It is pleasantly warm when I wake up this morning, the wind having died down considerably during the night, allowing the sun to warm the mountain with wonderfully bearable temperatures. This allows me to step out on my porch without huddling in my multitude of layers when I let the dogs out.
They have showed some of their annoying tendencies during the early hours of day, of course, but they aren’t making a racket for a change while I turn the key and jump away before Knight II actually plows right over me in his haste to get out of the cabin.
Bliss, it is momentarily the only thing I can feel as for the first time in days I am able to shed two of the four layers I’m wearing and move freely while going through the morning rituals.
I manage to get in a quick read before it is time for me to get dressed and head for the house dressed only in clean Jeans and a warm turtleneck sweater that keeps me just warm enough on my way down. The dogs dash into the house the moment I open the door–big brother has closed it to keep his pack from making a racket in the courtyard– and shake my head when the two packs collide and go through their morning greetings with a mix of suspicion and excitement, just the way they do every single day. You’d think they get used to it.
What with our agreement not to edit today unless we really felt inspired, I can calmly go do my workout this day, changing into my exercise clothes and putting on my usual list of music before I start my warm up.
It goes well enough, now that the main pack is still locked in the patio and in individual bedrooms, allowing me to move freely through the motions. By the time I’ve done the warm ups and move over to the punching bag, big brother has put his computer aside and is doing his own exercises while occasionally trying to have a coherent conversation with me.
With me punching the bag, and him lifting weights, it is a funny sight, to say the least.
And no matter how often I remind him that I can’t respond while I’m counting out my routines, he always forgets, throwing me off count and making me grunt my displeasure when I need to start over, just to be sure that I do them all.
When, at long last, the five-jab sequence is over and done with, I do some stretches to catch my breath and take the weights from big brother to slowly cool off. I do this only so I won’t be going through the agony of punch-soreness…which always happens if I don’t do some weightlifting afterwards.
Strange how punching works: Instead of pumping muscles it really makes them tight and wiry, which, I’ve learned, is rather painful at the end of a day.
As I sometimes describe to little sister who shows some curiosity for the workout; without weightlifting, you start to feel as if someone stabs a corkscrew between your shoulders, and turns it around full force.
Hmmm. Looking at it written down I can suddenly understand the face little sister pulled when I explained it. Hah. But anyways, watching big brother do pull-ups and knee-ups on the bar that hangs on the ceiling beside my punching bag, I can’t resist trying it out, if just once…the knee-ups at least.
I manage 8 of the reps before my hands start hurting, and grimace when I hop back down and wonder what good they’ll do if I don’t even feel my abdominal muscles while going through the motions. You’re supposed to feel them while doing this exercise, big brother proclaims, before he starts pondering the possibility that female muscles are differently aligned than those of men, and that I might be using others.
Whatever. I do know that crunches do more for me than this particular work out and proceed to go through forty of them before I consider today’s session done.
What follows is a hot shower to ease the remaining tension from my limbs, and getting dressed to have breakfast.
Working out during the summer months is a lot more pleasurable. During workout it is practically impossible to wear a lot of clothes, and though it isn’t much of a problem while actually doing it, afterwards cooling off is a tricky thing. In the summer I would just jump in the pool for cooling off, while now I need to hurry for a hot shower before I seize up completely.
I’m not really hungry today, so I only eat a small piece of bread before pouring a mug of coffee and heading to the table to set up my computer across from big brother who has settled back down again. It is late already, and the sibs are coming down the stairs by the time I open up the programs I’ll need today.
Since I’m not in the mood for editing, I decide to start on a review I promised for C.S. Marks’ “Elfhunter” and try to divide my attention between that and big brother who’s brainstorming out loud about our next vampire story project across from me.
With only occasional and absent input from me, he writes down the details, but I don’t really resurface from the task at hand until it is time to get ready to go town for our lessons.
I’ve pretty much finished the rough draft of the review by this time, and shut the computer down before I head on up to my cabin to change into different clothes.
Though today’s outfit was clean, the clothes I wear at home are remarkably different from those I wear when I need to go out. At-home-clothes usually have holes, permanent stains and actual tears in them–it is inevitable with our pack, really–and unless there are dire circumstances, I really don’t venture out into the world in them. The stares…they make a body wonder if one has grown a second head, that’s a fact.
I worry about this every once in a while, I’ll admit.
This predominant expectation of a lot of people expecting everyone to look just-so on any given day.
Sure, I get being clean, but in all honesty, minding a hole or two, and even a permanent paint stain here and there…well that’s just superficial in my estimation.
As if there aren’t more important things to consider that outside appearances.
Like manners, friendliness and overall pleasant company that is lacking more and more when I visit stores and malls. These things don’t appear to be the most important things these days, which is a shame, really. Sometimes I fear that the world’s general drive for “cleanliness”, “neatness”, “being fashionable” and overall opinion of what “isn’t done” is erasing things that are so much more important.
These days, when I see a sales clerk or even a customer walking around with actual dirty clothes I’m thinking; “Finally, someone who’s got more important things to think of than outside appearances.”
Ah well, be as that may, I change into my “presentable” clothes and move on to the car. I’m huddling in my vest once more, since a fierce wind is sweeping down the mountain once more, chilling me to the bone during the few minutes that I stand there.
It is late by the time big brother and I arrive at our school, but still there are other students there, working at the computers when we settle down for the count, and immerse ourselves in boring questions.
The tests don’t go as well as I’d hoped this time. Only one without error, today. The seven others have an average of one mistake as an hour and a half passes and we call it a night to head for the El Corte Inglés to buy a couple of headsets for our computers.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Alta, one of our Perro de Agua’s managed to find his way into my computer bag, and was blithely taking out the contents while I was immersed into one project or other and didn’t notice the infraction until he had decimated my headphones completely.
Big brother’s had developed a high buzz in the left ear, so with this in mind we bought two new ones, and then head back home.
Little sister cooked dinner while we were gone, so after greeting the jubilant dogs, I quickly wolf down a portion of the delish Asian noodle dish and start looking around the kitchen to see what can be done today.
The spice drawers! I’ve wanted to see them in place from the day we hung the top cupboards, and with middle sister’s help we start examining the way they are fastened in their previous location.
It takes some figuring, but in the end we find all the bolts and screws and take apart the top section that still hangs over the last part of the old kitchen.
Somewhere in the midst of this activity, big brother joins us, and with his help we manage to take them down for the treatment with primer and paint that will be necessary to make them match the rest of the new kitchen.
Recycling. We’ve become very good at it over the years, I’ll admit. Unless something is literally disintegrating–or close to it–in our hands we’ll reuse it, and this time is no exception. Old screws that are still useable are meticulously gathered, wood set aside of possible later use, and only the absolute worst is thrown on the rapidly growing mountain of debris the old kitchen is becoming just outside the courtyard.
Much to my disappointed, disassembling, resizing and cleaning takes so long that we don’t manage to put the spice drawers up by the time midnight is drawing scarily close. The cleanup needing to be done is daunting, and for a while we just stand there, wondering where to start now that all the counters are covered with sections, wood fragments and other stuff that has been removed.
First things first: Middle sister has taken down the section of narrow strips of wood that used to crown the old counter, and planks are a messy pile with nasty nails sticking out.
While we start removing the nails so the wood can be put into storage, little sister start cleaning the new counter, for as far as this is possible with no place to put the sections that we wish to reuse.
It takes a solid hour before we’re finally done, and utter a unified sigh of relief now that a semblance of order and neatness has returned to our kitchen.
No matter that certain areas still look like a construction site…it is that, nonetheless…things are definitely looking up as we have a short discussion about what’s up next. As soon as the last bit of the old counter is removed, I’m going to have to put in the tiles that are missing beneath that particular section. Once that is done, we’re going to have to move the twin fridge and freezer to the other side of the kitchen, and this is going to be a harrowing task to say the least.
The thought alone exhausts me, and soon thereafter I head on up to my cabin to feed the dogs, read a bit, put the finishing touches in the review and post it, before starting on my messages and writing today’s Blog.
Check, check, cheheck and check. All done for the night!
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