Completely Useless

Song of the day: “The Climb” by…don’t hold this against me…Miley Cyrus. Hah. Just kidding. It’s not a bad song, just a tad, ya know, Hannah Montana. But okay, there are worse songs to have in your head for sure. Like yesterday I had Chubawamba with “I get knocked down”. Talk about a stuck record.

So the past couple of days. They’ve been a tad strange, I’ll admit. Yesterday was a genuine disaster for as far as I was concerned. I hardly slept a wink, my foot, totally killing me, which meant that I couldn’t walk on it at all in the morning. Seriously. I would try to put my heel down, but my body just refused. Had to phone grandpa to ask if he could bring me one of tenant’s old canes and the arnica gel I had in my purse. I was completely worthless for the beginning of the day. I basically sat around with my foot up, stretching, trying, time and again to see if I could stand on it. I could, but not until later in the day, after some writing and printing out some business cards for Samaya Photography. They worked out rather nicely, if I do say so myself. Balanced, professional, pretty. I like it.

Had to go to the vet, of course. Knight II needs to be checked every day. Was mighty interesting, limping my way into there, and then sitting down on the floor to have him lie down for the vet to treat him. His foot didn’t look bad, and since the other one burst, that swelling isn’t doing all that bad. Yay.

There was cooking involved, which was late because big brother and I had to do some groceries. Were out of practically all dairy stuff…which isn’t strange since we haven’t done any serious groceries in a while. Just bits and pieces here and there.

Normal chores such as laundry got done, naturally. Had planned to do some Spanish, but didn’t get around to that, much to my regret. Am trying to read some Spanish in a book, you know, acclimating myself to it some more, when I can. There’s always time for reading…or at least, there should be.

Then today, more writing, of course. Am working my way through the new scenes anyway. Another trip to the vet, which is standard by now, isn’t it? Another one tomorrow…which will be market day for Cousin Ed and me, of course.

Neither tenant not Sally were doing well today, nor was little sister. Wonder what that is all about? Some bug, maybe? Hope I don’t catch it, considering we’ll be starting on the new job on Tuesday (probably). Had to go out for that today, as a matter of fact. Had to order a new liner for the pool, but luckily the liner was in stock, so we took it right along. Meaning we can go there any day now. Tuesday will be soon enough. Hah.

Did spent several hours taking care of tenant today. Caregiver, grandpa and Sally, the latter of which both had an appointment at the hospital in Marbella today. The other day grandpa got some disturbing news about his blood INR being too thin (near 6 while a normal adult should have 1 and he should have somewhere between 3 and 4) and doctor warned him to be extremely careful while not taking his medication for two days...at least until his blood thinness is not as bad anymore. Poor grandpa, those medics are totally messing stuff up for him.

Watched Oblivion with Tom Cruise tonight during the blog. Not a bad movie, even though it missed something. At least it had the pacing of an old-fashioned movie, which I liked. And the acting was good. Also nice. The stuff that I felt was missing…well, that’s in the details that I won’t bore you with right now. Hah.

What else. Cousin Ed and Grandpa took a shelving unit up from the old pool apartment. That, and a small cupboard, I want to set up in the future kitchen. All the stuff that we have floating around in the courtyard is driving me friggin’ bonkers, so this should sort that out a little.

But anyway, I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I better get to bed.

A jog! Finally!

Song of the day: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” Tight Fit. Incredibly retro the clip that goes with it…it’s been a while since I saw it, but it could have been college kids messing around. Hah.

So yesterday was bad. I had a wee bit of a nervous breakdown, for some peculiar reason. I’d gotten bad news about Knight (the other paw was swollen badly too) I had to do Spanish, which at the moment isn’t making any sense to me. I think my brain is a little overloaded with all the carp going on. There is the stuff I need to do to get the photography rolling, the new revisions of the book, the friggin’ market, and in-between there are all the little things that need to be taken care of…not least of that being Sally and tenant. Had to finish that dratted bathroom (which we did, thankfully) and then go to tenant at the hospital. Arrived there, finding her shouting because she was most dissatisfied. First thing she said when we got in was “Goddammit, guys, get me out of here. I can’t stand it anymore.” Took us about fifteen minutes to calm her down.
She was allowed to go home, so all was well in that department at least. It took a while to get her discharged. Dressing thankfully only took about fifteen minutes, but then we had to wait for a friggin’ chair so we were wiling away the time for more than an hour. Then, when it finally arrived, suddenly the nurses started to complain about hospital policy that wouldn’t allow for us to go down without a medical escort, to which I was like, “What? Since when?” In the end, when said escort didn’t turn up, we just left and headed for the parking area where big brother was waiting for us with the car.

But I get ahead of myself. I was still telling about my temporary mental disintegration. *sigh* I ended up exploding at big brother, and then retreated to my cabin until I was suitable for company again. The pouting took a while, but I did overcome in the end, end managed to get back to my Spanish lessons without losing it again. (Good Sammie)

Luckily I was myself again this morning after a solid six and a half hours during the night. Not enough yet, but better than the past week where I was lucky to hit six full hours. Went to work early this morning. Rushed through the morning chores and then settled at my computer to get to work on the book. Rearranged scenes like a fiend, sorted through the new ones that have to be inserted, and got about two thirds of the storyline set in place. It’ll take time and effort, but we’ll get there.

Couldn’t finish, considering today was Spanish lesson day, and added to that I had to drop Knight off at the vet, which made us late, again, darn it. Luckily Maria wasn’t at her best either, seeing as she’d had a party yesterday and I think she was a little hungover. Not a bad lesson, though. Got to work on subjuntivo, which is mighty complicated. I couldn’t do anything with it during last week’s homework so she reassured me that it was a common problem for foreigners. Learned some, got frustrated some, but we somehow muddled through. Hah.

Afterward there was a pick up in town. A waste of the ride, but you gotta check anyway, and then back home where I thought to lie down for just a minute and get my foot to stop pounding, only to wake up an hour later. That was an unexpected nap for sure. Hah.

Cut the dog food while Cousin Ed prepared stuff for our own supper, and then got changed in my jogging outfit. Yay. Finally. Since we had to go fetch Knight anyway, and had to go past the vegetable distribution center, we decided we might as well go for a jog. Did it, too, which was splendid after all this time. I soooooo needed that. I don’t even care that I was once again in poor shape. I ran, that’s what matters. Heck, I even lifted some weights, which was awesome. It’s been way too long.

Got home to quickly cook supper, which worked out well, despite the fact that we were out of cheese AND cream. Drat. Managed to salvage the food, however, so supper was edible at least. Gonna have to go past the supermarket tomorrow.

Also, Knight has to go back to the vet again tomorrow too, so it’s going to be busy once more, in particular since we also need to do a pickup in town later in the day. Luckily we can mix that with the groceries. *sigh*

With a little luck I’ll be able to get a new scene down, and, since big brother is now working on it, maybe get some of my photography business cards printed. Then, well, we’ll see how it goes. Now, I’m going to get ready for bed. It’s been a long day regardless of the nap. Hah.

Tats

Song of the day: “Coconut” by Harry Wilson. Cool song, but been there before, haven’t I?

Soooooo, long weekend. Lots of stuff happened, and yet it was very much the same as always.

First off, I slept horribly on Saturday night. For some reason I just wouldn’t drift off, meaning that I was less than my charming self Saturday morning. Not a good day not to be in good spirits, since it promised to be a late evening at the market.

First thing we did after the morning chores was work on a story line for the revision. I wasn’t all that gracious about it. I know that today’s market is very different from what I like to see in books, but I’m trying, and that’s what counts. Had some massive discussions with big brother about the possibilities, in particular because we had different ideas as to how to interpret the “suggestions”. I do know that if they say no to this round, I’m going to publish both versions and do a competition asking readers to tell me what idea they like better. Hah. But anyway, I am working hard on enjoying the challenge, am almost there despite the massive headache I had this afternoon from working on the concept for five straight hours. Seriously, there is nothing that exhausts me as much as twisting and turning a story that is already set in my head, into something someone else wants. Old versions pop up in my head, new pieces crowd into the mix, and at a certain point my head just wants to explode. Luckily it’s still on there, kinda, and after doing some serious relaxing (worked on making a wooden bench for the new bathroom, and cooked supper) I am back to normal, kinda. Hah.

But let’s get to the market. Around two in the afternoon we started loading up the Land Rover and trailer, and left on time, right after supper and a quick dip in the pool.
Most folks would say it was a disaster, seeing as there were only four or five stands, but I actually kind of liked it. We arrived early, around five, despite the fact that we had way less products with it, for no other reason than the fact that we didn’t want to be late getting the stand set up. (7 PM deadline) Got set up in a hour and a half, thankfully, so I could leave Cousin Ed to it, and go visit with tenant.

She’s still at the hospital, of course, mainly because she’s on a special antibiotic, which she has to finish with a drip. She was in reasonably good spirits, even though she is getting sick and tired of the mushy porridge like meals she’s eating there. I had to promise her that we were going to get her some chicken paws for when she gets home, because she really likes that, and is even longing for it. Regretfully I couldn’t stay too long, and was heading back after an hour or so to get my bag and settle in the restaurant with a coffee to do some writing. Got a good start on the new scene that started in my head that morning. Managed about three pages in the next couple of hours.

The remainder of the rather quiet evening was spent trying to get the few customers to pose for my pictures. Got a few after all, two utterly adorable girls (sisters) who were shy at first, and then more than willing to pose for me. The youngest one in particular was quite enthusiastic. So much so, in fact that every time I tried to snap a picture of her, she moved a fraction. Did end up with several nice shots of them, though.
Then, after ten, the jetsetters started arriving. Yep. Genuine jetsetters in linens and silks, all primped up and ready to party. There was this lady, for instance, dressed to the nines in peacock print leggings and top, heels higher than stilts, and blonde. We couldn’t resist, we had to ask if she wanted to pose for a picture…which startled her for some reason. She started demanding what for, and if she looked strange, or something, and who would see the pictures, and all that. Explained it, of course, but it was a little sad that her first thought was that she looked strange. We (cousin Ed, me and her male date) all assured her she looked beautiful and in the end she agreed to pose. Even gave her one of my pamphlets, so let’s hope she looks at the photo blog and checks it out. So, I snapped two quick shots, after which she and her escort discovered our merchandise and ended up buying a nice dog bed for his dog.

Packing up started at eleven thirty, meaning we were on our way at one, heading home where big brother was waiting with a very late meal. Gawd, was more than ready to head for bed by then. Didn’t drop in until two thirty, meaning a way too short night for me, with not a lot of sleep because I couldn’t drop off into REM for some peculiar reason.

More writing for me in the morning, after the usual chores. I wasn’t happy with Knight’s paw, in particular since yesterday afternoon it started exuding a particularly nasty smell, but I didn’t dare take of the bandage from fear of not being able to apply a new one in that particular way.

Also worked on my pics from the market, getting the lighting right, the coloring until everything showed to the best advantage. Will be posting three or four of the pics from the evening.

Once the writing of the day was done, we headed up to work on the bathroom, but it was too late already and I had to make lunch before big brother and I had to head out for a pick up, and to visit tenant. She was more than happy to see us, in particular since I remembered to bring her old reading glasses, which thankfully work better than the new ones. She immediately dove into the plant book we brought along, at which time I promptly fell asleep in my chair.
Don’t know what happened during that time, but when I woke up I felt physically ill. Almost didn’t make it to the car, for crying out loud. Luckily, after about half an hour, I started perking up a little, so maybe I’d just woken up from too deep a sleep too fast, or something.

More cooking once I got home, mushrooms with cream and a nice chili on the side, so we got all the nutritional stuff in once more, yay.

Thought still difficult, Sally is much better since we brought the dosage of her unnecessary painkiller down. Sure, she’s an opinionated senior, but at least she’s coherent at the moment, and more or less cooperative. There are ups and downs, but that’s to be expected, I suppose.

More writing this morning, feeding the dogs bread, which is so incredibly good for their teeth, already we have less odor coming from several of them. Yay. Chaos was getting to be pretty bad, and so were Arthur, Kollosus and Carla. No more though, except for maybe Kollosus, who can still be a little on the pungent side. Hah.

Have a possible construction job coming up this month. Setting up a pool and cleaning out a yard, so, Yay! If it works out. Hah.

Had cops at our gate again this evening. Two cars no less, because someone had called them due to the smell of smoke of our stove, again. *sigh* We went through the whole song and dance again of showing the stove and telling why we were using it. There was this really cute cop with them this time, so I used my wiles on him a little. He had a five o’clock shadow and thick arms covered in tattoos. So I asked what kind they were, at which point he started showing them off, throwing cautious looks in the direction of his superiors talking by the cars. I asked him how long it took to get them, and he said “long enough” (hah) and that he had to go several times before they were done. He jotted down our information and number and then quickly beat a path back to the car while we went back inside. Gawd, that was fun. Seriously, a little more time and he’d probably have yanked off his top to show the rest of his tats off.

BTW. Visited the vet this morning, and it took quite some time. She cleaned the paw, took and X-Ray and discovered that he has severe osteoporosis, probably due to his continuing infection. Poor darling. It would sure explain why the digit is so swollen. He's going on antibiotics for the next two months to see if it can be helped.

Well, this will have to be it for now. It’s almost one in the morning and I need to get to bed if I want to get up on time tomorrow morning. Let’s hope there’s something a little more interesting to share the next time round, eh?