Shana Tova y'all. I have done nothing at all for Rosh Hashanah this year other than buying some apples.

With Ethan at TIFF and Dylan back at college, I am realizing how ill-equipped I am to being my own housekeeper. There are so many dishes in the sink and nobody else is going to do them! And this happens EVERY DAY??? What gives? All I did was prepare a bunch of food, how was I supposed to predict there would be consequences.

(Yes, Aeryn is almost 16 and could be helping out a lot more than they are. But only one of my children was born with the natural instinct to see a household task and get it done, and he's 200 miles away in Boston. The one still living at home takes after me and their natural instincts are to ignore household tasks if AO3 is around.)

I am not a natural Housekeeper at all. When i worked full time i had someone to clean once a week, the kids had chores, and DH has always done his share. Foolishly i thought i could manage it when i retired, and yet. The dishes, man. If i didn’t like to cook it might be better. And the robot vacuum only works if I get things out of its way. Also, why for does my phone not capitalize my I? Sheesh!

"Not everyone can be the type of housekeeper I am. It takes years of neglect, and a natural sense of entropy." -- Sam Starfall, in the webcomic FREEFALL

I've really cut down on my cooking because a meal for one makes multiple things messy.

Easier to have some pre-made thing from a fancy grocery (like the roasted corn and tomato salad, or beets, oranges and goat cheese from Bi-Rite), or just order something to go from Haight Street (like the Achiote Chicken and rice at Alembic).

I've got a guest coming today for a six day stay and it's been a sweaty flurry of housekeeping.

Also, I've been fighting a losing battle against fruit flies/sink flies for the last two weeks. Bah! I hate them.

Well the universe heard my unspoken plea - I let them know I was running some errands and said "If you could do the dishes while I'm out that would be helpful" and now I'm home and the dishes are done AND Aeryn is sweeping the kitchen floor. In their own words "I got bored." It's a mid-September miracle!

I miss having a robot vacuum, but when the Roomba died we replaced it with a normal vacuum that honestly does a much much better job. It does require a human to push it around but the rugs actually get clean.

Well done, Aeryn!

I hope when your mom came back she brought pie.

EpicTangent replied to my text. She had a couple of hospital stays this summer and has surgery scheduled next month. Work is going okay and she is doing what she needs to do to stay healthy.

I certainly understand how hard it is to stay engaged on social platforms when real-life stuff is asking a lot of you.

Just received a lengthy text response from EpicTangent, and she gave me permission to re-post it here. I won't try to re-type it all, but here are the important points:

• "...been hospitalized a couple of times this summer, mostly with infections. Generally stuck in for a week or so, but released back to my life. Right now I'm waiting to be scheduled for another surgery, probably in October."
  
• "Work is still going OK, pretty quiet lately."
  
• "...I appreciate you guys checking up on me - it's nice to be reminded that...I do have a village."

eta: Laura was quicker. 🙂

I hope when your mom came back she brought pie.

We stopped for dinner on the way home from a soccer game this afternoon. My favorite diner with all kinds of wonderful classic diner foods. I had an egg salad sandwich on homemade bread, which was delish. They always have a large assortment of yummy pies, but I can never have both food and dessert, so I brought home a slice of chocolate peanut butter cream pie. I try and get different kinds, last couple times it was cherry and coconut cream. The crusts are soooo good.

My great-nephew had a 5K this morning. Came in 1st in his age group and 3rd overall. Then he had a soccer tournament this afternoon, after the first game last night. Ah, to have the energy of a 16-year-old.

eta: x-post with dcp - good that she is responding. I was worried.

Thanks for checking on her, y'all.