SPRING CLEAN

I tucked a roll of paper towels under my arm and reached under the kitchen sink to get the bottle of Windex. “I'm ready!” I said as I closed the cabinet door and stood up.

My husband Steven was making his second cup of coffee. “What are you up to today?”

I held out the bottle of Windex. “Windowsill cleaning!”

“You're right! It's time to start opening the windows and getting some fresh air in here!” He poured his coffee and leaned against the counter as I reached over the sink and opened the window.

“Yuck!” There was a thick coat of dirt filled with tiny dead bugs. “How'd they all get in here?”

I sprayed the Windex and began wiping the spider webs off the screens. “Oh my gosh, this is more disgusting then usual!” Once I got that cleaned off I closed the window and began cleaning the inside of it.

“Aren't you going to clean the outside of the window?” he asked.

“It's still a little chilly out.” I began wiping it with a paper towel.

Steven reached over and opened the window, pulled the two tabs at the top, releasing it from the frame and tipping it towards me. “Here you go.”

I looked at it for a minute. “Oh, yeah. I forgot they did that.”

“See, now you can wash the whole window and not just the sills.”

“Yeah.” I said with very little enthusiasm.

“Oh, come on. It won't take you very long and just think how great you'll feel once it's done!”

I began spraying the outside of the window then switched to the paper towels when our son, Alex came in the room. “Morning!” he said walking around me to get a mug from the cabinet. “Wow! What made you want to tackle that job today?”

I looked over at him while he poured himself some coffee. “I don't know if you noticed or not, but these windows have been awful for weeks.”

Alex looked over at Steven with a look I couldn't figure out.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Alex said then put his cup down on the counter. “Why don't I unload the dishwasher for you.”

I looked over at Steven who started to laugh. “Okay, what so funny?” I asked.

“You don't know if we noticed or not?” he pointed to the front picture window. “You can barely see out of it, it's so dirty!”

I looked around the corner into the living room. He was right the window was pretty bad. “Wow! You're right. I wonder why I never noticed?”

“We were wondering the same thing!” Steven said.

“We?” I looked over at Alex who had just taken some glasses from the top rack.

He shook his head as he put the glasses in the cabinet. “Let's not get me in this one, okay?”

I looked back at Steven. “You know either one of you could have washed them yourselves if it was bothering you so much.”

Steven looked at Alex. “It wasn't bothering me that much.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How about you?”

Alex took the plates out of the dishwasher. “Still not wanting to get in this one.”

I opened the back glass door to spray some Windex on that. I looked at the siding. “You know the whole house could use a good power-washing.” I popped my head back in the door. “Steven?”

Alex looked at me as he closed the dishwasher door. “He went that way.” he pointed down the hallway. “Maybe he didn't hear you?” Alex shrugged his shoulders.

I had to laugh. “Sure. Let's go with that.”