Hosed

Over the 50-plus years my husband and I have been married, we’ve lived in houses in eight different states. During that time, the floors were mostly carpeted and I didn’t give them much thought except to vacuum. We moved to Seattle almost three years ago and all the floors in this house are hardwood. Nice, I thought! Pretty, and what a breeze! Not true. We are surrounded by huge Douglas firs and in fact have one right outside our back door. Why do 150-foot trees have such tiny little needles? They drop constantly and find all sorts of ways to get inside the house. That’s not to mention the dust bunnies, known to my mother as “collywobbles” and to my growing-up neighbor as “old men”. They congregate under the beds, the dressers and sofas, even when regularly swept up. I imagine they were an issue when we had carpeting but maybe it was just easier to pretend they weren’t there. So I bought a Swiffer. I hate crawling underneath furniture to get at stuff but it’s a solution. My husband’s long term answer, after he took a turn to clean under the bed and dresser today, was to leave things alone until we move someplace else. I like better the idea one of our son’s girlfriends came up with long ago: The ideal house would be one that could be hosed out. There’s a dive bar called the Blue Moon in the U-District in Seattle that used to do exactly that every morning. I once walked past while water was streaming out through the front doors. Not sure if they still do it but I think it’s a fine idea.

Courtesy TheOtherKev at Pixabay.com