The Sound of One Girl Shoveling

 

     

Mike nesting another afternoon

     Tuesday Mike came home at noon, and from his little nest in the living room, he spent the afternoon attending a virtual industrial hygiene conference! I was scanning an old folder from one of my piles next to the computer here in the sun-room Then I ate a leftover half a burrito for lunch at the table in the sun-room while watching a new episode of the Young and the Restless on my iPad. Next I mowed the yard, neglecting to wear a face-mask and getting consequent yard dust stuck up my nose! Returning inside, I wrote out three get well cards to friends, hurrying before the mailman came down the road. And then I contemplated a shower.

Nesting in the morning

     While doing all this puttering, I was wanting to start the dishwasher. But the noise from the dishwasher might interfere with Mike and the conference. It was fun to hear Mike move from room to room virtually. He is always good at making small talk. After a while, I realized Mike was visiting vendors, just like he was at a live conference – stopping and introducing himself, describing what he does and where he works, then saying well, it's time to move on. And then he would do the same thing all over again – the only difference being the other side of the conversation at each stop and the occasional expression of genuine interest in what was being vended.

     The only difference between chatting with vendors from the living room and doing it in person was no freebies! No pens, sanitizers, stress toys – shucks! But then again, being perched in one's nest has tons more advantages.

Mike nesting after work

  Getting the dishes done before dinner was not imperative, and yet, it kept cycling back to the forefront on my list of things to do. Finally, I heard the words of my Uncle John, and I turned on the dishwasher.

     Was the noise going to bother Mike?

     Not at all.

     When I moved to my grandmother's for college, she was living in the upstairs of a duplex owned my her son, my Uncle John, who lived in the downstairs unit with his wife. Uncle John was a truck driver, a proud teamster, who drove at night. He would get home around 8 or 9 in the morning and go to bed. After the first snowstorm of the first winter my freshman year, I thought I'd shovel the driveway. There was no snowblower, neither was there a truck or person hired to do the job.

     Shoveling the driveway was a big task, and scraping the cement when I finally reached the pavement, was noisy. I tried to do it as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb Uncle John's sleep inside. After a while, I saw blinds rise, and Uncle John opened the window. Both arms were stretched at the top of the window ready to pull it closed again as he leaned out smiling at me. I figured it was a polite smile as Uncle John looked to see what the noise was all about.       

Uncle John, Aunt Ruth 1978

“Hi! I hope I didn't wake you with my snow shoveling?”

     “No one has ever been bothered by the sound of someone else shoveling the snow!”

     Truer words were never spoken!

     And no one would ever be disturbed by of the noise of someone else vacuuming the rug.

     And no one in his right mind would complain of the sound of someone or something else washing the dishes.

     None of that is noise at all, no, it is music to one's ears!

20200813 64 The Sound of One Girl Shoveling