I wake a multitude of times during the night; first Trin Trin is bouncing at the foot-end of the bed like a mad-hatter. Seriously, if I weren’t so fond of sleeping, it would be quite a funny sight.
The second time Knight II is tugging on the blanket while the monster latched on, on the other side. They are quite a match in their delighted tug of war, even though Knight is twice Trin’s size. Her persistence and pure muscle build they even out nicely.
Third time, some odd three hours before it’s time to rise, Knight II gets into a fight with Chaos, who isn’t feeling at all well. The poor Basset is cold and comes slinking his way up to the top end of the bed and proceeds to curl himself over and around me, in an attempt to get warm and away from Knight II who is taking up most of the bed.
Around the fourth time, Chaos is trying to vomit on his place beside me, luckily only having dry heaves, and once I wrap him up in the blankets with me, his shivers slowly subside, and allow me to fall back to sleep.
On the fifth awakening, it is the alarm screeching on the shelf beside the bed that disturb my slumber.
No time to mess about this morning, so as soon as I stretch the kinks from my back I roll out, throw the dogs out the door, get dressed and head on down to the house.
Laundry is first, even though yesterday’s batch hasn’t dried yet. During the night the sky grew a multitude of clouds that are now hovering close over the mountain, hinting at rain. After adding one new washing I head inside to feed Yadzia.
Time is limited again today. First thing up is taking Sita, one of our black Cocker Spaniel to the vet. She has been blind for years, but somewhere during the night one of the sibs noticed that her one remaining eyes was bloody, and somewhat bulbous. She isn’t feeling poorly, however, which is always a good thing. Sita’s still trotting around, knowing full well where everything is, and happy to follow either little brother or sister around.
We can’t leave immediately. We need to wait for the sibs to wake up, so the dogs won’t be alone in the house, and thus I kill time going on the forums for some quick chats, and check my messages.
The time passes ridiculously fast, and when little sister arrives, I put my computer away so we can trim the Cocker a bit before taking her to the hospital.
She goes through the procedure reasonably calm, wiggling her butt excitedly and trying to bounce around a bit as clusters of dirty hair are trimmed off, so she won’t look like a complete disaster when she goes to the doctor.
It is not like our dogs aren’t taken care of properly, by any means. Twice a year all those with long fur are trimmed down to manageable short length hair, creating a semblance of neatness on the overall image.
In winter, however, a trim is not advisable due to the cold, so in effect the dogs tend to look a little wild, with occasional lumps of dried dirt in their long hair. It smells a little, it doesn’t look pretty, but we rather have them a tad dirty than sick from cold.
Anyways, by the time we get the cocker trimmed, and I have headed up the mountain in order to get dressed, sunset is already approaching.
Since after we have seen the vet, and hopefully arranged for Sita’s expected surgery, we need to go to town to do our bimonthly grocery shopping, I need to don something a little neater than my usual house clothes.
At first we had planned to go to school too, but as the evening advances and Sita has an appointment set for Wednesday when our regular vet is there, we decide that we really don’t have time.
We drop little brother at home along with Sita and Mosha, who had joined us for the short trip, and then immediately head back out again to go in the opposite direction towards town.
The Chinese bazaar is the first shop we visit. Mugs and glasses have shattered repeatedly during the course of the past months, so we need to acquire new ones. Along with tea towels and some wooden spoons. Unless kitchen utensils are made of steel, they really don’t last longer than a few weeks around our dogs, but luckily the simple wooden ladles come cheap.
That done, we turn towards the center of town in hopes of reaching a small computer store run by a South African man who usually has good bargains on laptops.
Regretfully little brother’s computer gave the spirit a few days ago, so we’re obliged to find a new one for him at an affordable price.
Due to the three kings festival, we are waylaid halfway into town, and are forced to make an about-face instantly. All around families are gathering for the impending parade and thus getting to the store is pretty much impossible. Traffic police is all over the place, rerouting traffic and preparing for the festivities.
Thwarted in our plan we head for the Parque Miramar, where we buy a supply of frozen goods–vegetables and such–at Iceland and make a quick pass through the large domestic electric goods store, in hopes of finding a laptop on sale. No such luck, so once again we climb into the car and make our way to the large European supermarket.
There are quite a few sales, which will come in quite handy in the near future, so with those piled into the truck bed we resume on our way.
Up next is the major department store several miles down the road, and we hit up on both sections where computers are sold.
We see a nice one that is discounted due to some missing parts, but when we hear that the main missing part is the adaptor, and that the salesman can’t supply us with another, we don’t dare take the risk.
Disappointed, and starting to get a little weary from going up, down, east and west on a multitude of occasions without actual results to show for it we’re just about ready to call today’s foray a bust.
The last store’s up at last and we head into it with two shopping carts, only to find that we need another one, due to the fact of bargain prices for dog blankets and a DVD player for under € 35, which is really good since ours is on the fritz. We even buy a spare one, just in case. The machine won’t last for more than a year or two, we’re sure, but since an expensive brand will give the same problem–experience taught us as much–we are willing to take the risk.
It takes quite some time to get everything loaded into the truck, and when we do the bed’s filled to full capacity. Bags and boxes are piled high; the supplies for a group of nine people and over ninety dogs being nothing to laugh about.
I’m pretty much running on empty by the time we get home, dreading the prospect of unloading, but luckily the younger sibs are already waiting by the carport when we arrive, ready to start lugging the multitude of supplies down to the house.
Quickly I change back into my warm–the chill up on the mountain is considerably colder than it was down in town–clothes, and return to the car to grab four full bags and carry them with me into the house.
It is practically impossible to get inside with the heavy bags and the barrage of dogs welcoming us, but as usual we somehow manage and start putting everything away.
Pleased with the end result of full shelves, a filled fridge and freezers and properly stocked drawers, I shove one of the frozen pizzas in the small oven and plunk down on a chair to catch my breath.
For the rest of the night I’m unable to do much more. Somehow grocery day takes a lot from all of us, and I sit there, barely able to follow “Bones” and whatever show came afterwards, until I finally settle in one of the arm chairs and put on “Casino Royale” for about half an hour of entertainment.
At long last the day has come to an end, and I can head up to my quarters feeling flushed and chilled at the same time, and more than a little tired.
I AM going to get to bed in time today. I must!
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