In Which I Prostrate Myself Before Those Of You Who Clean On A Regular Basis

I have not thoroughly cleaned my house in two years.

TWO YEARS.

You see, first there was the Neverending Cough thing, then the thing with Mom, then half of Mom's stuff ended up over here on my dining room table and in the office, and there was the whole grief and anger and get-over-it-already-you're-beating-it-into-the-ground thing. And what with all of that, my house, never spotless to begin with, became a sty.

All we lacked were the pigs. And some of us were beginning to grow curly tails and oink occasionally, so Something Had To Be Done.

A LIST was made. Items were crossed off the list as they were accomplished. And so far the dining room has become a dining room again, the office an office, the bathroom has been stripped of age-old wallpaper and painted, railings have been hung, stairs have been cleaned, vacuuming has been done, dust has been dusted, and the first mouse of the season has been caught.

We're off to a grand start.

The carpeting is being cleaned tomorrow. I plan to de-junk the bedroom, sanitize both upstairs bathrooms, and shop for Thanksgiving food and decorative items for the "new" bathroom tomorrow.

I also plan to de-germ everything in sight, being as The Boy has managed to come down with something similar to the flu. I took him to Urgent Care today, and while he tested negative for flu, the doctor said the test has a 40% false negative rate.

Comforting stuff, that. So why bother to do the test?

We were also told there is a possibility he has H1N1, so I was to take him home and isolate him, but make sure he has plenty of fluids to drink. I asked if there was a test they could do to determine if he actually had it or not. Yes, they said, but it costs $300.00. Hospitals won't even do it unless it's a dire case.

Sheesh.

So, because his lungs sounded a little hoarky, The Boy was put on antibiotics. The rest of the family was put on Lysol and hand sanitizer.

We're having 30 people over for Thanksgivng on Thursday.

Somehow or another I'm thinking these two things do not go hand-in-hand.

Pray for "fever-free for 24 hours" to happen soon, Interpeeps.

Otherwise, all this cleaning may be in vane....kind of.