Cleaning

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Nancy, Donna, Michael, Keith, and I spent all day yesterday and today cleaning Benjamin and Elizabeth’s new house. I took no pictures of how dirty the kitchen was because I actually don’t want to remember. We all agreed that the house had to have been unoccupied for a while – the mouse droppings could not have been there with people. Unfortunately, no. B & E confirmed the lady owner had been there until the closing. Ewwwww. Nancy and I spent about half of the day just cleaning the refrigerator. Donna was everywhere, doing everything. Michael was half kitchen and half elsewhere, while Keith worked on new keypad door locks and other tech-y or structural kind of things. We worked for 8 hours and got most of the kitchen done.

After a Kopp’s lunch today (the flavor strawberry lemonade was outstanding and new to me), we headed back.

We stopped at Menard’s for the 19th time. I saw these guys. See that string of little ghosts in the background by Bluey? We got those for the house. They look good.

Nancy and I tackled the giant stove while everyone else spread out.

Benjamin and Elizabeth came about 6pm and jumped into action. Elizabeth had been suffering since her wisdom tooth extraction on Wednesday and probably shouldn’t have been off the couch, but she was worrying about us working and her not helping. She is a DO-er!

The house is feeling far less creepy now. It is exciting now! New house to fix up and decorate and live in.

The realtor gave us these flowers.

All day yesterday and today we talked about Peter Wickert. He was such a good guy. Donna and Michael know him from our annual 4th of July parties. Michael said he was always the first guy to come over to talk to you. That sure was true. Donna said he was just the nicest man. That was so true, too. I’m struggling to believe he is gone. I am having disbelief and anger and depression all at once. I keep thinking about someone from TV or a movie or maybe it was mom, saying that as I have gotten old, all my friends are dying or have died and it is sad. I certainly agreed – how sad! – but part of me thought, yes, because your friends are all getting old too, and it makes sense. But now I am getting it – those were FRIENDS! It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter how old they were, they were your friends and you loved them and now they are gone. It is just crappy.