The Art of morning’s Bed straightening.(for Seniors)

Almost There

Almost There

It’s a forlorn hope and belief by some, that with age comes wisdom. Some say, a good politician reaches their top when over seventy. Cynics often contradict this and might well say: they only achieve that level of pure wisdom, when they are richly fermenting in the Mount Calvary cask below ground level, or sometimes, elevated above ground as in an Argentinian Mausoleum. I believe that in Buenos Aires’ La Recoleta cemetery, a number of those past buried politicians are still believed as being a little bit alive.

We did not see much evidence of life of those dearly departed souls. Many cats and dozens of volunteer ladies feeding them is as much an attraction as touring this enormous cemetery. Some of the graves are multi storied, have dining rooms and bedrooms with imagery so real of the dead, one whispers in fear of being overheard.

But, back to gaining wisdom in the search for reasons and answers of what the heck we are doing here, it pays to remain humble in its pursuits. That is if there is such a thing as getting answers. It would be nice that between birth and the veneered Mount Calvary cask we get snippets of information leading us to some rest of the anxious mind in our nodding years.

The day could not start less ambitious and humble than just making the bed without any creases in its top cover. This is what I have been trying to achieve of late. It is more than depressing to discover, just prior to hopping in, that the bed is still unmade. Those days are rare. Of course, most times H makes the bed. Her manner of bed making is perfect, a level that I want to achieve in my quest gaining better and more wisdom. Where does perfect bed making come from? It is a joy to contemplate and watch a bed without flaws before finally diving under the doona.

No matter how it is tried, the efforts I make always includes some little imperfection or fault. It might be that a sock found its way down the bottom of the bed and buried itself between sheet and mattress. To rectify that, after you completed the bed making, is dispiriting, but this has to be overcome in the search for life’s answers.

Sometimes I find that the electric blanked switch gear found itself the wrong side up, showing a lump just below the pillow. Of course, I try and cover it up by throwing a book over it. H reckons that is not honest. In any case, you can lie to others but not to yourself. You know the book was put there for a reason. Your wife might be fooled but not your conscience. It nags you, and results in your search for wisdom down a notch to boot.

I noticed the old lady higher up always puts her bed pillows in the sun on a chair. I asked her some years ago, and she said; ‘It kills germs and keeps me healthy.’ She should know. She worked her whole life as a nurse. Is that why one often sees hospital patients sitting outside in the sun? Some smoke though!

It is part of this bunched together lot of townhouses, and perhaps also old age, that things like pillows on chairs outside get noticed. Sometimes I even say to H. while driving past, ‘oh, Mrs so and so must be home, her pillows are outside.’ Sometimes, but not often, a reply might come from H, ‘oh I haven’t noticed she was gone, ‘I don’t keep an eye out for those sort of banal signals.’ Why, and how come do you? This hurts a little. I am caught out once again being involved in the triviality of life.

What hope for answers and wisdom can there be when I seem stuck between bed making and adventures at Aldi?

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11 Responses to “The Art of morning’s Bed straightening.(for Seniors)”

  1. auntyuta Says:

    โ€˜It kills germs and keeps me healthy.โ€™ I very much agree with this old lady!
    I find things smell beautiful after they’ve been aired in the sun. It’s great when you have the space and sunshine to do this frequently.
    Fresh air is so important for our well being. In summer people would often keep doors and windows open. But even in freezing winter temperatures it is often the custom to let a lot of fresh air into your house or apartment. If there is sun coming through the window, people like to air their Doona at the open window. The sight of a Doona in an open window in the crisp sunny winters air has something very appealing to me –

    Like

    • gerard oosterman Says:

      We know that fresh air on bedding makes for a sound sleep. We too join the routine of millions of people around the world who hang bedding in the fresh air. I sometimes try and enhance the writing by intertwining fiction with facts.

      It is not as if we go early to bed in order to get up, all excited at the crack of dawn to make a flawless bed. On the other hand, we know that the minutia and routine form a major part of daily life. We might as well make the best of it.

      Hence my story of smooth bed-making.
      I never made friends with the vacuum cleaner. I loath vacuuming. It is the noise and the uselessness of it all. It was Quintin Crisp who confessed never to have vacuumed his room in his entire life. He found is useless, ‘as dust comes back.’ He stated; ‘after a while the dust settled in the corner of my room like lovely snow.’
      I do prefer bed making. Of course cooking is an art and always enjoyed. As is our daily walking with Milo.

      More joyful than anything is writing down words(in a certain order) with the words being read by you, and so many others, the icing on the cake!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. shoreacres Says:

    Well, there’s a new word: Doona. I take it to mean a comforter, or some such covering. Not a bedspread, precisely, but fluffier. I agree that anything dried is the sunshine is better, from laundry to pillows. The so-called “fresh, outdoors” scent added to laundry soaps doesn’t come close.

    Bed making? Perfection? There’s no such thing, and I don’t worry about it anyway, since a certain feline takes a made bed a personal invitation to leap up and have a snooze. She does have her routine, and right now bed-sleeping takes place early afternoon, just after the living room chair, but before the sunny bedroom corner. Routine is a wonderful thing for us all, it seems.

    Liked by 2 people

    • gerard oosterman Says:

      Doona is Australian English for comforter or duvet. A funny thing happened to us while living in Sydney. After we came back from a camping holiday with our young children, we noticed something wasn’t quite right in our house. The bedding looked different. It turned out that all our doonas had been stolen. We had coins in glass jars and other stuff about, but no, the only thing missing were the doonas.
      They were very valuable as we had bought them in Holland while living there. They were made of eider-down and Danish as well. Expensive! They were light yet very warm.
      The police were reluctant to believe us. We never got them back. The thieves would have been in need of warm bedding and were perhaps sleeping rough somewhere under an overpass or in a rail tunnel.
      The eider down are the spineless feathers of young geese.( Gosling) Heaven knows how many of those beautiful little birds were needed to make eider-down duvets.
      Of course we know that the sun is the best way to freshen bedding. We don’t sleep in fox holes of bedding. The thing with our bed is that one of the covers is hand made ( crocheted) by Helvi’s mother. It would have taken her weeks if not months to make it. One reason to make the bed as good as possible. It is a work of art really.’A poem of a bed.’

      Liked by 1 person

      • shoreacres Says:

        Ah, you see? I have one of those crocheted coverlets from the family, too, but I can’t use it because it doesn’t mix well with a cat.

        I’ve slept under a down comforter only once, in Germany. It was in January, in the town of Dornhan, which was celebrating its 1100th anniversary. That was history on a scale I’d not experienced.

        It just occurred to me that our country is about 2-1/2 centuries old. I wonder — we seem to be acting like we’re in the terrible twos. Maybe we’ll grow out of it.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. petspeopleandlife Says:

    Involvement in your surroundings just means that you are aware and interested in what is happening. It is a good thing. Such as “staying tuned in.” ๐Ÿ™‚ Or in other words it could mean that you have not succumbed to senility. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Liked by 2 people

    • gerard oosterman Says:

      Yes, spot-on, Yvonne.
      We do care how things look and relate to each other. Form relationship was one of the subjects we were taught at art school.

      Each form on its own usually stand up by its own right. When placed next to another form or object, it changes and both influence each other either complimentary or not so.

      Australia’s public spaces and street architecture badly needs more attention. The horrors of all those suburban shopping centres, those advertising hoardings, the dreadful proliferation of car sales yards, all screaming for attention. Money, money and more money is now so dominant. I believe it is also like that in the US.

      Our home offers respite from all that ugly chaos. An oasis for the eyes.

      Liked by 2 people

  4. Big M Says:

    The bed making is very important. Sometimes, as a shift worker, I’m off when Mrs M is working. I pretend to live the life of the bachelor, leaving the bed unmade all day, until half an hour before her return. Puerile, I know.

    Liked by 1 person

    • gerard oosterman Says:

      Yes, Big M.
      This reminds me.I used to go to Sydney’s markets each day, six days a week to stock up on flowers for our flower- shop. The early 5am trip to those markets and back again, unloading the flowers in the shop and driving back home arriving at about 8am.

      Helvi would be in the kitchen wildly stirring something or other, perhaps the porridge for the kids or making coffee. As if she had been up for hours.
      However. How come the mattress of our bed was still so warm? I reckon she heard the sound of my VW van and quickly jumped out. I am guessing of course!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. kaytisweetlandrasmussen83 Says:

    Bed making may be important, but sometimes you have to wonder why when you just jump in again at night? After new leg surgery when elevating legs seemed to be important, I simply piled pillows on top of bed and pulled a light blanket over me. Very easy to make bed in the morning.
    The doona seems to be a great solution to bedmaking, because who knows what goes on underneath it?
    Charlie seems to find his way into an empty bedroom and curl up in a soft blanket at the foot of the bed. Smart boy.

    Like

    • gerard oosterman Says:

      Yes, good for you, Kayti. I sometimes just close the door after getting up and hope for the bed to make itself. Milo, so far never jumps on our bed nor on the chairs. He also doesn’t ever take food from the table.

      Strange thing is that sometimes we might stay away for a night or two and leave Milo to the house by himself, leaving the backdoor open for his toilet habits. We leave nice food, including his favourite strips of dried meat. He normally loves them. Not once does he touch them when we are not home with him.

      He is a good boy.

      Like

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