Hmm. Well, yesterday I came home and found that my computer had re-set itself to January 1, 2000. I guess maybe it was the millenium bug showing up late or something. I think I fixed that, but now people's comments aren't showing up on the comment counter on the blog. So I've been trying to figure that out....in much the same way an orangutan might try to figure out a computer chess game...and so far with similar results. ( sigh)

Anyway, I also had two jobs yesterday. One for the ever pleasant Miss R. who is 84 and suffering from macular degeneration, bursitis, and now dizziness that her doctors are unsure of the cause of. She must be in a great deal of pain and also very frightened, because by now her balance is really quite poor....

But she is unfailingly cheerful and looking forward to spring. Every time I go over there she tells me that she had a snack in the living room in the same hushed tones as one would use if confessing to a murder, and beams with relief when I cheerfully say, "Don't sweat it, Miss R!" Pretzels this time - those crumbs are easy to clean up.

Oh! And I got my mangnetic signs!! I'm so EXCITED! They stick to either side of the car and say, in green and blue lettering on a white background: "All Around the House, Unlimited: Non-Medical Support, Housekeeping, Grocery Shopping/Errands, Pet sitting / dog walking.
And the phone number.
They look AWESOME!!!!

Then I went up to the Retriever Household, where yet another retreiver has joined the family. So now I can barely get into the house because three excited goldens mob me, run off with the cleaning rags, the swiffer dusters, roll over at my feet for a belly rub, etc.

"Um. We've had the stomach flu up here so the bathrooms....could you clean them really good?"

Oh yeah. There was a 2 part solution for that probem: rubber gloves that went half way up my arms and lots and lots of bleach!! But Mrs. Retriever and her kids are such nice people that I was glad to do it for them: really the stomach flu is bad enough all by itself that having to clean up from it only adds insult to injury.

But I got a good laugh out of cleaning the one bathroom that was not "infected". This is the bathroom used soley by the young man of the family - as tough a kid as any who ever walked. This kid hunts, works out, idolizes the Marines and conducts himself with the polite self discipline of someone waiting for the right time to turn into one of a "few good men".

I walked in and saw a spider - to be fair this was a HUGE spider, legs and all about the size of the palm of my hand - laying dead in about about three cups worth of some blue gel substance which was in the corner and spattered halfway up the wall.

"What in the hell went on in here?" I asked Moe under my breath. Mo didn't answer, since he's a golden retriever. I bent down and picked up a can of shaving gel off of the bathroom floor and it came to me in a flash: poor Junior Semper Fi had gotten out of the shower, seen that godzilla wolf spider, and, like a good soldier who can turn anything into a weapon sprayed it to death with shaving cream! What a way to go! If spiders have last thoughts I can't even imagine what his were.

But a lot of very tough people are afraid of spiders....it's only because I'm not that I could find it funny. There are several guys I know who could easily take somebody's head off with one hand who probably would have had a stroke if they'd seen a spider that big.

However, I should add a note to anyone who is planning to Try This at Home: Shaving gel is extremely time consuming to clean off of flat paint once it dries. A word to the wise is sufficient.