Thought for the Day (May 12)

Subject: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 May 99 - 09:34 AM

"Cleaning is not so much about making things clean. It is more about making things look as if someone was paying attention to them."
- Issan Dorsey (Zen monk).

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 12 May 99 - 10:48 AM

Absolutely! I always leave a little bit undusted, so everyone can see I've done the rest.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Jeri
Date: 12 May 99 - 12:48 PM

Chorus from "Martha Stewart Doesn't Live Here,"
words (c) Pat Favorite, tune = "Old Rose And Crown":

Here's to the house, we'll sing with good cheer,
Here's to the housework, we'll do it next year,
And when folks come to visit, it's perfectly clear,
That Miss Martha Stewart, she doesn't live here.

Jeri (And yes, I'll stop playing with the HTML stuff now :-)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Penny S.
Date: 12 May 99 - 12:53 PM

Leave the dust to settle, so when you do do it, you can really see the difference!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: SeanM
Date: 12 May 99 - 01:21 PM

I'm a firm believer that the amount of dust in a room is a constantly expanding variable. All you can ever hope to do is move it somewhere that people won't notice it, and wait for the next coating to land...

M

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 12 May 99 - 01:54 PM

"We must never ACTUALLY do anything, we must ALWAYS give the IMPRESSION we're doing something." Sir Humphrey, on "Yes Minister".

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 May 99 - 02:14 PM

One of my favourite signs at a place my husband used to work at, in the lunchroom:

YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T WORK HERE Clean up after yourself!

If we didn't leave a little dust, what would we do with all of those white gloves!?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 May 99 - 02:43 PM

Can't resist. On a friend's fridge:
"Cleaning Up After Children While They Are Growing Up Is Like Shovelling Snow Before It Has Stopped."
Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Felipa
Date: 12 May 99 - 02:59 PM


With grease and with grime from corner to center
Forever at war and forever alert
No rest for a day lest the enemy enter
I spend my whole life in struggle with dirt

..."There's nothing that's worth the time you waste on it
Nothing that lasts only trouble and dirt"

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Allan C.
Date: 12 May 99 - 03:08 PM

"With grease and with grime from corner to center Forever at war and forever alert No rest for a day lest the enemy enter I spend my whole life in struggle with dirt"
- from THE HOUSEWIFE'S LAMENT

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain

My mom is an impeccable housekeeper. 'nuff said.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 May 99 - 03:14 PM

Stick your finger into the water. Then pull it out. Look at hole you'll leave.

The footprints we leave on the sands (dust) of time will fill (in time).

So, why bother? To make the time we kill filled with music!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Sheye
Date: 12 May 99 - 03:27 PM

BOY: (n) a noise with dirt on it.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Llanfair
Date: 12 May 99 - 05:12 PM

If life's too short to stuff a mushroom, it's certainly too short to do housework. Quentin Crisp has it right, after a couple of years, the dust stops getting thicker. Hwyl, Bron

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: campfire
Date: 12 May 99 - 09:30 PM

What's "housework"? ;)

Seriously, I used to try, but now I've found that the people I really want to visit are the ones that don't even notice (honestly!) whether or not I've dusted and certainly don't care if there are a few dishes left in the sink. What matters most is the people in my life, not the housework. That'll keep.

campfire

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Moonchild
Date: 13 May 99 - 01:09 PM

I just don't understand why, if all my windows are closed, dust finds its way in? My favorite line about dust comes from Joan Rivers, who, in one of her monologues when she was just starting out, said ... "If g-d had meant us to dust, he would have given us dust mops for hand." moonchild

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Jeri
Date: 13 May 99 - 01:21 PM

A friend of mine is fond of saying "2 million tons of dust enters the earth's atmosphere from outer space every year. Who can keep up?"

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Peter T.
Date: 13 May 99 - 01:44 PM

Moonchild, some of the dust comes from off your body -- your skin crumbles all the time, not to mention the dead mites, etc.
Just thought I'd brighten your day.
Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 May 99 - 01:59 PM

Bet's and my granddad wrote the following about sand. It seems appropriate for this thread and, please know, there is NO offense intended to any one of the LDS faith.(Our dad lives in Utah, now, and is married to a "Jack" Mormon.)

Granddad wrote it during WWII while working at Hill Field in Utah. Having been raised in the mountains and their valleys in Colorado, I think it is safe to say he was sorely missing them while on the sandy desert of Utah.

Sahara Village - Hill Field
by P. Frank Hudson
all rights reserved

I live in a house on the side of the hill
Where the drifting sands go by;
The sand that filters thru keyhole and crack
Until you'd be glad to die.
It gets into your hair and into your mouth
And into the sheets on the bed
It buries the plants you have hopefully set
And it lies as heavy as lead.
You cry and cuss, but there still is the sand
And sand there will always be.
There is no relief from the Utah sand
Until the angels come for me.
"This is the place", old Brigham said
And yes, it is the place of sand,
Where Mormons live and humans die,
In this god-forsaken land.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 May 99 - 02:01 PM

Well, sorry phoaks, it ate the copyright notice. It is copyrighted by the G.L. Hudson Family.:-)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Moonchild
Date: 13 May 99 - 04:18 PM

Peter T. ... Thanks, but I think I would have rather gone to the great beyond not knowing that ... moonchild

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: hank
Date: 14 May 99 - 09:14 AM

From my mom's wall, she toook some time to embroider this herself:

Cleaning and scrubbing
Can wait for tommorow
For babies grow up
we have learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs
and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby
And babies don't keep.

It always makes my family cry to see a house with kids that is always perfect. A house with kids that has valuable fragil antiques. It is a sure sign that a kids creativity is being spurened for the sake of keeping a few objects that can't give any love in return. Our house has always been a place for play first, and learning through that play. And most importantly, we love the sound of kids enjoying themself laughing and running far more then we love that vase the accidently knocked to the floor.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Sheye
Date: 14 May 99 - 11:12 AM

To My Grown Up Son

My hands were busy through the day,
I didn't have the time to play
The little games you asked me to,
I didn't have much time for you.
I'd wash your clothes, I'd sew and cook,
But when you'd bring your picture book
And ask me please to share your fun
I'd say "A little later, Son."
I'd tuck you in all safe at night,
Hear your prayers, turn out the light,
Then tiptoe softly to the door,
I wish I'd stayed a minute more.
For life is short, the years rush past,
A little boy grows up so fast.
No longer is he at your side,
His precious secrets to confide.
The picture books are put away,
There are no children's games to play.
No goodnight kiss, no prayers to hear,
That all belongs to yesteryear.
My hands once busy now lie still,
The days are long and hard to fill,
I wish I might go back and do
The little things you asked me to.

author unknown

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Ferrara
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 12:52 PM

hank, I liked your post about feeling sad when you see a house with kids that has valuable antiques in it. My mother used to say she didn't want new furniture because then she'd feel nervous about letting the kids play on it.

Once we all grew up, she got new furniture. But all their lives, kids came first for both of my parents.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Ferrara
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 01:43 PM

Sorry. Didn't realize how old this is! That's what comes from following old links in old threads. At any rate, I found that the quote from Issan Dorsey that opens the thread is actually helpful to me. I resist "housework," but I rather like the idea of making my house look as if someone is paying attention to it.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 10:29 PM

shhhh...don't tell her someone IS paying attention to it when she isn't looking....

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 10:42 PM

Nice to see this refreshed anyway, Rita!

This past weekend we actually washed off about six years of accumulated dust and dirt on our large real venetian blinds in the living room! It does look as though someone is paying attention, until your follows round the room to the un-dusted books, shelves, knicknacks, etc. But the instruments are NOT dusty and the almost 5 year old grandson rules in how "lived in" our house looks! My "shabby chic" antiques are no worries around him!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: JenEllen
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 09:27 PM

LOL Ferrara, I always say that I "Can't get a new couch until the dog dies..." Perish the thought of old bones having to sleep exclusively on the cold floor just 'cause of the "good" fabric. Plenty of time for fancy later.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 09:32 PM

We has a peepel couch an a dawg couch. They let me sit in theirs withem but they doan ask to set up on mines. It's not a reel comfy one iz why.

~S~

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 10:54 PM

I finally insisted on a nice looking used couch. The old dawg gets one end of it, on his own blankie AND human-sized bed pillow...no cold floor for him, as you say, JenEllen!:-)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (May 12)
From: Ferrara
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 11:46 PM

Actually some years ago Bill and I sort of split the responsibilities: Downstairs is Bill's "territory" and the upstairs (living room, kitchen, bedrooms) is "mine." The downstairs looks great most of the time. That's where we host open sings and house concerts. Indeed it usually looks as if someone has been paying attention to it.

Whereas all flat surfaces in spaces where I spend a lot of time look as if there's been a paper-pileup contest held there recently.