Another Week on the Hill

Finished reading Nelson DeMille's "Night Fall," fiction based on fact about the crash of TWA flight 800 off Long Island, NY on 17 July 1996. I recommend it if you like mysteries. It was a good read, depressing at times when remembering all the lives lost. The novel never lost it's appeal and ends in a way I never expected, so if you read it, don't take a peak.

After three weeks of living with 6 by 20 piece of out dining room floor being ripped out and replaced, things are somewhat normal again.

A couple of pillars with concrete bases were installed under the house, 6 floor joists replaced, duck work all checked and several replaced before a ply wood floor was laid: 2 layers of 3/4 and one of 3/8 to match the height of the old floor.

To our delightful surprise Larry Ketchum was able to almost match the kitchen tile that was laid circa 1995 so we didn't need to replace the kitchen and utility room floor. A sigh of relief! But we had to wait almost a week after the carpenters finished for the floor men to arrive.

No problems except the installers didn't stain the quarter round before nailing it down and the threshold between two rooms were bloched and the finishing edge around the hearth was the wrong color. A good friend agreed to take up the quarter-round, stain it and re-install. He and Brother stained the pieces in the garage Wednesday and Billy laid them Thursday. Ketchum came Friday and redid the threshholds and fireplace.

Emma and I cleaned my office and our bedroom Monday, walls, windows, top to bottom, including the bed ... and shut the doors so no more dust would sift in.

Yesterday we did the same to Brother's office, storage closet, and the living room. Stuffed two blue recycle bags full of old mail, memos, notes, receipts, bulletins, notices, and other stuff and got like things together in his desk drawers.

Then is was easy to organize some of his collections on the shelves in the closet: Beaver Beanie Baby ... we have good beaver stories, but they are for another time ... rolly-polly Poppin of Pillsbury fame, and 'Nilla Gorilla ... Baseballs, some signed by our favorite American League Umpires, Dale Ford #20 and Durwood Merrill (deceased) #33 ... Official World Series ball from the series that wasn't in 1994;" one ball signed by a Chattanooga ball team (four of the team stayed with us) who won and went to Monroe, La from here ... And my miniature ball bat from St. Louis in 1947.

Emma gave me a few days off and will be back Tuesday when we will attack the dining room, hall, kitchen and sun parlor with Murphy's Oil and Orange-Glo.

So here we are "fall cleaning." I've wondered if Spring Cleaning was adopted by Gentiles from the Jewish people who clean thoroughly before passover.

In Exodus 12, after the first nine plagues God freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery when he sent the tenth plague to 'Smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.' To keep the Israelites from being afflicted, he told them to mark their door posts with lamb's blood, stating: "and when I see the blood, I will pass over you." In William Tyndale's translation of the Bible the name 'Passover' came into being for this celebration. The Hebrew word for 'pass over' was 'Posach' and the celebration is also known as 'Pesach'.

The cleaning can be stated more simply than it can be done -- a thorough, top-to-bottom, cleaning: vacuum carpets and floors, clean the cabinets and bookshelves and get into all hard-to-reach places: under sofa cushions, the spaces between floorboards. Move furniture and kitchen appliances to get behind and underneath.

Bottom line: if a cookie crumb could be hiding there, go after it! After an area in the house is cleaned, tell everyone that it's "kosher for Passover" and absolutely off-limits for any food. Other places that need to be cleaned are the office, car, pocketbook -- any space that is yours by ownership, lease or right of use.

Chametz or Chometz (חמץ) is the general term for "leavened bread," at the Jewish Passover. Jewish law bans owning, eating or benefiting from chametz during Passover and the punishment is spiritual excision. Chometz is any one of the five primary grains (wheat, barley, emmer, rye, oats) fermented by being in contact with water for eighteen minutes. Only water is considered a fermenting agent. Flour and pure juice squeezed directly from the fruit cannot become chometz, even if the bread is allowed to sit for hours and swells up to many times its size (though there may be other rabbinic prohibitions involved).

After "spring cleaning" and on the night of 14th of Nisan, a formal search for leavened products in each room, cabinet and pantry is made to be sure no crumbs remain in any corner. The head of the house recites a blessing while they search. Lights are turned off in each room and searched by candlelight; a feather and a wooden spoon are taken along.

The candle lights corners without casting shadows, the feather is used to dust crumbs from hiding places and are collected in the wooden spoon to be burned the next day with the chametz. Traditionally, 10 morsels of bread are carefully wrapped in aluminum foil or plastic and "hidden" around the house before the search to ensure that the head of the house will find some chametz so that his blessing will not be in vain.

The cleaning ritual is so thorough that NO LEAVENED FOOD, bread or liquid remains in the house. Then the house is kosher.

Well, now ... I can't say that my house is Kosher, but we're closer to clean and neat than its been in a long, long time.

Now I just need to search my mind and heart and clean the dust and cobwebs and try harder not to put the s-word in my mouth when I wouldn't even put it in my hand.

Peace, love, and Contentmen