Housekeeping, yesterday and today

In truth, today's housekeeping has been recovering from yesterday's housekeeping. "What did you do?" Betty asked. I ran the vacuum. Emptied it and ran it again. And housekeeping comes Tuesday. But I cannot brush Kitty, so I resort to vacuuming to collect her fur. My vacuum and housekeeping's vacuum. Since I am unsteady on my legs, cleaning even as small a space as mine takes t.i.m.e.

Speaking of housekeeping, more than one variety may be in the mix next week. It was already being tested Friday, when two of the young men from the kitchen staff showed up to run the Friday Bingo game. They explained that Joan, our activities director, was on a week's vacation. That explained why she had made a new set of explanatory cards for the games we played every week.

These sweet young men probably had been issued excellent instructions, but the one they both seemed to remember was it might be a good idea to wear disposable gloves. They wear them at night to serve our food, and Bingo involves handling a lot of dirty quarters.

We (the ten Bingo players) wasted valuable playing time telling the two of them some "our" house rules, but then we were off. The two of them ran each game more efficiently than Joan, if that were possible, and there was even time for an extra game of five in a row. 

The last ten minutes of each session is for the last game of cover the board, and it costs a dollar to play, not just a quarter. Eventually Joanne (not I) said bingo, and while the boys were checking her numbers, Phil, across the table, asked if they had called a certain number. The answer was no, that was a lucky number, to be covered for free. "In that case," Phil said, "I've had 'bingo' for some time."

This has happened to several of we players, myself included. The "house rule" is call it or lose it. But the sweet young men put their heads together and decided to split the pot. And Phil took it. The boys asked Joanne if she were OK with that, and she mumbled yes. She's from the generation of men are right, even twenty year old college sophomores. 

Christina, the dining room manager, told us "the lot of them" will be gone at the end of this coming week. Their various college classes will begin again. 

I've been weaving. Down to the last row of lime bobbins. A couple more days. And the fellows outdoors are digging trenches and pouring more concrete. I want to throw open the window and yell to be careful of the tree's roots (!) because of all the digging going on. And I see the photography program has updated again, because I no longer can see how to upload a photo. Oh, well. Next time.

I found it!