m pushing that in, I realize it’s the old vacuum and it works like crap and we apparently left the good one in Iowa. The things you screw up when you are packing!
So, I finished, after seventeen hours of back-breaking elbow greasing labor (solidarity!), and it’s on to the next task of the day which is to make a poppy-seed chiffon cake with cream cheese frosting. The thing was I was going to make it Saturday, but I didn’t for some reason which I can no longer remember, then I was going to make it Sunday, but decided not to because we were going to Lowe’s to pick up a chaise lounge and the aforementioned rug.
The reason this cake thing was such a pain, was that the poppy seeds were supposed to be soaked overnight. Now that raises the spectre of what exactly “over night” means. Is that 8 hours? 10? 12? Certainly not any more right? Thus based upon the things I had to do, I didn’t want to over soak the damned seeds. (which cause a false positive on a drug test, should you be headed for one–fair warning. Which I used as a defense once upon a time which caused the judge to laugh his ass off and give my client a break on his supposed “violation” but that is an entirely different story and it happened 4 states back in my past.)
So I got that damn cake made, but I was grumpy by now, so you can imagine the fun I had making chile rellenos for dinner which require that you roast the chiles, cool the chiles, remove the blackened skin of the chiles, slit the chiles, remove the seeds and membranes without damaging the chiles, stuff the chiles with cheese, roll the chiles in flour, dip the chiles in partially beaten egg whites to which you have added the yolks and carefully folded them in so as not to “deflate” the whites, and then fried the chiles, all without breaking them, letting the cheese fall out, or burning the hell out of them. Then you removed them from the oil, place the chiles in a baking dish, slather then with salsa verde, which you saved three chiles for, then cover them with cheese and bake them until bubbly. Got that?
So like at 6 pm, I am making the damn cream cheese frosting, and putting away the dishes, and (SOLIDARITY FOREVER) I feel like I celebrated LABOR DAY as well as could be expected GIVEN I’M FREAKIN’ RETIRED AND SUPPOSED TO BE SITTIN’ ON MY ASS ENJOYING LIFE!
So, how was your day?
Existential Ennui 