Today is the second (and last) day of vacation. There should be better ways to spend one's vacation time, and I can think of many, but.... There are so many things that needed doing and I just could not flog myself into doing them after working all day, so take a couple of vacation days and get them done.

To wit: grooming the pooch and vacuuming the carpet. The dog inherited in full her mother's Golden Retriever coat and she shares it with us liberally. I usually giver her a quick combing on the weekend, but what she needed was a thorough grooming.

Of course, the dog hair floated far and wide, dropped in clumps on the floor and some missed the wastebasket completely as I combed her, trying to be gentle on the ticklish spots. The cats, of course, were nowhere to be seen--they spotted the vacuum cleaner and they have made themselves scarce.

There is so much carpet to vacuum. I hate vacuuming, I think more than any other household task. Except maybe mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors. When I'm done it will look nice, but my back will be screaming for pain relief.

I'd like to find somebody who loves housework and finds it fulfilling to him as a human.

Who knew one dog could produce so much hair?

Oh, no! I just closed the blinds to block the full sunlight streaming in the east-facing windows and the slanting beams of light between the slats revealed new areas of fluff that I somehow missed on the first pass. Damn! I have to do it over again.

Funny how a change in the light, a different view, shows up stuff you didn't see at first. Maybe I'll just open the blinds again...no, now that I know it's there, I'll simply have to get out the vacuum again. Drat.