Live Free Learn Free Blog » Why I Clean 2 (and Snakes!) <title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thirteen/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/rss/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/atom/" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php" /> <style type="text/css"> </style> <link rel='archives' title='August 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/02/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/03/' /> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> </head> <body> <div id="headwrapper"> <div id="header"> <h1 id="title"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog">Live Free Learn Free Blog</a></h1> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="content"> <div class="post" id="post-31"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/05/01/why-i-clean-2-and-snakes/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Why I Clean 2 (and Snakes!)">Why I Clean 2 (and Snakes!)</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> May 1st, 2005 at 11:53 pm (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>, <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/musings/" title="View all posts in Musings" rel="category tag">Musings</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <div />Our air conditioner is broken. We hadn’t turned it on yet this year, and when we finally did a few days ago, we found it only blew room temperature air. Blech. So, tomorrow morning, someone will be here to fix it. I have to admit, there is a perk to renting; this repair is not on our dime, thank goodness.</p> <p>Of course, I have a quirk that won’t allow me to have “guests” over unless the house is in pristine condition. Terry laughs at my frantic cleaning when I learn someone is coming to visit. For instance, a friend whom we haven’t seen in years is coming next weekend, so I’ve drawn up a cleaning schedule in my head. I’ve finished the living and dining rooms. Next, it’s on to the bedrooms and computer room. Finally, I’ll do the bathrooms and kitchen (those are best to leave until last, since they get dirty again so quickly).</p> <p>It’s not that my house is an utter mess. Heck, it’s not even cluttered. But, it’s not perfect, and this bothers me. I keep thinking the guest is taking stock of all the imperfections: “Oh, there’s dust on that shelf, and there’s some dog hair on the floor, and look - her desk is covered in paper!” I know this is my own strange hangup, so I don’t ask anyone else to clean with me, but I’m sure I annoy Kenzie and Terry a bit by running behind and passionately picking up after them.</p> <p>And, you guessed it, I’ve got to clean for the air conditioner repair person. I’ve cleaned the backyard where I know s/he’ll be. Tonight, I’ll clean the kitchen and sweep the floors. That should do the trick. I can close the doors to the bedrooms, the computer room, and the bathroom.</p> <p>Is this normal?</p> <p>Probably… not.</p> <p>It does, however, force me to do a mad cleaning every so often, and that’s probably good. Between visitors and my bouts of procrastination (see earlier post), I should end up with a fairly clean house. I do think better and feel calmer when the house is clean, so I’m not really complaining.</p> <p>Kenzie found a small snake today, but it slithered away before he could call to me to bring a camera. We think it was a juvenile gray <a href="http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/eastern_hognose_snake.htm">eastern hognose</a>, but aren’t completely sure. Looks like we need to add another field guide to our ever expanding library. I’ve found the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395740460/qid=1115003323/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-4814343-7950464?v=glance&s=books">bird field guide</a> immensely helpful. We bought it a few years ago after Kenzie and I became interested in a pair of <a href="http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/falcons/crstcara.html">crested cara caras</a> and spent a few months observing them from a distance. We use it often to identify birds we see around or those that we rescue. Hopefully, though, I won’t find the snake guide nearly as necessary. We’ll see….</p> <p>Okay, off to scrub down the kitchen….</p> <div /> </div> </div>   <h3 id="postcomment">Post a Comment</h3> <form action="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform"> <p> <input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="" size="28" tabindex="1" /> <label for="author">Name (required)</label> </p> <p> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="" size="28" tabindex="2" /> <label for="email">E-mail (required)</label> </p> <p> <input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="" size="28" tabindex="3" /> <label for="url"><abbr title="Uniform Resource Identifier">URI</abbr></label> </p> <p> <textarea name="comment" id="comment" cols="60" rows="8" tabindex="4"></textarea> </p> <p> <input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="submit" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment" /> <input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="31" /> </p> </form> </div> <div id="sidebar"> <ul> <li id="meta"> <h2>Meta</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-login.php">Login</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" title="Syndicate this site using RSS">Entries <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/comments/feed/" title="The latest comments to all posts in RSS">Comments <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="search"> <form method="get" id="searchform" action="/blog/index.php"> <p> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" class="submit" value="Search" /> </p> </form> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="footer"> <p> <a href="http://wordpress.org" title="Powered by Wordpress, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform.">Powered by Wordpress</a> · Design by <a href="http://beccary.com" title="Theme designed by Beccary">Beccary</a> and <a href="http://weblogs.us" title="Theme sponsored by Weblogs.us">Weblogs.us</a> · <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer" title="This page validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional"><abbr title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr></a> · <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer" title="This page validates as CSS"><abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr></a> </p> </div> </div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var sc_project=605365; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=4; var sc_security="d224bf47"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://c5.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=605365&java=0&security=d224bf47&invisible=1" alt="free stats" border="0"></a> </noscript>  </body> </html>