Sunday, April 22, 2007

Why I love living here and now

My Scooba battery died.

I had to wash the kitchen and playroom floors {gasp!} myself.

That’s right! Your faithful correspondent was sent back to the Stone Age and had to get out the Hoover Floormate, and find the Lysol solution, and then push the Floormate back and forth, hither and yon, across the whole floor…herself…and it did not then bring me a fruity drink with a little umbrella in it and murmur, Madam, I have finished the kitchen…if it pleases you, I will now take myself upstairs and scrub the children’s bathroom floor… so that I could wave my hand languidly and say, “Make it so, Scooba dear, make it so…”

I was grumbling to myself. Did I have any idea (I asked myself, rhetorically) how much I didn’t want to do this? I mean, really! My mouth is still killing me, and when I bend over (say, to unload the dishwasher) it just throbs and throbs and I’m pretty darned sure that mopping the kitchen floor with the Floormate isn’t going to help any too much and wah wah whine whine complain complain.

But as I was pouring the solution into the tank and plugging the monster in, I had already moved on to thinking how darned glad I am that I live here, and now, with these household machines to help me deal with the mundanities of life.

It took fifteen minutes for me to thoroughly scrub about four hundred square feet of Pergo. Scrubbed, and dried, and ready to walk on again.

Fifteen minutes, and the movie-theater like coating was removed. The black spots from shoes and the fly-trap like areas where sippy cups had leaked were gone. The dirt was lifted. The floor was clean enough for a baby to crawl on.

I like here and now. I really do. The dishwasher is working on the dirty dishes, the Floormate took care of the filthy floors, tomorrow the washing machine will tumble the clothes clean and the dryer will fluff them nicely.

Hmm. I wonder if anybody is working on a folding-and-putting-away robot…

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! A folding and putting away robot! That would be wonderful! If you could get one that stuffs all the toys back in the box/cupboard - I'd buy one!

Teenagers can be trained to empty dishwashers but the toxic emissions (big black cloud of resentment and none-of-my-friends-have-to-do-slave-labour-like-this muttering) are a problem.

My cleaning lady makes life worth living. I love her dearly and every Monday, after the trainwreck that is my house after a weekend, I welcome her with open arms and pots of tea and cries of joy.

PipneyJane said...

Can you get the Scooba fixed????

- Pam (curious minds want to know)

Anonymous said...

Oh! Can I get a fold-and-put-away robot? At least then the mound of laundry in the laundry room would be neatly tucked in drawers. I can wash and dry--and then the pile begins to grow of clean clothes shoved into a basket. Yeah, I know, do it after each load, but I must not be wired that way.

21stCenturyMom said...

What is this floor washer of which you speak? I have always done it manually (which is why my floors are so often dirty). I had no idea there were machines that could do it for me. I need to modernize.

ps- I met a woman once who had 6 kids and anyone 6 and over was put to work folding laundry and putting it away.

Anonymous said...

My teenagers are dishwasher and washing-machine trained, even the boy child. Mopping, not so much though. I see a Roomba and a Scooba in my future.

RM Kahn said...

The Peanut is working on a laundry sorter for me.

Kate (Kiss My Frog) said...

Oh, for a dishwasher! Oh, for a Roomba, a Scooba, a cleaning lady, even children old enough that I could crack the whip and make them do it!
I always deeply resent the way all of these chores eat into my knitting time.
I saw a bumper sticker that said; "You know you're a mother when your feet stick to the kitchen floor.... and you don't care!"
Words to live by, people, words to live by.

Jen said...

I want a Scooba! It takes me about an hour to sweep my kitchen/dining room/entry and another hour to mop it all. Then the dog tracks it up within an hour or so.

Amy Lane said...

I'd buy it, and I'd keep it shiny and neat and pet it and I would call it Paolo and feed it bananas and grapes.

Anonymous said...

I have 4 laundry baskets full of clothes looking at me right now....

Science PhD Mom said...

Mmmm...Scooba...I had not remembered that such a robot existed. I think I see a beautiful friendship beginning...let me put one on my Amazon wishlist. With the whole house having hardwood floors, I would LOVE this robot!

Let me know if you find any folding & putting away robots...

(She who is now washing clothes that she forgot she owned, it has been that long since laundry was completely done.)