Change in plans. Yikes!

Well, that was another busy day...totally unexpected too, considering it didn’t go at all according to plan, but what the hey, not much I could do about it.

So, what happened? It all started out like any other day, really. I wake up, lay staring at the ceiling for about fifteen minutes with the alarm screeching on the shelve beside my bed…and I don’t give a fig about the noise while I fight an internal battle about sleeping some more and getting up. The latter wins.

With a sigh, I roll out of bed, groaning a little at the sore muscles and hobbling towards the door to let the dogs into the yard. I do some reading…I found a book I’d placed on one of my shelves months ago, and forgot all about. Yay.

Once I’ve gone through the morning rituals, I head to the main house to start on the day with the usual little chores, breakfast, and joining in on the discussion between grandpa and big brother.

Today’s subject was the “wonderful” new potato that is being developed, which would be suitable for making paper. Oh my, stuff like that really sets grandpa off. The insanity of it all just makes him shake his head at those who come up with these kinds of “brilliant” ideas. Seriously, what with the world inhabiting the billions of people blithely walking about all needing food to survive, it is really stupid to start using precious soil to make something like paper.

This course of conversation inevitably leads towards another one that gets his hackles up:

Due to environmental reasons, crops are being grown for bio fuels. This takes up at least thirty percent of Europe’s capabilities just to have cars drive on stuff that is just as harmful…if not worse in some ways…for the better of the environment. Which is what ticks granddad off—a lot! Farmers that could be growing food–that now has to be transported from different countries (using the fuel they are growing instead) just so people can eat.

And then I’m not even going to start about what granddad thinks about the way governments and commerce treat farmers (he was one himself, you see). In order to compete they are forced to grow or go under, which means that practically every farmer has to go into debt just to survive and grow into what can basically be called a factory.

It gives him shivers to think of what has become of the farmers: Especially since he remembers the postwar years where the farmers were the foundation that allowed Europe to survive those first years.
Now, if disaster were to strike (war, depleted fossil fuels, the fall of the economy, etc. etc.) and the commerce broke down, not a single country in Europe would be able to fall back on something as essential as supplying their own food.

The thing that scares him most is the fact that it could happen “just-like-that” and the fact that us “kids” would be there to go through it. It is during such days that he is actually relieved that he is getting on in age and that with a little luck he won’t have to see that day come.

Ah, doomsday thoughts, they make for the most interesting discussions I’ll admit. They’re loud, they’re heated, and they’re fun…in a weird sort of way. It is probably the reason why I’ve written several stories about the subject. Hah.

But anyways, once grandpa and big brother have moved to a different tangent, I set up my computer to do a bit more writing until the majority of today’s discussion is over and we can start on today’s edit.

We get about five pages done, at which time the change of plans arrives.
Tomorrow our tenant needs to go to rehab again, and considering we were planning to go grocery shopping then, that plan is quickly nixed. At first, we want to shift it up a day, Friday, but considering that May 1st is a holiday over here that won’t do either. It leaves only one option: Today.

But, of course, this opens a whole new can of worms. The car is still filled with a full load of sand, which was supposed to be used in today’s building session. After some debate, we finally decide that in order to fit everything that needs to be done into the afternoon, we will be forced to cut our session on the computers short and start building an hour earlier than usual.

So, by the time the younger sibs are out and about, I head outside to start hauling rocks and prepare for the early building session. Little brother and sister soon join me, and since middle sister is still doing some inside chores, little brother and I start mixing cement just to get things rolling.

For the next few hours we lay rocks on the wall like mad, adding more layers to the length of it, and even using the last bit of cement for a threshold under the gate (we need to get rid of that last bit fast, and can’t afford to spend more time on the wall) while one by one we head into the house to start preparing for today’s grocery shopping. We’re all grubby, so we all have to take turns with the shower. Hah.

We’re cutting it really short, all things considered. By they time we drive up to the road we only have two and half hours left to get all of the shopping done.
Underway we’re already planning on which stores to hit first…some close earlier than others…and arrive at the first one half an hour before it’s closing time.

Frozen goods get bought first, followed by a chain supermarket that has some products (for bargain prices) our regular store doesn’t carry. We rush through it, to make it to the next store, where I decide to treat myself with a bargain price dress, just because I’ll be able to fit into it now that I’ve dropped over sixty pounds. Hah.
It’ll be so darn cool this summer…why, I can hardly wait to wear it.

It’s one of those hippie things. Wrinkled cotton, spaghetti straps and a hem that goes all the way down to my feet (a miracle, that. It’s hard to get those lengths when you’re 6 feet tall. Hah). I can already see myself sitting on my porch on a warm summer day, working at my computer, ice tea beside me, writing away the hours blissfully cool. Wonderful.

The last store gets hit twenty minutes before closing time and we rush through it at top speed. We find a pair sandals for grandpa, sneakers for me and little brother and a couple of tops that are on sale too, so the entire grocery thing is a success when we head home after sundown.

We’re all pretty much exhausted by the time we arrive, the crazy pack waiting impatiently, but we still have to store everything away. Luckily, working together smoothly–the way we always do–we are done within half an hour and have dinner at ten in the evening.

Grandpa has made a mashed potato, carrot dish while we were out, so, much to our relief we aren’t required to cook at all today. The hardy meal certainly falls well on our empty stomachs as we spend the remainder of the evening (only an hour and a half) watching an episode of “The Evidence”. It hardly registers, though, considering we’re more than a little distracted from working on getting ticks off the dogs. Hah.

I’m more than a little relieved when midnight arrives, and I can head up to my cabin for a bit of R&R before calling it a day.