Job related, mostly

Song of the day: “Reaggaeton Lento” by CNCO and Little Mix. Seriously silly video, but luckily it is only the song that is stuck in my head this morning, and not the actual imagery. Hah.

Right. Another day another blog…a little on the late side, considering the happy new year one doesn’t really count, does it?

Well, let’s get started then. What all has happened since the last real blog. Nothing really awesome, or anything. Life is going steadily as is, without too much excitement on the most part, thankfully. First off, the job.

I started on the job on the first day of the second week of the new year. Was tossed out there blind, not a clue what was going to happen early in the morning when I got a message on my phone asking if perhaps I wouldn’t mind starting my first day during an emergency. Someone was ill, and someone couldn’t come to work due to strikes at public transportation. Gotta admit to being a little blurry that early in the morning, blinking like some sort of zombie at the screen, but agreed, of course (got a hard time to say no, remember) to be there within an hour and a half.

Admittedly I was a little nervous. Hadn’t been introduced to any new colleagues yet. Didn’t know the setup. And had no actual idea what the heck my real job description was, other than general catering…which can basically mean anything from cash register work, restocking shelves, prepping food, serving food and clean-up, or so I discovered on my first day.

Luckily my new colleagues are a friendly lot, with enough patience not to get too snappy whenever mistakes are made….and there were plenty of those that first day, considering it was actually rather busy.

But anyways, we are now more than two weeks in, during which I have worked at two different locations and I can stand the work well. It is not nearly as heavy as the sauna used to be. If you call that a 100%, I think I’d call this a mild 60% in regards to physical and mental effort. Sure, there is a lot of stuff to keep track of, and to learn, but that is only a matter of time.

The thing I like the most about this job, so far, is that I can just stop thinking about it when I get home, and focus on something else. That wasn’t the case before. It would be on my mind, I would think about it, dream about it and basically be busy with it ten hour a day, or so. Hah. Much easier if you can just leave work on-site and get down to more important stuff when you get home.

Though my first couple of days at work involved me wearing my own clothes (uniform was late arriving) the uniform did arrive in the end, so I am now in the possession of a variety of aprons, shirts and trousers. The latter of such horrid material and design that I was forced to order proper pants online that were actually wearable. Much much better to wear cotton, rather than the icky polyester that made me sweat like a racehorse under 10 minutes. Grrr.

What else? Well, my birthday came and went. A year off of 40, the supposed big four-oh…which means exactly nothing, if you think about it. Seriously. I feel no different now than I did at 35, or thirty for that matter, except that I’m a little less stressed these days. Considering I have set certain goals going onward, using age as some sort of guideline I am actually rather curious about the whens and hows. I mean, just look at the now. Had anyone told me five years ago that I would be in the Netherlands, getting publisher, working, socializing and what not, I’d have laughed in your face.

But I was talking about my b-day, wasn’t I? Yeah. Well, I invited a handful of friends and we all went out bowling for the night. Had planned on just an hour, because, let’s face it, I hadn’t bowled since that one afternoon when I was six or seven, and who knew if it was any fun…but it was, and one hour turned into two with loads of laughter, talking, bowling and more laughter. It was a lot fun, and definitely worth repetition.

Except for me slipping in those wonky bowling shoes. Don’t know what the heck happened, but navigating through the restaurant to get to the bathroom, I did a nice little skid. Not a problem…then. But seriously, the next day, my knee was twice its normal size. Darn loose joints. Was pretty bad for several days, especially since I had to get back to work, but then, one evening, something popped (back!) and since then the problem has been lessening. Yay! By now I can walk around without pain again, just some remaining pressure while the inflammation is taken care of by the ol’ bod. Jeez, sometimes those loose joint tick me off, I tell ya.

Been faithfully doing qigong, naturally. Even during the whole knee problem (for as far as it was possible) I kept up, for which I will give myself a small pat on the shoulder “good Sammie”.

Which reminds me…In regard to eating meet, I haven’t been so good. In fact I forgot for quite some time, until the day before yesterday when I finally got around to eating a small part again. Bad Sammie! Seriously, I should know better, in particular since I’ve been tired a lot again. Grrr.

The normal stuff have been continuing on as usual, naturally. Cleaning house, cooking meals, doing groceries, but there was a car repair, due to the engine suddenly starting to stutter. Had to do with the spark plugs, so they were all replaced. Would have been nice if we could have figured that out ourselves, because we could have saved ourselves quite a buck, but what the heck, the darn vehicle works again, and needs to have a big checkup next month or so.

There was a rather massive storm in the Netherlands this week. The first night (wasn’t even that bad yet) the window in the guestroom got yanked out by the wind, ending up toppling down the roof and smashing on the parking place in front of the house. Seriously. Startled me silly, considering I was taking a shower across the hall at that particular moment. Thought: WTF. Someone smashed through the door, or something. There wasn’t. So, dressed in a wet bathrobe and a deodorant bottle in my hand as a weapon I looked a little silly. Hah.

The storm made driving to work a bit iffy. Due to many accidents on the highway, I was pleasantly rerouted to smaller roads. But the winds. Oh my. There were times it felt as if I was floating over the road top. But anyway, arrived safe and sound, so no harm done.

The book is gradually progressing. First indication of publicity efforts has come and gone, which is nice. Moving along, thankfully. Especially now that the whole editing process is over. Makes me so curious how the rest will go. What the plans are. Who is going to do what. You know, all that stuff of which I know very little. I know that as an indie published author I should know more about advertising and such, but I still stand with what  I always said: I’m a writer. If I were a good sales person, I would have chosen a different career. As it is, I am just hoping they will point us in the right direction, and sling us in…hopefully in the proximity of the bestseller lists. Haha. But we’ll see.

Had a dentist appointment. There were some starting holes, according to my photos, so we’ve been stretching the treatments out because I don’t have dental insurance…or did I mention that before? Anyway, he did a couple, but I have to get back because one of the fillings keeps hurting me. The whole jaw feels sore because of it. Grrr.

Kitten was very unhappy with us. Decided to give her a deworming treatment, meaning an early morning pill on a semi-empty stomach. She was not amused, and went around us in a wide circle for a full day before she forgot.

Made another cat door. This one in the garage door. Until now the cat litter box was in the mud room, but she really likes using it, meaning that it smelled most of the time, so we decided to make her “toilet” in the garage…especially since we dry our laundry in the mud room.

Kitten is not happy about that either, but such are the breaks, for as far as I’m concerned.

Her present favorite spot is under the stairs, in case you’re wondering.

That makes for full circle in the house. First upstairs in the second guest room. Next came the extra office chair in the living room. Then the kitchen on the sill between the fresh garden herbs. Then a dining chair. Followed by the spot under the stairs. Soon she’ll be back in the living room. Hah.

Gradually starting to work more on the new book project. The prequel to the coming feature. The “how it all began” story, which is fun to work on. Sometimes I marvel at how long I have been working on this particular world. I mean, I started it back in ’98 with a somewhat loose concept of “what would happened to a small group of survivors of a sect’s child army, once they grow up?”, and here we are. The first one at the brink of publication, with the prequel worked out, but still in need of some serious tweaking. It is very exciting.

Cooking wise I haven’t been doing much experimenting lately. Between work, socializing, writing, visiting Tenant (she’s doing okay, albeit a tad lonely and momentarily bothered by a severe cough) the usual daily grind, there just isn’t much time. Although yesterday I made a rather lovely mashed potato sauerkraut mix with a load of sweet and sour chili in it. Hah. It was yummy, and filled with vitamin C...good thing too, considering big brother seems to be developing a cold. Poor guy, especially since he is on-duty at work this week, and won’t get off until next weekend.

Did some doodling with paints lately. Nothing major. And nothing really worth showing, but it was nice to do…especially when I don’t have the energy to do anything serious. Also been doing some sewing. Nothing quite as fun as the quilt, but just necessary stuff, like taking in pants, fixing underwear. You know. The basics.

Also worked with my plants. Really need to get some bigger pots, because some of them are just growing out of bounds again, poor darlings. Just yesterday I got some new soil, so now all I need are the pots.

Found a rather nice rug for the living room. So now the ugly green one is in the kitchen’s dining area, lighting up the ugly brown. Haha. Same goes for the actual kitchen where I put one of those light Sisal rugs that helps loads. But anyway, the shag-rug in the living room is almost silver in color, and big enough to hide most of the ugly red carpet there…see how that works? Ugly floors everywhere, but rugs hiding that fact in most cases. What can I say. It makes things a lot easier than having to put in new floors…not that I won’t if the opportunity ever arrives, but for now, this is the easiest way.

My cheap phone finally arrived from China. This means the annoying time of adjustment is there again, but at least it is no longer constantly malfunctioning, like the old one. Seriously. Turns out I missed several calls, which were important. But anyway, that should be okay now.

Gonna have a dog over for a couple of days again, which should be nice…if not entire convenient, considering my work week. But anyway, he’s a friend’s and the company will be nice.

T will be coming over in March. Yay! Her friend is getting married then, so she will be here for that. Meaning I get to see her again…relatively soon after her last visit. Looking forward to it.

And that about sums it up for today, I’m thinking. There are sure to have been things that happened during the past few weeks, but since none jump out, I don’t suppose they were interesting enough to share. * wink *

Home again

Song of the day: …I am too sleepy, I can’t remember.

It’s been a friggin’ busy weekend and I, for one, am more than happy it is over.

The good news first. Today we went to hospital (were only ten minutes late. Had to feed the friggin’ dogs, ya know) to visit with grandpa. Just in case, I took him some bread and pumpkin chutney, and we sat there for several hours, waiting endlessly for the doctor who was said to be out and would come at some time up until 3 in the afternoon. Aargh. She did finally arrive after one and informed us that depending on the blood test result she was expecting any minute, he could go home today (going home regardless, but with which medication was the cincher) with three prescriptions. Read his file, and on the overall he is ridiculously healthy. Which is a good thing, or else this little mishap might have ended very differently. In fact, the file said that for his age he is in extraordinary good health. Hah. Go figure. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The doctor:
Were able to follow most of what she said, but then we started talking and we started doubting again, so I went in pursuit…only to find she had disappeared in a matter of thirty seconds. Grrr. Found the interpreter instead, to whom I explained my confusion and she sorted it all out, and told me that we could take him home today. Yay. Since the procedure of being tossed out on yer ear at the hospital takes a while, we left him to get dressed and start to gather his things while we went to the supermarket for some groceries.
We were back within an hour, but clearly the leprechauns had been busy because his paperwork had already been taken care of (did you hear that universal gasp of shock. Paperwork on time, at a state hospital? *shakes head) and he could leave at any time. Yay.
While big brother stayed with him to gather the last few things, I went looking for someone in charge to check if there was anything else necessary, and found the doctor who said we could go, just as soon as I made an appointment at the main information desk for two months from now.
First I got to the wrong desk, where the interpreter from earlier was at as well (thankfully) and they sent me to the right spot. Took about five minutes, at which time grandpa and big brother had fetched the car and came driving up. Were home at four thirty because we had to stop underway for a small donation (almost had to cancel, but we made it) at which time I was more than ready for a nap.

First I had to eat something, though, which I was not appreciative of, but it had to be done. Meat. Grrr. Didn’t manage the whole slab, but since it was slightly bigger than usual anyway that didn’t matter all that much. The nap got cancelled because Empera really wasn’t doing well, so we had to go take her to the vet. It wasn’t good. The vet looked her over, explained her confusion about Empies muscle atrophy and overall skinniness and explained that there was really very little that she could do without doing a whole battery of tests that would cost and arm and a leg. There was some discussion, but in the end we had to make the dreaded decision once more. *sigh* Empera. German shepherd: seven years old. Crazy as a loon. And member of the pack. Never a good feeling to lose one, but it will happen again. *double sigh*

Once we got home I crawled into bed and passed out for about an hour and a half. Had thought that big brother would wake me after an hour, or so, but he didn’t so I got an extra half hour. Yay. Strange dreams. Most of them involved the hospital.

Which brings us to yesterday, doesn’t it? In a rather roundabout way. Had to get up a little early to bake some patties for tasters. Were a little later than usual, and when we got there it was so busy with folks setting up that we had to wait some more before we could start ourselves. No sense in getting annoyed like some folks. This particular market doesn’t get into full swing until after noon anyway.
But anyway, we got set up, and once done I left Cousin Ed to it so I could go visit grandpa at the hospital, only five minutes away. Had to park about a mile off, which I wouldn’t mind so much if the friggin’ foot hadn’t been so bothersome. Arrived at his room sore as heck, but got to sit for a bit, so it didn’t matter. We talked some, him having a hard time of it again, which appears to be the norm at the hospital. I guess it is the long night that makes it harder. He kept his spirits up, though.

Stayed for about an hour, then hurried back to the market to eat a piece of bread with a pattie and lettuce on it, and rushed on through to the restaurant so I could do some writing. Managed to do three pages in the next hour and a half, at which time I quit and returned to our stand. Had some nice chats with folks. There were quite a few who wanted to try it out, and we sold about ten burgers through the course of the day…along with some other stuff that at least covered the expenses.
The nasty bit of news is that we got robbed. Yep, so a-hole stole one of the smaller dog beds. Grrr. We didn’t notice it for real until at the end of the day. I do remember vaguely that I wondered if Cousin Ed maybe sold it before I got back from the hospital, but then it slipped my mind again. Darn it. Luckily we did sell a similar one, later on, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Got home, unloaded the car and trailer, had some food (big brother made mac & cheese) and took care of my messages, and then spent the last hour of the evening cutting bread for the dogs. Gawd, it’s not until someone’s out of the picture that you realize how much help those things said person does to take off the pressure. We were really scrambling this week.

Luckily mom and the sibs decided to take over the Saturday market, because we might not have been able to make that otherwise. Instead we took Sally and tenant to the hospital to visit with grandpa. A trip both ladies seemed to enjoy, if for no other reason than to repay him for visiting with them when their roles were reversed. All three had fun, I think, so it was a successful afternoon.

Once we got home I started making rice pie (turns out I mixed up dates. Middle sister’s birthday was on the 17th, while I remembered the 19th, darn it. So I was two days late with the pie) and a pumpkin chutney. Took me some odd three hours to make the birthday pie and the one for the market (only got rid of two pieces, by the way, despite the fact that it was tasty as heck). Luckily I did, without realizing it, give her lemon pie on her birthday. Hah.

Well after that there was the car to upload, which we didn’t finish with until dusk. Due to the weather we had to leave it to the last possible moment. There were clouds all over and it seemed as if it might rain. It didn’t…though today we did have some.

Practiced some Spanish, though not as much as I should have. Do have to say that I spoke quite a bit of Spanish this weekend. At the market, at the hospital. Ever since I’m doing these lessons I admit to having several occasions where I think like: Hey, I can say this sentence. I know how to say this! So the lessons are paying off. Hah.

Well, that’s it. Time for me to hit the sheets for some serious horizontal time until 6 and a half hours from now when Sally needs to go to the health center for a blood test. Since caregiver has to take tenant to the hospital in town for her kidney research, I’ll have to go along instead. *sigh* And that while I was planning on sleeping in, darn it!

34 and counting

Song of the day: “Amazing Grace” by the Maverick choir. Didn’t see that one coming, did ya? Never think that my brain can’t come up with a proper ear worm. Hah.

Alright then, Saturday…drawing a complete blank for a moment here. Darn it. I’m going to have to grab my diary…
Okay, we’re in business.
Dreamed of Ireland. Yep, now I remember. Gawd, I was in a really nice and green place somewhere in the southwest. There was this big old homestead and I was walking through the woods, which was rather amazing…not to mention beautiful. I was really regretful of waking up.

Well, I got up regardless, of course, and started on the day doing such mundane stuff as laundry, feeding the dogs, and then editing, of course. Didn’t go bad either, finished it (at the end of the day) with only 12 pages to go.

Did some work on the kitchen, hauled rocks down there, along with bricks and concrete blocks before starting on some masonry. Added more to the wall. Changed my mind on one side and am going to make it concrete, rather than halfway with glass on top. No use putting I glass if there’s a closet and fridge in front of it.
Added to the edge, poured some more concrete there and then had to go out to check on the new job location.

Tiny, yet quaint little house in the middle of the village. You could totally do something with it if ya put in a little time and effort. As to the job, it will be doable. Wall scraping, painting and then a general cleanup. I’m going to ask if it’s okay if I take pictures for the blog. Hah.

On the business side of things, mom and the sibs have bought a van for their markets, so that means that Cousin Ed and I can use the Land Rover in the future, which is way better. Yay. Personally I find buying a van in this economy, and with the markets slowly bleeding dry, a dangerous risk, but then, it is not my risk to take, but theirs. They saved up, made a decision and went for it. Their company, their choice. For them, I definitely hope it works out.

Cooking yesterday involved leftovers of the day before, one a crust with mozzarella on top, grilled. A rather wonderful dish, actually.

So that brings us to today.
Had to get up at six this morning. My dogs didn’t much agree with that, but thankfully weren’t too noisy in their disapproval. *sigh* Didn’t much feel like breakfast, so I just nibbled on some serial, hooked up the wagon and left.
Arrived at the market on time (only drove wrong once) and quickly got to unloading. Not a particularly pleasant day, weather-wise. Loads of winds, even there in town (more so at home, apparently) which made the day a busy one while we tried to keep track of everything that was inclined to blow off at the least provocation. Didn’t park the car there today, by the way, seeing as cousin Ed had to go to some sort of charity thing today to see if she could arrange help for Sally.
Personally I walked through most of the market. Bought a nice stack of glasses for bargain prices, along with a really sturdy cooking pan with a proper size for big meals. I would say it’s hotel size and has a long single handle, which is handy when you’re cooking. Managed to haggle on the price (I have no shame these days) and brought it down from fifteen to ten. Not bad. Also bought myself a pashmina for my birthday tomorrow…well today, actually, it’s past midnight. Hah. 34 years and counting.
Talked with only a few people. Unlike Funny Beach this is not the type of market where folks stand together and talk. Basically it’s the difference of a small town market and a chain-supermaket. The first is cozy, the second impersonal.
The general consensus amidst market folks is that the markets are bleeding to death, which is a shame. It doesn’t help that most of ‘m started out as being run by market holders, only to have been shoved aside by town hall wanting to have the dough and the control. *sigh*
Pity.
As to selling. Sold a mini dog bed of 10 bucks, which basically makes up the “rent” of our spot, a doll and that’s it. Hah. The guy who bought the bed was a nice one. I don’t think he actually needed one, but he had a Beagle (loved it to pieces) and when he heard how many dogs we have, he insisted on buying something.
Also talked to a nice lady who’s in a bit of a fix because she is moving back to Austria and can’t take her dog along. She’s looking for a new home. She asked if I might know of someone. *sigh* Poor doggy.
Another nice girl was the stand holder across from us. We bitched a bit about how folks find everything to expensive, despite the fact that her stuff wasn’t second hand, and the stuff I had wasn’t factory-made. I get the haggling, I really do. Heck, I do it myself. But I also understand the frustration of the stand holders who are trying to make a living. This girl ended up buying a tiny Winnie the Pooh elephant. She couldn’t resist, since she was a sucker for elephants. Despite the fact that it wasn’t really for sale separately, we have a whole Winnie the Pooh set going after all, I let her have it for a buck. Hah.
From noon I was on my own, but since nothing else got sold after that, it wasn’t all that big a problem.
Cousin Ed returned before the end of the market so we could load up together and head back on home. What with the wind blowing, the decision to head onto the highway wasn’t the smartest idea, that little wagon swayed like mad, so we got off again ASAP. Arrived home after three, unloaded and made supper of pumpkin. Soup.

Considering big brother had a dentist appointment today, he picked up some bread on the way back, which worked well with the pumpkin soup later in the evening.
At the end of the afternoon it was time for us to head out for a donation…dog veggies. A store sorts through what it can’t use at the end of the day, and most of the time we can take home a load that goes well for the dogs.

That done we got home, had supper, and managed about one page in the edit before it was time to write the blog. Meaning that this is the end of this one, and I’m going to hit the sack. Yay.

33

Song of the day: “Mr. Rock&Roll” by Amy McDonald.

Was late getting up yesterday morning, finding it rather hard to get out of bed with temperature that were just a handful of degrees above the freezing point. It made workout an…interesting event. Same goes for this morning, when it was just as cold, but I found a rather good sweater for this kind of thing in my closet, and managed to survive the ordeal. Hah.

Am still reading Jack Vance, this time “Night Lamp”, and still having a blast. I gotta say that the guy narrates well, despite it being very different from modern day books. He has a flair with words, and though his main characters are on the most part the mysterious (deadly) observers in strange exotic words (I wonder if he was a lot like that) the worlds and its people are fascinating to read about.

I was not in the best of moods yesterday (nor today for that matter. Can’t really explain why, but I’m just working through it, waiting for it to pass, thank you very much) but tried to keep myself busy on the most part.

There was the yard for a while, digging around in the dirt, harvesting some veggies, yanking weeds, squashing bugs, and opening the greenhouse and seedbed to let what little sun there was in. Since we were down there already we watered the young seedling and the beds of Alfa Alfa.

By the time I returned to the upper yard because tenant needed a hand to change, grandpa was already digging out the side of the path where I still had to put in portions of the stone wall. Once I was done helping tenant and walked her down to my terrace where she sat in the sunshine most of the day, I got to work on the masonry.

Big brother and grandpa worked on the wiring for the solar panels, leading it up to the carport, which has been elected to be the spot where we’ll use the power just to prevent the batteries from dying, I did masonry. Usually I have help, but yesterday we were spread a bit thin. No matter, though, stuff got done.

There was an edit, as planned, some chats online, answering messages and such, following a cooking session with nopales that worked out rather well. Other than that there were just chores and the like.

As for today… Not much different, except that I had my doctor’s appointment and we had to go to town before that. The morning was spent making my cake (yes, tomorrow is my B-day, and I’m treating myself by not having to write my blog then, hah) and afterwards taking apart an old desk, which is, even now being used as firewood. A pity too. It was such a nice desk, but since we don’t have some massive attic where we can store things such as furniture, it had to go. Ah well.

Also had to finish the wiring for the solar panels, meaning that I was working with hammer and nails to get wires out of the way while big brother finished up on his grand idea. By the time that was all done, we had to head on out to town for a spot of grocery shopping, a trip to the computer store and then off to the village for my appointment (podiatrist)…arrived about five minutes late, rushing and everything only to hear that the podiatrist wasn’t in today (apparently they had tried to phone me, but since my phone is at the repair shop, that didn’t do much good.) meaning that I have to go back tomorrow morning. Grrr.

On the new part bit: Cousin Eddi arrived today. It was very out of the blue, really, but family is family after all, and she’ll make herself useful. She’ll be moving in permanently, working for room and board, so to speak, and since she wants to become handy at construction and such, we’ll have an extra set of hands. Yay.

What else. After the debacle at the doctor’s it was back home to bring the groceries, and picking up the papers from the washing machine store. Turns out that due to the fact that the repairman didn’t show up within five weeks, we will be supplied with a replacement of our choice (either the same one of the same price, or we pay the difference of a different brand). We doubted for a bit, but then opted to go for SamSung. The Daewoo really isn’t anything to write home about and we’ve had so much trouble with it, I was just about ready to start treating the thing to a boxing session. Grrr. But anyway, we picked a new one, filled in twenty miles of paperwork, and will get the machine delivered on Thursday (I’ll believe that when I see it, thank you very much). It was all very casual, the staff was incredibly friendly, and it felt like a humongous waste of time for me. Ah well, no helping it.

My dogs didn’t like it, seeing as I was gone for more than five hours. They were pretty bonkers by the time I finally got home and tried to steer them away from the mess they had made in my cabin. Chaos somehow managed to get off the bed, by the way, so I’m lucky he didn’t break a paw, or worse, his neck. Nah, our Chaos cannot be called athletic in that regard. He’s about as elegant as a salami sausage…who thinks he’s irresistible. Hah.

As for me: I am, as of thirty minutes ago, 33 years old. Yay. You’d think you’d feel different, but you don’t, just another day in another week, another month and another year. *sigh*
In honor of this so-called special day, I do remember my very first B-Day. One year old, Big brother (then three) on the floor with our best friend B. My cream cake had been put on the floor in front of me and I remember (vaguely) loads (a handful at most, hah) of people there. I was strutting around excited about the cake, and a little miffed I had to share it with big brother and B...and that's about it. What can I say, I was a dictatorial little thing. Hah.
So much for memories.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

A birthday. :-D

Song of the day: “Penguins and Cats” by Katie Melua. That’s a first, I think. Though I often have Melua in my head, this is not one of the songs I gravitate towards. Peculiar.

Oh great, new song just popped up: “Cool Rider” by War…remember Gone in 60 seconds? The old timers (including Nick Cage and Angelina Jolie) have a moment of silence before they start on a night of stealing cars? The beats, the pings, the bass, and then that really dry voice…Nicholas shakes both fingers in the air and mumbles something along the lines of: “Let’s get to it”. A classic, in my opinion.

Yesterday: well, it was a busy one, I’ll tell ya; I’d overslept and due to that extra half hour I ran behind time all day…of course there is no such thing as too little time for anything, considering there is always another tomorrow (for as far as I know anyway, hah). Besides, I always remind myself that if you don’t take time, you’ll never have it, so…let’s just say that yesterday was a nicely busy day for everyone.

There was laundry, of course, the usual doggie melee in the morning, and cleaning out Tika’s (Eclecto parrot) cage of the pile of debris she had once again scattered on the bottom. Seriously, that bird can eyeball you. All the while we were busy, she would turn the eye on me as if she were saying: “What are you doing with my stash? Stop that, get away!” Hysterical, hah.

But anyway, the chore took only a few minutes, and by then it was time to head out into the yard…or in my case to the greenhouse. What with that minor miscalculation I mentioned the other day, I still needed to add half an inch to the plaster of the smaller walls of the greenhouse.
It didn’t take all that long, thankfully, just some quick slapping on, and then smoothening the mess out. Got it right too, so the error has been corrected and I could head down into the yard.

It was a day for planting (and always weeding, of course), during the course of the day we planted more than twenty pepper plants, six pumpkins, thirteen chamomile, seventeen basil, four parsley and three oregano plants. It took some doing, what with all the watering needing to be done between it, and the yanking out of weeds, but in the end it worked out nicely. We got it all in and the lot is looking grand.

While busy, we found our first tiny tomatoes on the bushes, by the way. One fleshy tomato, and one normal, a few more weeks and we’ll be able to eat our first home grown tomatoes, yay.
Considering that the fourth batch of Swiss Chard was ready for harvesting, we cut a basket full of the leaves for dinner.
The zucchinis are growing like mad too, and I, for one, am looking forward to those; I’m thinking ratatouille with all home grown veggies, hah.

Tenant walked all the way down in the afternoon, a solid 70 yards, and half way up, so that’s a definite thumbs up. She appears a little downcast at the moment, however, I tried to talk to her about it, but she says that the weight on her shoulders feels just a bit to heavy at the moment, but that she can’t really explain why she feels that way. We’ll have to wait and see if we can find something that’ll make her feel better again.

Ambah (cocker spaniel) is feeling poorly again. We’re afraid it’s about time to start thinking about having him put down, ‘cause the poor old feller is beginning really go on a downhill slide now. He stopped eating since the evening of the day before yesterday. Not good at his age, that’s a fact. I’m surprised he made it this long, really, considering he’s past twelve and has been blind and arthritis ridden for three years now. I had so hoped that he would just fall asleep some night and not wake up anymore, but apparently we’re going to have to go to the vet to help him along. I hate that.

On the positive side the new black Irish Setter (Sita 4) is adjusting nicely to life in the pack. She’s really attached to the younger sibs already, so that is definitely a good thing, and the pack…well, they don’t appear to notice the new addition. Hah.

The younger sibs are busy as heck with all the market stuff, so yeah, everyone is doing their bit…which reminds me; last night big brother and I came upon a slight hiccup in the edit, a scene he didn’t entire agree with, and strangely enough that got my hackles up. I don’t even know why, since I am not particularly attached to it, or anything. Heck, I barely remembered writing it; but it was late, and I guess I was starting to get a little prickly. I’ll have to see later today if I can do something like write the scene anew to both our satisfaction.

Mom made me new curtains for my bedroom, and they look rather splendid. A light green with a print of bamboo and leaves on it¾much better than the vague beige, I used to have.
Since it put up the new curtains, I also took the opportunity to clean up a little, and that was really necessary. That, and a rather late edit, did of course mean that I didn’t get to bed until after two in the morning, darn it, making me a little bleary eyed now.

This morning was spent making cheesecake for middle sister’s birthday, which is, yep, today.
Twenty-six years old…I think…drat, I’m terrible with dates, I’m from ’79, making me 31, she’s five years younger so that…yes, twenty-six, okay 26. Gotta remember to sing happy birthday when I push a plate of forest fruits and peach cheesecake in her hands. Hah.

Well, I’ve gotta get to work now, I’ve got leek to plant, a tenant to help up onto the porch (the sun on the terrace is a tad too much, I think, and we’ve got to fix grandpas tire. Considering we’ve got rocks to fetch later today, I’m on a schedule.

Caught off guard.

Song of the day: “Something to believe in” by Bryan Adams. Hmmm. Okay.

Let’s start with the bad news, and work our way up from there, eh? Morpheous, 8 month old crossbreed that we found last year at the garbage disposal along with his brother, died this morning at eight in the morning, over at the vet hospital.
Bloody hell, that took us by surprise for sure. He was less ill than Niobe had been, and since Niobe came home yesterday morning, it blindsided us somewhat bad.

But anyway, another burial to arrange for, and another bill to pay. It can’t be helped, no matter how much you’d wish it, so I’m determined to accept it and move one. Nothing else to do anyway, so…

Yesterday’s edit went pretty good. Did around seven pages, even though we were both struggling with sleepiness. The day had started early nonetheless, and by the time we settle behind the computer, we were about half through the day, and had just finished yard work. We’re not going as fast these days, somehow changing the routines of the day bites into editing time.

Harvested a lettuce, by the way, and saved a cauliflower from being eaten by newly hatched caterpillars. About twenty of them, on a single plant, along with four giant snails underneath the lettuce. Though I dislike the task, I had to kill the little buggers to save our future veggies.

We’re trying a new experiment too, by the way. Planted ginger roots yesterday, just to see what will come of it in the near future. It should be interesting to see what comes of it. Bell peppers are finally coming up too, which is a relief since we feared that they weren’t going to make it.

The younger sibs started on cleaning out the deep end of the old pool; the check we did of the walls confirms that we’re going to have to redo the walls after we’ve cordoned off the deep end for water storage.

We also weeded through the reed canes under the house, taking out the old and dead stems so the fig tree has a bit more sunlight, and so we’ll have some room once we start on the new septic tank. First the ground has to dry out a little, then we have to hack our way through the roots of the bush of bamboo and place them someplace else in the yard, and then…well then we have to haul rocks there before we can get started. *sigh*

Suffice it to say that the old pool…I really gotta start learning to call it the greenhouse, seeing as that is what it is going to be…terrace is filled with reed stems that have to be bound together today, and stored out of the way.

There were three more rock hauling trips through the course of the past few days, of course. Lots of rocks will be necessary for the building stages. Trees were trimmed, weeds were removed and dogs were pesky. Same old, same old, isn’t it.

Well, tomorrow our tenant is having her birthday, so I’m making apple pies. The scent of cinnamon and apples is floating through the entire house, and it is making my mouth water, I tell ya. Jeez, I doubt that all three will make it through to tomorrow. But then, considering tomorrow is grocery-shopping day I really had to make them this morning.

I’m already running behind, so I’m going to leave it as this. Life moseys on, as always, and…well, lots to do…even if the weather is downright winterish for some peculiar reason, darn it. I’m cold, I tell you!

Nostalgia. *sigh*

Error: something...1...something. The device cannot connect to the remote server. Please check…yadayadayada. Please try again. If the problem persists, etc. etc. Yep that’s what’s been flashing on my screen off and on for the past couple of days whenever I try to go online. Bloody annoying, so just know that if I manage to post this today, it will be through sheer perseverance, and downright bullheadedness of trying over and over to sneak through. Hah.

Song of the day: “The morning of my life” by Sally Oldfield. I blame it on the evening before yesterday, when big brother and I had a bout of nostalgia and spent at least an hour on Youtube searching for songs we grew up with; ergo: Sally Oldfield and…well the rest is just embarrassing. They were these cute kid songs from when I was six or seven and I figured out how vinyl worked, and literally played an album to the bone.

Hah. It’s amazing how much useless information sticks in the brain, ‘cause I’d hear the beginning tune, three or four words, and yep, I could sing along just fine.
Like I said, useless information. I’m amazed that the ol’ noggin still works with all those kiddie songs still logged in there somewhere. Heck, I swear, the stupid exercise song from my three years of misspent time in private school kept blaring in my head throughout the day.

“Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe
Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe
Ears, eyes and point them at your nose
Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe.”

(In a different language, of course, but what the heck; lots of stuff gets lost in translation)
Would I totally lose face when I say that I almost ended up doing the actual exercise? Aaargh.
Over and over it went, and it drove me absolutely bonkers.

So anyway, over the past couple of days, another ten pages or so got added to the manuscript, which means that, even though I ended up being distracted a bit last night, progress is being made. Somehow, don’t ask me why, I ended up reading up about Anna Swan Bates, and her husband (both so-called giants) and as I’m often inclined to do, I was fascinated by old pictures and such and ended up going through historical ones of the late P.T. Barnum’s “freakshow”

Then of course there was the night before, when I got completely sucked into reading about Venice…yep, research for the books, it is a time-consuming effort…and lost a full hour by reading into it. (More useless information to remember, of course, but who cares. It’s fascinating, hah.)

Besides the writing, there was…give me a second here, I’ll remember, really I will…ehm…stuff. We worked some in the carport and tried to fix grandpa’s satellite. There were a few more rehab sessions with our tenant (she can actually move her left-hand fingers a bit now, yay) and…well, considering I was exhausted, it was a busy day.

Let’s get to yesterday, I might actually remember some of it. Ah, yesterday. The clouds were gone for a change, which was downright marvellous. Clear blue skies, a bright winter sun and not even a lot of wind. Suffice it to say that we grabbed the opportunity with both hands and headed out into the yard for some serious dig work; nothing like some serious physical activity after being hampered by bad weather for almost a week, in the full sun. Since we’re planning on that veggie garden, a new fence needs to be erected to keep the dogs out of the garden. You would think that the only problem we have to be weary of is that they dig out the plants, but nope. There are some in the pack that would actually lounge beside a tomato plant or cabbage and consider it a buffet. Without fencing they would think it their personal take-away joint, and that would kind of defeat the purpose, now wouldn’t it?

So I gathered tools: pickaxes, shovel and gloves, and headed out. What with the ground nicely soggy after weeks of rain it took a relatively short time to get eleven solid holes going, and with the poles hauled down by little brother and sister, we decided we might as well start setting them now the opportunity was there.
Got eleven of them set in concrete and rock, so if the weather holds (doesn’t look like it, but wishing is still free) we should get half the fencing up this week.

On a scary note, we were working in twilight, setting the last poles of the day when suddenly the dogs around us stir and a high screeching reaches our ears. We look around, and suddenly see Sitabah (Weimaraner) drag something around and then shaking it like mad: For some reason she considers little Adma (Pocket Beagle) a rodent, and has grabbed her by the neck.

Big brother pounces immediately, with me close behind and with a firm shove Sitabah lets go of the still screeching Adma who I quickly pick up in my arms to keep the rest of the dogs. Jeez, give me a heart attack why dontcha? Ffff…ehm Copulate!!!…and a lot more swearing! I don’t know what it is with hunting dogs, but sometimes they can be completely nuts. Luckily, Adma is a spry little thing, and besides being a little shocked and shaky, she appears to have suffered no ill effect of the event.

Grandpa, having heard the commotion, came rushing down the mountain, of course, and what with being in the arms of her favorite person in the world, Adma soon calmed down enough to stop shaking. Sitabah looked guilty most of the evening, knowing full well that such behavior is unacceptable, and Touri (Cocker Spaniel) who must have gotten in the midst of things somehow and has a cut on his forehead, is looking a little stunned.

What with the clouds gone, the temperatures are dropping drastically again, meaning that it was time to get out the small rugs that I always lay in my cabin during the winter, ‘cause the wooden floor is getting to be ridiculously cold when the chill creeps up.

Let’s see what else happened…oh yeah, I finally got to watch “Terminator: Salvation” and I gotta say I wasn’t disappointed as much as I’d expected. It was not a half bad action flick, and a nice sequel to the series. Though, admittedly, I liked the Marcus character better than Christian Bale’s John Connor, so the ending was a tad…meh…but still, it wasn’t as bad as the critics said.

And I’m drawing a blank again…no I’m not. Sitabah (yep, she’s going haywire these days) decided to find a way to get up on the roof, and then proceeded to crash through the see-through roof plates, plunging down a solid two stories, if the plating hadn’t landed on the banister of the stairs and made a slide of sorts.

Heck, we hadn’t even realized she went through until we heard her howling in the patio, jumping up and down in front of the door like mad. Much to my relief she’s an agile and muscular dog, who doesn’t weigh a thing, really, ‘cause otherwise she might have broken something during that fall. Phew. No ill effects for her either.

Big brother and I have been doing a lot of plotting for the book too, of course. Making lists of characters, locations and background information. It is a rather fascinating process “creating” the world. Already we have several pages worth of information.
It is one of the greatest things about writing, really. It keeps the brain flexible. Hah.

The washing machine is on the fritz again. We were just too late fixing the leak in the roof near it, and water must have somehow gotten in. So now, it won’t start at all. Until we decide what to do, buy a new one, or have it fixed (if that is possible) grandpa is picking up the slack, throwing piles into his machine every spare minute.

The advantage of yesterday’s splendid weather was that the overfull drying lines could finally be emptied. It did mean that the sisters and I had the table filled with clean laundry that had to be folded fast, lest the dogs considered it a nice spot to snooze on, hah.

Which brings us to today, where we have come upon big brother thirty-fourth Birthday! Yay. Oh my, how does time fly. Just a “short” time we were blithe young kids, scourging countryside, looking for trouble in “Red Dawn” scenarios, hah, and next we’re fully grown adults, trying to get on in life. It’s weird, I tell ya.

And to think that two weeks from now I’ll be thirty-one. I still can’t believe that so much time has passed. It seems like yesterday when I thought, I’m still just a kid, and yet here I’m rapidly approaching middle age. *sigh* Not a bad thing, though. I kinda like being a little more confident, stronger, and healthier and more adapt at handling life’s struggles.

Ah well, life continues, as they say…whether you want it to or not…hmmm. Is that nostalgia talking again? I guess it is.