Rant rant rantity rant

[averygoodun42]

Good lord. I just spent a full hour and a quarter (the length of ABBA's greatest hits) scrubbing the hallway floor. And I'm not done yet. I have about 30 sq ft to go.

And I'm not even doing the kitchen part of the floor today.

Which brings up a rant. Well, actually two, but first the newer one. I've only been stewing over this one for a couple of weeks now...

So, when I saw my doctor a couple of weeks ago, I talked to her about my depression and about the possibility of exercising it away. I mentioned that I had started by doing the spring cleaning.

She got this patronizing, amused look on her face and said that the exercise had to be... I can't remember the term, but basically, your heart rate has to be raised for the whole twenty minutes everyday.

Now, when I said cleaning, I didn't mean picking up and vacuuming away in a placid way. I meant polishing my furniture. I meant scrubbing the floors. I meant physical labor.

I wonder if she even knows how much work cleaning is. I mean, yes, the tidying up and dusting and vacuuming and such are not hard work physically. They are chores and horrible, but not too taxing. But let me tell you, when I scrub a floor, it is a full body work-out! Besides being harder on my knees, it is probably a better workout than walking is!

Noe, to be fair, I do understand that for the best results of exercise for mood, getting outdoors is probably essential because, as one study put it, we're hardwired to respond to the environment positively, as we evolved with it. (If you believe in Intelligent Design then what are you doing on my flist? ;-) then it is how God designed us). Getting exercise inside will help make our bodies feel better, which does help our mind, but to really get happy, one needs to be grounded in the outer world.

But to just dismiss cleaning as not exercise... That REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!!

Grr.

Anyway, my second rant is an old one. And more of a whinge, really.

I WANT A NEW FLOOR!!!

I hate this floor, I hate it so!
I hate the cracks between each square
where dirt, filth and oobleck collect
never to be fully cleaned
but spread about and mocking me
with gritty leavings after scrubbing

I hate the pattern and its worn out patches
dirty, scratched and filthy looking
never ever EVER to be scrubbed away
and every time I do got to clean it
It ends up worse than I found it!

I hate the way it's peeling up
I hate the way it's badly cut
I hate the pattern that they chose
I HATE THIS FUCKING FLOOR SO MUCH!

*big breath*

*release*

Okay. Better now.

I feel this way every single time I scrub the floor. That's probably why I don't scrub the floor very often. But Geoff is coming home tonight, Babe spilled apple juice and it was pretty damn disgusting. Well, half of it still is. But at least the apple juice is cleaned up now. Too bad it really doen't look any better.

*sigh*

On the plus side, ABBA is perfect scrubbing music. The tempo is just right, and I really don't mind masking a bit of the music with the sound of scrubbing. Plus it's fun to sing along with. :-D

And Geoff is coming home tonight! Or, at least I think he's coming home tonight. I won't know for sure until he actually gets home, but I imagine that he would have sent some kind of email had he missed one flight or the other. What time is it in Frankfurt, anyway?

Anyway, I'd best get back to that floor so that I can have a shower and get outside a bit. I still need to talk to the babysitter about sitting tomorrow...

Comments

[septentrion1970.livejournal.com]

I can guarantee you than any inside work I can do feels like a workout for me, though it's true I feel less tired by a two hour walk in the forest than by a half hour of housework.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Even if I didn't have to experience it myself, watching my mum clean, and seeing how strong she is, I KNOW that housework is exercise.

But being outside really is better for the mood. After the same amount of exercise outside as inside, I usually don't want to rant and rave.

[millennia2.livejournal.com]

I feel for you, I really do. You see, I hate my kitchen floor, too! It is white and even after it's "cleaned", it doesn't look that way.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Mine is (now) a pale, grubby yellow that would be pretty-ish if it were new or clean looking. But it's not. And I do hate it.

Perhaps we should create a "Kitchen Floor Haters Club." Or is that too close to KFC for comfort?

[millennia2.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's not too close. I say we ask people to submit pictures of their ugly floors and have an ugly flooring contest. Mine isn't really horrible, but I still hate it!

[geminiscorp.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean! I have that response to most of the floors in my house.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Over the course of our ownership, I have been gradually tearing out all the flooring. Babe's room was first (it was scary, scary, scary!), then our room, then the basement office (plywood sub-floor on below grade concrete?!?!?! W.T.F?) then the family room basement floor (which, unlike the office, was actually replaced with flooring rather than leaving it exposed concrete), and that leaves the kitchen and living room floors. The bathroom floors are the only floors that came with the house as we bought it that are passable, and even then the previous owners could have chosen better (not stylistically (though that way, too), but for safety and sense!). Oh, and the stairs. The carpet on the stairs really does need to be replaced soonish. But the kitchen floor becomes more and more odious every month. I think it has actually been moved up to next inside project, to hell with being out of debt.

Sorry. Didn't mean to rant at you. Floors are a touchy subject I guess. :-D

[cck-brit.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the awful flooring. The entire upstairs is all original carpet and vinyl(which is peeling), so 18 years old. After we are back to normal our two prioritites are the roof and new flooring upstairs.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

I can also recommend ACDC, Aerosmith, Status Quo, and Green Day for cleaning.

*hugs*

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

I love the ABBA.

You remind me that I've been spending the last two months vacuuming the worst of the shit but refusing to mop. Then again, I'm the girl who did ten (10) loads of laundry last weekend. GOD.

I do need to mop - there's crap underneath Woo's table. Oh dear.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

ABBA was one of the last cassettes to get stuck in my car before it died. Mama Mia totally makes me twitch, now.