A Good Hosing
Heidi is coming to visit this week, and we’ve been using her arrival date as an excuse to get some things done around the house, as we’re otherwise slothful 8-year olds with credit cards. I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning off the lower patio, scrubbing dirt off the back porch/walkway walls (deposited by our canine dirt-delivery systems), rinsing schmutz off the patio furniture and the arbor over the firepit and all the windows I could get to by water before my back got annoyed and Stephen had to step in and rearrange the remainder of what I’d left akimbo.
Though we did need to attack the dog-dirt with a sponge and soapy water, a good blast from the hose took care of most of the grime elsewhere. As I was flagging about an hour and a half into it I was reminded of several important things:
1) What I put out there is what I’ll get back – standing under the water’s point of impact as I spray it above my head at the eaves/overhead beams means I will get a) pleasantly misted and thus nicely cooled in the summer sun, or b) a faceful of cobwebs, bird poop, and dirt of unknown origin-infused water, all depending on my intention/direction.
2) One pass at something is not always enough – washing off half the dirt on the wall then admiring the effect the remainder creates (sort of an amber wash over sage green stucco) is fine by way of taking a short break to let my shoulders rest; calling it art, or an artistic effect, or just plain better looking that way is pure laziness.
3) I can do more than I think I can do – this time last year I wouldn’t have been able to be out in the sun and heat (mild as it is right now) for more than an half-hour before starting to get heat exhaustion, nor would I have had the energy for a solid two and a half hours of bending, twisting, lunging and waving my arms around, all while standing up no less.
Conclusions? A good hosing cures many ills, and brings wisdom.