Windows and Gutters

Getting the gutters and windows cleaned today.

Our house is pretty easy, only one story, the roof pitch isn't bad. But the front picture window is right under a deep eave. A little challenging to access with a ladder. So as the fellow was standing in the shrubbery below with the ladder stymied, I said, "Well, do you have a longer handle for your squeegee? You don't need the ladder at all. That's how I'd do it." He replied, "Great idea, one would think you did this for a living."

Actually, I did. I worked for a window washing company one summer many years ago.

Dunno if that really is weird, but it's perhaps an unusual occupation. I did promise six weird things for that meme last winter and I only got to two. This makes three. Will I reveal more?

Darling, you're stronger than me

Time for more weirdness, the second weird thing about me. I recently posted about how I am a better parallel parker than my husband, but while that is something that feeds my competitive streak, I don't find it all that weird. However there is something else I can do better that I do find weird. I cannot explain it.

What do all these items have in common?

They all have lids that can be a challenge to open. These sorts of lids can stump my husband, but I can open them all. Why? He is definitely stronger than me. He can do push-ups, move full sheets of plywood, lift a kayak onto the car roof in one motion, all things I cannot do easily. Yet when we have waffles, who has to open the syrup? Me.

It's not just him either. A typical situation. He tries to open a lid somewhere with other people present. He fails, so he looks around for me. Another guy intercepts and says he'll do it. (thinking, of course, what a wimp) Franz lets him. He fails. Franz then passes it off to me. I succeed. (who's the wimp?)

Fortunately for our relationship, Franz is a good sport about it --- he really likes maple syrup.


(and yes, I've been listening to Patsy on my iPod. How did you guess?)

Weird thing number One

Yup, it's a virus going around. Devote a blog post to six weird things about oneself that haven't already been exposed to the blogworld. Some folks try to infect others by telling them to do the same. I have not gotten "tagged" as this deliberate infection process is called. I'm not sure if I would be participating in that case. Maybe I am too ornery or maybe I just think it looks cool to appear ornery. To be a little different, I'll draw things out a bit --- only one weird thing today:

I have a knack for remembering dates, especially birthdays. I could tell you the birthday of maybe 90% of all the people of whom I have ever heard their birthday. The 10% I forget? I have no idea why. And given a specific month, I could recall quite a few folks who were born in that month, but I might have forgotten details about them. Such as that Feb 12th is the birthday of this guy that I worked with one summer and briefly dated. During that summer. So we did not celebrate his birthday. His name? Who knows. OK, I did remember but it took some work to dig out of my memory. But just by thinking of February his birthday popped into my head without effort. Why was this so easy to retrieve from memory? Because it's also Abe Lincoln's birthday? Possibly. But he was no Abe Lincoln.

Sometimes I remember the month but not the specific day. Such as my ex-best friend from the high school years* who stole my boyfriend. Yup, even though we had already broken up she definitely stole him. The fact that she didn't get to keep him is one of the schadenfreude highlights of my life. I know she was born in the early part of August. I want to say it was August 8th, but that may be just because it's the day Nixon resigned.

I wouldn't have thought that this skill was that weird, but time and again I startle folks with it. If I know your birthday? Do not expect me to remember to send you a card or anything. Sorry. I am terrible about that.



*Kathleen, she didn't go to school with us. You wouldn't know her.