Rosie the Riveter

I have decided to become the second Rosie the Riveter. Am I referring to Rosie the Riveter from the war years? Yep, that’s the one. She became an iconoclast for that generation and the other generations to follow. One just has to see a photo of this woman with her red bandana with polka dots, and her right arm up and her hand rolled into a fist and her left hand exposing her biceps to know that she was extremely capable woman. That is the person that I want to be. She was the woman that first graced the posters and ads during the war years and represented women as an important commodity in the workforce. Because women were needed, it became socially acceptable for them to come out of the kitchen and into the work force.

I want to take control of my life and try to do things like Rosie did. If I can’t, I will hire someone or ask one of my sons. But I do have a Home Repair book on my kitchen shelf above my desk, a handy book aimed at “Woman of the House.” It even has Rosie the Riveter on the front cover. I have used this book from time to time.

Yeah, that is who I want to become, Rosie the Riveter, the capable, no nonsense woman, the I can do anything, I can do everything woman. I figure that I am strong, I am woman, and I sure as hell can be heard when I roar. I am also the woman who had nine children in eleven years. I carried each one full term and beyond. I had a set of twins that I were 2-1/2 weeks overdue. The two of them together weighed over 16 pounds! Talk about a woman who looked like a “beach whale,” that definitely was me.

So far, I have become a force to reckon with at my house. I have tackled cleaning the tiles and grout on my hallway floor, and the tile and grouts in the bathroom. The old caulking is off, and I cleaned all the black mildew off with bleach and cotton balls. I will tackle the caulking next.

My next major project was to paint a hallway…and I did. It looks pretty good. Thankfully it is the same color as the old one but I did get rid of the black marks that my grandchildren made from spider walking on the walls. Just like my children used to do. Then I tackled a bedroom with white walls. I used a cool color, Aqua Sphere. I taped around the wood and my son, who used to work with a painter during the summer, pointed out that I only needed to use one long piece of tape instead of the small ones. It worked for me. Then he cut out the top and sides and bottom. Amazing that he never got any paint on him and did an amazing job not getting paint on the ceiling, floor or wood. I still have white paint in my hair from my painting job and the old clothes that I am waiting have blue and whit paint on them as does the freckles on my face and arms.

I did clean the brushes right but threw away the holder that keeps them just right. I did find them later in my trash and noticed that after you put the brushes in the holder, there is a small Velcro button to keep it closed. My son asked me why in the world I had covered the tray with aluminum foil. Don’t know but that was how my ex used to do it. My son pointed out that once the paint dries you can put other paint over it. Another lesson learned from the son who weighed over 8 pounds and shared the beginnings of his life with his twin, who also weighed over 8 pounds. But he did point out that I did a good job and with that…I pulled my blue bandana tighter and flexed my right arm up with my hand rolled into a fist as I wiped the paint off of it.