I've known for a few weeks that they were coming to visit. You'd think I'd have the house cleaned and be ready for their visit... but no. Some things never change with me.
A former girlfriend was not off the mark when visiting she ran her finger along my counter, left a line and then told me I needed someone to dust and help keep my house clean. *hint* *hint* 
I hadn't done my Spring cleaning yet, though that isn't a priority with me. Is it a crime to do one's Spring cleaning in the Summer? What was I thinking when I thought I'd have no problem getting ready, and then kept finding other things to do other than clean. Is this called avoidance?
Late Sunday afternoon I finally got serious about cleaning - and my relatives were arriving Monday. Talk about waiting till the last minute!You may have noticed I didn't write on my blog Sunday night. Yup, you guessed it. I was cleaning late into the night. I ain't gonna make it.
Cleaning is hard work. I woke up tired Monday morning. I dragged myself out of bed and started cleaning more. I ain't gonna make it. A beautiful day and here I am inside cleaning.
If it weren't for my uncles & aunts I'd be outside and still have a messy dusty dirty house.I knew they planned to leave Washington State in the morning and drive all day. Washington State is Pacific time, an hour behind Montana time. That would give me an extra hour. They are retired and take it easy, so probably they won't have an early start. And they are driving an RV so they will be driving the speed limit or less. Larry is a former police detective and always follows the rules so I know they won't be exceeding the speed limit. So I have much of Monday to clean before they arrive.
Clean and clean. Scrub and scrub. The counters. The floors. The walls. The ceiling? No, not the ceiling. Count on that they won't look up.
I had some errands to run uptown. When I came home I had a message on my phone's answering machine. They are in Bonners Ferry, Idaho at 5 pm and expected to arrive at my ranch in several hours. Umm... no, not in several hours if you are in Bonners Ferry.
And 5 pm they mentioned was probably Washington time and not Montana time. 6 pm was more like it.
And they were in Bonners Ferry. It appears they didn't take the shorter and safer route of driving via St. Regis and Montana Hwy 200 and 28. Okay....
Time for more cleaning. Now where is my vacuum cleaner? Do I really have that many throw rugs? The dust flew as I beat the rugs against my willow tree trunk. The tree's bark is getting smooth from where I beat the rugs against it.
After the rugs were cleaned and the carpet vacuumed I called it quits. I can't do any more. I'm done. That was too much cleaning in too little of a time. Mental note to self: get rid of stuff. Do I need that many knick-knacks? All they do is gather dust and I don't have any strength left to dust them.
8:30 pm - my time. I'm hungry as I hadn't eaten much earlier. Larry called. They were leaving Libby, MT. They had stopped for supper in Libby. "We'll be there in a bit."
"When did you leave Libby?"
"Oh... about ten minutes ago. We'll be at your place shortly."
"Libby is about 90 miles away. You won't be here in 'a bit.'"
"It won't be long."
Relatively speaking, having driven all day, yes, they were almost here. But I define 'a bit' to be far less than an hour and a half to almost two hours. But that's me.
I made supper and ate it, put my feet up and watched the TV show, "The Bachelor". No, I am not doing anymore cleaning. A little over half the house has been cleaned. More than half the house is the majority and is enough. Besides, a little dust and dirt never hurt anyone.
Just as the 10 pm weatherman came on Larry called again. They were on Hwy 2 and getting close. Now what were those final directions? I guided them the final miles here. "Do you see....". "Yes." "Turn left." "Do you see..."
It was well past dark when they arrived. I turned my porch lights on. As I watched the weather forecast I saw the lights of their RV as they drove up the road. I tried to watch all the weather forecast but then I noticed they were still at my driveway entrance. Huh? It looked to be a big RV but it should fit if he took the turn wide.
They were sitting there and I gave up on the rest of the forecast. Something is not right. As I left the house I heard the phone ring. I ran to the driveway entrance and the RV. The problem was my overhead pole over the driveway entrance and my "Tall Pines Ranch" sign hanging below the pole. Curt's RV was too tall to fit under the sign. Man, that is a big RV!
Oh boy. 
...now what? Cockeyed and blocking the road. Good thing it was late and no traffic was on the road.I crawled onto the RV's roof, and as Curt slowly drove, I lifted the sign up to the pole. The RV just fit under the pole. As Curt drove I moved down the roof and moved around the air conditioners and other vents on the roof. Before I got swept off the back of the RV's roof I climbed down its ladder.
Success! We all made it!
The highway between Libby and Kalispell was once rated among the top 10 most dangerous two-lane U.S. Highways. Not only is the highway a narrow two lane road through the mountains, but it has many, many deer on the road. My relatives found that out as they had never seen so many deer. And two moose. They had never realized there were moose in Montana. And a million bugs as their windshield was plastered by the time they got here.
A long day for all of us. After parking in the back yard, we sat up and talked until 12:45 am. I heard all about the feud with the trucker (I believe middle fingers were exchanged), the driving over curbs, and getting lost in Spokane. They had an adventurous day. Then we all slept soundly until the next morning.
Oh. And to my cousins.... your parents are stuck here until I climb on the RV's roof to lift the sign to let them leave. How badly do you want to see your parents again?
1 comment:
Just don't push them too hard on the hiking trails. :)
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