Done Pulling

I am getting down to pulling out the last of my gray hairs. Therefore, no more hair pulling for right now. It is a rather time intensive activity anyway and doesn’t get either my DVD player or vacuum cleaner cooperating in a more suitable way.

Of course, I really feel the urge to holler at my newly acquired U.K. appliances, “Shape up you buggers or else!” But all I would get in return is reproachful silence, and I don’t take that very well.

The good news is that now that all the hair pulling is done, I actually have managed not only to locate my iPod among all the still to be emptied boxes and cartons, I also was able to download some of my favorite podcasts (thanks again to this friendly and generous wireless neighborhood).

So this Saturday morning in this wonderful U. K., with Bill Moyers and Barbara Ehrenreich whispering into my ears, my life never looked brighter.

If you had seen me then, however, you would have wondered what possibly could have brought me to that conclusion.

After all, there I was clad in a ‘borrowed’, slightly faded bathrobe from one of Matt’s work trips, puke green rubber gardening clocks on my barefoot feet, and the filth of many days in my hair, not to mention the acid smell of hard labor exuding from my armpits.

Around me nothing but more filth and sorry disarray and with me nothing but a mop and unyielding determination.

But I can tell you that after four years of not touching neither pail nor broom, it feels good to do some dirty work again. Because during these last years it actually never seemed quite right to skip off to the Country Club while someone less fortunate swept our floors on a Saturday morning.

It feels good not only because the decent thing to do is in fact to clean up after oneself, but also because accomplishing something so desperately needed leads to satisfaction.

I may be stealing somebody’s job by cleaning up my own mess these days but then, with the cost of living in the U.K., it’s not likely that I am ever going to be a good employer anyway.

I am down to offering nothing but minimum wage and no benefits and only my children will accept that for now.