A Serendipitous Day

It seems as though at the onset of every autumn, and again every spring, I am blasted into submission by a dreadful cold.  This year is, sadly, no exception.  I am hideous to behold – pink, damp, and dripping.  In short, a soggy lump.  I had a date with John, my handyman helper, to vacuum out the furnace ducts so that when I finally turned on the heating, my house would not be suffused in a cloud of dust, spiced with the occasional mouse poop.  When John showed up yesterday, vacuum in hand, he took one look at me and said, “Not a good day, huh?”  “Let’s try tomorrow,” I pleaded.  Tomorrow came, only when it did, it was, of course, today, and I didn’t feel much better.  What the heck, I thought.  It won’t take that long.  In the immortal words of Tom Stratman, “Yeah, right!”  In order to do one of the vents, we had to move the China cabinet, and in order to do that, I had to take everything out of it.  And it is full to the brim with my fragile glassware, serving plates and bowls. I opened it up, removed a stack of dishes, came back to get more, and my heart nearly stopped.  A huge grey thing leapt out with a jingle jangle of clattering crockery and a frightened “Meow.”  Why do cats so love to get into these places?  And then why do they not stay long enough to let you take their picture?  Once we moved the China cabinet, we were confronted with a very furry wall, (not a cat this time,) and I was rather embarrassed.

In order to do another vent, we had to move a shelf that holds my pots and pans.  In order to do that, I had to move all my house plants and a huge bunch of heavy cast iron cookware. Yuck!  But when we moved the shelf in the kitchen, quelle horreur! The wall behind it had on a thick dust bunny coat, and  the floor – well, I don’t even want to describe it.  Horrible!   This time, I did not even think of taking a picture. Then…. once everything was cleaned up, I had to put it all back.  All this on a day which I had planned to spend sulking in bed! 

There were major plusses to the day, though.  It makes me happy when I have cleaned the house, and this was at least part of the house cleaned.  And then, I found several little forgotten treasures.  One was a card I had gotten for Becca when she was a wee one.  She had to have several teeth extracted, and afterward was sick – very sick.  While Dennis stayed with her, I cycled off the store to get her prescription, and a little sick-day present.  At the gift store, I found this card.  The astonishing thing was that the wall paper was the same, the quilt was the same, and the table was the same – just like the bed my little mousie girl was recovering in.  It was amazing - just like at tiny portrait of actual her.  So finding this was a happy moment, a memory of my darling girl when she was tiny (sort of tiny, anyway,) and thought that everything I did was wonderful.  She knows better now.

So, on furnace duct cleaning day, pleasant things come to light and make the horrible day a little bit worthwhile.