Into The Black Hole

My place has never been accused of being meticuously organized and spotless, but in the pre-law school days it usually only took me an hour or two to clean up the place if company was coming. All the major things had their place, it was simply the minor nick-nacks that refused to find a spot.

Then came the black hole of school were time itself can't escape. Cleaning took a lower position on the t0-do list every day, especially last year. I was hoping that during the summer I would have more free time and finally get around to a belated spring cleaning. Spring finals immediately rolled into two memo, which rolled into summer classes and looking for work, which rolled into editing a paper to be published, which rolled into summer finals, which rolled into finally working! Since I rolled out of working I finally decided that I should start that cleaning session because I wasn't going to have the free time come August 25th when classes fired up.

Last week was a lot of piddling around to be honest. Sort of a nibble on the edges of an unpleasant meal type of exercise. The last three days were a serious effort. Too bad there wasn't a river to divert around here in order to clean out the stables! I've been up to 2am these past days working on the various piles of garbage in here. Garbage is incorrect. 'Junk mail' would be the most accurate! Easily a third of the pile was junk mail that I hadn't gotten around to immediately throw away! It amazes me the amount of junk mail I get every day. Imagine not throwing it away for a few weeks because when you get home you're just wanting to eat a meal, rush out, or go to sleep! You'll make a small hill easily with all those ads.

Another third was cases, handouts, legal articles, and assorted what not that a law student accumulates with easy! Search 20 old cases to find perhaps 2 good paragraphs worth of material. I'm amazed environmentalists don't start picketing the schools due to the amount of forest we fell in the pursuit of the almighty Lexis and Westlaw!

Finally I relented and allowed my mother to come and help today. She brought two things of note: 1) the fuzzy MacGyver hound who would gladly supervise the humans, and 2) a cool steam cleaning widget! Mom was amazed at the progress I had made in the family room. I had a chair that could be sat upon finally instead of a cloth desk. We swept up the dust dragons (dust bunnies would not do these objects justice), and prepared the unknown steam device. It was practicably given to my folks for free with no instructions and no owner's manual. Imagine a clothing iron with a long handle. That's what this thing was. You fill this thing up with water, attach a rag to the bottom of it to clean up the mess, plug it in, and start cleaning! Only we thought it was a dud until we stumbled upon the power button that was not plainly marked. Woo-hoo! A light came on!

Low pressure steam on dirt is a beautiful thing to behold. My wooden floors look almost as good as the day I laid them down. The tiled front entry hasn't looked this good since I finished laying it down during Fall Break my 1L year. Even the 30 year old linoleum...well nothing will make that old material look good, but at least it looks clean! I don't care how much this thing costs: I WILL GET ONE!

There is a downside though. All the stuff that didn't belong in either the family room or the dining room has been shoved into the living room. Behind me is a pile that could go critical mass at any moment! The event horizon of my living room is a place to be feared! It can wait until tomorrow. I was up until 2am this morning and mom and dog arrived at 6:30. I'm tired and just want to sleep. Umm...sounds like I'm back in class already. On the plus side, that recycling bin is going to be very full when I'm done.