Weather; Garbage; Hall Closet; Raking; American Airlines and Kafka

I thought it was to be cooler with a strong possibility of rain today. No such luck. Instead it was muggy, warm and blustery.

When I looked out early this morning, the two recliners were still at the street. But a couple of hours later when I officially got up, I glanced out and the garbage and the recliners were gone.

The recliners were really in terrible conditions. The upholstery was worn in several places. Parts of the fabric were beset with mildew. The cats has used both of them as a scratching post. And as I recall, both were at least 25-years-old.

I'm happy this task turned out to not be too complicated.

Now that I'm very slowly ridding the house of furnishings, I can do some judicious cleaning.

The hall closet does not have a light, so anytime I look in there I expect to see a creature from a Maurice Sendak book. There were only a few items present, so it only took a few minutes to pull everything out.

Next, I connected an electrical extension cord in the bedroom, and then connected a lamp to that. Gads! The closet was horrible. The baseboard was encrusted with filth. The floor was spotted and stained. But the real killer was the rust-coloured mildew that started at the floor and extended about three feet up on each wall. I was tempted to call in a biohazard team.

I went to the storeroom and got the face mask I use outside. This is not one of the cheap dusk masks, but it is one designed to filter out many different pollutants. I then used a scouring sponge, a bleach spray cleaner and lots of paper towels. A few squirts of the mildew and, and it came right off. The floor still looks terrible. I'm wondering if a light sandpaper would suffice. I'll need to be careful, for as I recall, I scrapped the floor at the old house.

If fact all the floors in the house are spotted and stained. But I have yet to make much headway with them. I really should do some research on the web.

After lunch, I attacked the pine straw in the front yard. It proved easier to rake than I'd thought. I did the front 40 feet or so and was exhausted. I came in to take a shower and maybe a nap. But there was no water. Bummmer! I took a nap anyway and after that attacked the lawn nearer the house.

At the end, I had four 30-gallon containers packed to the rim with pine straw. And actually, there's a section close to the house that I did not get to. And I didn't even touch the area to the north of the drive.

Below is a copy of a note I sent to towleroad asking him to mention a story in the most recent "The New Yorker."

Please mention a recent incident detailed in the September 25 issue of "The New Yorker." See HERE TO THERE DEPT - AIR KISS.

It involves the reprehensible conduct of the flight crew of American Airlines toward a gay couple.

Certainly, an airline has the right to set codes of conduct for passenger behaviour.

BUT to refuse to indicate who complained, the name of the stewardess or employee number, and to refuse to provide a representative at the airport is absurd. And then to have the captain threaten to divert the plane is even more amazing.

Gosh this sounds like something out of Kafka. No, you may not know who complained. Or the nature of the complaint. Or who we are. No, you may not appeal to a higher authority. And if you do not obey our instructions, things will only get worse.

Was the crew wearing jackboots and helmets and snapping a quirt? I'm surprised that no one asked, "You have relatives in German? Ya? Do you want to see your grandmother again?"

Maybe the crew can move onto jobs at Guantanamo Bay. As a parting gift the airlines gives each member a book: "Waterboarding for Fun and Profit."

PAX!