A gift for grandpa

Song of the day: “So far so good” by Bryan Adams. Such a good song.

I had a couple of beautiful dreams in the past couple of days, but I will save them for a later date (jotted them down and everything) because at the moment I am running way behind and really should get down to editing rather than be here, wallowing in pretty dreams in far away places. *sigh* It was beautiful, if somewhat weird. But what am I saying, my dreams are always a little weird. Hah.

So yeah, I’m still reading Jack Vance, and having a blast. Has anyone ever noticed that like in those old comic books (Tin Tin and the likes) women only play a transient role and are at times not even there. I wonder if this is the example of the world having been a man’s world. I’ve gotta admit that with me being a overall female-heroine reader, it is refreshing to read.
While making my way through Vance’s “Adventure planet” omnibus, I have noticed that the character changed drastically between book one and the last two. Where Adam Reith was arrogant (to the point of being annoying) somewhat shallow and brash, he became considerably more sensitive (this time to the point of being startling) later in the series. Suddenly he’s experiencing debilitating fears and such, while the in the first story he faced trouble head-on. He still does the head-on thing, but has to overcome a whole bunch of fears in the meantime. I’m not complaining, mind you, just wondering what changed during the writing process to change the main character in such a fashion. Considering books are often shaped by events in the author’s life, I’ve gotta say I’m curious as to Vance’s life at that time. Hah

But enough of that. On to the day and that which occurred. Not a bloody lot, now that I think about it. Yesterday for instance involved yard work where I fixed one more fence, harvested some broccoli, wild onions, and a few late tomatoes. Being out there anyway there was sowing to be done. Grandpa finished two more fields (turning the earth) so I sowed alfa alfa seeds as well prior to going through the herb offerings in search for some proper ingredients for a coughing syrup. Mom and the younger sibs have a cough, so we’re going fast through my supply.

Took the selection up and stripped the branches off before putting it on a low fire with honey and sugar cane syrup for several hours.

Since grandpa was still down in the yard I took the opportunity to give his future pocket watch one last sanding and varnish. Had to do it secretly to boot, because it would have been a pity if he caught on at this point. Up until then he only knew that I was making something I’d dreamed about.

That done, and with the watch back to my room just second before grandpa came up, I joined him up at the storage where spent half an hour or so sorting through messes. Grandpa had been asking for several days if I could help him carry the mesh pergola structure towards the storage behind the camper. Since big brother was messing with his computer again, I figured I might as well see to that. So I sent grandpa off with the roof sections, looked at the remaining stack of eight or nine panels and then decided to just give it a shot. It wasn’t all that heavy, so I carried it through the gate and towards where grandpa was holding open one of the smaller ones. He looked at me funny, and asked if I’d taken them all with a half laugh. I don’t know why he asks that in that tone, but he had to laugh for some unfathomable reason.
Ah well, no matter. Together we carried away a granite plate for my future outside kitchen, and some crates with pool tiles, and then suddenly the storage started looking a whole lot neater.
I can hardly wait to see how it will look once we’ve got it all cleared out. Yay!

There was cooking and chatting with tenant who helped making supper, and then it was sitting down at last to the day’s computer work. I did finish rewriting the prologue, and I think that it worked out well enough. With a little luck it’ll add some extra layers to the plot. The edit went fine, and I was in bed around 1:30 in the morning, which wasn’t bad, all things considered.

Took the boarding dogs for their last walk this morning. Their owner came to pick them up late in the afternoon today. They’ll be coming back next month, when their owner has to leave the country for her job again. All things considered it didn’t go all that bad, so I don’t mind dog-sitting them. Hah.

This morning (after the usual chores) it was time to head to the raised seedbed and transplant the small lettuce seedlings. Did a total of sixty, I think, which are now in small pots where they will stay for a week or two before we started putting them outside in the hopes that we’ll get some lettuce this spring.

That done stuff had to be watered and cabbages checked for bugs (found only a few down in the yard, but more than fifteen caterpillars in one cabbage up in grandpa’s little yard) and debated the removal of several bushes so that we’ll have more sunlight, and less water stealing in the lowest level of the yard.

We’re going to have to clean Njanna’s ears again, the poor fellow’s ears are just pussing up again, so a good cleaning is the only solution. He sure won’t like it, that’s a fact.

Today was my doctor’s appointment, by the way. Arrived on time for a change (and thus had to wait ten minutes) and then was immediately directed to “the chair”. Well, I put a stop to that one. Hah. I immediately grabbed my insoles and held them up for him to see…startled him too. With a half laugh he stepped back and looked at the dratted things in horror. In crappy English (about as bad as my Spanish) he said, “you wear these a lot?” and I said, “Yes”. (Both him and the friggin’ doctor told me to wear them as often as possible, so that’s what I do. I wear them every single effing day, thank you very much.) I thought wearing them was the whole point of the darn things.
But anyway, he’s going to set me up with a couple of new ones, which are slightly softer (crossing my fingers for that one) and suitable for running. Yay.

Strangely enough, as if always the case when visiting a doctor of any kind, the problem for which I have sought advice/help, is worse than usual. Hah. Weird how that works, eh. At the moment you would think that my foot hasn’t seen that insole in a week for crying out loud. It’s burning like mad even though I have removed the dratted things less than a couple of hours earlier than usual. Bonkers!

Ah well, no matter. Next week I’ll have the new padded ones, and that will be all she wrote. Until then I’ll just have to cowboy up and grit my teeth, or something.

It was the so-called cute doctor again, by the way. He lost a little weight, was wearing Clark Kent glasses and I kept thinking if only the nice girl with the reasonably good English was here again. Hah. Not that it matters one way or other. He was “nice” in all the ways that matter. Strangely enough he reminded me of a somewhat nerdish Clive Owen…how’s that for a weird comparison.

What else…well, since we were in the village anyway, we drove on to a town fifteen miles further along the road to do a few groceries that will tide us over until the end of the week when the big grocery shopping day will be upon us once more. Aaaargh. Oh, no. Wait. I wasn’t going to do that anymore. No more negativity to make it into an unpleasant day. It’s not that bad, and who knows, I might actually enjoy myself. Yay.

Once we got home it was time to prepare supper, which consisted of yesterday’s leftovers and a mix of pumpkin, cauliflower, onion, leek and paneer from the freezer. It all was splendid, but for some reason my stomach was in knots, making dinner a bad thing for me today. Only at half my portion and then had to set it aside lest I risk losing it all the to the porcelain bowl. Hah.

My dogs were ecstatic when I got home, and Knight II was frustrated, rutting on the bed, striking at me with his paws like some five-month-old pup, making me lose balance and slam against the wall full force. Idiot. He can be about as elegant as a rabid elephant at times.

In regards to Amri. It is hard getting used to him not being here anymore. When I call my dogs in I’ve already made the mistake of calling him five times so far, and I do miss him whenever I do a headcount or automatically check out the spots where he used to enjoy lying. Strange how you miss the daily “input” of another living being, eh?
Okay, let’s talk about something else before I start bawling, or something.

Ooh. Grandpa’s gift. I almost forgot. I gave it to him last night. Hah. He had just returned from his walk with his dogs and I was leaning out the spy hole in the gate and asked for his hand. Not knowing what I wanted with it, he raised it and gazed at the small wooden item I put in it.
“Look at that,” I said.
He did. Smiling and looking it over, saying, “That looks really good, Sam. Is that what you dreamed about? It’s beautiful”
Me: “Uh-huh. Worked out really well too.”
He started giving it back to me, and I shook my head. “No. No. It’s for you?”
Grandpa: “For me?” He gazed at the wooden pocket watch, gave a choked laugh and turned away abruptly with watery eyes.
Me: “Yep. You said you didn’t want us to buy you a real one, so…there you go. A pocket watch.” While I was explaining about how I’d managed to get the hinge from an old wristwatch box, he walked off, still holding my gift in his hand.
I had to grin, muttered, “Well, that went well,” and went inside to cook supper. I gotta admit that it was a very satisfying response to the gift, eh?
(I'll post a picture when I've got my phone back.)

Well, this is going to be it. I’ve got an edit to do, an interview to tweak, another interview to write (am going to interview and indie writer soon) and then, maybe if I’m lucky, I get to see a movie tonight, or otherwise be in bed on time. Yay.