How to make housework palatable

Isn't that a catchy title for a blog post just before the holiday season?

Been out of pocket (and the country) for a while, but now that I'm back there are Things to Do. Like catching up on the blog. Like housework.

How can a house with one cat get so dusty in three weeks? Not that it was pristine when I left, as I tend to let things slide when I've something else in the offing. But when I can look at the piano and write a tune in the dust there, it's time to get cracking.

Housework and I have never been great friends. One cleans and the house just gets dirty again. There would appear to be no honor between the top of the table and me.

However, I've been listening to Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff and since I wouldn't be in the car for a longer period of time than 5 minutes for a week, and since I'd left the characters (this is a true story) in the lurch with the last chapter listened to, I turned on the audio book and started dusting.

(I really don't like to dust. Really. I blame my mother who thought the dining table legs needed to be dusted every week. I mean, who was going to be on the floor looking? That said, I don't mind vacuuming, but it's noisy and I couldn't have listened and vacuumed at the same time.)

I dusted and listened and moved the iPad from room to room. I found things to dust just so I could finish a chapter. What madness was this?

And I'm not finished with the book yet, despite also applying this new method to the upstairs. I feel a bread baking binge coming on.