Chores (pt. 4)

I cleaned the garage today. Yes, it is summer in Tucson. Yes, it was hovering in the low triple digits. But I was sweaty from the gym with Amster and it really needed to be done.

Garages are interesting in terms of cleaning. It's a matter of perspective. TBG looks at it as a shrine to the automotive gods. I look at it as a place that keeps my car marginally cooler during the day.

The recycling cart (thank you, Daddooooooo, for this homemade gem), the garbage can and a spare refrigerator (one of my all-time favorite Chanukah presents) must share the space with the vehicles. On this we agree. 12-packs of Diet Coke and flats of bottled water (I am the Recycling Queen..... judge me not!) are welcome to their patch on the floor by the 'fridge, too. Beyond this, Houston, we have a problem.

The fact that our garage has lots of wall space makes it a perfect spot for the overflow -boxes of "please don't throw it out but I have no place for it at this time in my life" stuff, the twin mattress and its collapsible frame, the ceiling light bulb changer (with attachments), the outdoor vacuum, the ladders, the plastic 3-drawer chests filled with batteries and maps and wrapping ribbons and picnic supplies, and enough packing material to send gifts to everyone I know every day for a year. If I had a basement or an attic I might be sympathetic to a complaint or two. But, I don't.

The downside of that equation is that TBG feels encroached upon and I gradually add to the contents with bags of donations, books to take to the used book store , all the frames from G'ma's house (pictures now in albums), the glass recycling which isn't allowed in the curbside pickup and must be driven to a collection point, and an assortment of detritus from my car that has to go someplace but not right now. I admit it. I'm incorrigible.

Home from the gym before noon, with plans for dinner with G'ma at 4, I parked The Schnozz in the driveway under the Palo Verde and started. All the tools were at hand - crucial for spur of the moment decisions like this one. If I'd had to look for the mops or the brooms or the vac's attachments I'd have gotten distracted and never begun the project. Trust me, this is a character trait and not one I can lay at the feet of my aging brain (a weird image, no?). Like right now I was almost on a tangent about the immutability of the character......

The bags, books and glass went into The Schnozz to be delivered to their respective resting places. The coir Christmas door mat went into the storage closet, the random plastic bottles went in their bin and it was time to sanitize. 2 brooms, a wet Swiffer handle and many drippy sheets, a string mop, 2 buckets, 7th Generation cleaner, a hose with a spray nozzle, 3 old bath sheets and that outdoor vac with its attachments later it was gorgeous. TBG had come home and gone right back out to bring me sustenance and by the time he drove back he could drive in and park inside his shrine.

Never mind that his tires brought marks onto my newly cleaned floor. His smile said it all.