After working the whole afternoon away yesterday, I had about half of the living room cleared of clutter. I even dusted! And I was pretty pleased with myself for sticking to it long enough to get visible results. Well, the results are visible, but so is the other half of the room, the part I didn’t get to. Still, you have to start somewhere.

Through all this, I even found time to sit and read for an hour, and I decorated my Christmas tree. The tree has been up since Thursday, which technically wasn’t even part of December. That’s a first for me, to have the tree up in November, and with lights in place, too. That was only because I had to buy a new tree, and you can hardly buy an artificial tree that isn’t pre-lit any more. With that, I’m just as glad I couldn’t find my old tree, and I kind of wish I hadn’t looked so hard for it. All I got was dirty and cobwebby, with nothing to show for it.

So I was tired and sore but satisfied last night, and then I found the ants. I have no idea where they came from, but they were on the inside kitchen counter. Not the counter by the outside wall or the sink, but the one attached to the inside wall that isn’t even connected to the outside. How the ants got there I have no idea, but it wasn’t the first time they’ve managed it.

At first I couldn’t find my ant spray, so I got the flying insect spray and covered the counter with it. I washed everything that was on that counter in hot, soapy water, twice. I cleaned the counters with disinfecting wipes, then soap, then clean water. I re-sprayed with ant spray and re-cleaned.

And I threw my toaster in the garbage. I don’t think I could ever again have eaten anything that popped up out of that toaster, after having doused it with two different kinds of insect spray. Probably you should replace your toaster every ten years or so anyway, and I think that’s about how long I’ve had this one. It gets kind of crusty after all that time, and it’s not the most expensive appliance I own. But it does get used a lot, so I’ll be replacing it this week.

By the time I’d done all this cleaning and re-cleaning, I was even more exhausted than before, and with good reason, since it was well past midnight by then. At least the place didn’t stink, because I get only unscented ant spray. And I’d completely lost my appetite, except for a sudden and strange craving for toast.