I wish I had a nice dream to tell about, or something even remotely interesting, but today starts out basically like any other…except that I oversleep by half an hour. I mean, is it too much to ask to have an exciting dream to keep this Blog thing fun. Seriously. The Dragon dream turned out to be bloody awesome. So did the Skydiving dream and the Alien invasion thing. Heck, even the zombies and tsunami were more interesting then nothing, nada, and zilch.
No helping it, though. It’s not like I could make them up…well, I could, but it just wouldn’t be the same. This not a fantasy outlet Blog after all, but about real life—or something resembling it at least. Hah.
A pity, but let’s get to the day and see if I can keep the word count to a minimum. Big brother and I made a deal to have an early night so we can start on the edit bright and early tomorrow.
So…yeah. I wake about five minutes before the alarm goes off, and rather than get up, the way I’m supposed to, I reach out for the darn thing to reset it for another extra thirty minutes. I shouldn’t have, I really, really shouldn’t, considering I wake up with a sleeping arm that is bound to bother me for the rest of the day, but what’s done is done.
Since I’m late, I hurry through the morning rituals to make up for lost time, and get to the house at the usual time. Big brother is already there, and keeps his dogs at bay while I enter the building and deposit my baggage.
I still don’t have an appetite in the morning, or so I find when it’s time for breakfast and I stuff a couple slices of bread down my throat. Coffee is far more alluring and with it in hand I set my computer up, so I can start on answering some messages that really can’t wait anymore.
In the kitchen, I hear grandpa and big brother have a noisy debate about socialism and communism, making it hard for me to keep focused on the letter I’m supposed to be writing. It really is a rather interesting subject, especially when you watch the events in the world. All over, you hear that capitalism is the proverbial bad guy, while if you look at history, in the past century (and even before then) or so all the big “dictators” came from the opposite side.
Hitler: Labor party. Saddam, ditto. Castro, hello “power to the people”, Stalin, Franco, heck, even Napoleon had the gist of it. Get the masses on your side and you can basically do anything you bloody well like. Scary stuff. Not much you can do against a leader who was chosen by the people…especially not when everyone is determined to keep thinking that they made the right decision no matter what.
Ah yes, political debates. They tend to get rather heated and to throw in my two cents is really rather tempting. I persevere, however, and half an hour later, I’ve pounded out a proper letter. Once I’ve pressed “send” and do a quick sneak peek at the KTT on Amazon (just couldn’t help myself) grandpa tells us to get to work and departs.
We manage only four pages today, since there are a lot of distractions (i.e. tick picking, aaargh) but still we meet the minimum quota we like to reach in one day. We’re getting down to one of the intense action scenes by now, which is rather exciting…if not terribly complicated.
Try to imagine an assault on a small military facility by a group of mercenaries. Multiple characters all over the place, shooting from all directions, hand to hand battle, the whole shebang. It’s hard to get action scenes just right, so a reader can actually see it happen like in a movie. But it is a pleasant challenge to say the least.
I have to admit that though I still don’t really LIKE editing, doing an intense edit like this, along with massive rewrites, does add some spice to the process. It’s like fine-tuning a live performance of a big orchestra. Adding details such as atmosphere and emotion. Really quite different from back in the day when I had to do everything on my own. Now, I might grumble at whatever it is my “editor” wants to see rewritten, shifted around or in the worst case, removed, but I do see the improvement as we slowly work our way to the end.
But enough about that, around the usual time, our editing session is over and done with, announcing that we have to put our computers away to head on up to the car for another rock hauling trip.
The first trip with grandpa, mom and little brother in our company, is pretty uneventful, considering we spent only the minimal amount of time gathering rocks and throwing them in the back of the truck. It’s basically running back and forth, and hauling ass. Hah.
By the time we’re back and have unloaded, we decide to go out again…we’re on a roll nonetheless…middle sister joins us, along with our friend Danni who has never been to this particular area of our mountain. While getting out of the car, I pull a muscle, I think. Hurts like a bitch for a while and then subsides to a dull ache.
This time we take a moment to enjoy the sights and even take a short stroll over a rocky hiking path that crosses through the pinewoods that cover the steep slopes. With a chilly wind blowing in from the sea, this particular spot is shielded, providing wonderfully warm sunshine with not a single cloud in the sky.
It’s a beautiful spot and we’re determined to return there for a proper hike in the near future when we have more time. But not today, instead I start walking down the road, hopping back and forth over the gutter, laying rocks on the blacktop so middle sister and Danni can throw them in the truck–driven by big brother.
We fill the bed up pretty fast, ending up heading back home before dusk with still enough time to unload.
The pile in the yard is starting to look pleasingly high again. Just a few more trips and we should have enough for the first stages of this project at the very least.
All of us are pretty much drained of energy when we return to the house, and Knight II is absolutely insane from having been leashed during my absence. (Apparently he’s a disaster when I’m gone…wait, what am I saying, he’s always a disaster, hah. Talk about an elephant in a China cabinet, grrrr) It takes me a good ten minutes to calm him down before I can head for the kitchen to eat the meal little sister prepared in our absence.
Red beets baked in onion, leek and cheese before adding boiled rice. It is a dish favored by the entire family and it is consumed with relish. Nothing like getting in a healthy dose of iron, which the vegetable holds aplenty. What with the added vitamin C from the onions and the protein of the cheese, it is an excellent meal to have at the end of a hard day.
I eat my portion, seated on the kitchen counter, knowing full well that if I sit down properly right now I won’t be able to get up again for the remainder of the evening. (The spot in my ribs still throbs for no good reason) So, as soon as I’ve finished dinner, I head for the courtyard to take down the laundry.
Since it is mostly my own, I stuff it all in a bag to take to my cabin later tonight and then haul out the four batches that were washed during the day. Half an hour later I settle in a chair to enjoy a new episode of “Prison Break” and try to focus on it when my eyes threaten to fall shut about every ten minutes or so. I hate it when that happens.
Big brother and I attempt another edit about an hour before midnight, but our brains are mush, so instead, we decide to call it an early night and head for our respective quarters.
My cabin is a mess, so while the dogs are eating, I sweep the floors, fold my laundry and put things straight before settling in front of the computer for the final round of the day.
Hopefully tomorrow the weather conditions will be more favorable for the dog-washing chore–the wind was too fierce and cold today– ‘cause it is really starting to become a necessity. If only the dratted wind would cease.
No comments:
Post a Comment