{"id":2935,"date":"2013-02-11T12:05:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T19:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=2935"},"modified":"2013-02-11T13:51:47","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T20:51:47","slug":"money-for-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=2935","title":{"rendered":"Money For Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"prewasher<\/a><\/p>\n

I called one of those coupon maid services in my neighborhood to see if they could come and help me get the house in order so that I can put it on the market.\u00a0 The “nice lady” who answered the phone rattled off a long list of things their team would do … from cleaning the blades on our ceiling fans to washing down the outsides of all our appliances.\u00a0 It was a comprehensive list and the coupon price was right so I scheduled a cleaning for the following week.\u00a0 In my “working days” I hired several maid services, sometimes for regular cleanings, occasionally for the odd one night stand.\u00a0 I know how these people work.\u00a0 Like the blow and go lawn care teams, they really don’t do any major efforting, they bust some dust and merrily maid go on their way.\u00a0 So I had no expectations that my house would be Home and Garden photo ready after the maid-4-u had waved their magic wands.<\/p>\n

Of course, the egoic mind likes to run a story about hiring a team to come help out.\u00a0 Being disabled, means I’m home all day long .. ostensibly with nothing to do.\u00a0 So why can’t I keep on top of the mopping, toilets, counters and those ceiling fan blades?\u00a0 But my reality as it is, allows me to hang a load of laundry every now and zen.\u00a0 Keep the dinner dishes and pots from piling up on the kitchen counter (most of the time!) and …… well … actually that’s about all I can manage.\u00a0 I do wish I could do more.\u00a0 I still see images of June Cleaver<\/a> in my head as I count my short comings.\u00a0 But even the Brady Bunch<\/a> had a maid, I remind myself.\u00a0 And I try and be thankful for the days that I feel well enough to scrub the floor with a bucket and sponge — because that is decidedly easier for me than being upright.<\/p>\n

But I’ve wandered from my rant … when the team did show up, almost 20 minutes late this morning, there was one gentleman, two ladies … and two cars.\u00a0 The service claims that they bring all of their own cleaning supplies … but admittedly I was surprised when they carried only a small bucket and hand held dust buster.\u00a0 That should have been my first red flag, if I ignored their tardiness.\u00a0 The young man asked that I show them around the house, which I did, breathless as I was from walking\/talking and using my cane.\u00a0 I told them, I understood their limitations and that whatever they could DO for us, would be a help.\u00a0 At least three times I said, “just do what you can do”.<\/p>\n

I showed them the master bedroom and bath … admittedly, this is where I spend 96% of my day and we do do our best to keep it presentable … but when I went off to show them the other two bedrooms the team seemed to get lost in my bathroom and I had to go back and fetch them.\u00a0 At which time the man said to me … “I’m sorry, we have to cancel your cleaning.\u00a0 There isn’t anything we can do here.”<\/p>\n

So I asked my boyfriend to please show them out.\u00a0 And I let them know that I would be leaving a review on our local business sites.<\/p>\n

“They money for nothing company, babe.” my boyfriend said after he shut the door and watched them get into their two cars and drive off.\u00a0 “They want to get paid for waving their hand around a bit.\u00a0 They don’t actually want to do any work.”\u00a0\u00a0 And he’s right of course.\u00a0 Its the fast food industry of house cleaning.\u00a0 You can’t “get it your way”, they don’t “think outside the bun”, and while you look around asking yourself “where’s the beef” they “run for the border”.<\/p>\n

Its like washing your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher.\u00a0 You can’t be Maid in America, unless you first hire mr. clean<\/a>, the tidy bowl man<\/a>,\u00a0 Popin Fresh<\/a> and Aunt Jemima.<\/a>\u00a0 At times I become dismayed by what we let pass in our high-tech lives.\u00a0 How we cut corners to cut costs.\u00a0 We don’t even want to know which foods we eat are genetically modified.\u00a0 <\/a>We still don’t care about the carcinogens used as preservatives<\/a>.\u00a0 And the power of the glossy advertisement makes us think our air ducts can be cleaned<\/a> and our lives carefree.<\/p>\n

Its hard to teach the value of a dollar<\/a> to my children or the pride in having done a good days work, when I am no longer able to work, bring home a paycheck and carry them on my health insurance.\u00a0 Broke has a myriad of meanings and I’m sure the metaphoric maid simple miasma this morning was just another thread in the fabric of our distressed genes.\u00a0 I realize of course, had there been a laugh track accompanying this weeks episode of Redneck Reality, that it all would be more palatable.\u00a0 And that fact that my dysFUNctional family WILL provide THAT over the next several days in a variety of stand up schticks and callbacks about this murphy’s law moment in our lives is the silver lining in the dust mop.<\/p>\n