Chores

Waking up today was the first chore. The pups have become used to me waking up no later than 5am in recent weeks, and are very insistant about eating at that time, despite the fact that they didn't eat until about 1130 last night. For the last two days, however, I've closed the store, and not gotten home until about 1030 or so. This means that I am up until the wee hours, playing and winding down. So when 3am rolled around last night and I finally got to bed, I should have known that it would be merely a nap. The hounds awoke at 7am, 8am, 9am and I finally gave in and got up around 930. It's not their fault, I know, They are so starved for food, treats, and attention! :P

Next chore involved wrangling down the air filter here in the house. Our rental contract actually states that we must change it once a month. When I first read that I thought it was ludicrous and overzealous, but Arizona is the dustiest place on the planet and a monthly change is probably too infrequent. Sadly, I haven't changed it in about 2-3 months, so it was a horrific mess of grime, and was making a sickly whistling sound. Bucket was standing at the base of the stepstool (which, out of necessity, was placed just at the edge of top of the stairs) and I held my breath in anticipation of him bolting after some unseen offender and sending me to my doom. He didn't, I lived, and the filter has been changed.

I of course had to drag out the vacuum to suck the nastiness off of the grill that holds the filter in place and that evolved into a quick zip around the loft. I had NO intention of doing any vacuuming today, but those things just sort of evolve for me. It's some bizarre form of ADD.

I now have to empty the vacuum cleaner of its sludge, which will digress into yardwork. Here is the progression: I have to take the vacuum "bucket" out to the trash bin to empty it. The bin is currently on the front walk because it's pickup day. They should have come by now, so I will drag the bin to the back yard, where there are bags of pulled weeds and bits of trees that the dogs have chewed off. These will, of course, have to be tidied up. Then, while I'm doing that, I will note the abundance of poo and commence poo patrol. The vacuum cleaner will be emptied, but vacuuming the remainder of the house will go to the bottom of the list. This is why there are so many half projects in my life. I Poing.

I hear the dogs doing something naughty. I must be off...