by jphilo | Jun 19, 2015 | Daily Life
This week’s Fantastic Friday post doubles as a PSO…for myself. All June I’ve conveniently forgotten that window washing time has arrived. So I’m thinking maybe if a voice from the past speaks via social media, that will give me the gumption to do what needs to be done. If this PSO motivates you in the same way, please leave a comment.
When I was teaching school, raising kids, riding herd on defective canines, serving on too many church committees and taking graduate classes every summer I always had my windows washed by the middle of June. So how come, seven years post-teaching career, with the kids grown, the dog shipped off to my brother and his sweet wife, my church work pared to the bare minimum and no more sitting at the feet of professors, it’s June 28th and the windows still aren’t washed?
Correction. One window is washed. One measly kitchen window, the one pictured above, which I washed this morning because I could no longer stand the dead soy beetles that cascade down whenever I open the window.
I’m thinking the wedding guests might find the rain of the soy beetle corpses a tad bit gross, too, so the top item on this week’s to do list is WASH WINDOWS. Yes, the words are written in all caps. And yes, they shout at me every time I consult the list.
Now I know what you’re thinking. This woman is a compulsive nut. Her daughter’s getting married in two weeks, and she’s washing windows. That’s what you’re thinking.
But you are wrong! This item has been on the list since April, and every week I’ve calmly transferred it to the next week – or the week after that – depending on my schedule and the weather, which has not cooperated for the past two weeks. Such flexibility and good humor does not describe someone in the grips of compulsivity, now does it?
With this week’s forecast for sunshine and mild temperatures, this is my Carpe Diem opportunity. It’s time to seize the day, and wash a couple easy windows every morning before sitting down to write. It’s time to seize the husband in the evenings so he can help with the hard to reach windows, including the one covered with bird droppings which is adjacent to the oak tree under which the sweethearts will be married. It’s time to seize the week and clean to my heart’s content, banishing the soy beetle corpses to a watery grave.
Some of you may consider all this seizure activity as further evidence of compulsiveness. I prefer to describe it as concern for our house guests. Whatever way you look at it, one fact remains. With one window down and twenty-nine to go, it’s time to seize the windows.
By the fistful.
by jphilo | Nov 11, 2013 | Current Events
The past week and a half have been chock full of grandma duty and other family fun. So much fun, blogging is on the back burner. Therefore, for the next few days Gravel Road will reprise popular posts from the past. Today’s post first appeared on July 20, 2012. Enjoy!
Yup, The Amazing Spiderman is making an appearance on this blog, even though superheros don’t get a lot of play along our gravel road. To be honest, the only reason Spiderman gets his due is because I was plumb out of stuff to write about.
I thought about writing an I-told-you-so post about how I predicted the drought of 2012 way back in January. But that seemed kind of evil, and I ditched the idea. My next thought was to gush about The Amazing Spiderman movie, which we went to with our daughter and son-in-law on Tuesday. The movie was good. Really, really good. But writing a review is hard work, and I wanted to keep the memory fun.
So I ditched that idea, too, and didn’t have a thing to write about until a Facebook friend of mine posted the above picture. It shows the window washers at Michael Hopkins’ Evelina Children’s Hospital in London.
I almost ditched that idea, too, since this blog is for fun stuff and DifferentDream.com is for kids with special needs stuff. But then I read the text accompanying the photo and decided it was fun enough for this blog:
Evelina Children’s Hospital was the first new children’s hospital to be built in London in more than a century. The hospital was designed with a goal of “making a hospital that didn’t feel like a hospital.” Accomplishing this required hospital designers and staff to create a patient experience that included touchpoints fostering a sense of inspiration and wonder – in addition to healing – for children throughout their stay.
Perhaps the most remarkable touch point of all comes from an unexpected source: the hospital window washers. As part of their contract, Evelina requires that hospital window washers dress up as superheroes while cleaning the hospital windows. Bedridden, sick children delight in seeing Superman, Spiderman and Batman dagling just beyond the glass. The window washers report the superhero visits to Evelina are the highlight of their week.
I thought maybe the window-washers-dressed-as-superheros was urban legend. But according to Hugh Pearman’s article first published in The Sunday Times, London, on November 27, 2005, the window washers are for real. The article, “Just What the Doctors Ordered” tells the story of the vision behind Evelina’s Children’s Hospital and mentions the superhero window washers.
I think the idea of window washers at a children’s hospital dressing like superheros is way cool. The perfect medicine for a nation full of hot and thirsty people worried about a drought they’re powerless to control.This story is just what the doctor ordered. Do you agree?
by jphilo | Jul 20, 2012 | Current Events
Yup, The Amazing Spiderman is making an appearance on this blog, even though superheros don’t get a lot of play along our gravel road. To be honest, the only reason Spiderman gets his due is because I was plumb out of stuff to write about.
I thought about writing an I-told-you-so post about how I predicted the drought of 2012 way back in January. But that seemed kind of evil, and I ditched the idea. My next thought was to gush about The Amazing Spiderman movie, which we went to with our daughter and son-in-law on Tuesday. The movie was good. Really, really good. But writing a review is hard work, and I wanted to keep the memory fun.
So I ditched that idea, too, and didn’t have a thing to write about until a Facebook friend of mine posted the above picture. It shows the window washers at Michael Hopkins’ Evelina Children’s Hospital in London.
I almost ditched that idea, too, since this blog is for fun stuff and DifferentDream.com is for kids with special needs stuff. But then I read the text accompanying the photo and decided it was fun enough for this blog:
Evelina Children’s Hospital was the first new children’s hospital to be built in London in more than a century. The hospital was designed with a goal of “making a hospital that didn’t feel like a hospital.” Accomplishing this required hospital designers and staff to create a patient experience that included touchpoints fostering a sense of inspiration and wonder – in addition to healing – for children throughout their stay.
Perhaps the most remarkable touch point of all comes from an unexpected source: the hospital window washers. As part of their contract, Evelina requires that hospital window washers dress up as superheroes while cleaning the hospital windows. Bedridden, sick children delight in seeing Superman, Spiderman and Batman dagling just beyond the glass. The window washers report the superhero visits to Evelina are the highlight of their week.
I thought maybe the window-washers-dressed-as-superheros was urban legend. But according to Hugh Pearman’s article first published in The Sunday Times, London, on November 27, 2005, the window washers are for real. The article, “Just What the Doctors Ordered” tells the story of the vision behind Evelina’s Children’s Hospital and mentions the superhero window washers.
I think the idea of window washers at a children’s hospital dressing like superheros is way cool. The perfect medicine for a nation full of hot and thirsty people worried about a drought they’re powerless to control.This story is just what the doctor ordered. Do you agree?
