Dust Bunnies

Ever see one of those signs on someone’s door, “This house protected by…”? I’ve seen them protected by big dogs such as German shepherds or Rottweilers. I’ve seen them say by little dogs like dachshunds and poodles, although they may be more vicious then the big dogs. I’ve even seen them say a cat or something else silly like a gold fish. The one at my house says “This house protected by attack dustballs.”

I live in an old farm house, with wooden floors and have 4 dogs that live inside, when not out working on the farm with me. Their hair accumulates in every corner, under counters, stove, desks, piano, chairs and tables. Well, you get the idea. It is a goal to sweep every day, but sometimes the day gets away from me. And so does the hair. 

So what would dust balls, called dust bunnies in my house, do when they attack? Well run for your lives, for this is a tale of horror. Dust bunnies attach themselves to you and do not let go, or only under the most aggressive battle can you free yourself from them. They stick to your clothes, so badly not even a lint brush can free you. With the winters static electricity, they stick to anything plastic: the inside of the laundry basket, the computer screen, the TV screen, and the back of any device blowing air, like the electric heaters in the living room and kitchen.

They are vigorous little creatures, hiding in unlikely places and jumping out at you when you least expect it; you will find them in your drawers –both the ones that store your clothes and the ones that cover your, well, you know what. Even when I sweep every day they try to get away from the broom and their waste can destination by jumping into the air and floating around behind the broom, or clinging in hard to reach places like corners and chair feet, and scurrying back further under furniture.

 So truly beware of these dust creatures. You don’t want to take them home with you. They seem to multiple rapidly-why else call them dust bunnies? They are easy to feed requiring what everyone has readily on hand, more dust. I think some of them have gained the size of jack rabbits in my house, especially under the fridge.

The Computer

I love it. I hate it. I use it, but I don’t trust it. That stupid computer. Of course it would never be the stupid computer operator. It’s never my fault. It’s always the machine. Or maybe my husband for whom the machine willingly obeys. In fact he can even teach it new tricks. Which it then uses to confuse and agitate me.

I have a dog that listens better than the computer. At least to me. I ask him to move the sheep and he rounds them up. I tell him to back off and he comes behind me. I tell him to stay and he does. That’s what the computer is to my husband. If my husband tells the dog to do something, the dog just looks to me for permission. That’s what the computer does for me. I just don’t have the authority and the range of commands to get it to cooperate and obey.

Now I can get the computer to do some things. Even my husband can put the dog out to go to the bathroom. I can look up information on the sheep data base. I write my articles on word perfect. I can even cruise the internet for information. That’s if nothing has moved from where it was previously. Or if the password hasn’t changed. At least I don’t change my dog’s name. It’s usually easy to find him too. He’s wherever I am. Well, if I had to look for the computer I would know where to find it. It would be wherever my husband was, since it’s a laptop. He spends almost as much time with it as I do my dog, except my dog sleeps in my bedroom. Used to be at least my husband couldn’t take the computer to bed with him, but even that has changed. 

Why do we aggravate ourselves with this machine? It is supposed to make life easier. I love to write on it. I can go so much faster. One of the best devices is spell check. I only have problems when my spelling of a word is so far-fetched that the computer can’t even make a guess at the word. The sheep data base is still in the making; my husband, I believe likes changing it and pulling up different configurations of ways to group the sheep. He still can’t answer my questions though. And I don’t trust the computer to not lose my precious documents, I still do a print out regularly and keep a hand written back up notebook. 

Email, and now chat on Facebook have been great inventions. I still can’t understand why, though, a person living a non-long distance phone call away insists on sending me emails, messages and texts.  I’d still much rather talk to a person.

While I like spending time playing games and surfing the net, often the frustrations outweigh the pleasures. A fight with the computer can change the flavor of my whole day. I yell at it and it sits there smugly, not doing what I want. My articles are lost, I can’t make changes to a document, I can’t upload a picture, or change it’s size. I can’t get on the internet; I can’t find where something has moved. I think I’ll choose my dog for a companion. The only annoying things he does are chasing the neighbor’s truck and coming into the house with muddy feet. When I yell at him at least I get a reaction, even if he does turn upside down and piddle. Bet my husband can’t get his stupid computer to do that!

 

 

3 In 30 Setting Goals

My Daughter in law has encouraged and challenged me so I have decided to link up with goals of my own for the month of February.

1. Follow my new cleaning schedule to work some each day(except Sunday) in every room. Because I had worked full time and also have all the farm chores to do, the house has been greatly ignored. Now the cleaning can be overwhelming, so I have devised a method where I break down each room into details, realizing that not each room will be completely cleaned before  moving to the next room and attacking its problem areas.

2. Spend time each day with a horse in training.(5 days out of 7)I have 2 unbroken young horses and a retraining to complete in order to have a more marketable animal this spring. One of those I hope to keep for myself.

3. Reach a minimum of 5 bags of STUFF to be given away. After living in this house for over 14 years, and not even counting all the stuff we transferred from the old house, I have accumulated too much stuff: clothes I don't wear or don't fit me, nick knacks that gather dust, appliances that I don't use, books I have read and probably won't read again, just stuff that clutters my house and my life.

 

A work in progress, and with a deadline. This is my guest bedroom and my son is home on leave on Tuesday. This is where he sleeps.