it all depends

version 2

I have, as of 3.30 pm, accomplished virtually nothing I intended to do today. Yes, I realise I have hours left but, at the rate things are developing, that will be irrelevant. Today is another lesson in how you look at things….

First, I realised, upon hearing a couple of ‘in the future we might consider….’ suggestions, that I had allowed too much stuff to accumulate on flat surfaces. When EleanorRoosevelt (the Cat) was young, she helped resolve that in a major way as she would knock over anything erect. No, seriously: glasses, vases, relatively small piles of books. No, she never pushed off a lamp but everything else on a flat surface was fair game as she obviously channeled my husband’s keen desire for order.

One doesn’t live in a space the size of a postage stamp without noticing stuff that sprouts like weeds all over a house; my husband most definitely did over his entire career at sea. His desk may have a couple of folders on it but it’s neat, everything is filed, and nothing collect dust in his alcove office.

I don’t have a dedicated study, preferring my humble comfy couch space instead. I use an end table for my pens, puzzle books, and a light. That was in pretty good shape but, I had let stuff accumulate on the dining room table where I make zoom calls. I had allowed a piece of paper or seven on the counter (where I am absolutely aware of escaped food storage containers so they do get put away immediately), and in the storage—i mean second—bedroom. I happened to have completely arranged my desk in the bedroom Friday so I had a recent reminder that it never takes as long to do what you dread. But hearing ‘we need consider’ concerns versus what I had planned on doing today were completely different trajectories for the day.

I set about storing the excess paper products, the digital gifts I bought recently, and cleaning the cat box. I pursued a couple of other things in changing out our old email system into our new one (drcynthiawatson@gmail.com) and tracked down one other mystery. So, really, I guess I was ahead of things until lunch.

I consider myself a truly hospitable person as I grew up in a family where entertaining was part of living where we did. I thoroughly enjoy sharing our Annapolis home with folks.

I was both truly inhospitable and markedly unhappy, however, when I opened the pantry in search of nuts to finish lunch when I detected something moving that was not me. No, wait, that little thing moved, didn’t it? Oh, maaannnnn, I planned to write this afternoon but I cannot abide infestations. I have suffered through three moth problems over 39 years and I detest those little suckers.

It wasn’t moths, thank goodness, which had plagued us the summer we moved in. I nearly got us voted out of the community before we actually moved in when I went overboard on moth retribution (no, there probably weren’t any deterents in any form to be had in Annapolis and environs that spring as I had them all here. NOT a good move as the neighbour upstairs called our community maintenance guru to ask what on earth we did down here. As I say, not a good move. Thank goodness he was only overwhelmed one morning).

This go around the offenders were some itsy bitsy black stick-looking creatures that move. I am not into that type of hospitality.

So, I began cleaning out the beautiful pantry which brought up a second issue. I detest wasting anything. I turn lights off when I go in and out of rooms (yes, yes, I am definitely neurotic as a number of you have known for decades), I run cold water except where i must unavoidably run hot water. I compost food scraps because I know it’s great for the soil and cheaper than buying toxic treatments.

But, I had to surrender to the reality that those varmits were feasting on something or they would be elsewhere. Well, crapola. I had to go through each item in the narrow but six shelved pantry to determine whether it likely or absolutely had varmits; any chance it was salvagable? (The cats, by the way, were oblivious to my efforts. Where are they when they could have been hunting? Sleeping they were. Ingrates as I was giving them an opportunity to spend quality time with me cleaning, wasn’t I??? My husband was out at an appointment so he missed this fun, too.)

Then reality about waste really hit. Pepitas with a use by date of 2018. I have never used a pepita for anything in my life: where did they come from? Ah, yes, my adventuresome Philadelphia cook who was here a couple of times in 2018. I never even knew they were here. I decided the compost needed pepitas.

I found six bags of pistachios. Paging Doug Norton! Paging Doug Norton! Your pistachios are all here for those wonderful afternoons when we get together on the deck for pistachios, beer, and watching Annapolis sail by. But, six bags, Cynthia, six??

The heartbreak was the King Arthur Sourdough starter. I was abstractly pondering it only last week, thinking I should make some sourdough but we have such a superb bakery where we procure our weekly bread that i haven’t done much baking, except shortbread, since the pandemic. But, that is the point: I knew I had the sourdough starter but assumed I refrigerated it while my best friend must have assumed it went in the pantry. Oh, well. I hope it wasn’t a 29th generation starter bit from the Mayflower but it was in sorry shape.

You get the picture. Turned out the infestation was limited, though I certainly purged a bunch of stuff for various reasons. I also used soap and water, lysol and water, and elbow grease where honey or my beloved hot sauce stuck to the pantry shelf for some inexplicable reason. Everything bagged, out to the bin. Annapolis Compost’s pickup will also be a bit heavier this coming week. The sink is empty now.

My husband just walked in the door. He hasn’t visited the pantry yet but will notice there are actually open spaces to hold jars, bags, etc. which was not the case when he departed.

Why is this version 2 of ‘it all depends’? I obviously hated so much not getting to the things I had deemed meriting my time today. Those included prepping for a new business venture with a friend. I had intentions of indulging in a nice long walk, continuing to plow through Andrew Roberts’ Last King and a boatload of email messages.

It reminded me how lucky we are that throwing away spoiled food isn’t going to result in going hungry. What luck though we have worked hard as well.

I had not expected to have an organised, clean, and more available, welcoming pantry. I had not focused on how good it would feel to have things put away in the spare bedroom, drying rack clothes folded, and a return packed for UPS drop off. I hadn’t considered the multiple trips to the bin would allow me to do bursts of walking which are better than nothing. I certainly did not anticipate the sense of unmitigated joy at defeating those varmits.

If you were looking for trials and tribulations, today’s were on the micro level today but you also see that all politics and life is really local in the end, isn’t it? FIN