Nostalgia. *sigh*

Error: something...1...something. The device cannot connect to the remote server. Please check…yadayadayada. Please try again. If the problem persists, etc. etc. Yep that’s what’s been flashing on my screen off and on for the past couple of days whenever I try to go online. Bloody annoying, so just know that if I manage to post this today, it will be through sheer perseverance, and downright bullheadedness of trying over and over to sneak through. Hah.

Song of the day: “The morning of my life” by Sally Oldfield. I blame it on the evening before yesterday, when big brother and I had a bout of nostalgia and spent at least an hour on Youtube searching for songs we grew up with; ergo: Sally Oldfield and…well the rest is just embarrassing. They were these cute kid songs from when I was six or seven and I figured out how vinyl worked, and literally played an album to the bone.

Hah. It’s amazing how much useless information sticks in the brain, ‘cause I’d hear the beginning tune, three or four words, and yep, I could sing along just fine.
Like I said, useless information. I’m amazed that the ol’ noggin still works with all those kiddie songs still logged in there somewhere. Heck, I swear, the stupid exercise song from my three years of misspent time in private school kept blaring in my head throughout the day.

“Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe
Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe
Ears, eyes and point them at your nose
Head, shoulders, knee and toe, knee and toe.”

(In a different language, of course, but what the heck; lots of stuff gets lost in translation)
Would I totally lose face when I say that I almost ended up doing the actual exercise? Aaargh.
Over and over it went, and it drove me absolutely bonkers.

So anyway, over the past couple of days, another ten pages or so got added to the manuscript, which means that, even though I ended up being distracted a bit last night, progress is being made. Somehow, don’t ask me why, I ended up reading up about Anna Swan Bates, and her husband (both so-called giants) and as I’m often inclined to do, I was fascinated by old pictures and such and ended up going through historical ones of the late P.T. Barnum’s “freakshow”

Then of course there was the night before, when I got completely sucked into reading about Venice…yep, research for the books, it is a time-consuming effort…and lost a full hour by reading into it. (More useless information to remember, of course, but who cares. It’s fascinating, hah.)

Besides the writing, there was…give me a second here, I’ll remember, really I will…ehm…stuff. We worked some in the carport and tried to fix grandpa’s satellite. There were a few more rehab sessions with our tenant (she can actually move her left-hand fingers a bit now, yay) and…well, considering I was exhausted, it was a busy day.

Let’s get to yesterday, I might actually remember some of it. Ah, yesterday. The clouds were gone for a change, which was downright marvellous. Clear blue skies, a bright winter sun and not even a lot of wind. Suffice it to say that we grabbed the opportunity with both hands and headed out into the yard for some serious dig work; nothing like some serious physical activity after being hampered by bad weather for almost a week, in the full sun. Since we’re planning on that veggie garden, a new fence needs to be erected to keep the dogs out of the garden. You would think that the only problem we have to be weary of is that they dig out the plants, but nope. There are some in the pack that would actually lounge beside a tomato plant or cabbage and consider it a buffet. Without fencing they would think it their personal take-away joint, and that would kind of defeat the purpose, now wouldn’t it?

So I gathered tools: pickaxes, shovel and gloves, and headed out. What with the ground nicely soggy after weeks of rain it took a relatively short time to get eleven solid holes going, and with the poles hauled down by little brother and sister, we decided we might as well start setting them now the opportunity was there.
Got eleven of them set in concrete and rock, so if the weather holds (doesn’t look like it, but wishing is still free) we should get half the fencing up this week.

On a scary note, we were working in twilight, setting the last poles of the day when suddenly the dogs around us stir and a high screeching reaches our ears. We look around, and suddenly see Sitabah (Weimaraner) drag something around and then shaking it like mad: For some reason she considers little Adma (Pocket Beagle) a rodent, and has grabbed her by the neck.

Big brother pounces immediately, with me close behind and with a firm shove Sitabah lets go of the still screeching Adma who I quickly pick up in my arms to keep the rest of the dogs. Jeez, give me a heart attack why dontcha? Ffff…ehm Copulate!!!…and a lot more swearing! I don’t know what it is with hunting dogs, but sometimes they can be completely nuts. Luckily, Adma is a spry little thing, and besides being a little shocked and shaky, she appears to have suffered no ill effect of the event.

Grandpa, having heard the commotion, came rushing down the mountain, of course, and what with being in the arms of her favorite person in the world, Adma soon calmed down enough to stop shaking. Sitabah looked guilty most of the evening, knowing full well that such behavior is unacceptable, and Touri (Cocker Spaniel) who must have gotten in the midst of things somehow and has a cut on his forehead, is looking a little stunned.

What with the clouds gone, the temperatures are dropping drastically again, meaning that it was time to get out the small rugs that I always lay in my cabin during the winter, ‘cause the wooden floor is getting to be ridiculously cold when the chill creeps up.

Let’s see what else happened…oh yeah, I finally got to watch “Terminator: Salvation” and I gotta say I wasn’t disappointed as much as I’d expected. It was not a half bad action flick, and a nice sequel to the series. Though, admittedly, I liked the Marcus character better than Christian Bale’s John Connor, so the ending was a tad…meh…but still, it wasn’t as bad as the critics said.

And I’m drawing a blank again…no I’m not. Sitabah (yep, she’s going haywire these days) decided to find a way to get up on the roof, and then proceeded to crash through the see-through roof plates, plunging down a solid two stories, if the plating hadn’t landed on the banister of the stairs and made a slide of sorts.

Heck, we hadn’t even realized she went through until we heard her howling in the patio, jumping up and down in front of the door like mad. Much to my relief she’s an agile and muscular dog, who doesn’t weigh a thing, really, ‘cause otherwise she might have broken something during that fall. Phew. No ill effects for her either.

Big brother and I have been doing a lot of plotting for the book too, of course. Making lists of characters, locations and background information. It is a rather fascinating process “creating” the world. Already we have several pages worth of information.
It is one of the greatest things about writing, really. It keeps the brain flexible. Hah.

The washing machine is on the fritz again. We were just too late fixing the leak in the roof near it, and water must have somehow gotten in. So now, it won’t start at all. Until we decide what to do, buy a new one, or have it fixed (if that is possible) grandpa is picking up the slack, throwing piles into his machine every spare minute.

The advantage of yesterday’s splendid weather was that the overfull drying lines could finally be emptied. It did mean that the sisters and I had the table filled with clean laundry that had to be folded fast, lest the dogs considered it a nice spot to snooze on, hah.

Which brings us to today, where we have come upon big brother thirty-fourth Birthday! Yay. Oh my, how does time fly. Just a “short” time we were blithe young kids, scourging countryside, looking for trouble in “Red Dawn” scenarios, hah, and next we’re fully grown adults, trying to get on in life. It’s weird, I tell ya.

And to think that two weeks from now I’ll be thirty-one. I still can’t believe that so much time has passed. It seems like yesterday when I thought, I’m still just a kid, and yet here I’m rapidly approaching middle age. *sigh* Not a bad thing, though. I kinda like being a little more confident, stronger, and healthier and more adapt at handling life’s struggles.

Ah well, life continues, as they say…whether you want it to or not…hmmm. Is that nostalgia talking again? I guess it is.