I had intended to remove the screens tomorrow, clean the inside windows, wipe up all the spider webs, clean the screens and re-insert them. It sounds worse than it is. We don’t have screens on every window, and they are taken out from the inside. It’s a rite of Spring, part of spring cleaning that really needs to be done after a long winter.
I could get this job done despite the heavy rain coming through, but there have been a few changes to the game plan. Elegante Mother was not feeling well on Thursday, so she canceled her standing hair appointment. I made another appointment for her this Saturday morning at 8:30.
Then, I’m sad to say, a friend from the Empty Nesters group at Elegante Mother’s church has passed away. He was a fascinating man. HE had just recently been moved to a nursing home. His 88th birthday was about two weeks ago, so the Empty Nesters all gathered to celebrate with him. Walt had been in the Army Air Corps stationed in England during World War II. He became very fond of English tea, not just the drink, but the afternoon meal. The EN group arranged for small sandwiches, sausage rolls, fruit, punch, tea, and birthday cake. Walt couldn’t get enough to eat! I suspect the food at the nursing home was radically different from what he was used to eating.
The ladies of the Empty Nesters got together and designed a wall hanging which one of them created using embroidery machines. It commemorated Walt’s life, with squares about England, and Wisconsin. We all signed the back of the wall hanging.
So, it was with great sadness that I learned he had passed away early this week. There will be a service Saturday afternoon, followed by a reception. We’ve offered to provide Caesar salad, brownies and lemon bars for the reception, and I’ll serve while EM sits and talks with friends.
Shortly after the reception, we have to hurry and get a light dinner. One of my talented great-nephews is performing in “Les Miserables” and we have promised to be in the audience. EM is going to be exhausted! This is a lot more than she is used to doing.in one day.
So…..clean windows have been set back a day or two in favor of much more important activities. I can’t say I really mind.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
oh buffy, i’m so sad to hear that.
Although you are understandably saddened by Walt’s death, aren’t you gladdened that your EN group took the time and trouble to celebrate his birthday so well? Good for your group.
And…who among is will notice if the window screens don’t get cleaned this year? (Not I!)
I wish I could tell you the last time I cleaned my windows….Oh, I’m so ashamed. They are in dire need…and I still don’t know when that will happen.
I’m so sorry about your frien’s death….and I hope EM is feeling better by now.
BTW: I failed to let Buffy know that Joy and I are evidently in the same league. HH and I hired someone to do all of our windows, inside and out, including basement windows–I’m thinking it was in the fall of 2004. A year later, I called the company, leaving a message asking that they make it an annual event. I’ve not heard from them (I’m patient–I’m still waiting!) We had only lived in this house for five years, at that point, so the windows weren’t really dirty, yet. Perhaps we will do the windows again in 2009.
Rolling on the floor, laughing, kicking my heels….
Gawd…you two…….I WISH I could do without washing windows, but when you live in a glass house….
Cop Car….I read your post to DH, and he really enjoyed it. I think he feels I’m TOO CLEAN! *G*
And, thank you all for your kind words on Walt’s passing. The service for him was very moving, and the reception was lovely. I’m so very glad I was a part of it.
This calls for a little history. Back when we were next-door neighbors, much younger, and definitely poorer, Elegant Friend and I were almost like the gold-dust twins. Our kids were like siblings and we spent much of our day-time hours together. She was the sort who had to have everything appear as perfection–on the surface.
EF was (still is) a dynamo at stashing things away, dusting and mopping floors, and cleaning windows. I, on the other hand, did not have nearly as clean a house on the surface, but a bit more order behind the scenes. She, on occasion, would “do” my windows and I, on occasion, would clean out her cabinets (the rejects of which always filled her trash barrels). My windows have not been clean, since. Usually, I have moved out of a house when its windows got dirty! (I have moved 7 times since then, so the average time to dirty windows is 6.5 years. Egad! I had the windows in THIS house cleaned early!)
Although we don’t have the glass wall that the back of your house enjoys, we do have a fair amount of glass–with 19 windows upstairs (counting closets, garage, and demi-lune above the front door), but the largest is 12′ wide. (HH and I quit “fighting” over the color of bricks to use on the house when we realized that the windows would dominate, making the color of the bricks not all that important.)
I have one big question for you, Ms Clean: How often do you clean the OUTside of your acreage-gobbling skylights??? *more smirking*
It’s funny, CC, my sister Nan has taken to cleaning out my plastic storage cabinet. It was frustrating to her to open the doors and have everything fall out, or not be able to find the lids that went with the boxes. Last Thanksgiving, when she walked into the kitchen, I told her to look in the cabinet. I’d purposely reorganized the storage earlier that week, so that I could brag about it! *G*
I have not cleaned the OUTSIDE (or even the inside)of the skylights. The window cleaning service used to do the outside until last year when their insurance costs went sky high. I have the equipment to do the outside of the windows, but it’s almost impossible for me to do the ladder. I’m going to have to find a kid to send up there.
Because of the way the skylight opening was lined after the window was set in place, it’s not possible to remove the screen on the inside of the window. When Dear Husband opens the skylights, dead leaves and such blow in and get lodged on the screen. Last fall he told me that the leaf blower he’d just purchased might be the solution to that problem. He could open the skylight and blow all that stuff out!
That same kid who washes the outside of the skylight will have to wash the inside of it, too! *G*
Thanks for the history on you and EF. I suspect that she and I have more in common than you and I do! I’m a master at hiding things that need to be put away properly. *S*