Raining still. *sigh*

Song of the day: “It’s raining men” by the Weather Sisters. I couldn’t get the friggin’ song out of my head all day, what with the rain coming down constantly. And I tried, believe me, I did. Grrr.
I tried, “I will survive” to out-sing it, but nope, it kept returning. Drove me absolutely bonkers.

And the rain is still coming down, isn’t it marvelous? Everything wet, and when we had a few hours break the day before yesterday I had the brilliant idea to use the fresh, sunny hours for something constructive by doing some organizing in the supply of rocks that have been an eyesore for months now.

They have been haphazardly piled along the main path below the gate, and seeing as we need to get the car past it on a daily basis, it always took some serious navigating. So there I was, divested at least two layers what with the sun shining warmly, got my working gloves and started hauling. Well, it was FUN…seriously, it was…or it would have been if the ground hadn’t been so darn slippery with mud.

I did finally manage to get the majority off the road, about five hundred kilos (1000 pounds?) of ‘m. It took some effort, and my muscles were screaming protest after not doing this particular “exercise” for at least three months, but I was most pleased with the end result.

The sun was still out by the time I finished, so taking that as a good sign, I took the opportunity to remove some weeds from the courtyard garden. By that time little sister joined me, and together we cleared away debris and mud from the front of middle sister’s window…boy, did that smell. Afterwards, we set the rolls of reed mats up straight, due to the storms they were blown down and were starting to rot in the mud…that smelled too, by the way. Hah.

Since we were outside anyway, we also put together two separate piles of rocks, ‘cause let’s face it, what with this weather going on we won’t be doing any building anytime soon, and made one big one in a place where the rocks won’t be in the way.

In the mean time middle sister has cleaned out the small pet cages, and the turtle basin, while little brother did…well, I don’t know what, but since I didn’t see him, I’m thinking that he’s working on his computer, which had to be reformatted…again. The stupid thing is constantly going on the fritz.

I would have liked to do some more writing come evening, but in all honesty, I could barely look straight, so after a shower (I was literally coated in mud all over) dinner, and a page or two I called it a night and spent the evening watching a movie “Death Race” with Jason Stratham. It was only so-so, which meant that I could divert my attention between that and starting on Grandpa’s saddle cover.

What with the dogs always jumping on top of the saddle, in search of dry spot, they had destroyed the last one, and were now damaging the rubber, so a new one was becoming a necessity. Got it about halfway done before the movie was done, and then hit the sheets for some blissful sleep.

Which brings us to yesterday; it rained all day, and the power is iffy at best. Had a total of ten thunderstorms in the past two or three days, and new ones are constantly rolling in. Nanook (husky malamute) certainly doesn’t appreciate that. She is usually a loner, but when thunder roars she’ll sneak in amidst the pack and wait it out in company. Poor thing.

The rain was coming down steadily when I woke and kept going with less and more water during the course of the day. We spent most of daylight hours in the carport, with me finishing up grandpa’s saddle, while big brother rigged up a water-resistant cover. The dogs insisted on joining us, of course. You’d think that with such miserable weather they’d be smart enough to stay inside where it’s dry and warm, but nope, they’ll be dogging our heels (no pun intended) and trying to find warm dry spots in the muddy and wet carport.

Luckily, what with the tarps we put up against the openings to keep out the rain, it’s at least not raining inside, but they got rather creative. Knight II, for instance, would crawl up on one of the garden chairs, curl up and snooze while shivering continuously. Little Dax, wanted to, had to, and did lie on top of the new workbench…decided to put him on an old towel, what with his thin fur and tiny little body. Carla, one of the Cockers, crawled into a supply closer to lie on top of tools and the rest…well, let’s just say that we were traipsing around living carpet, hah.

Finishing outside work with priming a cabinet, which was meant for the bathroom, I got a little high on paint fumes, hah, it was (much to my relief) time to head back inside where the stoves were burning cheerily.

Little sister had made use of the miserable day and spent the majority of the afternoon cleaning out the kitchen. Together we hung the cabinet in the bathroom, and added a few more finishing slats on the paneled wall. It’s starting to look nice, I’ll admit. When we started there were some doubts about the seemingly brilliant solution to the peeling paint, but now we’re pretty sure that it was a good decision.

There was dinner mum cooked. Cauliflower baked with carrots, yum, with baked potatoes and paneer on the side…love it.

So yesterday was concluded with a rather successful session of writing: Added another five or six pages to the manuscript which brings the total up to a hundred and ten pages, yay. It is really satisfying to see that page count going up so steadily, hah.

As for today, it started off with an early morning visit from our neighbor. He was having battery problems with his car and asked if we could give him a jump-start. A strange little fellow…not unfriendly by any means, just strange. It didn’t work, the jump-start, don’t know why, it just didn’t so we mostly just stood there in the rain until he finally decided to call his family, rather than triple A, and thanked us for trying. We really should do some digging in the car’s workings, ‘cause it took us several minutes to figure out how it worked in the rather peculiar mechanics of the Land Rover. Apparently, it goes a little different than with other cars. Ah well, no harm done, I guess.

And with this blog that’s about all she wrote for the day. I’m going to try to get some writing done now. I really don’t feel like going out in the rain early today. Hah.

Merry Christmas!!!

Song of the day: "Singing' in the Rain" by...ehm, Gene Kelly. Very appropriate since yesterday it was pouring. During Grocery shopping, little brother and I actually got into the thing and started swinging around a light post...of course then we remembered our cousin who did the same thing when we traveled through India and got this massive electricity shock. Yikes!

But anyways, it is still pouring, and I don't have time, 'cause I'm still writing, so I don't have time to write, hah.
Not much to talk about anyway, since I've written about grocery shopping day often enough and yesterday was rather frustrating what with traffic jams all over. Aaargh! You know those movies, where a taxi driver hangs out the window and is shouting insults and swears a lot...well, that'd be me if I had to nerve. I was so friggin' tempted. Seriously, we had half a mile of cars leading up to the roundabout. Hah.

So, I'll leave it at this, Wish you all A Merry, merry Christmas!!!, (try not to overeat, hah) and I'll try to do better with the next blog. Hopefully I'll have more to write about the day after tomorrow, hah.

Oops, thunder is starting up again; wonder if we'll be without electricity again...like most of yesterday. Nanook so doesn't like thunder, and the others, well, I think they're getting enough of being wet all the time...so am I, for that matter. Heck, I even have a slight ear infection. *sigh*

It's raining, I'm melting! *sigh*

Song of the day: “No” by Shakira. Gorgeous song. Little more I can say about it.

Well, it is another miserable day…weather wise. We are literally covered in clouds once again, and the rain is pouring down with a southeastern wind that is slamming against the side of the house. The recent pouring of the gutter didn’t do as much as we had hoped, considering there’s some flooding in the toilet and pantry, but it is less, I think. Yep, this ‘ll mean doing some serious mopping up, just as soon as the rain lets down.

Let’s get to the past couple of days fast, ‘cause there is way too much to do, and I really shouldn’t be spending too much time behind the computer…darn it.

Writing is going pretty well, still. I’m five hundred words short of doubling the beginning of the story, bringing the manuscript up to a third of what it is supposed to be come completion. Yay. The words are flowing nicely, the story developing rapidly…though admittedly I remember little of what I’ve added so far. I get in a kind of fugue state once I get going, so it still remains to be seen if it is any good. I’m thinking it will, but you never know.

I was in the middle of a gloomy, date-like scene last night when I heard about the death of Brittany Murphy, so that distracted me for a bit. So strange; such a young woman, and so talented. I loved her in “Uptown Girls” and “Don’t say a word”. I knew her from Clueless and Girl Interrupted, of course, but the first two were really excellent. How terrible for her loved ones, for something like this to happen. It does seem like the celebs are dropping by the dozen these days. *sigh*

For the most part, we have been working on putting together a solid workbench for the carport. It’s going to be a massive construction, what with it having a lot of action to look forward to, and it is turning out rather nicely. It is mostly out of wood, with a smooth counter in-between that’ll allow for semi-easy cleaning.

The first seedling veggies have been planted the day before yesterday, so now it will be all about waiting and seeing how they’re going to do in the recently turned earth. There’re mostly winter veggies now: Iceberg slaw, cauliflower, onions (let’s face it, we’re all nuts about onions so they’ll get eat if they decide to grow) leek and red cabbage. Basically it now is a selection that’ll grow this time of year, and to see how it goes. We have done some home growing in the past, but it’s been a while for sure. We’ll see.

There was some cleaning done…my cabin to be precise. Things were turning bad again, so I decided to drag a broom through and give the bathroom a good scrubbing all over. It’s still not neat, but it’ll have to do for now.

The new mattresses arrived the day before yesterday, so most of that day I spent hauling them around. Middle sister got her new one, I did too, so did mom, little brother and grandpa; considering big brother and little sister got theirs a few months ago, we are now all set for the next ten years, or so. At least these are proper quality, while the ones that were bought ‘bout twenty years ago (and then a few really cheap ones in the past few years to tide us over) really got to be too bad for use.

I slept rather wonderfully on the new one, by the way. My hips don’t hurt when I wake up, so that’s a plus and when I do my morning stretch exercises, I don’t need to unclick my spinal cord, hah. Also, I have gained an extra seven inches in bed width, allowing me to actually stretch out without the dogs being in the way. Yay…it is a rather novel sensation.

The temperatures are pretty low for the time of year. The mercury has dropped down to 4 degrees (c) already, and that means lots of layers for me. Yesterday I finally got smart and donned two pairs of trousers, which is doing the trick so far. I could even work outside without loosing sensation in my legs, hah.

The plants are enjoying the rain, of course; everything is looking brilliantly green and fresh, which is a definite plus of wintertime. The long warm summers leave everything looking rather miserably dusty and bland, so on that part this type of weather is appreciated at least.
The dogs on the other hand, seriously dislike it, taking only the absolutely required amount of time to rush outside and do their business, before they come storm back inside, soaking wet. Aaargh.
Of course, when one of us goes out, they’ll be around us like a shot, not caring a fig whether they get wet, or not. Like I’ve said, many times before, they’re absolutely nuts. Hah.

Little Adma (female pocket Beagle) had developed a bit of a cold the other day. What with her tendency to follow grandpa practically everywhere, she’d developed a bit of hypothermia and felt poorly for a couple of days. Grandpa kept her warm, however, stuffed her under the blankets a lot and now she’s right as rain again. You’d think that she would learn of the experience and stick close to the fire barrel which we burn wood it while working on the variety of project, but nope. Every time he tried to put her somewhere it was warm, she’d jump right off, and go in his pursuit again. Silly girl.

Knight II has similar tendencies, which isn’t smart, considering his thin fur, but at least he’ll huddle up in my cabin, only coming out every thirty minutes or so, to check if I’m still around. Mosha is starting to do the same, so with a little luck I might actually be able to move around without at least half a dozen dogs around my feet. Hah, who knew that there were advantages to winter after all?

But anyways…while grandpa and big brother continued with the workbench, little sister and I started on the toilet room, which keeps developing a mould of sorts. After several years of trying just about everything to get rid of it, we decided to treat it properly, and just design a breathing layer for it. So with a little luck we’ll be putting that up today. There’s going to be a beautiful layer of ebony slats, going up vertically (creating height) and decorated edges to keep the lot in place. It requires some acrobatics, working in such a small space, two of us humans and an average of four dogs…or more, since they can’t be expected to just look for a place to snooze elsewhere, of course, grrr…but we’re getting there.
It’s going to look very nice, I think.

The courtyard room is finally cleared of the stuff that has been piled there during the course of the past months, so it is now relatively clean, with everything stored properly on pallets, off to the side where they’re the least obstructive. It took little sister and me the majority of the day (Friday, I think) but it was worth it.

Well, that about sums it up, meaning that I gotta run and get started on the day. Can’t spend the entire duration of it cozy and warm behind the keyboard, waiting for summer to return, no matter how tempting that might seem at times.