27 February 2011

Today I worked pushing a heavy ball up hill. The "ball" was cleaning my basement carpet, which got wet when the washtub the washing machine drains into overflowed, flooding the basement carpet. I feel like I spend a lot of my life making up for things that should not have gone wrong, if I'd been paying attention... like the wet carpet. There is a lot to pay attention to in life.

I'm not saying that I'd change my issues for yours, but that they exist is the complaint that I have. Why didn't I notice that the rags from cleaning the duplex had been used to wipe up the plaster spills? The plaster clogged the drain. I had thought the towels had only been used with paint and clean up. My failure to shake them out while putting them in the washer was critical. I doubt the next time, I have cleaning rags from working at a rental, I'll simply put them in the washer.

Now I have a meeting tomorrow for AWE. Handing out the promotional pieces. And then Wednesday I'll be working on an "international costume" for Rotary 8's Auction next weekend. They have chosen an international theme. It is semi formal or wear clothing from another country. My grandmother is from near Sand, in Rogaland, Norway. While the bunad I'm putting together is not authentic, it will do the job of representing my nationalist roots on my mother's side. (My father's side is not so clear and is rumored to even have Nez Perce). Mom's family is very clearly Norge. My sister, Pam, and I visited there in the summer of 2009. It was a wonderful experience to meet our cousins and to see where our grandmother was born, lived and worked. We loved the stories of her and the times she lived in. Very hard life… which is why she immigrated to the USA. She indentured herself to a wealthy family in Minnesota and worked as a housekeeper to pay off the ticket they paid for. Then she married my grandfather, who came from around Oslo. His family name had been Petersen, but he changed it to Strom because he was told there were too many Petersens! For that matter Grandmother changed her name from Aas to Larsen… because she was told Aas was too much like ass, and in America that was not a good thing. Too bad she just didn't change the spelling as her cousins did who went to the east coast. They changed the spelling to Awes. I thought that was very interesting.