Projects, fight, edits, escape...not in that order.

Song of the day: The Chiquita banana advertising tune. I know, insane, right. Couldn’t get it out of my head for crying out loud. Does anyone remember it? “I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to stay. I am the top banana in the world today…” and so on. I can’t believe that stuff is still in my head. The last time I heard it, is at least a decade ago. Insanity!

But okay, that really was just a small part of the day, so I’ll get down to business.
It was an early morning for me, considering I had to take our tenant and her caretaker to Marbella hospital for her monthly check up, but luckily my schedule has changed in such a way that I had to get up only an hour earlier than usual. The trip there was relatively uneventful, and while waiting, I managed to write about half a page for the-as-of-yet-untitled story.

Our tenant was a little upset because (according to her) she was degraded. Her doctor said that it was useless to continue with therapy due to the damage in her brain. Why the bastards. Who are they to decide that…yeah, I know, that bureaucracy for you, along with a governmentally funded healthcare. If you don’t fit into a particular schematic, you’re pretty much screwed. I don’t know what the heck these doctors are doing, last month she was doing brilliantly, according to them, and this month they cut her off at the knees.

Well, we’ll show them, I tell ya. We’re going to look into some physical therapy for her and astound those folks yet six months from now when she has to return for a check up. Looking at her improvements so far, I’m pretty convinced she can do a lot better with a bit of incentive. She’s really looking forward to it too…a good thing. We’ve (her included) decided to look at it like a challenge, rather than a disaster.

It’s stuff like this that makes me rather heated about all the healthcare discussions going on all over the world. It sooooo doesn’t work to have that governmentally run. At least when you do private insurance you can chose a different company when they don’t work out to satisfaction. If it is run by government, you’re pretty much screwed when they make this decision…hmmm. Okay, I better not get started about the subject, or else I might blow like a gasket.

But anyway, after returning home, and giving our tenant the reassurance she needs, I head down to the house where big brother and I resume with the edit/rewrite of “Calamity’s Luck”
It goes pretty well, considering that it usually doesn’t work at all during a day where I had to go out.

Once done with computer work, we head out to the terrace to continue with the ongoing projects.
First up, is making a pedestal kind of thing for “caretaker’s” bus apartment. She is annoyed with a section over the tires where she can’t put anything because the floor is slanted. It takes only half an hour, after which little sister and I start working on making three drawers, one for “caretaker” and the other two for my new closet, which should be ready to go into my cabin late tonight, or tomorrow.

The temperatures were a little bit more moderate last night, but still sweater-worthy for as far as I was concerned. Less wind, though, and that is always a plus.
After work and a relatively early dinner, big brother and I went for a drive, only to return with a cab load of wood and glass that had been disposed of at local landfills again.

It amazes me every time, I’ll admit: The stuff people throw away…like wood that really shouldn’t be considered waste at any time, since you can always re-use/recycle it in some shape or form, as long as you’ve got some imagination. It is almost scary to see how they throw it away like last week’s garbage when the world is rapidly getting a shortage of forests all over. I mean, let’s thing about it, could it be that so many trees are needlessly taken away because they throw perfectly fine wood away at random?

Ah well, it is much too late for such “profound” wanderings. Hah. On to today…

Song of the day: “Mary Pickford” by Katie Melua. I don’t mind this one at all.

The day started off at the normal time, with relatively mild weather—still a little cool for me, but what the hey—which allowed me to head down to the house in just a sweater. There was laundry to tackle, of course, and then, when I deposited it on the kitchen counter and glance down (I’m prone to greeting the little pets in the morning) I can’t see the youngest chinchilla in the new cage at the bottom…oh did I mention that the youngsters were moved to the lower cage. Middle sister did it the other day, and the youngest really didn’t like it. Poor thing was gnawing at the trellis, trying to get out, which brings us to this morning’s surprise: He/she (don’t know what it is yet) wasn’t in the case with Sonny, the older sister, and when I looked around worried, he suddenly saw it seated on the tree stump, over in the rabbits’ cage.

The poor thing was looking all harassed, and I wait until big brother joins me before I capture it and return it to his/her sister. Oh boy, was it happy to be back. I think the mere scare of its “little” adventure will have it very happy to settle into the new cage.
I gotta admit that do feel bad for it, being away from mom and dad, but inbreeding really isn’t a risk we want to take with the little darlings.

So, with the excitement of the morning, over, big brother and I got to the edit, of course. It didn’t go as well as yesterday, but we made progress at least. The first rewrite/edit is always hardest; it is slowly shaping up, however.

Five hours after commencing, it is time to head into the warm November sun—which was absolutely delightful—so we could continue with the projects.
Big brother and grandpa put the new sawing blades into the big saw-table…it goes through wood like it’s butter, hah…and then headed to the bungalow to try out the gym bridge they started on yesterday. The contraption works and thrills our tenant considerably. This way she’ll be able to do her exercises at home.

Little brother works on sanding down to small cabinets, middle sister is…off to, I don’t know where, and little sister opts to resume work with me. First, an almost finished drawer got its bottom put in…worked out too.
With that one out of the way, little sister take out the pre-cut sections for my two drawers and start to assemble those as well. The fronts get adjusted…the original ones were a tad too wide, and to get them the right size takes some figuring, but with time and effort I persevered, hah. Has anyone every noticed that some difficult projects can seem like a challenge of wills. Will you win, or will the friggin’ wood. Grrr.

Suddenly, while we were just moseying along with the projects, there was a commotion at the bottom of the yard. Groovy (boxer) and Mati (Labrador) started to fight and we…well, the sibs in fact, since I had to stay away to keep my dogs, like Knight II at bay…pounced on the lot to get the two fighters apart. Some dogs flew…literally. Little brother actually had to throw several over the fence to prevent them from joining the melee…and within several minutes, the dogs were dragged into separate directions. Groovy has a few nicks, but Mati has a one-inch rip in his ear that thankfully looks worse than it is. It’ll heal, but we’ll need to keep an eye on it.

Back to the projects:
While the readjusted fronts dry, I start putting in the sliders, make a slight error that earns me three wrong holes in the new shelving (hate it when that happens) which luckily were on the side that will be in the corner, so it won’t be noticeable, phew.

With that first real error under my hat, more stuff begins to go wrong, so by the time the night falls, I give up on the endeavor and decide to go on a run with big brother, just to clear my head.
The run goes blissfully well, yay, even though it was rather cold and I was wearing this ridiculously pink woolen cap because I get way too cold otherwise.

While we were out, we decided to do a little off road exploring and almost got lost. Once we retraced our proverbial steps, we got back on the road though and just drove home, rather than try out more bumpy back roads.

Dinner waited, little sister made spaghetti and sauce, yay, and after…ehm, stuffing my face I was more than ready to settle down behind the computer for a quick recount of the past two day. Hah.

A bust!

Song of the day: “I cried for you” by Katie Melua yesterday. Today: “Staying alive” by the Bee Gees, hah. It just doesn’t get old, does it?

Let’s start with yesterday and seep slowly into today…gotta use some variety in writing these things down after all.
Okay, I started reading “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris, and I gotta admit that it is not a style that suits me all that much. The only reason I can see some imagery is because I know the movie so well and there is something in it that just doesn’t fall well. Still, it is good to know the styles out there, so I’m going to finish reading it, even if it kills me. Hah.

Got a couple of hours of extra sleep these past two days…I think the cold is affecting me, ‘cause I get tired more easily since the temperatures drop rapidly after sunset. Today it was even cold while the sun was still out. A measly 16 degrees when out of the wind, but when in it, yowsa. Heck, even the sibs thought it was cold, and that is saying something.

I am…well, we are, actually…steadily working through the first five chapters of “Calamity’s Luck”—meaning that we now just about finished the first one, hah—and find it rather difficult to alter our mindsets in such a way that we are able to get “into” the story proper. It is so hard to say goodbye to “Saving Nina” which was a solid part of computer work for the past eight-nine months, or maybe even longer. We were, like, totally submerged into the story and characters, so the shift is rather hard. I find myself actually missing Rory and Nina every now and then…which is weird, since I like Alex and Callie just fine too.

Well, we’ll get in there some day, just need to focus, I guess. In the meantime I’ve been sneaking into the untitled manuscripts, whenever big brother isn’t watching, delving into the world to which Nina belonged too, but the moments are too rare, to say the least.

We spend some time yesterday with Niobe…the puppy that got hurt a week or so ago. He’s been way too scared, so we’re trying to get him over the trauma with lots of prodding and patting. He doesn’t like it, but he is slowly getting better due to a lot of attention.

Building-wise yesterday was a total bust. I was trying to build a dresser, but when I couldn’t find the right materials I had to give up and call it a day, rather than push when it wasn’t working. I hate it when that happens. I just couldn’t create an image in my head of the piece of furniture I wanted to make, so I hereby declare yesterday, over and done with, and I will stop writing about it.

Today—well, last night, technically, I had a bout of…I don’t know what. Let’s just say I felt sick as a dog, and was more than happy to stay in bed that extra hour, rather than face the cold day. Yikes. It was bad, I’ll tell ya. Bad! But anyway, once the morning arrived I was marginally better and headed down to the house asap, ‘cause it was COLD. Those northwestern winds are a bitch that much I’ll say.

There was the laundry of course…I’m keeping track now, managing to keep the bags empty by an average of two cycles a day, phew…which reminds me, I managed to get the majority of my clothes into the closet, yay. Even decided to take an extra thirty minutes to take out my winter clothes and put the summer digs away for the next few months.

There was the rewrite edit of Calamity’s luck again, of course. We did a couple of pages, which is hard, due to the problem I mentioned before, and five hours after settling down behind the computer we bravely headed out into the cold wind to start on the day’s projects.

While big brother and grandpa started on outside projects, little sister and I started anew on a cabinet, this time with enough materials…I thought of this nice stash during the night, hah…to make a rather handsome shelving set of a beautiful nut wood. It looks rather handsome now, and once I’ve made the drawers, the way I intend to, it is gonna look mighty nice, if I do say so myself, right they’re against the big wall of my bedroom. Four shelves and two drawers, and with a little luck, I’ll be able to toss out the old, run down cabinets that are still standing there.

Before starting, however, I helped grandpa out, putting in a couple of borders on our tenant’s ceiling. The stupid covering there still hadn’t been finished, even though we put it in almost a year ago. Now it all looks very neat, though.

Dressed in several layers, (even little sister, who usually loves the cold) we worked right past sunset and finished the entire thing in the two big spotlights that light up the terrace by the carport. The dogs didn’t much appreciate the cold either, by the way. Throughout the hours they kept looking at us pitifully, piling up on the chairs and benches, and even some old outside cushions that were still lying about as residuals of summer.

Once done for the day we headed down to the house for dinner, at which time I started up the computer to write down today’s blog. I wish I could say I have the tenacity to give it a quick edit before actually posting it, but since I have to go out tomorrow morning to bring out tenant to the hospital for her monthly checkup again, I’ll forego doing so, and hope that it was remotely comprehensible.

Cross-eyed...a little anyway.

Song of the day: “Calling Heaven” by the Kelly family. Weird why that one popped into my head, considering it was from the late nineties, but then, who can find thought or rhyme in the way the friggin’ brain works. Luckily this rather sad song was yesterday, today it was, “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy. Fun song that cracks me up every time.

Okay then, let’s get this over with, then. I write things down, whoever’s reading this will breeze through it, and then we can both continue on with our lives. Hah.

Yesterday mostly involved getting into the swing of “Calamity’s Luck”, which will basically be a romantic comedy. I manage to read about twenty pages of the fifty that I wrote more than three years ago. The story is still good, but we’re going to need to do a lot of editing in the next few days, before I can start on writing new material. I had fully intended on just reading through the lot and get started while big brother started on the edit, but while reading, I got so many ideas for changes I wanted to make (this was today) that we just got started.

Once my brain started to turn to mush, we got out the big board, we’d set it aside for this very purpose, so we could start writing out the plot-line, characters, events that have already occurred and ideas that I want to add. This is the first time that I’ll be working with a planning board, so we’ll have to see how it ‘ll work.

So let’s get to the activities of the past two days: Oh yeah, I’m finally putting together a new wardrobe closet, ‘cause let’s face it, the old one was literally falling apart, aaaargh. It took a bit of work, taking out a section (because the closet in question was three inches too high for my cabin) and then putting the bottom back on. It worked out brilliantly, by the way; you can’t even see it. The closet, now standing in my bedroom, is wood with glass, not too deep, and slightly wider than the old one…the only bad thing, that tonight, after a full day with me being more than a little tired, I still have to put the clothes in.

Also, the little drawer cabinet I was making, worked out, and is now standing in my cabin, yay. There was some scrambling there at the end, when it became clear that due to the painting of all walls, the drawers were a little too big. Had to make some adjustments by widening the cabinet by half a centimeter, so now it’s good, hah.

There was glass cutting, carpentry, and lots of planning involved since yesterday, and of course two full runs that work like a charm on getting me completely worn out of the evening. Nothing works better than being cross-eyed at the end of the evening to help you fall asleep within three seconds of hitting the pillow.

Lots of wind blowing the past few days. Really strong storms that make me a little disoriented at times, if for no other reason than that it’s making so much noise. The dogs get a little freaky because of it too, looking like their eyes are going every which way from sheer nervousness. Strange. Luckily the winds should stop next month or so…or at least that’s what happened the last few years. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Well, I’m gonna stop now, considering I still need to do that darn closet. Hah.

Finished for real...I hope. Bring on the writing!

Song of the day: “The Saga Begins” by Weird Al Yankovich today. Yesterday it was “Kids” by Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. (I actually remember, hah.)

So let me scramble my mind a little to see if I can come up with some details (they tend to mesh into one inside my brain) of the past couple of days. Uhm, yeah, there was doing the final check of “Saving Nina”, which we finished with, completely, as of today. Yay.
I felt a little odd when we read through the last correction this morning, that particular feeling of “now what?” creeping up on me, almost giving me a panic attack, until big brother reminded me that we’d discussed it last night, and that I would continue writing “Calamity’s Luck”.

This is a story I started with about four years ago, and which is about one third into the story. Unlike Saving Nina that fits in the psychological thriller angle, Calamity’s luck leans towards romance, with a big dose of humor in it.
It will be a nice change, I think, after rewriting, editing and then re-editing Saving Nina for the past eight or nine months. It was a helluva job, done with lots of pleasure, but also endless frustration, on the overall. Now that the manuscript is finally done, something a little lighter will definitely go down well.

First, I’ll have to read up on what I’ve written so far, though. I haven’t looked at the story in almost three years; so refreshing my mind is top priority at the moment.

Like yesterday, little sister and I worked on my new drawer cabinet, which was also finished today and was painted with the first layer just hours ago. Seeing as little sister and our friend Danni both want to learn how to make actual furniture, we’re taking the building of such things slowly, allowing them to gradually ease into it...just like grandpa did with me and big brother.

While big brother is once again working on putting in electrical wiring (he’s going to need it once he start welding the new gate) and fixing mom’s screen doors, we did the cabinet, sanding large sections of my cabin, washed the windows, and varnished the newly cleaned wood. The place is looking really tight now, and I love it.

Two days of running are behind us again, first on a deserted mountainous road that was a pain to traverse on, hah, and then yesterday, Halloween, we went back to our usual spot. Lots of trick-or-treaters along the way; the holiday is really getting to be popular in the area. As a matter of fact, on the way back there was this “Scream” character limping along the road, and just as I passed it, a whole bunch of kids came screaming from the bushes, startling me good. Gawd, I was almost afraid I hit one, but luckily they stayed on the pavement, well out of the way, phew.

Little brother is still busy with repairing the outside benches, and having fun with it, I think. He did an excellent job with the first one, that’s a fact. Caoba painted wood (he’s actually using tropical wood, which will be more weather resistant) and black metal. The things actually look better than they did when we bought them. Hah.

Still lots of laundry; for some reason, whenever I finally empty the dirty laundry bags, someone decides to have another cleaning bug, and fill the darn things up within an hour...earning me an average of three more batches to wash, hang and fold. Now, normally this wouldn’t be much of a problem, of course, but now that the machine is on the frits and the stupid switches don’t work, it often takes me a long time to actually get it on. Aaaargh.

We got another stash of wood the other day (I think it was dumped when we were out for our run) so our supplies are slowly filling up again. Good thing, since there is still so much to do.

Next month, when our funding gets to be a little more stable again (darn unexpected expenses) a new batch of sand and cement will be delivered. We still have to pour a concrete gutter behind the younger sibs’ rooms, and a variety of small things have to be done all over the place. Also the metal that we’re going to need for the gate, and maybe an operation for little Djoti (black and white Cocker Spaniel) who’s troubled by his last eye of late. Unless his discomfort lessens, the vet is going to have to remove the eye too. Sad, but also not much difference for Djoti who’s been blind for several years now.

It’s going to cut into the budget, though, and that’s always a bother. Things go much easier when all the dogs are healthy...added to being happy.

Watched a couple of movies...which were not at all memorable, much to my regret. Apparently, the problem I ranted about a little while ago is still there. *sigh*

Well, time to get back to work, I guess. I can’t remember anything else to write about, so I’ll leave it at this and sign off until Tuesday.