Too little sleep.

Song of the day: “Die hard” by, I don’t know the band’s name, but it’s the song for the movie Die Hard movie. It’s hilarious and…well, it was thoroughly stuck in my head. Hah,

So let’s get yesterday over and done with shall we? It was grocery day, so after the morning read through of Saving Nina, where we managed a solid two chapters by the way, we had to hurry through getting ready to leave for town.

Though they are pretty used to the procedure, the dogs were looking at me as if I was abandoning them (as usual) and kept dogging (no pun intended) me through the house until I was finally done and ready to depart.

Though grocery shopping day is a nice change from the daily routines, I don’t much enjoy the chore that is going to take us a solid work day to get done. I mean, sure, we could break it all up and only do the shopping for one week, or so, but since that will only break up two days, instead of one, we opt for doing it only twice a month every time. And boy do we pay for it.

From the moment of departure to our return takes approximately six hours of constant activity, since there are many stores to visit. It takes out a big chunk of cash, but in the end we save quite a bit actually. When daily shopping will cost about fifty bucks a pop, this will bring costs down to at least half of that per day. It always amazes me how this works, since we don’t actually appear to buy more when we do it day to day, but looking at the expenses, it really is true. Buying large amounts saves…a lot.

But anyway, both brothers and I breeze from one store to the next, buying the necessities that have been listed and start piling it in the back of the car. It starts out as just a few bags, but then, as the hours progress, the cab gradually fills up with every stop at the discount supermarkets…one had veggies on sale, the other fruitjuice, laundry detergent and so on and on. Boy, buying groceries for nine people is definitely an interesting venture. Hah.

About half way through the walking through massive stores, parking lots and streets are starting to wear on body and mind, but with a soda and some potato chips we managed to make it through…just barely…well past ten in the evening, with only one store foregotten. Wow. That’s an accomplishment, what with at least nine stores behind us and the variety of purchases, which we tend to remember in our heads rather than lists.

But anyways, ten we start on our way home and arrive home near eleven. The fun isn’t over then, of course: the stuff needs to be unloaded and put away in storage yet. Luckily the sisters have already prepared everything for our arrival (cleaned the shelves, organized the leftovers from the past few weeks…not many of them, by the way…and cleared the fridge) the way they tend to do on this particular day.

Setting everything in their place takes about 45 minutes, and by then my feet feel as if I’m standing on bare bone, so sitting down and having dinner (mom made mashed potatoes with spinach and cheese through it, yum) is beginning to become a prerogative.

While I eat I go through my messages and since we rented some DVDs while we were out, “Wolverine” is put on at this time. It wasn’t bad, but not as good as I’d hoped. I mean, sure, I like Hugh Jackman…I have since I saw Paperback Hero…but regretfully the man needs a solid counterpart in his movies. On his own he tends to blend into the background a bit-much to my regret.

I often regret that movies these days seem to be lacking some in character development, and those who do have them…well, those really aren’t my type of movies. I miss the oldies like “Romancing the Stone” where you had a bit of everything. It’s as if, these days they have niched movies so tightly that you have to have either one or the other, without an option inbetween. I’m not entirely sure, but the last movie I remember “having-a-bit-of-everything” was “Lucky number Slevin”, which was a pleasure to look at.

Die Hard 5 had “it” too, now that I think of it, but it’s becoming rare that some average movie grabs me by the throat and yanks me into a story. It’s been dwindling little by little since “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Matrix trilogy” and it sometimes makes me wonder if they were just so good that nothing compares anymore. *sigh*

But then, maybe it’s me, I don’t know. Maybe I am just not able to get “into” a movie the way I used to, but whatever the case is, I regret it, a lot. There really is nothing like loosing yourself in a good action flick with interesting characters every once in a while.

Be that as it may, yesterday evening was cut short, I was too tired for any proofreading, and considering that I needed to get up two hours earlier today because our tenant had a doctor’s appointment and needed a ride, to Marbella hospital.
It’s a bore, I know, but I get to drive, and I had some spare time while I waited to write part of today’s Blog.

Good news for our tenant, who was told that she has made such excellent progress that she can start trying to use a cane for moving around on her own. Tenant was thrilled of course, and it was a beautiful compliment to get. She was literally gloating, which is always a pleasure to see.

The drive home was uneventful and I managed to read a full chapter once I got home and dosed myself with a decent mug of coffee, but afterwards, when I was about to start with the second one, when fatigue hit me in the face and I basically fell asleep seated in my chair. It was rather weird, since I hardly even noticed it. In the snooze, I was still actually correcting minor errors.

I think I snoozed for about forty minutes, startled awake when the dogs barked and tried to read some more. When it became clear I couldn’t-neither could big brother for that matter.

So, we quit early and headed out into the yard to plant three wheelbarrows filled with plants that we’ve found on the waste pile behind the local plant nursery. It’ll be great if fifty percent of them make it, but still the yard is definitely starting to look marvelous. I can’t wait for them to start growing.

That done, three hours later, we head inside to continue with some work on the office. Middle sister and I hang the cabinet I made the other day and was positively thrilled that it fit on the first try and that we managed to attach it without trouble.

Big brother and grandpa worked some more on the terrace doors, preparing the rounded sections that they’re gonna have to make in order to close the wall off.
With some painting I finish off the evening’s task, head for the kitchen to eat the meal little sister and brother prepared, at which time we put on “Race to Witch mountain”.
Not bad, so far, but we’ll have to see how it ends to make sure.

Yep, another day gone, with a little luck some more reading later tonight, and then, hopefully and early night. I’ve been going on little more than four or five hours a night and it’s wearing on me a little, hah.