I’m going to have to hurry tonight...should have written a proper blog last night, darn it...’cause now really I don’t have the time (I’ll have to cut some edges, hah). It has to be an early night for me. I need to go to the consulate tomorrow morning to get my new passport, which arrived today.
As for today? Well, I oversleep, aaargh, so I’m late again, of course, and I hurry through the morning rituals to get to the house in time to start on today’s editing session. I actually manage to go through the morning chores fast enough to be an hour earlier than usual so none of the editing hours were lost in the end. We manage to do two full chapters, which is good, since one of my proofreaders is eagerly waiting for the next installment, hah.
I hear/read that she misses a particular scene in “Saving Nina”, so I’m going to have to write one in the near future, to make up for it. Can’t have a reader wondering what happens before the actual “she’s rescued” scene, so I’ll have to add a proper rescue, however short, even though to me it is not a scene that is really necessary. We’ll see how it comes out.
The session over and done with and with the arrival of the younger sibs big brother and I head out to the car with middle sister, grandpa and mom. We’re on a mission to find new rocks for the wall and the stairs alike, and since we’re feeling up to a bit of a road trip, we head west, farther land inward.
It is quite amazing how different the countryside can be around here with only a dozen or so miles of travel (the way the crow flies, that is). We go about thirty miles and it feels as if we’re in a foreign country. Cradled within the mountains, there’s this huge, rather hot, valley that seems to stretch on endlessly. There are crop fields all ‘round, orange and lemon orchards, avocados and even a huge hacienda with a massive flock of sheep dotting one particular stretch of a huge mountain ridge.
So strange how you can feel as if you’ve stepped into a different country that way, but as we cruise over narrow winding roads, cross small streams that actually run over the potholed blacktop, heading farther west, it is quite extraordinary. It takes a while before we come upon a stretch where a particularly nice collection of rocks is easy pickings just beside a large olive tree orchard.
Especially the really flat rocks suit our fancy today, since we really need those for the stairs big brother is creating while the sibs and I are erecting the wall. We manage to fill up the truck bed, the heat almost unbearable. Though it is a gorgeous area, and living there would be attractive if for no other reason than it is very remote, the summer must be pure hell temperature wise. Even now, still in spring, we were sweating like mad, as we hauled rock after rock and loaded them up.
On the way back, figuring that we’ve deserved a refreshment, we fill up the gas tank and buy ice cream for everyone, and then continue on our way home to unload today’s batch.
Considering that we still have to get our tenant…she’s late, due to the ambulance that picks her up and then drops her off again, being behind schedule, so, this time in the company of little sister and our friend Danni we depart again, and head for the dirt road in the woods that is so very suitable for a jog.
The sore muscles have recovered since the last run, so after some stretches we start on our second jog. Much to my surprise, even though I didn’t particularly felt like going at all today, the run goes remarkably well.
We actually do a mile and a half, of which I manage to run about seventy percent without actually feeling like I’m going to pass out, hah.
After some mild stretching exercises and crunches, we’re done for the afternoon and head back since we know that our tenant will be close to home by now, and needs to be picked up from the parking place in front of the bar.
Since Danni has chosen to do the actual picking up, big brother, little sister and I step out at the top of our drive sweep, feeling every single muscle complain as we start on the steep incline that leads towards the front gate. Muscles tremble, knees buckle, but we make it down and head to the house for our much-deserved dinner.
Pasta with cheese and spinach waits, and it gets devoured with relish as we watch an episode of “the Mentalist” and then get back to work on the computer.
Not much gets done tonight, but it doesn’t matter.
On the overall, it turned out to be a good day, and that is all that really matters.
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