Old Dog, New Tricks

I don't mean to keep harping on this, but I turned 50 last October. Fifty is a weird age. I loosely belong to a group of people from our church, the Pacem Singers. Some of the Pacem Singers are also choir members, and some are not. We are available to sing for people who are homebound, or in a nursing home or the hospital, and we generally sing a selection of hymns and other favorites. Depending on the situation and people's availability, maybe just a few members go, or maybe a larger group goes--it is a different collection of folks each time. Many of these folks are, ahem, "mature". So this afternoon we're singing (at a nursing home just minutes from where I work), and the lady next to me commented that she was grateful I was there with my young voice. At first I didn't think much of her comment, because you spend the whole first part of your life being a younger person, and you get used to hearing such things. But after about a minute I thought, "Hey, wait a minute."

I keep being surprised by the things a person can learn essentially for the first time in middle age. This has occurred to me on a number of occasions, so I know there are several examples I could cite here to flesh this idea out, but since my brain is 50, I don't remember what they are. (Sorry.) These are things that could just have easily been learned earlier, but for one reason or another I just didn't learn them until now. (I just bought my first eyelash curler, but I'm not sure that counts.)

I am still trying, after all these years, to figure out how to get myself to clean house. I keep coming up with new strategies that don't work. I have improved over time, but there are still tasks that get put off for weeks or months that are really supposed to get done on a regular basis. Or seem like they would be simpler if done more regularly. Or at least would make daily life more pleasant if things were cleaned as opposed to not cleaned.

(I have considered that the most obvious strategy is to get a cleaning lady. We have had cleaning ladies at various points in the past, usually when the house is for sale, although for one stretch we had one just because, and that was great until she got pregnant and took a break. And in general, I would just as soon have a cleaning lady. That would just take some initiative and research and something like $200 a month. It's on my list of things to do, which should be enough said right there.)

My biggest bane is the bathrooms. I did discover the flylady (www.flylady.net) a few years back while I was unemployed. She advocates a daily "swish and swipe" of the bathroom counters and toilets, but I am going to venture a guess that the flylady does not live in a house with four bathrooms. I did try that for awhile, and while it was OK when I was unemployed and had more time in the mornings, when your counter and toilet are still practically spotless from yesterday, it's hard to convince yourself you really must do this extra step when you're running sort of late.

Our house was built in 1992, during the period in which the "master suite" was considered very important, and thus we have a gargantuan master bathroom complete with n-person whirlpool tub, shower, and his-and-hers vanities. So my most recently conceived cleaning strategy is that I ought to assign certain days of the week for certain parts of the bathroom. Wednesdays, I thought, I could clean the toilets. I'm thinking maybe Monday would be the shower, and Tuesday could be the floor (ugh), and Thursday or Friday could be the counters (this one is a putzy job because of all the stuff on the counters).

There is nothing particularly novel about this strategy, since for generations it seemed "Monday is wash day," but my generation seemed to think that all such folklore was outdated and silly, so some of us are only now rediscovering old wisdom. There's that saying about how those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it, or at least waste 50 years reinventing the wheel.

So, it's January, first week of the new year, and it's Wednesday. To start off, I have to be at the dentist at 8AM, which means I have to be up quite a bit earlier than I have been getting up lately. At least it is so cold out I don't have to walk the dogs. But we have choir practice tonight, so it's going to be a late one, and I usually am pretty much done by the time we get home at 10PM. (I could point out that the result of the dentist appointment is that next Wednesday I'm having my first root canal, but that isn't until 9AM, which ought to leave plenty of time to clean the toilets next Wednesday in the morning.)

Anyway we get home, and I let myself off the hook--you can just goof off. You don't have to clean the toilets. And that's just the trick! I thought, hey, I can do this, it will only take a few minutes. So, I not only cleaned the toilets, I did a couple counters and put a load of laundry in! (Now if I can only figure out which day I'm going to run the vacuum cleaner.)

I've also been opening the mail each day or two instead of letting it pile up. But check back with me in February and see how well my new strategy is holding up. No promises.