Floor Passion

There is a certain obsession I have noted the past few months. It happened when my new neighbour overhead moved in. I am well aware that these days when floor exposure is so rampant, it's almost indecent. It seems that the less you have on your floor, the more fashionably decor-wise you are. Magazines that house-conscious folk are addicted to, show huge spaces empty of anything comfortable other than the odd piece of entone leather or steel. The refection from the light in the windows, is dazzling as it gleams off the hardwood or simulations of that kind of wood.  Apparently, both kinds of flooring will last far longer than most of us live, and requires very little scrubbing like was done in the old days of linoleum. If you remember linoleum, you just dated yourself. My memories of the stuff is Saturdays when my sister and I did get down on our hands and knees in the name of family chores, and deal with  the huge kitchen floor that required it. My Mom and Dad had parties in the kitchen that held a stove and table. The rest fit into the pantry room.  Remember those? After the scrubbing, there was the modern, in those days, liquid wax, that was spread on the flooring and not to be touched until it dried an hour later. My sister and I very carefully applied the liquid wax to the kitchen floor, making sure we worked our way backwardly to the hallway where our weekly movie and popcorn allowance sat waiting. Chores accomplished, we headed for the matinee and one of Doris Day's latest films. Then in the decades that came along, new flooring that is almost indestructible was invented and all it takes now, is a swipe with a damp cloth to be cleaned. No wax intended. There are some women who have a floor obsession, however, and persist in not only scrubbing this sort of flooring, but to add to it, they put on other unnecessary substances to further enhance the shine they deem is mandatory. I must admit, I am not into housekeeping other than only what is necessary. There's so much else more fun. It's not something I do to appease my emotional state but there are people who find floor scrubbing, therapeutic. My neighbour happens to be one, although I have never spoken to her about this phobia. Her unit is three fully carpeted and elevatored floors upward from the outdoor sidewalks.  By the time even a logging boot got to her door, it would be pristine. The only exception are sneakers that seem to be designed to fill up with mud when its soft, and then dry at which time, the mud falls out in little bits. Most of the elders who live here, don't sport the latest technicolour dreamworld sneakers that kids wear, so this is not the case. But my neighbour has either a bulldozer or street sweeper up there, and when she does her floor, which is every second day, my ceilings vibrate and creak as the therapy ensues. I would love to get a viewing of her equipment that must be boss heavy. Then again, as they say in the manual for peaceful condo decorum, "we have to live". I am not sure what that means or to whom it applies, but peace to me has something to do with silence, not floors.