Shaving words.

Something’s up with my alarm this morning again. It doesn’t go off, which earns me another phone call from big brother who’s wondering what’s keeping me. On days such as these, I do regret the fact that the pack cannot be released until I’ve moved my butt to the house. It puts down a serious time limit to oversleeping, which is a pity.
There are definitely days on which I wouldn’t mind an extra hour or to buried deeply under my blankets.

I slept reasonably well, all things considered, waking up still sore for some reason, and too fast too distracted to remember my dreams. Once I’ve released the dogs, go through the morning routines with relative haste, I get dressed and head for the house. Exercise day has arrived, Yay, and I’m really NOT looking forward to it.

The wind’s cold and still coming from the west, but at least the sun’s out as I climb down the last bit of the path and open the courtyard gate to let the dogs rush inside.
Since I’m late, I know that my workout’s going to be a hassle. It isn’t really doable to get a proper kick in when there are a multitude of dogs rushing back and forth as if they’ve been locked in cages for days, rather than a short night of seven hours.
Going through the motions is going to be tricky that’s a fact, but I manage to go through the entire routine without any major accidents.

What with my recent discomfort in my shoulder blades, I decide to leave the twenty or so pushups for the time being, and focus on the other motions instead, and find the tension spots relax almost instantly. It appears that skipping the rather strenuous movements were a good decision, when for the first time–since I started doing pushups–I don’t feel my back muscles knot painfully when I finish the workout.

Once I’ve had my shower and hung a big load of laundry, I eat a quick breakfast and set up behind my computer for today’s messages, writing the last few scenes and following editing session. I take only two hours to finish the latest Vampire flick, creating a rather fun-filled dialogue ending that should work really well for this particular tale.

Though it is tricky to do it this way, even big brother who is an avid romance reader like I am, is pleased with the ending I write down. It fits, we agree, starting on the editing as soon as I’ve saved the new data and click to properties.

Crap! 16684 words. This means that we have to shave off at least 1600 to meet the required amount of words, and we both agonize over the fact as we start editing. Several hours pass, each sentence we remove and shift around to get a lower word count a vicious cut into the story that really needs everything that’s written down.

I despise cutting into a story this way, seeing meticulously constructed paragraphs being shredded in favor of removing yet another word, hoping sincerely that it won’t totally ruin the story. Things like, “He ran top speed, trees and vines curling sensuously around ancient trunks” turning into rather bland “He ran top speed.” Such a pity, but what has to be done, has to be done.

This is going to be pure hell that’s a fact, when seven pages from the start it turns out that we’ve only shaved off 450 at most. It is not going to be easy, but if we manage to keep this up, we might just make it without removing an actual scene from the short story. There are still 20 pages to go and if we are able to take this amount out every six or seven pages, success might be achievable in the end.

By the time sunset arrives, I decide to stop fussing with sentences and phrases and start on the day’s dinner, while big brother stays behind to keep an eye on both computers.

We still have a good load of spaghetti from last night’s dinner, so with that in mind I slice up two mid-sized cauliflowers and bake them to crisp crusts in onions, spices and garlic, before adding some salt and sugar to enhance the taste. Next come the chopped bell peppers before I toss in the sliced noodles, a can of sweet corn and some cherry tomatoes, just for quantity and let the entire mix bake for the required amount of time. At last I add cottage cheese and Gouda, creating a rather interesting smell that gets the sibs down the stairs to see what’s for dinner.

Though I wasn’t entirely sure if the combination was going to work when I first started out, it turns out to be quite success when everyone each a liberal portion before declaring that they’re stuffed. I enjoyed it myself, needing only half an hour to let the meal process, before I get up to clean the counters and get ready for the evening’s remodeling project.

We get up one drawer cover, when we decide that the paint hasn’t hardened enough yet, and switch to constructing the upper cabinets from the last stretches of MDF that we have left from the main counter. Except for the back covers, which still need to be acquired, we have just barely enough material to build the three cabinets that will in the end form a reverted J over the counters, allowing for storage space and easy access.

While big brother and I put the sides, tops and bottoms together, the sisters sand and paint the material, until three hours after we started everything that could done today is ready and clean-up time has arrived. Some paint splatters are removed, and sawdust piles up to a solid salad bowl, until the kitchen looks clean again and we can all go our separate ways.

I can’t really find an interest in TV today, still, it’s relatively early, so I lounge in front of the tube for a bit, before I rise to give Yadzia his Leishmania shot.

This is the first of his latest treatment–his skin looks bad enough to warrant a session– and since he’s got the disease it really is a necessity to give him the shots in the next few weeks to prevent him from actually getting ill
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The golden lab is really well behaved for the duration of the injection, a genuine relief compared to Trin Trin who has formed a serious dislike for a needle ever since the last vet trainee tested her for the disease. He needed to do up to ten bone marrow injections before finally succeeding. She went through it like a champ, never complaining once during the session that was prosecuted without anesthetic, but since then it is impossible to give her a shot without someone keeping her in a tight hold. I don’t blame her.

By then it is time for me to retire, and I head up to my cabin to find big brother digging through my bookshelves in search of some proper entertainment. It is darn cold inside the wooden structure, and the first thing I do is turn on the heater and the CD player before we get to talking about our day and our multitude of projects.

When he leaves for his own quarters, my feet are literally frozen, and I hurry through the evening rituals to settle on the bed with my computer, with blankets tenting around me.

My fingers are so cold I can barely find the keys on the board, but as the computer heats, they finally do get going and today’s Blog gets written.

Though there was a “sinking” moment there at the end of the day, it was a productive one, all things said and done.
On to the next!