Busy and late.

Song of the day: (as in the one that stuck in my head for some peculiar reason) “Que sera, sera”.

It’s weird, but these day’s I appear to have the strangest songs playing through my head. No matter what I do, I can’t get them out…until the next one arrives.
Yesterday it was Sinatra’s “Ain’t love a kick in the head” for crying out loud. I don’t even like Sinatra. Hah.
The way I figure it, I might as well put them down in the Blog and see if there’s a pattern, or something.

It was a busy day, to say the least. I started out late, but what the hey, I made up for it, in spades.

So let’s start with the recount: Especially the complete lack of discipline when the alarm goes off.
Honestly, I get up, go through the motions of letting the dogs out, making the bed, cleaning up a little, and then drop back on the bed to snooze for another twenty minutes.

Knight II doesn’t like it, of course. He literally jumps on top of me and decides to splay his massive body over my chest, making a nuisance of himself.
Before I know it the alarm shrills and I have to drag my tired butt from the bed to get dressed and head on down to the house.

It takes me a while to get the ol’ engine going, but in the end, after writing about half a page for “Finding Maddie” (you know, the sequel of the edit project) big brother and I start on the edit¾the rewrite one¾once more and hack our way through the plot, trying to make everything just right.

Today was a good edit day, even if it was a little short again. Managed three to four pages, so that brings the “pages to go” down to ‘round thirty-five. Yay.

Big brother has to leave a little early…more sand for cement, of course…so I’m left to my own resources for a bit. I spend it going over messages that I’ve been postponing for the past few days, for no other reason than that I didn’t manage to squeeze them in before now.

I’m just about wrapping up the last one when he returns, so I put the computer away; grab my work gloves and head on out into the deliciously warm spring day.
The sky is a clear blue; the sun is shining and though being in the full blast of it is somewhat uncomfortable, in shade of the large mimosa tree that stands behind the wall, it is wonderfully cool.

Since the wall is basically done, we are now working on a variety of smaller ones that will at some point make up for a beautiful terrace in front of my cabin, right on top of the wall. Still, in order to start on the section that I’ve elected to build up, I need to haul away a big load of rocks that have been thrown there during the course of the build.

There are quite a few big ones. But my physical health has improved considerably over the past weeks, so lifting them turns out to be less of a problem than I’d guessed.
There is also a section in the path that has been treated with several patch jobs over the years, and before I can start, I need to use the sledgehammer for the removal of it.

It sounds like tough work, but it is really quite a pleasant means of exercise to smash a large piece of concrete into tiny little pieces. Almost as good as kick boxing, actually. There is also a large tree trunk that has been literally sealed into the ground, and I have to use the pick ax to get it out from the clay that seems determined to hold it tight.

At last, throwing my full weight in it, I manage to tear it loose and moaning and grunting I toss it over the wall, figuring that we might as well use it as a decoration later on when we start landscaping. The shape is rather pretty.

With the nine feet stretch of ground cleared, middle sister finishes the first batch of cement. Before he starts on his own section, little brother pours down a wheelbarrow of the stuff so I can get to work.

Little sister and big brother are once again working on the step-like wall that leads to the patio door and lines the new stairs that were build during these past few days. Little brother is once again working down by the courtyard gate. He’s doing a nice job of it too. He’s got the foundation down and that’s about fifteen feet long, and by now, he has brought six feet of that up to chest level. Excellent.

I’m really in the mood for a warm meal tonight, so while I’m working on my part of the knee-high wall, grandpa thankfully offers to cook the noodles I’ll need to make a filling stir-fry later on, while we’re still working.

The work goes pleasantly enough. Lots of talk going back and forth…rather loudly, due to the grinding cement mixer, hah…occasional laughter is shared and then the sun starts to descend behind the horizon.
While the younger sibs head inside, both big brother and I use the sledgehammer some more, to smash another piece of concrete that has created a hill of sorts in the spot where we used to make cement while building the house.

While we’re working on it in the final remnants of daylight, Mosha (cocker spaniel) decides that it is rather fun to walk over a part of the new wall and proceeds to ruin half of my achievement today. Grrrr. My shout is heard over the entire valley, I’m sure, when I hurry over to smack her on the butt and send her into a tizzy…she thinks I want to play, after all…while I try to repair at least some of the damage.

I am unable to save the low wall in its entirety, but enough for me to work with tomorrow, I guess. I take the dogs inside and head for the kitchen to wash up and then start to prepare dinner while little brother feeds the dogs.

First, I grab hold of the bar attached to the ceiling of the second floor, though. All that lifting is murder on the spine, so I hang there for quite a bit until I feel my back has aligned enough for me to continue for the day.

As is usual with stir-fry, it takes me only a little while to get the mix done, and considering that we can really use the protein I add a nice satay (peanuts) sauce that really makes the dish hit the right spot when I finally sit down to enjoy it.

There’s still laundry to do, so half an hour later I head on out into the courtyard to see to it.
In the mean time big brother prepares for our last chore of the day. We need to trim Gaucho, our Afghan, and just as soon as I’ve folded the laundry and put it away, I sit down at the table to turn on the machine and start trimming.

Gaucho goes through the procedure with remarkable calm. I remember well the first few times we tried this particular approach and it was pure hell, I assure you. Not today, however. Nope. He just laid there, a somewhat blissful grin on his face as he allowed me to remove every single cluster of dirty hair: Almost as if he was looking forward to being cool again, hah.

While we’re trimming the really big dog (second largest of the pack, height-wise), a recorded episode of “Medium” plays on the TV and once we’re done, we decide to unwind for a bit with another one.

That done, I sneak out of the house before Knight II can start his usual ruckus, and actually succeed in getting to my cabin without an orchestra of dogs howling and barking.

Of course big brother comes to visit again, so we end up talking about the screenplay idea for another hour…or two, before I can finally start on this Blog.

Ah yes, a successful day any way you look at it.