What a day!

I woke right on the dot for a change, hah. The alarm shrilled and the dogs bound away, leaving only Chaos and Yadzia–he wanted on the bed last night and stuck around–lounging beside me as I stretch and yawn against the night’s stiffness. There was ridiculously little room what with Yadzia joining in, but I could hardly deny him access when he was looking at me so pitifully. Heck, he hasn’t wanted on the bed since Knight II joined my pack.

I pat both canines on the head, throw the blankets off and roll out of bed…to shiver violently against the obvious chill of the day. The sky outside is covered with thick heavy clouds and the moment I open the door, tiny pearls of rain start falling down, darkening the porch boards right before my eyes.

Sighing at the wet day ahead, I return to the bedroom to help Chaos off–Yadzia did it himself and easily trotted out the door–and quickly pull the blankets up before wet furry bodies return from their morning jaunt and dirty the sheets.

That done, I quickly go through the morning rituals, wanting to take advantage of the early start to get my workout done properly (the knee’s much better, only a slight discomfort now, really) and still have time left to get some writing time in on the computer.

Half an hour later the dogs and I arrive in the house. Big brother is still hosing down the patio, and I’m just about to lock Knight II in the pantry to prevent a noisy collision of packs when the door at the top of the stairs opens and the first wave of dogs comes flying down the stairs.
There’s short tussle between Knight II and Tallis (a white/brown crossbreed) before I manage to grab the Great Dane’s collar and haul him off to the pantry.

I’ve just closed the door when big brother finishes his descend and looks Tallis over a little worriedly to make sure that Knight II didn’t do him damage. All seems well, and with that I grab my workout clothes and change into them so I can get started.

Though jumping is a little iffy today (it sends a rather piercing ache through my entire leg) I still manage to do eighty before I switch to the other routines. I’m still not doing any kicks, knowing full well that if jumping’s a problem those are bound to be disastrous, but other than that all exercises go smoothly and within the usual time.

Seventy minutes after commencing I’m done, breathing deeply and only a slight reddening of perspiring skin when I head for the shower to wash up. Clean and dressed again, I make Yadzia’s meal and give him his painkiller while I’m chewing on my own breakfast.

With the usual coffee and OJ already in place on a side table, I set up the computer and get down to work. It doesn’t go bad, especially not considering the way I’ve been distracted this past week, and I end up with four brand new pages to add to the ongoing vampire project. It ain’t perfect that’s a fact, but it’ll get there after some rigorous edits in the near future, I’m sure.

By the time dusk arrives, I put the computer away to see about dinner. Reheating yesterday’s leftover rice, and adding some peas, corn and red bell pepper today’s meal is taken care of in a satisfactory manner, leaving me free to settle at the table once more to sew the multitude of holes in my favorite winter vest. It appears to be slowly falling apart at the seams by now, two years after purchasing it, but I like it too much to mind either the many repairs or that it is now three sizes too big.

That done, I head for the laundry room to get the day’s laundry. Since I wanted my workout this morning I’d postponed it ‘till now, forcing me to look into the two lanterns that no longer provide light in the courtyard. Apparently the two energy saving bulbs inside gave the spirit sometime during the last week, and I replace them before I start hanging the three batches on the lines that are rapidly filling up because nothing will dry in this weather. Drat.

I’m almost done when I hear a dog squeal inside, followed by shouts from the sibs. Little brother comes running outside, saying that a deodorant bottle exploded, sending a flare of fire into the living area that singed the hair and belly of Fortuyn (white/black pointer), and wets a blanket under the tap to douse the flames.
Once inside I find big brother and middle sister already having gone in the poor panicky dog’s pursuit and the flames dosed without actual damage.

Apparently one of the dogs got his teeth into the deodorant bottle during the evening, bursting the side, which then proceeded to empty into the air without notice until reaching the gas heaters that stand in the enclosed area of the living area. This caused a considerable explosion.

Luckily no real damage is done. Fortuyn is obviously a little shocked, singed all over his body, but no massive burns or anything like that. A good spraying with cold water has him calm down considerably. This is followed by a solid dose of painkilling and anti-inflammatory medicine, which has him settle down in a quiet corner to sleep it off.

We do a thorough check of his entire body, but only find his skin to be slightly pinker than usual, bringing instant relief. After airing out the room now filled with the smell of burnt deodorant we all settle down to watch and episode of “The Closer”.

Entertaining as usual, but afterwards we shut the TV down so big brother and I can do some studying. Me for my repeat theory exams in a couple of days, and he for the next stage of our “education”. We immerse ourselves in the badly written scripts for a couple of hours, and then, feeling brain-bruised, decide to watch an episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” before calling it a night.

I head on up to my cabin and feed the dogs while big brother comes up too, so we can discuss some more of the lessons and make plans for tomorrow to boot. At last I’m done with the dogs and spend another thirty minutes or so just talking before I state that I really need to start on the evening rituals if I want to be in time for bed, in just a few hours.

With a glance at the clock big brother departs to start on his own evening rituals, leaving me to do my habitual reading before I get online and start on today’s Blog.

And eventful day, for sure and though I could have done without the near miss with Fortuyn, it was a good one, on the overall.