Office remodelling: part 2.

Song of the day: “Can you hear me” by Enrique Iglesias…and boy did I hear. It was like a stereo pounding in my ears when I woke up. Hah. Still, it’s not the worst song to have in one’s head…the volume could have been a little more modest, but still.

Well, let’s get to this, ‘cause I still have a lot to do. Yesterday, lemme think here for a minute. What’d we do yesterday…yep, the old noggin’ isn’t really cooperating for some reason, and whenever I come up with something, I start to do doubt whether or not it was yesterday, or the day before. Hmmm.

I know we hung two shelves, and then spent the remainder of the afternoon hauling in my files, going through them to see what we could throw away, and cleaning the piles of dust coating books, knick-knacks and supplies before setting them in place. Looking good, so far, but still not entirely done. Soon, though. Very soon.

The rounded terrace doors are in and so are the finishing sections that close off the wall around it. Only a paintjob, and setting the panes away from having them done completely. While the younger sibs and I were putting office supplies and research books in, big brother and grandpa were using wood paste to close the cracks and whatnot. Looking good.

I spent a portion of the afternoon working with Knight II. The big lug is such a klutz that the only solution to his sometimes-disastrous exuberance is teaching him some extra manners. Seriously, when he barges through the pack they will literally scatter from fear of getting hit by his massive paws.

The puppies are doing really well. Growing rapidly and more than eager to head out of their confinement: We checked with the local vet, just to make sure that memory served us right and confirmed that parvo has an incubation period of 3 weeks, so one more week to go and then they should be home free. A good thing too, ‘cause they’re getting to be a mite impatient.

As it turns out the flea bath we gave them had no effect whatsoever…darn it! Fleas aplenty all over the place, which is rather frustrating. But that too will pass, at some point. I don’t suppose it’s helping that for the past couple of days the temperatures went back up. Here we were, already adjusting to the cooling temperatures of Autumn and the next thing you know, the mercury rises to a solid 28 degrees (C) during the day and 23 during the night. It is a rather shocking sensation. And there I was, already contemplating getting out my winter clothes.

I did decide on doing a workout yesterday, by the way, and it was downright wonderful. All the old moves (haven’t done any real kickboxing for almost four months) were still properly engrained and the hour session went by without a hitch, leaving my muscles humming their delight. I’d worried that I would have to start from scratch after the long summer break, but I was basically still at the level where I left off…which is grand.

But anyways, even though yesterday’s correcting session (hopefully this is the last round) went pretty well, at night big brother and I, were both too weary to be able to focus properly. As luck would have it the focus was still lacking this morning, and that while I was in a pretty good mood at finding out that I wasn’t even sore from yesterday’s workout. Darn it.

Did manage a full chapter, so all was not lost in the end. We did something at least, and that is all that matters. With the slight hiccup dismissed we head out to continue with the office. There’s more organizing to do, maybe putting in another shelve, because let’s face it, there’s no such thing as too much storage space. Hah.

I am rather looking forward to little sister’s birthday three days from now by the way. 21 years old, oh my. Time does fly. I remember the night she was born almost like it was last year; such an adorable little baby, turning into a downright amazing young woman. I sometimes marvel at her and the other younger sibs, really. All three adults now, and decent, pleasant people with whom life is pleasant, if not downright fun. I can’t ask for more than that, really.

But let’s not get maudlin. On with the day:
The shelving gets to be a definite thing, considering there’s a large pile of photo albums (I really should scan them and organize them into new books…I’ll have to wait until time opens up a bit) that are still floating about without a destination. It takes only half an hour or so to make one to match the others, and soon, we’re cleaning the albums and putting them on top.

While the younger sibs are painting the arched terrace doors, middle sister and I tackle cleaning windows and then the new desk and shelves for more stacking.
At the same time, mom is putting new seats on the office chairs, and by the time darkness falls, and I have put up a temporary network of electricity, it is time to call it quits so we can take out another batch of debris we have accumulated for the past few days.

Much to my relief there is nothing awesome waiting for us at the landfill…except for a few wooden beams that should turn out to be useful with outside work. On the way home we pick up a couple of large framed mirrors, and the this cute little loveseat I’ve had my eye on for months now, and which will fit in the office perfectly.

Now this would have been a fine day, but it got even better when we drove on the road near another nursery where they had filled up an entire waste bin with a big load of plants just begging us to take them along. I can’t believe that they threw stuff like that. Two plants of twenty bucks a pop, and another fifteen or so of ten bucks each. I mean, seriously, are they insane…hmmm, stupid question. I’m not complaining, really, I’m not. They are going to look so neat in the courtyard.

When we got home and unloaded the urgent loads, it was time to get to dinner. Mom made paneer with curried veggies and boiled rice, and the first is still, literally making my mouth water. It was delicious and for all I cared dinner could have consisted of the paneer alone. Yum.

But by now the evening has drawn to an end, and even though there is still some “work” reading ahead of me, I’m just about ready to call it a day, phew. My feet are killing me, for some reason.

A bit of gardening.

Song of the day: “This side of paradise” by Bryan Adams. No surprise there; it’s one of my favorites, hah.

The day started relatively slow, what with me waking up at the usual time. There had been lots of dreams again, but since they felt like normal days, I’m not going to bother writing their up. I mean, seriously; why write about building a rock wall, or pouring in a concrete floor in a dream when the real thing is a daily occurrence, aaargh.

But anyway, Knight II is making a racket when the alarm goes off; so is Trin Trin, who’s literally bouncing again as I roll out of bed and hurry to the door before they start tearing at my bed sheets again, the stupid idiots. Once they’re outside, I stand in the doorway, blinking at the bright sunlight (still remarkably cool, by the way. The mercury only hit 30 today) and scratching my middle finger like mad. It is still swollen from yesterday’s wasp sting.

Once I’ve gone through the usual morning rituals, and arrive in the house with the dogs in tow, I quickly get down to the chores of the day. There’s a quick round on the net before we start proofreading on the manuscript. We only have a few hours, really since today’s planning involves going to the village to get some plants for the containers we built outside.

Done with the morning’s reading and consequent editing, we head out and realize that the car is acting strangely. Whenever I try to shift, the stick just won’t go into gear, like the clutch won’t go deep enough, so rather than head for the nursery we turn towards the garage. After about an hour or so, it turns out there’s something wrong with the cylinder of the clutch, some sort of hole in the tube, and the liquid leaked out. So they refilled it, and we need to come back tomorrow so two parts can be replaced.

Next, we head for the plant nursery. Lots of choices for very reasonable prices, as a matter of fact, and we move around the place until we’ve got a nice selection going. Some lavender, Dame la Noche (they’re good against mosquitoes) eucalyptus, and…well, let’s keep it to a lot, rather than writing them all down. The friggin’ car is filled with green and flowers, and head on back home so we can get started on putting them into the ground.

Changing into work clothes and sandals (got those for six bucks last week, hah) and got to work. In the remaining hours of the evening, all plants except four three get planted. Middle sister and I even manage to put in two Eucalypti in the rock ground on top of the middle garden, right by the time night falls. Not at all easy, to dig a hole in rock, but by some miracle it worked rather well. They’re looking good, I’ll admit, and so do the oleanders and bougainvillea and everything, which will make this particular part of the yard look gorgeous.

Afterwards, (since mom went with us to the nursery there’s no dinner of course) I spend about half an hour grilling French bread, red bell pepper strips, onions, zucchini and cheese, which I put on the bread with fresh tomatoes, iceberg slaw and a homemade yogurt sauce. Gawd, that was delicious after such a day. Hah.

That’s about all there is to today’s events. Not much, just a day. Oh well, can’t make it any more interesting than it is, really. Let’s just hope that I can still do an edit tonight, ‘cause all that digging and everything was kind of exhausting, but what the hey, we’ll see.