Passing on.

Song of the day: “Leaving on a jet plane” by John Denver. I know, I don’t have a clue where it came from, but I think it is because I was thinking of the movie Armageddon earlier. Maybe it is Ben Afleck I’m hearing (which is bad) ‘cause lord knows I don’t think I heard the original in a couple of decades. Hah.

First of all, the sad news. Rhumba (11 year old Samojeed mix) slipped in the courtyard the day before yesterday and fractured his upper paw. Poor darling cried like mad, and when it became clear that his left front paw was dangling middle sister (his mistress) and I rushed him to the vet hospital. The vet felt him up, injected him with an anesthetic, took a picture and showed us the problem in glorious detail.
It was broken just an inch above the join, the fracture jagged and at a sharp angle. What we were looking at was a four-to-five hundred euro operation that had only a small chance of succeeding and, in a best case scenario a five month recovery afterwards.
Taking in consideration his age, chances, quality of life and of course the costs, Middle sister had to make the horrid decision of putting him out of his misery.
The vet agreed that it really was the best thing, considering that due to his age he was unlikely to create new bone where he needed it.
Suffice it to say, it was a rather bad afternoon on the overall.
After being with us, this stubborn, snarky and waaaay too enthusiastic dog, for a solid eleven years (he was one of our earliest saves) Rhumba departed on a Sunday afternoon, sleeping on a table with middle sister (the love of his life, hah) stroking his head. A sad day to say the least

Okay, before I start to bawl, or something, let’s move on to life, rather than death. Big brother and I have been working on his bed for the most part. Sunday we built these huge wooden boxes, which would be his bed, and today (after Monday workday, of course) we made the first two drawers to go in them. It’s looking rather grand, and I really ought to make pictures of it. It’s going to be a bit difficult what with the room being a tad dark, but I’ve gotta show off my design. It worked out splendidly. One more drawer to go and then the thing is all done.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There were lots of stuff going on, seeing as the majority of the morning was spent digging ditches and cleaning out floods in both guest room and tenant’s kitchen. Boy, has the rain been coming down bad of late.

There was a bit of gardening, of course, seeing as we headed into the yard to get peppers, and everything else we could get our hands on. Not a bad harvest either, and the stuff in the greenhouse looks absolutely splendid.

So let’s get to yesterday. We had to leave a little early for work because Dewey (the new delivery guy, remember) is a lot faster getting all the way here from the Costa Blanca. Big brother and I loaded up our papers nice and easy and before you knew it we were on our way.

Was a good day, paper distribution wise. Sure there was still a bit of rain, but there were no disasters and even (for me) hilarious moment when I entered a rather big restaurant and delivered my papers as usual. The owner was there, and when I was done putting the bundle on the bar, he said thank you, and then “Happy Christmas” while making this very Godfather-ish waving gesture with his hand. Seriously, the guy just might be a gangster of old. From the way his pictures (taken with all sorts of celebrities at his side) hang all over the place, I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe he’s in a witness protection program, or something, wiling away the end of his days in Southern Spain. *chortle*
I always feared that some of the characters in my books might be too theatrical, but much to my relief, real people can be far worse. Hah.

Prior to going out on the route, we had to go to the phone shop. Sally has been getting prank calls, and since we all have a joined phone contract, big brother and I had to go there to change her number. It did cost twelve Euros but in the end we managed to leave with the problem solved.

Next we had to go to the Daewoo dealer to finally pick up the papers. I don’t know if I already talked about this, but last week they let us know that to get the papers we still had to pay the Gestor, an expense they hadn’t informed us about. So first I got a bill of € 286 and then after I balked some about not having been told about this expense, they brought it down to € 240. A good thing too, because I was of a mind to have the papers reported stolen and pick them up myself. In the end I was just happy to be rid of the entire hassle.

Back to the route. There was some rain throughout, but in the end it wasn’t the worst of days. I didn’t have any accidents. I call that a good day in any book, hah.

While we were working middle sister’s boxer Lubika had to go back to the vet…she’d had a tumor removed on her ribs (seriously, dogs didn’t used to have this much cancer…heck, humans didn’t either) and had ripped open her stitches. Poor little boxer. Nutter than a hatter (or something along those lines) but still sweet as can be. She just can’t stand any kind of discomfort.

So anyway, today was spent working on the drawers for big brother, and some supply hauling. My dogs once more spent a lot of time in my cabin. They don’t like the rain at all, I assure.
Oh, and I discovered that there is no ordinance against dogs in this area, meaning that I no longer have to be careful about mentioning their numbers. Yay.

Well, I’ve got edits to do, and maybe just a little catnap…yeah, that sounds good. I think I will.