Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[Lean'n'mean]

Tempus fugit, as some dead Roman a couple of millennia ago might have said

I doubt it, dead Romans tend to be as silent as the grave

 

[Harp]

Meanwhile, all baseball fans know that we're now seventy years removed from the last time anyone could say "National League Champion Chicago Cubs"...

Cubs traded Castro for Adam Warren and Brendan Ryan; signed Zobrist.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hope springs eternal, especially in the winter. Over here, people are throwing their shoes over the roof with excitement about David Price, who, I have absolutely no doubt, will throw a rotator cuff two days before training camp breaks and will be gone for the season.

 

[Harp]

Price has a $217m price on his head-Boston could win the series with his arm.
Samardzija is off to San Francisco after last season's meltdown. Theo left him alone.

 

[tonyb]

For a good deal of the time when the kids were growing up we had a housekeeper come in once every 2 weeks. Never really thought of her as a "servant," more like a helper. We both had full time jobs and she was a godsend. She really kept our home from degenerating into a real pigsty.

My oldest son saw that Richie Rich movie when he was about 4 and wanted a butler like Cadbury- I suppose he thought that it would have been fun to have someone around just to pick up his toys or such.

The lovely missus and I have called in outside help on a handful of occasions over the past few years, which always left me feeling a bit odd, scion of the working-class as I am, and not accustomed to people picking up after me. But, without going into detail, our circumstances surely do justify the expenditure. Every once in a while.

Still, I can't have others doing my dishes, or my laundry. And as long as the help is being compensated at a decent rate, I can feel okay about it, seeing how I have done "lowlier" work, for less money.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I paid one of the kids from the theatre fifty bucks to help me clean out my garage a couple years ago. "God, you're a filthy pig," she said as she collected her pay.

 

[tonyb]

I inherited the previous homeowner's gardener. We got leafy trees here -- in our yard, and in the neighbors'. He and his assistant did more in an hour than I might have done all weekend long. They got the equipment, and lots of practice operating it.

I might have him come by maybe once a month during the warmer months. I can cut the grass, but cleaning up beds and edging and all that? I am now of sufficient seniority that hiring out some work doesn't leave me feeling like a lazy bum. Or a profligate spender.

 

[GHT]

I inherited the previous homeowner's gardener. We got leafy trees here -- in our yard, and in the neighbors'. He and his assistant did more in an hour than I might have done all weekend long. They got the equipment, and lots of practice operating it.

We've had a gardener, a cleaner, someone to do the ironing, a painter/decorator, a carpenter/builder and odd-job man for over 30 years. My wife's work as a paramedic in the ambulance service meant unsociable shifts, I was determined that what free time she had we could enjoy together. I found that professionals certainly can do much more and much more quickly because they have the necessary tools, and it's what they do. I wouldn't dream of calling them servants or any other menial title. They are indispensable, especially the ironing fairy. We haven't done our own ironing for over forty years. For me, DIY means:
Don't Involve Yourself.

 

[2jakes]

I paid one of the kids from the theatre fifty bucks to help me clean out my garage a couple years ago. "God, you're a filthy pig," she said as she collected her pay.

That was a rude thing to say !

 

[LizzieMaine]

Up here we communicate our fondness for each other thru cutting hostility. It's a New England thing.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The lovely missus and I have called in outside help on a handful of occasions over the past few years, which always left me feeling a bit odd, scion of the working-class as I am, and not accustomed to people picking up after me. But, without going into detail, our circumstances surely do justify the expenditure. Every once in a while.

Still, I can't have others doing my dishes, or my laundry. And as long as the help is being compensated at a decent rate, I can feel okay about it, seeing how I have done "lowlier" work, for less money.

"Cleaning up for the housekeeper." I know that experience well: a residual effect of the Catholic Guilt of my childhood, no doubt.

 

[Stearmen]

"Cleaning up for the housekeeper." I know that experience well: a residual effect of the Catholic Guilt of my childhood, no doubt.

That's exactly why I don't hire a maid!

 

[tonyb]

"Cleaning up for the housekeeper." I know that experience well: a residual effect of the Catholic Guilt of my childhood, no doubt.

I'd prefer the housekeeper think of us as the sorts who would pick up a bit ahead of company, even of the company is the housekeeper. And besides, staying on top of the dishes and laundry is about half the battle. I know people who don't. Their home ain't a pretty sight. Fine people in many other ways, but laundry on the floor and dirty dishes covering the counters and filling the sink leaves a person thinking they'd rather NOT have company.

 

[Zombie_61]

I paid one of the kids from the theatre fifty bucks to help me clean out my garage a couple years ago. "God, you're a filthy pig," she said as she collected her pay.

My sister made extra money by cleaning houses in and around the neighborhood. One day she expressed her observation that her less-intelligent clients' homes needed very little cleaning, while her more-intelligent clients were, as she put it, "complete slobs". By that yardstick, my wife and I must be geniuses.

 

[Trenchfriend]

In Germany, it's not more acceptable to say "Putzfrau". Today, it's the room-attendent/room-cleaner and that's absolutely ok, I think!

 

[LizzieMaine]

My sister made extra money by cleaning houses in and around the neighborhood. One day she expressed her observation that her less-intelligent clients' homes needed very little cleaning, while her more-intelligent clients were, as she put it, "complete slobs". By that yardstick, my wife and I must be geniuses.

It's simply a matter of having the right sense of perspective. A hundred years from now nobody's going to care that your floors don't gleam and that there's gobs of dust the size of cats under your bed. And the older you get, the more you realize that piece of paper that just fell on the floor really isn't worth the physical effort it's going to take to bend over and pick it up.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine
Very good post!

In old Germany, there was this whole "hygienic movement" from the beginning of the 20th century on. That was the change of hygiene and householding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Hygiene_Exhibition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottomar_von_Mayenburg

-"Pitralon"
-"Odol"
-"Chlorodont"

And so on...

Until today, there is these "cleaning-delusion", in old Germany. Probably originated in the 20's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had that here, too -- it was the genesis of the all-white bathroom. There's a reason why I painted my bathroom green.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

There's a reason why I painted my bathroom green.

So the algae & moss are less noticable ?

 

[Harp]

Theo tried for Price but the Cubs ownership pulled the Scrooge, purse strings drawn too tight. Tickets to +$ next season too.