My Dirt

I'm using a lot more of my precious energy reserves these days in sweeping the floor. Sweeping is one of those activities that inexplicably causes me to perspire and makes my abdominal muscles ache, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. A broom is very light. The motions required to sweep are simple and easy. I can do lots of other housework type things such as folding laundry and not break a sweat.

It's a mystery.

So why am I sweeping and sweating more these days?

Because awhile back, Maggie the mini schnauzer decided to eat the rocks in our landscaping. Lots and lots of them. Enough that she required surgery to remove about thirty stones from her little doggie tummy. Enough to require John to shovel out all the pea gravel from the paths that wind through our trees in the back yard.

He wasn't happy about this. Or the enormous vet bill. If he didn't have aching muscles after all that hard work, John might have seen a bit more humor in my comment that Mags  was thinking that our back yard was her own Hard Rock Cafe. Snort.

We decided to replace the rock with bark dust, which clings to schnauzer fur like crazy, even though we try to swipe their fur with a towel every time they come into the house. And that is why I'm sweeping twice a day.

I'm not happy about this.

If John or one of the dogs gets in my way when I'm sweeping grumpily, I'll tell them to stay out of my dirt! Which phrased more accurately would be, don't track through my bark dust and make me sweep all over again! Which then led to an even grumpier thought: What makes this MY dirt, anyway?

Maggie and Lulu - this dirt is yours, girls. All of it. I wonder if I could attach little dust mops to their feet so they could clean up after themselves? I suppose it would be more realistic to send the woogie girls over to have a nice short haircut.

Say buh-bye to your long silky schnauzer locks, girlfriends. So hopefully I can say buh-bye to my broom.