Not much going on this week. I was doing a bit of cleaning though. I decided to give my shower a thorough cleaning, as opposed to the quick wipe down that I usually do. I had multiple types of soap, a couple scrub brushes, including a tooth brush for those hard to clean areas. All was going well when I noticed a few strands of hair hanging over the drain. I grabbed those hairs and pulled them up. There was a huge clump of junk at the end. I kept pulling and another huge clump of hair, slime, and soap was at the end. By the time I was done, it looked like I had pulled a rat out of my drain. Even the cats were alarmed, jumping around outside the shower. That part was funny because the cats were so jumpy, I could make them jump a few feet by moving my new pet rat around the shower. Anyway, I decided to take the drain cover off and fish for more rat size debris in the drain. There was none, but my drain cover wasn’t the color I thought it was. I scrubbed that thing to a fine shining bronze, from a dull brownish color, thanks to Bar Keepers Friend Cleaner and Polish. The whole experience is a little disturbing. So, I could have a rat living in my shower drain and the drain could still be running fine. If there was a real rat, those darn cats would be evicted for not doing their jobs.

I’m back to being the lunch lady at the high school/middle school. I was sweeping out the freezer, noticing that sweeping a walk-in freezer is a unique experience. The bits of food and dirt are like little ice cubes and they bounce around when you sweep them. Oh, and you can’t mop in a walk in freezer. That would be like making an ice rink in the walk-in. No, I didn’t try (I’m not actually that stupid), but it crossed my mind that it’s unusual to have a space you can’t mop. We sweep and mop everything all the time. Oh, and if your foot gets in the way of the walk-in freezer door, your foot will lose. When something has to give, it will NOT be the door. And that door can take off a chunk of your toe nail right through your shoe. That I did learn the hard way, which was followed by me jumping around, trying not to swear (I’m at the school) for an excessive amount of time. I eventually recovered, minus a quarter of my big toe nail. It didn’t even bleed because that nail bed is damaged from a similar incident in childhood involving a flagstone. Yes, I am that stupid.

Finally, I was spending time with two of my sisters yesterday (thanks Debbie and Teresa for coming out to the country). I had to slam on the brakes in Bert, the SUV of questionable origin. This is not an unusual occurrence since the speed limit on Rt. 30 is 55 and sometimes the lights change. Of course, all the debris in my car can be heard sliding forward. It occurred to me that this is the perfect way to clean the car. Slam on the brakes, coaxing all the stuff out of hiding, then have whoever is in the car sort through the stuff and toss most of it out. The reward for helping could be the questionable snacks that slide out from under the seats. Of course, this has to happen on Rt. 30 because it would look bad to pick up that kind of speed in the cul-de-sac. I’ll let you know if my car gets any cleaner now. Don’t hold your breath.

Have a good rest of your week. Let me know if you have had any cleaning chronicles recently.