On This Date in 1998

Today the weather was more suitable to a day in October and, consequently, I found myself doing chores that were similarly more suitable to a day in October. Like washing the windows. When I tackled this chore earlier in the fall, I kept bypassing the window in the utility room (by the dryer). That finally got cleaned today, as well as the picture window, on which the morning sunlight revealed a hazy film; the front storm door window, full of fingerprints from you probably know who; the exterior glass of the windows by the dining area and kitchen, which always dirty up the fastest since they face the driveway; the windows on the side doors; and the sliding glass door in the family room, another prime location for fingerprints. I practically worked my way around the house this morning. After lunch, I pruned some of the shrubs at the front entrance and next to the patio. While I was outside, the only additional clothing I wore was a sweatshirt, even though the temperature probably didn’t exceed 50 degrees. What helped is that the sky remained clear all day. 

JoAnna spent five hours at the State Historical Society library researching her family history, a project she’s been working on for a couple years now. Today she found her great-grandparents marriage certificate and the U.S. census with information about her great-great-grandparents. We’ll have to make sure we bring along a copy of JoAnna’ s family tree on our visit. It’s a ten-page document entitled “Descendents of Marie Bourg”, who was born in 1646 in Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia). To allow her to organize the information she gathers, JoAnna uses a software program called Family Tree Maker. Do you know if any of the Nelsons or Luthgrens have done any extensive genealogical research? Andy spent much of the day at Rex Johnson’s house. Rex has a Playstation video system, which Andy seems to be pretty convinced that he’s getting for Christmas. All the gifts we bought so far are wrapped and arranged in front of the fireplace. I wonder if Andy and Eddie have done some peeking? How shocking!! Kids consumed with curiosity over what they are getting for Christmas!! Eddie spent the morning sacked out on the couch in the family room watching TV. He was in a total stay-at-home frame of mind. I encouraged him to play outside for awhile, put on his rollerblades, DO SOMETHING other than act like a vegetable. To no avail. During the afternoon, he watched The Return of the Jedi, the last of the Star Wars trilogy, simultaneously making up his own storyline with his growing Star Wars toy collection. We had a traveling supper on Saturday, i.e., Dad went to three different restaurants to fill everyone’s order. Andy wanted two tacos from Pasqual’s, Eddie his usual chicken McNuggets Happy Meal, and Mom felt like Chinese, which was fine with me. For the second Saturday in a row, the boys stayed home alone. JoAnna and I went to a surprise farewell party for a woman who worked with JoAnna and is moving to Corpus Christi, Texas, next week. We were gone for four hours and returned to a house not too much the worse for wear.

Saturday, February 29, 1992

A springlike day has us in the mood for household chores.  We take apart the crib and rearrange the boys' room.  Then, so we'll have some place to store the disassembled piece of furniture, I clean out and reorganize the garage.  JoAnna does doors during most of the afternoon.

I should back up, though.  The first business of the day is the Kiwanis pancake breakfast, where Andy does a very poor job of behaving himself.  He gets a time out as soon as we return home -- plus an announcement that they'll be no television through the afternoon.  He finds plenty to do to keep himself occupied.  JoAnna and I should consider this approach more often.

January 11, 1992

I started some of the chores yesterday -- like washing -- which gave me more free time today.  It doesn't work out that way, mostly because JoAnna's campaign planning takes up so much time.  I make an offhanded remark about having to do so much, and JoAnna immediately calls me to account.  After all, I already stated my support.  No fair making caustic comments, even in jest.

During an unseasonably mild and sunny afternoon, Andy and I go to the park.  Eddie's been cranky since before lunch, so JoAnna puts him to bed.

Tuesday, January 7, 1991

A hectic morning doing chores.  I think about a drive to Half Price Books, but I figure I have enough other music to tape for the time being.  I get to work shortly before one and, except for a 10-minute break to pick up pictures at Walgreen's and down a couple of small cans of V8, I work straight through until 9.

Saturday, January 4, 1992

I wake up to Eddie's cooing.  Such a sweetheart.  JoAnna's caught some kind of bug, so she's out of commission for most of the day.  I spend much of my time doing chores:  laundry, washing the bathroom walls, cleaning the bathroom heater, reorganizing one of the kitchen cabinets, washing the kitchen floor.    Throughout this energy spurt, I tape -- or should I say retape -- a variety of 70s tunes.

By the end of the day I have added to my discarded pile of albums.  After telling Andy about the Three Bears for the numero bazillioneth time, I crash out with him.  JoAnna, obviously feeling alone and neglected, comes into the boys' room to rouse me out of my slumber.

Tuesday, December 31, 1991

JoAnna works, I take the day off, and until 3 o'clock I'm doing chores and keeping an eye on the boys.  Andy is especially rambunctious.  We do grocery shopping in the morning, and I take an hour's break to watch Perry Mason.  After the last of the laundry is folded, I fix myself a martini and return to the TV room.  JoAnna returns home at 3:30.

Jess watches the boys, and JoAnna and I spend New Year's Eve at Larry and Martha's with Chuck and Barb.  Martha prepares a great turkey dinner.  Afterwards, we sit around and talk and, after Chuck and Barb leave, play Trivial Pursuit.  Larry and I win both games.

JoAnna and I drive home at 2:00 on surprisingly deserted streets.

Saturday, December 28, 1991

JoAnna prepares the best sausage gravy and biscuits breakfast I have ever eaten.  I walk to the cleaners to pick up an armload of clothes, my only outdoor activity for the day.  Myra and Cindy leave before noon.  Alice takes a nap, and Larry keeps putting his mouth on automatic pilot.  I manage to escape being a sounding board by tuning the TV to a football game.  JoAnna and her folks leave for Lake Delton at 4.  After I clean out and rearrange the spice cupboard, Andy and I play Yahtzee and Trouble.  Andy insists on sleeping in the TV room.  We watch TV until 11 and then I crash immediately.

Monday, December 23, 1991

I count the days off.  One, two, three, four.  Yesterday marked the halfway point of my Christmas vacation.  I wonder if there is anything I can do to put on the brakes, make the minutes pass like hours?

By early afternoon, I wonder if I would have been better off working.  Except for an hour watching Perry Mason, I'm on my feet doing chores or keeping up with the boys.  Oh, and of course there is much taping of old tunes, an effort, actually, to reduce the size of my record collection.  At 3, I'm more than ready for a martini, which puts me in a fine mood for making a spaghetti dinner.  Andy has a haircut appointment with Pat at 4:30 and that's the time we arrive.  Andy is a well-behaved customer, and Eddie's a little angel sitting on my lap.  JoAnna's home when we get back.  It's another evening of TV, read.

Sunday, December 1, 1991

I always write these entries in the present tense, pretending that each of these squares was filled in on the corresponding day.  In other words, today should be Sunday, December 1, but it is actually the opposite end of the week, a very hectic one with, until now, hardly a minute of free time to spare.  Eddie's napping right now, and Andy's watching a Ninja Turtles video.  I'm in the middle of chores, in fact I just placed a basket of laundry to be folded on the coffee table and immediately abandoned it so I can jot down some thoughts about the week.

Last weekend, JoAnna took care of most of the Christmas shopping, one of my least favorite activities.  Now it's just a matter of getting the gifts packages and mailed.  I had asked her to pick me up some sinus medicine, and naturally that's the one item she didn't purchase.  In a grumpy mood, I walked to the store and studied the variety of medications from which to choose.  Not wanting to catch a buzz, I avoided the boxes that promised a no-drowsiness formula.  Two tablets sent me into a surreal, late-afternoon dreamland, but I did feel refreshed when I woke up for dinner.  Beef stew that included potatoes in the recipe served over noodles seemed wrong to me, but I refrained from making any comment to JoAnna.  I wondered about how I was going to feel tomorrow, a 12-hour workday kicking off the week.

November 19, 1991

I throw Barb's Tuesday schedule out of whack by keeping the washer and dryer in use for half the morning.  I also venture into the back yard to rack some leaves, though about 1/3 of the fenced-in area remains covered.  Agonizing over the conditions of some parts of the exterior of the house, I wipe off some mildew but decide against a more ambitious washing.  Just as well.  It starts raining shortly after 11.

It's a relatively slow evening at the reference desk.  No major incidents to report:  no cellular phone rudeness, no toddlers wandering into the lobby unobserved by inattentive moms, no pizza parties. Sometimes I wonder if it isn't time to take stock of my accomplishments and consider some career alternatives.

November 16, 1991

Household chores and keeping an eye on the boys takes up most of my morning.  I record some music off vinyl but later discover that the left speaker is not working.  It works then the radio is on, but that's all.  I check the dart tape, some of which was recorded as recently as a week ago and hear stereo.  The last time this happened the full sound came back on its own.

During the afternoon, I take the boys out to run a few errands.  Barb's not feeling well, but I wouldn't have invited her along anyway.  We stop at Going Places Book and Map Store in Shorewood where I purchase some wall maps.  Having promised Andy ice cream, I then drive to West Towne, where parking is at a premium.  The food court is mobbed but luckily we find a table right away.  Andy wants to visit Seats to romp around on a piece of kid furniture set up there.  I pretend to shop.  Walking back and forth along the mall promenade, I don't mind the crowd.  Dad is proud to be seen with two such handsome boys.

Back home I put Eddie to put and think about raking leaves.  I sweep the leaves on the patio into a big pile and then transfer them by the snow-shovelful to the compost pile.  Otherwise I don't make much of a dent.

Barb is too sick to eat a meal so I don't worry about a sit-down supper.  I fix a meat loaf, putting into the fridge, uncooked, and then I prepare chicken wings, using the Bisquick coating.

By the time Andy and I go to bed, my desk is still a mess.  I've had to time to myself today, no time to be studious or contemplative or not plugged into my surroundings.

November 3, 1991

Chores all  morning:  laundry, rearranging cabinets.  By the early afternoon, I just want to spend an hour or two immobile.  It's an indoor kind of day.  Outside the wind howls -- the wind chill registers -20.  The leaves in the back yard still cover the lawn, and I never get around to washing the mildew off the house.  Not to mention rototilling the garden.

JoAnna fixes a great supper, ham and scalloped potatoes.  I clean up and give Andy a bath.  Later on, I resume my desk reorganization, dumping pages and pages of newspaper article photocopies and weeding out long-neglected files, perhaps throwing away some memories in the process.  Debatable.

October 19, 1991

There's work to do.  I start the laundry, then , around midmorning, go food shopping with Andy. Barb comes along; she announced earlier that she has to buy some bras at Penney's.

During the afternoon, I finish installing the storm windows, a three-hour chunk of time.  While JoAnna and Andy are pulling up flowers, I pour myself a martini and chuckle my way through the last third of Native Tongue.

A delicious supper (pork chops and sauerkraut, boiled potatoes and steamed carrots) interrupts my progress.

Shortly after midnight, Andy starts to cry inconsolably.  I ignore the intrusion but end up moving to the TV room when Andy joins us in bed.  At first I just sack out on the couch, but then after a couple of hours of very broken sleep, I open the hideabed so I can stretch out my body without any impediments. 

July 2, 1991

I kiddingly remind JoAnna to make sure she takes her portfolio to work.  I want no interruption this morning, as I've given myself a long list of chores to do.  Like take out the garbage, which this week includes sawing the changing table into bagable pieces.  Disassembling the entertainment center that we moved into the garage last fall.  Organizing the contents of the garage.  Performing some routine bike maintenance.  I'm a greasy, sweaty mess by 11.

As promised, I take Andy to Hardee's for supper.  He can't sit still the entire time we're in the restaurant.