A REVOLUTION!!

That's right. I'm ready to start a revolution. Overthrowing Castro? Nah, he's gonna croak anytime now and Miami is gonna party.

The revolution I have in mind is getting rid of SALT. Specifically road salt. It seems that the company hired to do the salting at work decided that More is Better. Actually, the whole truckload seems pretty darn good. The entire parking lot (I am not stretching the truth) is covered with blue road salt. It is like driving on a gravel parking lot.

The inside of the Church was covered in the same stuff. As a little experiment (weird I know) I decided to see just how much of the stuff I vacuumed. So, fresh bag in. Vacuum for hours. Take bag home and weigh it on my scale. How much you ask? 21.5 ounces That was just on the carpet! I couldn't come up with a good way to isolate just the salt from the usual gunk on the tiled portion of the floor. Sampling would have worked, but they don't pay me the big bucks for floor gunk sampling! So, no estimate on the tile portion. But it was probably at least another pound based on the weight of the dustbin.

Yikes. Two pounds of salt sprinkled all over the floor. If that's what's on the carpet/floor, think how much must be on the sidewalks and lot. So much for the grass that used to grow. My theory about the dying trees out front has always been salt poisoning. So much for any invertebrates trying to survive in the Huron River! So much for the fish. Aren't we supposed to be good stewards? I don't think we're doing a very good job if we're overpaying a janitor to clean up salt that was needlessly tracked in to a place of worship on people who had to walk through a salt mine where all of the runoff goes to our local River.

Rant, rave, revolution! I think I'll have a word with my boss.

A Strange Occurrence

Greetings readers. Yup, another post. Your lucky day and all that.

This is a TRUE story. Luckily I don't even know the name of the person involved, so no chance of her being recognized. Reenie, would YOU ever do this???

There I was in the Chapel bathroom getting started on my usual duties when a woman rushes in and breathlessly asks, "Can I just step in for a minute?". Sure, no problem. I go about doing other usual duties waiting patiently for the poor, must-be-sick-as-a-dog woman to finish her emergency bathroom trip. Several flushes are heard. LOTS of handwashing, LOTS of paper towel pulling. Finally, she emerges. In one of her hands is a paper coffee cup wrapped with aforementioned paper towels.
She says thank you and turns to go. She thinks better of it and turns back to me and says, "I hope you don't mind - I just flushed my dog's poop down the toilet."
Somewhat surprised, I stammered that no I didn't mind as long as she didn't flush the baggie down the drain too. "Oh no." she said. "I had it in this coffee cup and just turned it over and dumped it out."
The 'I'm a Little Teapot' song comes to mind....

Like I said, true story. Wow. I guess I should be thankful, but that was definitely a very surprising first!

Chemistry Lesson

This is a pee story, so if you're uptight about mentioning bodily fluids, read no more!

Today while cleaning the Church, I went into the hall bathroom where my nose was assaulted by the odor of , yup you guessed it, pee. There were no visible puddles on the floor or toilet, so I moved the rolling bin of extra paper products and discovered the source of the smell. Someone's aim was so totally off that they had managed to pee on the wall one foot to the left of the toilet and it had dripped down the tile and accumulated under the bin. At least, that's what I think happened. Seeing as how the tile is somewhat dark and the grout is stained anyway, it was hard to tell. Dried pee? I presumed so.
Now, I know what happens when you mix bleach and ammonia. BAD! Chlorine gas is released which is lethal. Chloramines can also be released when the ration of bleach to ammonia is lessened. Still BAD! I also remember that one of the components of urine is ammonia. So, how to get rid of the awful smell?
It seemed to me that the ammonia would have evaporated as the pee dried since it is a volatile substance. The hospital grade antibacterial stuff I use to clean the floors is not the greatest at getting rid of odors like urine. (Experience.) So, I decided it was probably 'safe' to use bleach.
BAD! You guessed it, I put on some bleach and hey presto, bubbling action with some noxious fumes. So, I would go into the hall and take a deep breath, go back in and quickly wipe up the offending subsances, rinse in the sink, then repeat. I managed to survive. It's a good thing my toxicology friend wasn't around today - she would have lectured me. I would have deserved it! Fortunately no one else was around either - like small children, my boss, etc.
So, today's lesson is never ever ever use bleach to clean up even dried pee from anything unless you're wearing a respirator!
Oh yeah, the other lesson is " FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD - DON'T PEE ALL OVER THE WALL AND FLOOR!
Enjoy the weekend and possible snow. We just may get to use the awesome snow blower yet!

Happy New Year

Wow! I guess it's been a while since my last post...we've been a tad busy.

We did finally manage the move. Most of the boxes are even unpacked and put away. I figure that eventually I can just throw entire boxes away - that way I won't have to find a place for their contents. My Dad's rule was always "if you haven't used in the last year, pitch it." Good advice. I think I'll modify that to say, "if you haven't opened the box in the last year, pitch the whole blasted thing."
Michael has recovered from his fear of moving. He now declares that he loves this house. Whew! Nora on the other hand, would rather be in the old house. I can't really figure out why since she also had her own room, it was absolutely frigid being that it was over the unfinished garage, and she kept it dark. At least the source of the horrid smell in her new room was discovered quickly - three dead mice in her heat vent. Yuck! I suppose she's at that stage - nothing is good enough. Sigh.
Hats off to Dan for getting his friends to help with the moving. What would we have done without Thomas, Anthony, Nick C., Ani, and Rina? (And the other people who I'm forgetting...) Donal, of course, was a huge help. Practically part of the family ;)
We even had a party. Amazing. The last time we planned a party was a New Year's Eve bash at the Collegewood house. It never happened because 2 days beforehand, every single one of us (only 6 at the time) were puking our guts out! This time around we all managed to be sick the week before the party. Maryn and Lauren somehow managed to avoid it. Amazing. Poor Lindsey had to live out of her car - again.
Yesterday, I had lunch with an old (yup, in both senses - cuz she's my age!) friend from high school. She caught me up on people I knew once upon a time - the crazy boy who made it big with Intel, the girl who didn't do real well with math/science who is now a researcher for Pfizer, the jock who became a high school principal in Ecuador and now Malaysia, and the poor doctor (big cheese) who married (two stepkids) and divorced a few years later. Funny how life takes us all on different paths. Then there's me - the janitor. Who'd a thunk, huh? We'll have to do it again...
Speaking of janitorial musings - what is up with this crazy weather? Al Gore is right. Normally this time of year, I'm whining about salt being tracked in and the "salt puddles" under the pews. This year, I kid you not, I am sweeping up grass clippings and mud! Is someone actually mowing their lawn?
Of course it will never snow, now that we bought a massively huge snow blower. Why? I don't know. I guess I'm getting old. I looked at our winding, slightly uphill, very very long driveway and decided there's no way I'm shoveling that thing. It would take hours! So I bought a kick-butt large piece of machinery. We haven't even started the thing. Is there another use for a snow blower? Can I till soil with it?
We will have a garden this year, but I fear the deer herd will probably end up eating most of it. So, I may call one of you bow hunters to take a few out. First, I suppose I should look up the rules for that sort of thing.
Oh yeah, last newsy item, I played my violin at Mass last weekend. A bit rusty. But I didn't shake uncontrollably. It was kind of fun. We'll see if I can do it again...
OK I lied, one more item: last night Michael asked when I was going to have another baby! I explained that I'm getting a little old for that. At least he didn't ask THE question. We can still stall on that one for a bit. It's Chris' turn for that conversation ...oh happy day. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Stay tuned for construction updates. We'll have to have another party when that's done.