I’ve owned a mop for years. My mop, however, is like the mop on the Swiffer commercials. It sits in the laundry area, unused and dejected about 364 days out of the year. I’m not a completely terrible homemaker; I do vacuum fairly regularly (when the dog hair tumbleweeds start to roll across the mesa living room).

This weekend brought the mop back in a way that no amount of “Baby Come Back” playing on the radio could achieve.  I wasn’t mopping furiously because of the mud and the muck brought in by combination of melting snow and short dog.  No, I found much more ridiculous ways to use the mop.  It turns out that the soft, spongy side of the mop makes an absolutely perfect tool for getting large quantities of melted and refrozen snow off the top of your car in a hurry. It can reach a long distance and won’t scratch your car… sure beats the heck out using your hands, and it’s approximately 75x faster.  I was a fan of that idea.

Miraculous mop moment number two involved my air conditioning unit in the back yard.  The freezing, melting, and refreezing situation ended up melting and refreezing a giant icicle right into the fan unit in the back yard.  It wedged perfectly to stop the blade from running, thus creating a horrible angry noise, some very nice smoke, and a somewhat concerned roommate.  I never knew that the A/C unit was essential in the running of the heater, but it turns out that it is.

Mop to the rescue!!  The non-mop end of the mop (also known as a large stick) made a perfect attack implement for getting the giant mass of ice off the top of the fan unit.  I beat the ice for a while, then decided to pry it up.  Presto!  I love fixing problems quickly.  Life doesn’t always sort out that well, so when it does,  I think it calls for extra celebration.  The mop has been well used, the heater works again, and Gus the snow rabbit (also known as my car) is on the road.  I might even mop the floor soon as a gesture of peaceful reunion with the mop.  Maybe.