When she has a couple of hours to herself

After dropping James off at MDO (mother’s day out), I went back home to have a cuppa joe and ponder what to do with the precious few hours to myself. I decided that since my mom and sister are due to arrive later this evening, I should clean the floors of debris, dust and dog fur, so as not to appear as an unfit lazy house frau. So I sat on the couch and drank my coffee and flipped channels for a while to gain the energy to sweep, dust and vacuum. After I watched some trash TV, I switched it off and tossed out the wild dogs and swept the floors. Feeling pretty accomplished, I organized the toys, which is a futile and thankless chore, but I found myself feeling much better after I was done. Then I dusted the furniture which made me feel really productive. Unfortunately if all came to a nasty end once I got out the vacuum cleaner. You see, my cleaning lady uses it sometimes, and she just doesn’t care for it the way I do. It needs special love and attention; it is high maintenance. I have neglected it since Maria has been cleaning for me. I emptied out the dust canister thinking that would help, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I made a vain attempt to vacuum the living room rugs, fruitlessly going back and forth over the same tuft of fur over and over. Then I had to do it, I took apart my high maintenance vacuum cleaner. I washed the canister and other filter parts in the kitchen sink in a warm bath of soapy water. Then I produced an old toothbrush and scrubbed out the crusted dust and fur from the sweeper brush and trimmed the hairs and strings wrapped around it with a small pair of scissors. I rinsed out the inner parts and gently laid them out to dry on the counter top. I wiped off the rest of the vacuum with a damp towel and set it aside to rest. I essentially gave my vacuum cleaner a spa day. So much for my free time.