Poem.

I’m exhausted, and I don’t feel like writing a full Blog, so we’re going to deviate from the path again, with a poem I wrote a few years back for one of my books…other than that, I’ll settle for some quick tidbits for today.

The usual chores got done, of course, only a short edit, followed by more work on the project outside. The weather was just too beautiful to stay inside; a cool breeze there to keep the heat at bay, the sun still shining brightly and clouds rushing overhead. It was really quite beautiful.

Did lots of digging, filling up the container of rock that was made yesterday, preparing it for planting at some point in the near future. The younger sibs finished up with the one in the small yard underneath “the wall”, big brother added another step of the stairs that will lead up to my porch, and I prepared the foundation for two more walls that will hold plants.

Prior to getting a new load of rocks…we’ve got a good stockpile now, so we might decide to stop getting new loads for a bit…we went for a jog, and I found that I could actually run over a hundred and fifty yards without being completely out of breath. Yay. I love progress!

Okay, that pretty much sums up the day, so here’s the poem.

“Our Leader Slain”

With eyes as bright as the sky
He made us think we could fly

Eons had passed in which we’d searched
Wanting that one thing evil would have purged

One Titan, hidden from the beginning
Stood tall and brought the crowds to singing

His praise, his wisdom so very clear
Erasing with a word, everything…but most our fear

He was our leader, the one who knew it all
He would save us forever, from our eternal fall

His battle fierce and cruel
Lasted only shortly when the coward took our jewel

Murdered this Titan was
Leaving nothing but a statue of brass

After a life of struggle and dedication
All he left was an indication

A name to write in history’s tales
As the one who rises, and then fails

Those who stood behind him from the start
Regretted most, his untimely depart

For what they saw in this Titan, fair and strong
Could have righted every wrong

He stood for goodness and what was right
Raising a revolution for justice’s fight

He would have led the world if not the universe
But what we saw in him was not perverse

It was how it was meant to be
He was creator’s only key

His destruction will make the earth tremble and shiver
Making his enemies fearful and quiver

This Titan shall rule
It is not to ridicule

The way the world was meant to be made
Will come soon, and never fade

When the Titans rise
And the dragon flies

Then this world will know perfection
This time, without election.

Blah, blah, blah.

Song of the day: “Ain’t love a kick in the head” by Westlife (originally Frank Sinatra) I know, I’ve had it before, but I can’t change the facts. It was in my head and thus it needs to be recorded as such. Hah.

Once again I’m way too late, so I’m going to have to keep this short.

What happened today…well, nothing really interesting.
We finished the synopsis…the second draft that is, and it’s looking quite interesting. It’ll need some tweaking several more read-throughs, but on the overall, it’s got everything it needs to depict the “Saving Nina” in a very distilled form.

We worked some more on the rewrite-edit, adding two more pages to the section that ‘ll only need a read-edit in the future. This means that now we only have to do ten more pages, and maybe write another one to add some tweaks to the ending. Other than that…well, the story should be done soon. I gotta say that it’s about time, I’ve been whining about this edit stuff for months now and it’s high time that I’ve got something new to write about. Hah.

After the never-ending-edit we head on out to start work on “the project”. Considering that most of the walls are now actually done, large jay shaped enclosures need to be built around the four baby eucalypts that we planted last year. So I started digging a gutter for the foundation while the younger sibs hauled rocks to make place for it.

There’s lot of talk and discussion going on all the while, our voices probably audible all through the valley. (making me more than a little grateful that we don’t speak Spanish) Admittedly, the progress was slow, but in the end, we do finish the first enclosure with some rather impressively large rocks serving as walls. Hah.

Afterwards, close to dusk, big brother, grandpa and I head out to get a new load of rocks that get unloaded after sunset when we return with the full truck bed.
It’s dreadfully late when we finally return to the house where the dogs are going bonkers because we left them alone too long, and while watching a rather delightful movie “A Hazard of Hearts” with Helena Bonham Carter and Diana Rigg, I realize that I totally forgot to have dinner. I remember this movie from back when I was a teen and I thought it was grand. It was still sweet, if somewhat shallow…but then what else is one to expect from a Barbara Cartland story?

With a couple of slices of bread to fill up the gap, the evening came to an end, bringing me up to my cabin where big brother and I end up continuing this afternoon’s discussion for another two hours. I swear, we can yap on about the smallest detail for a solid month if we didn’t stop ourselves from time to time, hah.

So, I’m paying for the lapse in self-discipline, considering that I don’t have time for a proper blog, once again. Ah well, tomorrow’s another day…or so one would hope. Hah.

Got One! Yay.

Yay, yay. I got one. I got one! Here goes:

The sun was shining brightly; the heat was almost unbearable and in the distance on a steep slope I could see Knight dash upward and over the top. Swearing, I went in his pursuit, shouting at him to come back and putting up some speed when I hear him bark on the other side.
Even though I was breathing heavily, the incline rather steep, I do notice that the runs these past few weeks were paying off, because I actually made it up the hill without that annoyingly coppery taste in my throat.
Olive trees and cork oaks twist and turned on either side of me when the valley, which Knight is barrelling into; his butt towards me, and his ears flopping, as he blithely continued on his way.
In the distance I could see what had drawn his attention-a flock of sheep grazing in a pasture. Aaargh. The idiot wouldn’t listen so I went up against every instinct screaming inside me, made an about-face, and started walking in the opposite direction…calling him all the while.
There was a rumble of a heavy engine in the distance, and while I looked around, I could see Knight coming to a skidding halt, for a moment not knowing what to do, before turned and came storming towards me.
Massive paws clawed the dusty ground, his tongue lolling and his eyes jolly while he considered coming in my pursuit an entirely new, fun game.
Legs flayed every which way, his balance precarious as he bounced from rock to slope and bounded upward, heading straight for me.
Considering the engine was coming closer too, and the sandy road on which we both were wouldn’t allow for evasion, I called him to me, shouting enthusiastically, patting my leg while I continued to walk on.
The sound of the engine was almost deafening, a plume of dust looming up on the hill on which we were walking, and Knight just a couple of yards behind me. I just about manage to grab his collar and yank him to me when a huge truck came barreling into view, missing us both by just a fraction and then continuing on its way as if the driver hadn’t even seen us. I sucked in a deep breath, chocking a little on the dust that swirled around us both and blocked out the countryside.
I was wondering what a Mack truck did on a deserted road like that when suddenly my alarm shrills and notifies me that there is no reason for my heart to be pounding in my throat and that almost being run over was just a friggin’ dream. Ah well. It is an excellent jump-start to get up and begin with the day, I guess.

Song of the day: “Downtown” by Petula Clark. I don’t know where it came from, but the friggin’ song drove me bonkers most of the day. I’m not sure how long ago I last heard it, but I do know that it had no business being in my head, darn it.

We worked on the synopsis again…we’re taking all the advise on “edit, edit and edit” to heart, going over the stupid thing, over and over until I can literally dream the text. Added to the dream I just wrote down, I’ve been having lots of dreams about punctuation of all things. It’s daft, I tell you. It’s not like I don’t get enough of that crap throughout the day: No, I need to dream about it too.

Be that as it may, we use the new coffee machine today, and I gotta admit, it is grand being able to go for a refill without actually having to put on another brew, just to get my caffeine fix. The fact that my eyes are half-stock again, doesn’t help the issue. I’m forming a severe addiction to the stuff, if for no other reason than to wake the heck up…if anyone had told me so last year, I would have laughed in his or her face.

The write-edit of the synopsis goes slowly but we work our way through another section of chapters in the five hours that follow wake-up-time. A page and a half to go…along with some rereads and we should be set.

Since, for some peculiar reason, today is actually a cloudy one, we head out into the yard to work with the rocks again. Though by this time the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds, the temperatures are bearable. On little sister’s insistence, we start on the stone stairs that are going to lead up to my cabin.

I doubt that I’ll manage to master the task that requires more patience than I possess, I’m game and we start…it ends in frustration, really. I’ve found that building steps is definitely not my forte. I’m actually disheartened, thinking I’ve lost my touch when I finally give up and leave the task to big brother, who, with little effort, corrects the disaster I’ve created. Hah.

With that task well in hand, little sister and I move to the other stairs that big brother already finished and decide to finish the last two wheelbarrows on a small wall alongside the steps. Thankfully, I haven’t lost my touch after all, since ten minutes later a nice little wall is in place. Conclusion: I do walls; big brother can do the stairs. Hah.

That done, and today’s mess dealt with, we head into the house to lock the dogs into the courtyard and have a quick snack before we leave to get a new load of rocks.
Since big brother is driving the first section, I decide to take the opportunity to have a quick run up our drive sweep. The muscles do the task really well; no more screaming on their part, so my only problem when I reach the top is that I’m out of breath.

Once in the car, we head down our usual road. It takes a bit of searching but in the end, we locate a spot where a wealth of choices awaits to be tossed into the back of the truck.
Less than forty minutes later we return home and unload the rocks op on the rapidly growing pile near the main gate. Since we’re almost done around the wall, and we still have massive piles there, we can’t dump them around the carport any more.

Pretty much running on empty, I hang laundry and then have a quick dinner of French fries while big brother settle down in the courtyard with my laptop to attempt some more work on the synopsis. We’re both tired, however, so we decide to retire a little earlier than usual, and end up discussing the progress of the past few weeks before I can finally start with the Blog and get online for some relaxation.

I do hope that tomorrow brings a nice fresh breeze, because the temperatures are a tad uncomfortable this early in the year. Usually we’d have another week or two of pleasant weather, so I sincerely wish that the pattern of the past few years would persist in that matter. Working with the rocks is going to be so much harder in the heat.

All over the place.

Song of the day: “Living Doll” by Cliff Richard…and the idiots from the Young Ones. Rather annoying to sing a song where a bunch of morons keep tossing in funny dialogue. Makes me remember the good ol’ days when it was a hit.

Way too little sleep this night. Yes, it happened again: I got distracted (bad Sammie, bad Sammie) last night and ended up being awake until well past four in the morning, which isn’t smart with the schedule I’m keeping these days.

So, what does today hold in store? It was hot, of course. So hot in fact that I am all clammy when I wake up and blink up at the ceiling of my cabin. The Monster Boxer is already bouncing; Knight II occasionally tries to grab the blanket and then hops on the bed to crush my legs: All in all, the usual morning routines. Hah.

The sun is pounding when I make my way down to the house, have breakfast, tackle the laundry and then settle behind the computer for another session on the Synopsis. We only have a couple of hours before we need to depart for town.

The writing/changing/editing goes well enough, I guess. We add at least six distilled sum-ups of Saving Nina’s chapters, so we’re getting there. Before I know it, the time for our departure has arrived and we need to hurry in order to get middle sister to town in time to make her dentist appointment.

While she is being treated to a filling, big brother and I head for the insurance agent to make inquiries about emergency coverage for the entire family. Though we have been without it for years, present circumstances do warrant a bit of…well insurance. We’re getting out there a lot, and what with building so much, an accident is lurking around the corner, as they say.

It takes a while, but in the end, we leave the office to return to the dentist, carrying with us, two valid options. As soon as we’ve made our decision, we’ll return to the agent for the go-ahead and she’ll put things in motion.

We return the DVDs to the rental store, and then head for a large appliance store for a sale on coffee machines. Our present one is tiny, and will only hold a couple of mugs of the brew, while the new one will hold at least four. Since we’re all, basically, running on the bitter stuff, just to wake up in the morning, quantity has won the battle.

A variety of stores get hit during the trip, the required purchases acquired so we can head back up the mountain and head for the village where Amri is waiting to be picked up. The poor dog is impatiently walking his cage when we arrive, the growth removed and his face relieved now that he knows he’s going home.

The vet on call informs me that the test results for Angie show that she has Leishmania, drat, but that Amri is fit to go home and will only need five days of antibiotics and then have his stitches removed in two weeks or so. The damage, if it can be called such, on his chest is a cut of no more than three inches, so he isn’t really bothered by it. Since they (the vets) know we always remove them ourselves, we’re in and out of the clinic under ten minutes, heading home approximately three hours after departure.

What with the heat…it really resembled full summer today…it wasn’t as pleasant a trip as it could have been, but that’s okay.

Once home, I climb into the pool again to remove the paper that helped keeping the tiny pool tiles together during the glue period, and this is a tedious and frustrating job. In the end, middle sister comes to help out, and together we finish up, cleaning the newly fastened tiles, and filling up the grooves with the white paste.

Afterwards I quickly hose down the courtyard section where big brother and I intend to settle for the evening for another round on the computer, and extend the chore a bit by watering the trees and yuccas that flank the rock wall. Pleased that the section is ready for a relaxing sit-down, I head inside for a quick dinner mom prepared.

With dinner over and done, big brother and I spend the remaining hours of the evening pouring over the synopsis, adding a few more distilled chapters and rereading the part we did this morning.

The temperatures drop slowly and though thunder has been predicted, even now the sky overhead is still showing sparkling stars. There is, however, a cluster of foggy clouds gathering across town and the valley below our mountain. I wonder whether that will bring rain or not. The plants could sure use it.

Once in my cabin, big brother and I debate grammatical issues for several hours, or course, and then end up reading a section of a book I started on an odd four years ago. Big brother is fascinated by the idea of two prodigies, who spent their early college years together, meeting up again twelve years later at totally different junctures in their life. It is a company espionage story, really, with some government secrets thrown into the mix.
We’ll see where we go once we finished “the Edit”. Hah.

Warm summer day...the first.

Song of the day: “A little bit” by Maria Mena. Good one.

An actual summer day has come to pass; sweltering air, no breeze to speak of, the sun pounding down relentlessly and basically it’s a day for slow motions, languid speech and leisured start ups. Not necessarily a bad thing, but still; it is so unexpected that it is hard to shift gears.

Usually we have about a month or so to get acclimated to the summer weather but today (yesterday too, I guess) was just a tad sudden. I think I’m gonna need at least a week before I can be happy about this change in temperatures.
A plus: the dogs are remarkably quiet most of the time. They sure know when to lay low…warm weather being the magic stuff in that regard, hah.

Well, considering that there was lots of going back and forth to the village today, it wasn’t such a bad thing.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…call it impatience.
I wake up with a fuzzy head; it is something that always happens when the temperatures rise, so the first thing I do when I get up is stick my head in the tub, I’ve filled in the sink, to get rid of it.

The morning rituals follow; the dogs already rushing back into cabin in record time, because, let’s face it, the sand is too hot for their poor little feet. Feeling a little daunted, too, I quickly head down to the house where the temperature will stay a lot more bearable for a while yet, and slap my computer bag down on the table so I can quickly get to the laundry.

Later on it will be bone-melting hot under the corrugated-aluminum roof of the courtyard; getting the laundry tackled before noon is rather essential if I don’t want to be covered in sweat within two minutes.

That thankfully done and the dry folded and put away for later pickups from the rest of the family, big brother and I settle down to work on the synopsis for real. In the next five hours, we tackle the distilling task of getting the story down to the bare basics and are actually forced to give it up. I need to take Amri (mix breed) and middle sister’s Angie (Basset Hound) to the vet.

Amri has been troubled by a rather massive growth on his chest…it’s a little gross description, bit it was starting to look like a large pair of testicles, dangling between his front legs…so I figure it’s time to have it removed.

Angie, on the other hand, has been secreting mucus from her nose and eyes, so rather than risk the parasite that at one point bothered one of our huskies, Sama, we want to have her checked out.

In the village, it is even hotter, and even though the vet is a miser when it comes to using the AC in his hospital, it is relatively cool inside the building. We’re inside a long time; Amri is not a problem. He just needs to stay there for the night so they can operate on him this evening, or in the morning.

Angie, on the other hand, doesn’t appreciate the exam at all. It doesn’t help that the vet needs to use a sharp, very small melon scoop, to get a blood sample. It once again demonstrates the aristocrat-attitude Bassets appear to possess. “Oh Lord almighty; the shame! I will never look upon you again.” A Basset can give a very typical look when it does not agree with the treatment it’s receiving, and it practically speaks those exact words, hah.

Regretfully the poor girl needs to stay for a few hours too. They want to check her to see if she hasn’t got one of the horrific grass seeds in her nose (remember the Clue debacle, and the way the seed has torpedoed its way through his body?) just to be on the safe side.

Middle sister and I head home, making a short stop at the ferreteria for glue and then returning in time to have a quick dinner. I’ve only got forty-five minutes before we need to head back to pick the Basset up. I still need to finish the pool tiling thing, and I manage just barely before we’re off again.

We sit at the hospital for almost and hour…they’re operating Amri…and then head out to get a quick load of rocks while the vets finish up with the operation. Fully loaded up we return, and get a temporary prognosis that Angie is likely suffering from a rather common problem in these regions: Leishmania.

I still think that it’s the parasite, but we’ll see. Amri’s operation went well, the vet claims, and we can come pick him up tomorrow…because they want to keep an eye on him.

Once home, we unload, of course, and then head inside to have a quick snack and watch “Twilight”. It wasn’t bad, I’ll admit, but…well, slow. I was just going through some scenes wondering when something was going to happen. Hah.

Midnight has arrived quickly, and the heat is persisting, and rather than settle on my bed for tonight’s Blog, I sit down on my porch instead. It isn’t until three in the morning has arrived that the wind picks up a little and brings the temperature down at least a little.

Well, on the overall today wasn’t bad, so I guess we’ll have to catalogue it in the good-side section. Hah.

First WARM day. Yay.

Song of the day: “Grace Kelly” by Mika. Such a funny song. Wonder if that means I was in a cheerful mood. Hah.

So, yesterday I didn’t have time, as some will undoubtedly have noticed. Let’s see if I can hit some of the highlights and then smooth you on onto today’s events without too much of a hassle.

Well, I really said it all in that ridiculously short sum up. The only thing I really failed to mention was that we saw the movie “Australia” and I’ve got to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. I went in, fearing a second “Moulin Rouge”, and came out with a rather content overall feeling. Almost as if I’d seen some old movie, rather than one of the latest newcomers in the DVD section.

You know what I mean, right? One of those classics that are hardy and rich on the story line, lots of drama, lots of information, all nicely combined into a couple of hours of entertainment while still sending you on a pleasant adventure.

It started out a little iffy, I’ll admit. For a while, I wondered whether good ol’ Bazz couldn’t decide if he was making a comedy or something a little more serious. But then, slowly and steadily, the story actually managed to capture my attention the way his “Strictly Ballroom” always does. A little bizarre at time, sure, the “start up” special FX were far from stellar, and the acting…well, not wowing, but still it was basic fun to watch. I’m glad that I overcame my general fear of the Bazz after the M.R. debacle.

But enough about that semi-review, let’s get on to the day.

I oversleep this morning, aaargh, so I’ve been running behind most of the following hours. There’s laundry to tackle, of course, and I get to it first thing, if for no other reason than to have it over and done with. I spend a little time disciplining Knight II; the big lug is really getting to be unmanageable. Gawd, he’s so stubborn. Training him is going to be a royal pain in the butt.

Luckily, we manage to squeeze in a five-hour edit, so we get through a load of pages. We charge bravely through the grammar, astonished at how the scenes change with a slight shift here and there, adding and subtracting a semi-colon, a colon or a comma/punctuation; it makes quite the difference from the oh-so slow progress of the rewrite-edit.

Most annoyed, when I realize that our time is up, I head on outside to start on today’s building. After setting mom up by the carport, for yet another low wall, I aim for the pool where tiles need to be put up on the section of the skimmer receiver that was added recently. I have to wade through the water to get in place to actually be able to get to it, but what the hey; it’s a warm day, and the slight cool-off doesn’t go amiss at all.

Of course there is not enough of the tile glue present, so I only manage to get down the basics…don’t you just hate Sundays when you can’t go to the store to get stuff like that…and finish up about two hours before sunset. There’s another section in the tub-like skimmer that needs to be plastered with cement, so since I’m in there already (my trousers wet up to my knees) I figure I might as well get to it. I can’t stand plastering natural rock walls. They’re so hard to treat. Stuff just keeps falling off, time and again, until I want to scream. Much to my relief, it really is just a very small section.

That done, I make my way up to the carport, where mom and little sister have just finished their small wall. Since there is still a lot of cement left, big brother and I add another step to the stairs beside the new section; it brings the total up to four, and it does improve the overall image of the terrace we’re creating on top of “the Wall”.

Today we’ve planned to go for a run just after we’re done with building. Even though we’re late, we do manage to get out to a new spot that is a wonderful change from our usual path. Since we’ve already had a full day behind us, we decide to keep the run relatively short, a couple of miles at most…regretfully middle sister didn’t hear the agreement, and goes the extra mile, forcing big brother to go after her. She is properly exhausted by the time we return to the car, and looks more than a little startled when it becomes clear that we still have to get a batch of rocks: poor thing.

Added to the slightly longer-than-planned run middle sister and I both forgot our gloves, so we end up hauling rocks into the back of the truck with our bare hands; it is a mistake I don’t intend to make again, I assure you. My hands feel like they’re missing at least one layer of skin: much like they were treated by sandpaper. Hah. Much to our relief we do find a pile of rocks that need only be transferred up to the truck bed, so we’re done in less then fifteen minutes.

We arrive home around dusk and spend, what feels like, an eternity unloading. Middle sister is too exhausted to finish up, but luckily, little sister arrives to take her place. It’s already dark when we enter the house-the dogs going crazy, as usual-and I head for the shower for a much-deserved wash-up. Dust is everywhere.

Dinner consists of panir (or paneer, as I’ve learned it’s really called) and salad, but there is too little of it, what with everyone having eaten already. So, I end up eating a piece of French bread with cheese to fill the remaining gap; it does the trick well enough, I suppose.

For the hour that remains of the evening we watch the tail end of a “Prison Break” episode, followed by a similar cut from “Medium” and then it is time to head to my quarters at last. Big brother and I debate our present project for another hour or two, but then the night comes to an end at last, and I can focus on today’s Blog.

I gotta admit that today’s heat didn’t much help the energy levels: warm days have a way of draining you somewhat.
Even now, well after midnight, it is still warm enough to sit in a sleeveless top, somewhat futilely hoping for a breeze from the completely still night air.
Ah well, I better get used to it, since this is the weather I’m going to be “enjoying” for the next three to four months. Hah.

Got a little distracted.

Song of the day: “Rhythm Divine” by Enrique Iglesias. I do love his songs, so having this one in my head is not bad at all.

Yep, the day has come: I don’t have time for a Blog.
Got to talking about grammar, and…well, the discussion took so long that I shot straight through the hour I tend to set aside for this Blog thing.

Imagine the average day, chores, the edit followed by a quick run to town for the bird food I forgot to buy yesterday, (aargh) more wall-building, evading dogs all the while, and getting a new load of rocks, of course.
Oh yeah, we also had the panir I made yesterday, for dinner. It was delicious!

The edit went rather well, even though we didn’t add new pages. Ah well, that will come yet. For now we’re having fun debating the pros and cons of proper punctuation.
Oh yes, we also worked on the synopsis…we might actually manage to get a good one at some point in the near future.

That’s it for today. Let’s hope that tomorrow I won’t get distracted. Hah.