A Good Talking To

At a recent ETA meeting an alcoholic/addict, Ken, said that his first sponsor used to say: "I take myself to the bedroom and give myself a good talking to!"  Ken said that he was just learning how to do this and asked if the rest of us boozers and users ever did this? This was the topic of the meeting.

My mind flashed back to a delightful memory of my experience with this practice, thankfully several years in the past.

We had moved into an older home with hard water and no water softener.  The water left a film on anything washed without drying it off immediately.  The back utility/bathroom linoleum floor had a crust of what I figured was the build up of several years of this film.  Who, besides some sicko clean freak, dries their floors for crying out loud?  My sincere thanks to the old HP that I am not (and never have been) that sick.  However, I had tried various ways of removing that crust from the floor and had yet to be successful.

My husband and youngest daughter were gone for the weekend (I don't remember where) and the older girls had homes of their own.  We had just gotten a new power washer and I was titillated by it's many uses.  Yep! You guessed it!  I tightly rolled up several towels and stuffed them around the bottom of the water heater and at the thresholds of the doors.  One of the doors led to the outside so I figured I'd aim the spray in that general direction.  I'm just ready to fire up the power washer and my phone rings.

It's a friend, Barbie, from out of town so I answer it.  She is also in ETA though she quit boozing around a year prior to this brilliant experiment.  She asks what I'm doing and I tell her.  After a short time of dead silence she asks what my husband thinks of using a power washer inside the house.  I explain that the family is due home later that day.  More silence.  Then she asks if I think this is really a good idea?

Well of course I think it's a good idea!  Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it.  Barbie is somewhat of a newcomer thus she doesn't totally understand the brilliance of a sober mind.  I tell her I asked everyone present and nobody expressed disapproval.  She asked who all was here.  I explained that I was home by myself and had been all day. She again asked if I thought this was a good idea.  Sigh...  I told her I had to hang up.

Before I go any further, I want you to know that the power washer did, if fact, remove the crust.  So, from that perspective, the experiment was successful.  Tragically, that would be the only successful part.  

Did you know that linoleum floors do not like to be power washed?  They aren't too forgiving about being power washed either.  Tightly rolled up towels do not absorb as much water as one might think.  Nor are they effective at deflecting water away from doorways. Husbands that come home early from a weekend outing severely frown on those that clean floors with power washers, even after the shop vac has removed much of the overflow that seems to be generated when using a power washer inside the home.  Nor do they seem to get any happier about needing to buy, and then lay, new flooring.

When it came my turn to share, I told this story.  After the laughter subsided I said that I haven't given myself a good talking to since.

Have a good and sober day.