Especially if it has rained.
I used to think that Georges parents were a little slack in the cleaning department when we first came here, not a topic I will linger on, however I have come to realise that for the most part this wasn't the case.
I can sweep the floor/dust the shelves and within a week it looks as if I haven't done anything for at least 6 months! No exaggeration.
"Clean country living" is a myth, in my opinion, considering I was told that I got asthma since I moved here, never before in my life have I had respiratory problems, and I was given a puffer!
Living on a highway, even in the middle of no where, the trucks bring the dust through town, and they don't always slow down, so it comes flying in through any little nook or cranny it can find!
The dust is unlike anything you have ever experienced before, it is so fine and powdery and the quantity is quite extraordinary.
So today I dusted, swept and vacuumed, the transformation is great! It is so nice to be in a cleaner environment, it gets to the point where you don't realise the filth you live in until it is cleaned, it must be like getting fat, a gradual experience and you don't notice until it's a little out of control.
I live in hope of trying to keep on top of things once a week, I know that more than likely, this is in vain. I have designated Tuesday mornings to this task.
We plan on sweeping and mopping on Saturday...
The problem is that some of our customers live on farms and get mud on their boots and tromp it all through the shop, some attempt to stomp it off on the footpath or wipe off big clumps on the mat at the entrance, which then gets walked in by others. It is unavoidable really.
It would be amusing but highly ineffective to ask people to take their shoes off at the door!
Even without muddy boots the dirt is unavoidable, in such a dry, flat, barren environment the dust will take a rest wherever it can from flying aimlessly through the air.
Dellaren is an ugly town, it is dirty not only is reality but it looks dirty as well, it lacks presentation, driving through, there is nothing at all to make you stop, unless desperate, or if you knew someone there, you simply wouldn't.
It is scrub country, and flat for as far as you can see, the horizon is only blocked by trees or buildings, there are no hills or mountains. And brown, everything is a dirty shade of brown, even the green seems brown...
I had to chuckle to myself one day, walking down the street to be passed by tumble weed making its way down the road. It was a quiet day in town which was even more fitting, like in the movies of a ghost town, buildings boarded up, barely a soul to be seen and a piece of tumble weed precariously blowing down the street.
It is reality here, boarded up and burnt down buildings included. If you see a trickle of liquid making its way down the footpath, it is more than likely from someone relieving themselves on the side of a building than a spilt drink.
On the upside, it is relatively safe, you would be better off stopping here than in Gullet or Dead Mans Gully, as long as you don't stay past sunset, unless you don't value your possessions, as in your car or your house/buildings.
It is not malice that drives most of these attacks, but simply drugs and alcohol. And the effects that these have on people.
So a little cleanliness can go a long way...
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