The View from the Ranch

Is smokey. How can that be you might ask? How about a fire in the cab of the truck. Yes, it's a neverending tale around here. I brought home towels from work to wash because the owner has been out of town since last week. I tossed out all the ones full of cooking oil, I washed them not once but twice, I constantly checked on them in the dryer, I waited until they were completely cool before removing them from the dryer and placing them in a bucket to take back to work. I put them in the cab of Chuck, my truck, to keep them clean, about two hours later my neighbor knocks on my door and tells me my truck is on fire. I run outside in my so not cool nightgown, the cab of my truck is full of smoke, much like Scooby Doo fog if you know what I mean. I run to the passenger's side and of course I keep that door locked, run around to the driver's side, open the door, grab the bucket and throw it on the driveway, the air of course causes flames to ignite and I have a full blown bonfire in the driveway at 8:00am. Another neighbor runs over with her fire extinguisher, I am turning on the water hose. What a mess! I did every thing right, was so friggin' careful and now I have a nice three inch sized melted hole in my dash under my glove box. I know I'm lucky that was all that happened but damn. I'm so sick of every thing I have to do becoming this huge ordeal. I really can't take too much more. Right now one of the aprons I brought home from work is wrapped around the agitator of my washer. I can't get the agitator off so I'm doing laundry around it for the moment because the one thing I ask my DH to do is get the apron unhung from the washer and does he do it? No. He's tired. Well that's a news flash. I'm tired too, what the hell do I have to do for a little help? My house looks likes one of Saddam's palaces after the bombings. It's not pretty. I'm gradually getting the laundry off the kitchen table because it might be nice to actually be able to sit down and eat for a change. My laundry room is wall to wall laundry, I need to move stuff out of there and give it a good cleaning but everytime I think about it I get overwhelmed, my knees go weak and I just want to cry. I've managed to fill four garbages bags over the last couple of days so that's a good start, but it just keeps piling up and piling up.

I'm taking a page from Flylady's book and trying to just work 15 mins in an area. 15 mins is not that long, and I'm always amazed at what I manage to get done. I just try to keep from looking beyond that area and then overwhelming myself.

My cleaning goals for the weekend are to get the kitchen very, very clean and keeping it that way. I need to reorganize some cabinets and throw out broken appliances and I'm hoping it won't be as big of a job as I'm imagining it to be. I also would like to have the living room company ready all the time. Not easy considering my sewing machine is set up right in front of the window, cross stitch stuff is on the chair, and a basket with an in progress crochet afghan is on the floor. Did I mention the piles and piles of newspapers and magazines, not forgetting the school papers, library books. I can't keep up.

Anyway, I'm keeping the goals small so maybe I'll have some time to stitch, quilt and crochet this weekend. I have a four day weekend and will all summer except when someone might want a day or night off and then I'll gladly help out.

I so need this break and Friday I'm treating myself to EQ5. The money is in my wallet, not spending it on anyone or anything but this software. But the way my luck is going the LQS will sell their only copy of EQ5 before I manage to get there Friday morning. Trust me, it can happen.