Strange.

It’s a sunny day, and I stand beside the car by an abandoned gas station, overlooking the sea that is a clear blue that reminds me of the many times we visited the Costa Brava. The sky matches the color, faint dark clouds breaking the horizon in two and creating an amazing contrast as I stand there, feeling the warm breeze brush over the skin of my shoulders. The sleeveless top is a concession for the sudden weather change, though Jeans still encase my legs when I turn at the sound of little brother calling out to me.
“No one’s here,” he says, eyes as blue as the sky, squinted against the glare of the sun while he joins me at the car. It’s strange that the gas station is closed, especially since it’s a place that we frequent often. Still, there’s no help for it and we’ll have to find another to get the supplies we need.
As I get in the car I notice the clouds that had been at the horizon, are rapidly crossing the sea, coming ominously closer while I shift the car in gear and pull out of the parking area so we can return to the road.
While for the first half hour it seems as if we are the only car on the road, soon more and more vehicles begin to appear. A long line following us up the mountain and in front of us, car seems to show up out of the blue.
There’s a lot of honking going on, nervous drivers making dangerous maneuvers in an attempt to mount the steep road up at a faster pace, when the busy traffic really won’t allow for it.
Wondering what the heck is going on, we’re just theorizing about that, when up ahead the traffic suddenly comes to an abrupt halt and I am just barely in time to slam a foot down on top of the breaks. The car stops just before we collide with the white car that’s pulled to a halt in front of us.
Sucking in a deep breath, little brother and I exchange wary glances before we get out to see what the people, getting out of their cars as well, moving rapidly further upwards, are yelling about.
“It’s coming! Hurry!” I hear someone shout, turning slowly to blink my surprise at the clouds that have already crossed the sea and are now only a mile or so off the coast, the loud rumble of ominous thunder rolling up the mountain which we’re ascending and actually making the ground beneath us tremble.
“Go, go, go!” a man is yelling, ushering wife and kids to more speed as they pass us by.
I’m about to say something, too, when suddenly the tut-tut-tut of my alarm shrills in my ear and morning arrives.

Bloody hell. And just when things were starting to get interesting, too. And here I was so curious as to what was going to happen when the storm hit.
I groan, covering my eyes with my arm and doing my very best to ignore the dogs bouncing around me. It’s of no use, I won’t be able to sleep again, I know, and carefully roll out of bed to release the dogs for their morning run.

Slowly I go through the morning rituals, reading a bit, cleaning some of the mess caused by the dogs during the night and then getting dressed before I head to the house in the early sunlight.

Workout day is here again, and the first thing I do is change into the appropriate outfit so I can start on the warm-ups. Ones I’ve got those over and done with, I put on my light boxing gloves, spinning the wrappings attached to them around my wrists until my hands are properly supported for the session with the boxing ball.

Conversations between grandpa and big brother distract me considerably but in the end I manage to get through the entire mix of routines before heading for the shower, taking the laundry down afterwards, and then starting on breakfast.

With the coffee brewing, and the laundry folded, we set up our computers for today’s writing, and get occasionally sidetracked by CNN’s reports and the resulting search online about the massive bailout that’s planned to save the economy.

Here I thought the money was intended to get banks and businesses out of trouble, but the items listed on the plans are astounding things, such as new furniture for government buildings, (costing half a billion, give or take. What kind of furniture are they looking for anyway?) Hybrid cars (I don’t see why, since the cars are known for not lasting long at all. Buy one now and you need to get a new one in three years, or so) and all sorts of expensive actions such as updating museums.

Now, call me stupid, but what do those actions have to do with boosting the economy, other than wasting money on temporary salaries and one-time buys? Isn’t that just like throwing all that money down the drain? What happens when its all been used? Pump in more? Seems like wasting money to me.

Now, if they were to invest in entrepreneurs with small business or people who want to start up with small businesses, and thus create jobs for other unfortunate ones while boosting the economy because people can actually spend some money once they have it, I’d say, “Excellent job” but stuff such as I mentioned above??? It’s just weird.

But I won’t start ranting today; I’ve got too little time for it. Hah.

I manage to write about one page of the vampire thriller, but feel too restless to get any serious work done. I go through the messages for a bit, along with the forums, but still there’s an itch I cannot scratch, so with little sister cooking today’s dinner, I shut down the computer and decide to do some cleaning instead.

Due to the rain of the past few days, a large amount of water has settled on the pantry floor and it takes me up to forty minutes to mop it all up before I tackle the bathroom, hang a batch of new laundry and finally get to dinner.

It’s good; fresh sweet veggies in salty and spicy herbs, with fried rice, baked in nuts and coconut shaving, and it goes down well, even though an hour later I’m already hungry again.

Considering that I rarely feel hungry at all, I don’t bother to fight the urge and have a couple of slices of bread to fill the gap as we watch a new episode of “The Closer” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. Both are excellent episodes and I enjoy them a lot, before big brother and I decide to call it an early night so we can get up a little earlier tomorrow in hopes of getting more writing, or editing done.

Only one way to find out if we manage it, so I gather the dogs and head on up to my cabin for feeding, reading and getting online.
I get sidetracked for a bit when realizing that my own bathroom could do with some serious cleaning too, but I’ve gained at least an hour by leaving for my cabin early today, so I don’t mind this particular chore.

After putting my clean laundry in the closet, I set up the computer and get started.