Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Lamentations of a Cleaning Lady

I clean houses. I enjoy doing the work and the satisfaction of giving someone a clean house when I am done. Sometimes, as with all things, I feel like venting. Today is one of them. So I have compiled a list of cleaning lady laments.

Please flush! Especially if you know I am coming to clean your house, flush all your toilets. I don't want to see your waste brewing in the toilet bowl before I clean it.

If you are home, be dressed. Better yet, don't be home. It is much easier for me to clean the house without anyone asking my opinions on whether you should rearrange the bookshelfs, what color you should paint the living room, etc.

If you or a family member are sick and going to be home, please let me know. We can arrange another time. But if your husband is going to be home sick in your 900 sq ft home, please tell him to be dressed and not sit on the couch in his underwear while I'm there cleaning You might want to see him that way, but I don't.

If you are always home when I come to clean, you know my routine. (It doesn't usually vary). If I start in the kitchen, don't go into the kitchen and start preparing your lunch when you hear my car pull up.

Don't tell your children that they don't have to pick up them rooms, because if you didn't have a messy house I wouldn't have a job. This teaches them disrespect for me, encourages laziness and if I can't see the floor in their bedroom, it won't get vacuumed.

Please don't start a project the morning of your cleaning day. If you would like the pantry torn apart and cleaned, please ask me so we can arrange a separate project day for this event or do it yourself. Cleaning the pantry is not part of the arrangement we have for a regular cleaning day.

I cannot make things look brand new after thirty years. I do not have a magic dust rag that when wiped over your water stained window sills that need to be refinished look like new. Same for the tub and tile that is so bad it needs to be replaced. No amount of work I do will remedy that situation.

I cannot do more than the right chemical cleaner can. I cannot remove rust without a rust remover and please do not expect me to. I don't have a magic wand.

Please don't lament to me that when you have been paying me $60 to clean your house for ten years and you are there the whole time I am cleaning and know that a spend 3 hours doing it, that you thought my rate was $15 for four hours. Okay, if you want four hours of cleaning it is going to cost you more. My rates have gone up over the last ten years, you might not be happy to find out you should be paying $75 for that three hours and would need to pay $100 for the four, especially when I only clean your house once every four to six weeks.

If you house is being cleaning once a month or so, I charge more. Your house is harder for me to clean than the ones that are cleaned every other week. Also, since you are once a month, there is always something special coming that you want to change the date for and I am willing to accomodate that. Please understand, when I don't work, I don't get paid. Your delay of two weeks, twice a year cuts me out of a month of pay. I don't mind doing this, but please remember that when you tell me you thought you should be getting four hours of cleaning instead of the three you have been getting for the past ten years.

Please remember that I am coming on the day I am coming. Gas and time are expensive. I do have a life.

If I am driving 50 miles round trip to clean your house and gas goes up to $5.00 a gallon, it would be nice to offer me some gas money since the price of driving to your house is dropping what I make by $12 each week. Especially when you are building a million $$$ vacation home. It think you could spare the extra $10.

After 18 years of working for you, telling me you are firing me because I work every other week in the summer instead of every week is lame. Why was this not an issue for the past 18 years, but became the issue when I voted against Obama and told you abortion was wrong. Oh well, your loss.

If you have dogs, please don't let me out when I come up the driveway. They jump up and scratch my van, jump on me and scratch me. Also, if your driveway is covered in ice, put some salt on it before I come so I don't fall and hurt myself.

Be grateful and when you didn't put ice on the driveway and I did fall, that I didn't sue you, as I am sure someone else would have.

Pick up the dog poop on the carpet before I come.

If I have allergic reaction to the smell in your house, please understand when I tell you I can no longer clean your house.

If it is 90 degrees outside, don't have the air condition set at 85 degrees. Same for winter. If you want to have your temp set that way great, but have the courtesy to have the house a reasonable temperture when I am there cleaning.

Remember, I am there cleaning up your mess, because you don't want to. Thanks.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Dreams

Last night I dreamed the strangest dream ---- I had a dream early this morning that I was watching a political rally of some sort with Hillary Clinton at center stage. The disturbing part of this dream was that she was surrounded by US Congressmen who were all wearing a Hamas jihad scarf. It was an old clip and I was shouting to everyone that they were in Hamas scarves and no one listened or cared that they were wearing these scarves.

Dreams are strange. This is probably a combination of my frustration with the politicans and liberal voters in this country who do not see what is going on around them or acknowledge what this administration is doing to ravage this country. They all are turning a blind eye to what congress and Obama are doing. The Hamas scarves are probably from reading Debbie Schlessel's blog. Strange combination. Let's hope this particular dream does not come true.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Preinauguration

It's Monday, Jan. 19 the day before the inauguration of Barack Obama. More money will be spent on this inauguration than ever before. That is historic. While he purports to want to diminish the carbon footprint of this country more carbon will be produced for this inauguration than ever before. That is historic. Watching media reporters fawn all over themselves about how wonderful everyone is being in Washington as they await this historic event is making me ill. No one is willing to stand up and saying anything against him for fear they will be called a racist, lose their job or be ostracized.

We have elected a man not on the content of his character, but on the color of his skin. Blacks all voted for his because they want to see a black man in the white house. Check youtube under "How Obama got elected" to verify this claim. Whites voted for him to relieve their white guilt and to make themselves feel like they are not racist. Others voted for him because they wanted to be on the bandwagon. Yet another segment of society who this country turned into a socialist country.

I didn't vote for him because I don't like his ideas. I could care less what color he is or isn't. He supports partial birth abortion. He supports the FOCA. He will select judges to the supreme court that will not overturn Roe v. Wade. He will spend more money than any other administration. He will create a huge underclass of people totally dependent on the government for their income. He will make us like western europe. God help us.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The frustrations of this election are many fold. I feel that we are going down a path that we can never come back from. You get a voting block of people large enough that are dependent on the government for their daily needs you will never be able to vote against them and regain some sanity in government. That is what I see the Obama presidency doing. Taxes for infrastructure, running government, military are one thing, making people totally dependent is another. Six months ago I was looking forward to retirement, having investments that would allow me to build a house in Maine, rent that out to pay for it, be able to use it. Build an airplane to travel there and other places. That dream is now gone, maybe for good because democrats years ago felt that people who could not pay a mortgage had the right to own a house. Democrats in congress in October decided that I should now pay for those bad loans. I know - Lisa and Jonathan do not believe that these are the causes, but reality says different. I now worry that I won't have enough investments to live on, whether David's pension plan has any money left in it. The American Dream was to pass all this on to my children and for my children to have better lives than we have had. This is all gone now. Whether it will come back I don't know. The policies Obama will implement will make this worse. Do you know that Pelosi and her fellow democrats now want to take over our 401K's? Everything we have worked for is teetering on the brink of being lost and I blame the democrats. Of course, democrats blame Bush, but that is getting old. Maybe it is selfish to want what you have worked 35 years for. I don't think so. The Obama presidency gives me no hope, only sadness that the American dream has ended.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Maine

My husband and I own a piece of land on a cape in Maine called Squaw Point. Our property is vacant and has a right of way to the ocean. This is as close the ocean we will ever be able to afford. There is a granite foundation on it that was probably part of a farmstead in the 1800's. Squaw Point was used as a summer camp by Native Americans as a summer camp. I found broken crock pieces piled on the foundation (probably a neighbor had gathered it) The decoration dates the crock to about the mid-1800's. Maine holds a special place in our hearts and we were there this summer for three weeks. I love to walk the beach and collect crab shells, sea glass, sea urchins and find every once in a while a stray lobster buoy. My neighbors are very friendly and uniquely varied. Someday we want to build a house on this property and are in the process of drawing plans. I have already started saving garage sale finds to decorate this house in a seaside theme. Today I am cleaning the shells and seaglass that I found on the beach last week and plan on making a wreath with what I found. Makes me homesick for the shore.