This morning’s edit goes really horrid! I don’t know what brought it on, but everything reads “wrong” somehow, and my brain cannot form a single coherent sentence to make improvements. For some reason, I do manage to get down a page for the new scene, however, so all was not for naught. Still, it is frustrating that the edit isn’t working.
Since big brother is feeling pretty much the same, we give up on the endeavor after two pages (it is not a huge disaster, considering we only need to do about thirty more pages with the rewrite edit) and start thinking about doing something a little more constructive than get frustrated about sentences that don’t seem to make any sense. Hah.
Laundry, of course, but only hanging it because yesterday’s batch failed to dry during the miserably wet day. Though I contemplate starting on dinner early for a change, I’m really more in the mood for some actual physical activity, leaving one option.
The pantry, for several years now we have been planning to transform the outside door into a window and because the weather is downright awful we figure we might as well work on that. It shouldn’t be too hard, all things considered, so it is a nice task for a day like today.
It has been raining since I woke up, and though drops are still coming down, it has relented enough to allow me to venture out of the house to get cement and sand from the car…along with four concrete boulders…while big brother takes out the old door to saw off the rotting lower part.
By hand-or, more accurately, hand tool-I mix a nice batch of cement, and push the wheelbarrow into the house, to the back, where little sister helps me to get the cart inside the pantry…without the overly eager dogs.
Big brother is already busy removing the lower parts of the frame and the threshold, and I clean both while he and grandpa get the boulders necessary to close up the newly revealed part of the doorway.
It goes splendidly, the doorway is exactly the size of two boulders side by side, and with the other two on top of them, the section is rapidly closed. While I’m working on plastering both inside and outside of the new part of wall with the second batch of cement, big brother and grandpa are working on the section of fence that really needs to be replaced now that we’re going to work up the ground until it is down hill from the door turned wall.
Every winter, without fail, we’ve had flooding in the pantry, and since the new section of wall should go a long way of resolving that issue, we figure we might as well deal with the problem for once and for all.
While little sister is cooking dinner, and we are chopping away sections of rock and dirt where the fence used to be, the clouds finally pull away with the arrival of a gentle breeze, allowing the sun to shine at last. The window frame is finished (we managed to recycle the wood of the door for it perfectly).
Since we have to wait for the cement to dry before we can continue in this particular area, we finish up and head on inside where the dogs have been going bonkers because we wouldn’t allow them to join us. (They’d have barged straight through the knee-high wall for sure.)
Dinner is early today, but so very good, that we both feel properly revitalized and head on out into the courtyard rather than waste the remainder of the afternoon in front of the TV.
While we let the pool drain of the dog-washing venture several days ago, big brother decides to hose it down properly while I wash the tools we used. Since I’m done pretty fast and I’ve rearranged what I can in the courtyard, I decide to get shovel and pickax to start on what we have been working towards ever since we started on the wall.
Dirt. Before we began laying the foundation, a massive amount of it was dug away from the slanted natural rock wall that used to serve as the side of the courtyard. Now it needs to be chopped loose and thrown up the first section of the wall, to fill up the ground behind it until it levels with the top.
It is an arduous, but quite pleasant task in light of my mood, really. There’s nothing like building up a good sweat if the mind refuses to settle down. And sweat pours richly, I assure you, as half a ton gets thrown six feet into the air, starting a task that is going to take a couple of days at the very least.
Though I have been suffering from sore muscles in my legs from our recent jog, fifteen minutes into shoveling dirt up the wall, I don’t even feel it anymore. Wonderful how that works! Undoubtedly, I’ll have trouble raising my arms tomorrow, but my legs should be just fine. Hah.
Forty minutes into the chore, big brother finishes with the pool and joins me at the bottom of the wall.
Even more dirt joins the rapidly growing pile on the second level, and another fifteen minutes later, with perspiration dripping down my face, little brother joins in too.
With the three of us…me wielding a pickax so little brother can use the shovel in my stead…we manage to get quite a bit done and by the time dusk settles we’ve made an impressive dent in the transferal.
Properly exhausted, I take my dogs inside, have a long HOT shower and then settle behind my computer to work some more on the new scene my reader insisted on.
I manage to bring up today’s quota to two new pages, before big brother and I give editing another shot.
Since we’ve decided to do the read-edit this evening, rather than the rewrite kind, it goes well now. Six pages get the “Done” stamp, which is really necessary since my proofreader is starting to get impatient. She’s threatening me with bodily harm now. Hah.
I’m just about to finish up for the night, when I get the rather delightful message (with attachment) from my “fan”. His last book trailer (for Hero) is finally near to completion and I have the honor of seeing it first.
It’s…so very different, but…well…very accurate and downright brilliant, as usual. Can’t wait to start showing it off. Yay! He did such a marvelous job, once again. I’m curious to hear what those who read “W.I. Investigations/Hero” think of it, and if they see the scenes on the screen, like I did.
And, on that rather cheerful note, today’s blog draws to an end.
I need to get me some shuteye, ‘cause I’m bushed for sure.
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