Lenten Thanks, Day 7
Thank God for Gerardo!
Racing around frantically since six o’clock this morning. My friend KJG will surface here around 11:00, for what I hope will be a relaxing day of hanging out. Whenever she gets here, things should slow down.
Meanwhile…
Gerardo the Lawn Dude Supreme left word on m[get up! fly to the kitchen, close the back door to block dust and fumes from Gerardo’s flunky’s blower]y voicemail while I was out last night, saying he wanted to come around to clean up the unholy disaster area that is my yard…like, this morning. Not knowing when he’s likely to show up or if, shortly after dawn blower the leaves off the patio and deck, roll up and stow the hoses. Scrub the dirt off the patio table.
Haul in the feather comforter I left up overnight on the clothesline; put it into the crippled dryer to bang around on air fluff. Fold and put away the cotton blanket left out to dry. Pull down the makeshift clotheslines and stow them. Try to clean the kitchen and fix breakfast and feed the dog at once.
Reach Gerardo on the phone around 7:00. Can you get in here and out before KJG shows up? We want to have a nice lunch outside. No problem!
Gerardo appears before 8, two flunkies in tow. Locksmith due between 8 and 10 to install a double-cylinder deadbolt on the back door.
Race to pull in the bathroom and dog rugs I left on the lines and draped over the hammock last night. Three of them are still wet. Put the two dry ones in the fluffer (we can no longer call it a “dryer”) to plump them up. Figure out where the hell to put the soggy shag rugs out of the men’s way. Continue trying to clean the kitchen and jump in and out of the shower and clean the shower and scrub the dirty pan left to soak overnight in the utility sink and dodge the dog’s ball game and scour the tired stained kitchen sink and polish the brightwork and talk Gerardo into pulling the dead fronds off the moribund 30-foot-high queen palm and persuade him to dig up the endlessly annoying frozen cape honeysuckle by the pool equipment so I can replace them with some frost-resistant Lady Banks roses and keep an eye out for the locksmith and pay Gerardo an extra $75 for the bone-crushing extra work he did and [get up! answer the door for the locksmith] finish writing Gerardo a check and wave goodbye to him. Show the locksmith what needs to be done [stop! answer the phone, accept a new assignment from the client], ask about reinforcing locks on sliding doors, discuss (stop! answer the phone, discuss plan with KJG)] recommendations for security doors and locks.
Sit down and start blogging again (drop that! With Gerardo out, drag wet rugs back out to hammock to dry in sun] and [on the way back in put away the irrigation gear Gerardo needed to fix the line his flunky cut] and zap [rattle the canful of rocks at Cassie to interrupt her barking frenzy at the locksmith] the dregs of this morning’s coffee in the microwave. Stagger back to the computer and…
…and I forget what I was going to write about this morning.