Thursday, December 27, 2007

 

The Locust Ladies

What with the herd of R's who stampeded through our house the other day -- a full dozen! -- the work of the Locust Ladies this afternoon will be especially appreciated.

The Locust Ladies is what I call the cleaning ladies we've had coming every two weeks or so for the past couple of months. So called because the first time they came, they descended on the house like a swarm of locusts! I was impressed.

They finally have met Dr. ER, so maybe they'll believe me now. One of them told Dr. ER that they call me "the bachelor."

Ha! I'll bet they called me "the bachelor with the imaginary wife and invisible cat."

For weeks I claimed to have a wife and a cat, but neither had ever appeared when the Locust Ladies were present. Last time they were at the house, one of them finally saw Ice-T before he could scram up under our bed.

Apologies to Dr. ER for years of not knowing what she was talking about when she talked about "getting the house ready" to be cleaned. I just didn't get it. I do now.

I spent 2 1/2 hours this morning getting the house ready for the Locust Ladies. They *do* have to be able to get to the floor to vacuum it.

And it's only being humane to scoot all our Christmas presents back up under the tree, put away the detritus from the R Christmas get-together and do other basic tidying.

The past few days went like like: Christmas Eve Eve Eve, R Christmas get-together; Christmas Eve Eve, our own Christmas with Bird and Beau; Christmas Eve, go to Texas for Christmas with Dr. ER's folks, Christmas Day, I came back home and Dr. ER spent another day in Texas, and is now on her way back.

This morning was the first chance I'd had to make way for the Locust Ladies!

Gift question: Not counting anything edible, what was the first gift that you incorporated into your life? Mine: a Buck Owens greatest hits CD from the Dr. ER Daddy, which I played in the truck on the way back to Oklahoma.

--ER

Comments:
I'd love to have some of those locust ladies once in a while, especially if none of them is called DCup!

My first used gift? My slippers. Snipped of the taggy thing and popped those badboys on my cold feet!

Glad you've had a nice visit with the family.
 
Other than the roll of Necco's, socks and underwear. What man's Christmas would be complete without his womenfolk (and, in my case, my pets) getting him packages of socks and underwear?

With all that traveling, it's no wonder you actually looked forward to getting back to work. A little bit of normal life and routine is always refreshing after even the best times with friends and family.
 
Ice-T got some presents, too! Most of 'em are still in his stocking! Bad ER!
 
Ah, my first use of a gift was the book of poems my youngest son gave me. It is the reprint of the singer, poet, songwriter Leonard Cohen's "Let Us Compare Mythologies" first published in 1956. So far my favorite poem is entitle "Letter". Its first line is:

"How you murdered your family
means nothing to me
as your mouth moves across my body"
 
Yikes! DrLoboJo, back when I was bottom-feedin' I might coulda dang near said somethin' similar about some of the gals I used to "date."
 
Bottom-feeding?

BTW, ER, I set up a country station on Pandora for you to listen to when you're visiting my place - Merle, Waylon, Conway, Willie, Hank, Loretta, Tammy, Patsy, and whatever else comes up. I set the parameters, and they did the rest. You can embed Pandora in your own blog - just go to the thread on my site about Fine Tune, and click the link that Cameron provided.
 
Cool. Embedding Pandora is on my to-do list!
 
Very, very quickly incorporated the swanky digital camera from my folks. It has both zoom and macro capabilities, and a continuous shot feature that I got to try out today at the dolphin show at the acquarium. Fun!
 
Love your description of the Locust Ladies and wish I'd have a plague of them around here. Also saw your article on the place with my name and thought that was very cool, as the one that was on NW 23 was a hangout for those in Our Chosen Field back when I was young and beautiful. I miss that one and I have a T-shirt from the one you mentioned.
 
ER said "...back when I was bottom-feedin' I might coulda dang near said somethin' similar about some of the gals I used to "date."

Then you missed your calling. Leonard Cohen has made $$$millions over the years with his lyrics and tunes.

GKS, bottom feeding, a catfish term, eats anything that drifts down that far.
 
By the way upon hearing about your locust ladies, I looked about the house and approximated the amount of preliminary work required before such could effectively work upon it. I decide I would have to call those "Crime Scene" Cleaners first to do the preliminary effort. You know those that clean out a place when the body has been there a few weeks amidst the deep clutter of a hoarder and collector.
 
Dern you, ER. Did you have a conversation with my wife the other night at dinner when I wasn't looking? She and I have this conversation regularly...about how she does more cleaningof the house (and expects more of me) since we hired someone to clean the house!

I'll tell you, though, that's one luxury that I'll hold on to longer than running water. Neither of us has time to do it, but both feel so at peace when things are clean and tidy.

But I doubt I'll ever give up mowing my own lawn...
 
Dr: I lived enough of the catfish-lovin' blues from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s for a career's worth of songs. Hell, I wrote a bunch of 'em. Now if I could just remember 'em!
 
Kirsten: The year I got a good decent camera, that was the first thing I incorporated, too. A digital camera is a quality item!
 
Trixie: The Business Bearing Your Given Name story broke late yestersday, but I was glad to stay late to do it. I lofve that place, and had eaten there enough -- onvce at breakfast with an Oklahoma Supreme Court justice, and an OKC bidness man -- and knew I could do the basic story the justice it deserved. I'm in the background on a later full story about the joint ...
 
Sharp: Why, yes, yer swett thing and I DID hafve a talk without you payin' attention -- about you! Kidding. .. I was with you about keeping control of the lawn care until I totally lost control of my turf. From here on out, if I can afford to have someone take care it, I'm gonna let it go. Reserving my energy and time for a vegetable garden!
 
Geoffrey: I, too, am a fan of Necco's! I get 'em at the Cracker Barrel ...
 
And I thought it was just my wife that spent so much time getting the house ready to be cleaned!
 
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