Room Cleaning

At Tassajara, where everything is scheduled, as you will know if you have been following this for long enough, there is half an hour set aside for room cleaning. This half-hour is at the end of work on three-and-eight days, and is followed, after bath time, by nenju, which marks the end of the practice week. The idea is that your room is clean for you to enjoy on your personal day - the four-and-nine days. For someone like me, for whom cleaning my room is never at the top of my to-do list, it was nice to have time allocated to the task, and half an hour is long enough to get most things done, and short enough not to have it feel like a major undertaking.
Here in the city, as you also doubtless know, we don't have the luxury of a four-and-one schedule. After the regular five-day week, we have the Saturday morning program, and, in theory at least, a one-and-a-half day weekend. I have got into the habit, when I can, of cleaning my room at the end of the afternoon on Saturdays, and ideally, following that with a leisurely bath before dinner.
I know that the next two weekends I am going to be away, next weekend on the residents' retreat at Point Reyes, and then on the Buddhist Bike Pilgrimage, and in October I think I have maybe one free Saturday afternoon, so I was quite motivated to get some cleaning done today.
Actually I could have been occupied this afternoon, as Abbot Steve was receiving a new okesa from his teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman, but I wasn't required to be there, which was as well as I had made plans to meet a friend for ice cream. For once I was willing to brave the line at Bi-Rite for their salted caramel, and since it was not especially sunny the line was not interminable, after which we had fun watching archetypal San Francisco crowds milling around Dolores Park. I had to come back for a Full Moon Ceremony rehearsal, ahead of the thing itself on Monday morning, but that was scheduled to allow me the time to do all the dusting and vacuuming I needed before the amazing lasagne and tiramisu dinner we had to mark Kathryn's impending departure.