Carpet to the East!

A conservative estimate puts the number of folks who eat while sitting or standing on our carpet at 700 to 1,000 per year. Mostly they are our friends – people who come to our Friday Night Gatherings (on average 50 Fridays per year; 8 people per gathering) and those who come to our House Concerts (on average 9 per year; 30-or-so people per gathering). Plus our every-other-year Christmas Party (70 to 100) and a few other social events hither and thither.

Whatever the total, it’s a lot of food and drink ingested in the proximity of our carpet – many possibilities of slip twixt cup and lip. And, I hasten to say here that people are exceedingly neat and cautious, but spills and drips are inevitable; I confess that I’m one of the worst offenders.  As they say, shit happens.  It’s amazing that the damage isn’t more serious but, somehow, we manage to limit the dreaded carpet cleaning to about every four or five years. Yesterday was the day.

Carpet to the West!

It’s a two or three-day procedure. Nyel goes into Long Beach to Dennis Company early in the morning to rent the machine while I start moving all the smaller objects and furniture off the carpet. When I fill up the non-carpeted areas — dining room, kitchen, bathroom — with “stuff,” I put some of the hardier excess out on the porches. By the time Nyel returns there are only a few heavy objects left for him to help with. Couches, the bed, bureaus and armoire stay in place.

Then Nyel’s fun begins. He’s the Rug Cleaner Guy. I clap and cheer. It takes all day. He begins in my office and the bedroom and works his way through the house. By dinner time he is through and we are ‘trapped’ in the kitchen until bedtime. By then we can squish (well, not quite) our way through to the bedroom which is damp but walkable, clear off the bed (there’s still room in the shower and the bathtub) and collapse.  But first… where the heck is my kiss-and-lie-down gown (read: T shirt.)

Chaos Everywhere!

This morning nothing is yet completely dry. Maybe by late afternoon we can start replacing the furniture. And, sad to say, even after all that effort, the carpet is not totally stain free. (But who is?) It all seems better than it was, though, and that’s the best we can ask for. Although… I’m wondering if next time we should just replace the carpet. It’s definitely on my If We Win The Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes list. Note to self: find out how to enter…