Posthaste. Hah.

Song of the day:...I don’t give a fig, ‘cause I’m inspired and I wanna write. Went over 85.000 yesterday, so the end is nigh. Hahaha. It was a beautiful day, sunny, a little chilly, but sunny…for the start of it anyway, which meant that our tenant sat on my porch a bit, and actually made it down the mountain on her own two feet. Milestone anyone? Yesterday was a miserable day, weather wise so I’m fully ignoring it.

There was gardening, duh, unloading, chores, I’m almost through the laundry pile, yay, the stupid bags keep filling up again, however. Got some painting done, trimmed trees, build storage, yadayadayada. Got two loads of rock yesterday, got one today, seeing as we went for a nice little jog too. Soooo invigorating.

Good one, can’t pass up on it, seeing as I almost passed out, hah. We drugged Knight II, today, which was absolutely necessary, ‘cause he wouldn’t let us treat his wound. First, I used a syringe on his lump, and then made a small incision (freaked me out a little, it always does…and the sluggish blood going all over my hands is just, eeewww) so I could push the fluid out, which made me just a tad nauseated. What with the drugs, he actually was reasonably good throughout the procedure: good Knight.

He didn’t like me at all, afterwards, though. He went to a sixty feet distance and kept eyeballing me as if I had betrayed his confidence. Seriously. Does anyone know the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his doll, Ahmed the dead terrorist. Well, if Knight had a human voice he would have screeched: “Stop touching meeeee.” Hah. Poor Great Dane. He’s been loopy all day, and rather than risking him tumbling down the mountain somewhere, I decided to lock him in my office, just to be safe.

There was a big to do going on in town last night, we still are not entirely sure what. Big brother and I were driving down the road when suddenly a convoy of screeching police cars and fire trucks came roaring past. Stopped at an international school with their lights flashing and everything. Then, going down that road, we almost drove into a garbage truck, which had made and about face right in the middle of the road and swayed its way back into town. Though I don’t know what happened, I am convinced that if there was a perpetrator, the people in the garbage truck were it. Hah…that’s my freaky imagination for ya

And it’s calling me to get to the book, like, right now. So, ta ta, and have a good one for me. I’m outta here.

Raaahain! *sobs*

Song of the day: “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay. It’s been a while since I had this one in my head, I think. Still cool.

Rain, rain, rain! It’s bahaaack, and that after yesterday’s wonderful sunny weather. Seriously, I’m going to ignore today entirely and focus solely on yesterday, just because it was so much better.

So yeah, I woke up at the sound of the alarm after six hours of sleep, and guess what, there were clouds but also, peeking just over the eastern mountain ridge was the sweet sun that I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of for several days. It was beautiful, and after a rather adventurous dream involving the cast and location of “Lost” I was fully prepared to face the new day.

First thing I did, after rolling out of bed, was grab my blankets (ehm yeah, I’ve got five of them, not counting a quilt and afghan. What can I say I’m a whiner) and hang them out over the banister of the terrace and the windows I’d opened to let in the fresh morning air. Though the sky looked kind of threatening, it was just too good a chance to pass up on.

There was laundry prior to breakfast and then it was time to head out to unload the car of supplies and the new batch of plants, which I was determined to put in the ground. Was about ten minutes into the gardening session too, when the clouds from the west arrived and let loose a light shower that had me run up to my cabin to get my blankets back inside. I had just returned to the plants when the sun broke out again, so…well, let’s just say I repeated this hanging and pulling down of the blankets about four times yesterday. Hah.

In and around the carport, quite a mess had gathered over the past week of rain, so I spent some time cleaning it up, while big brother and grandpa worked at the old stable to build frames for wood storage.

In-between the ongoings big brother and I searched the house for the receipts of middle sister’s Mac laptop. It gave the spirit the day before yesterday, and since it is a problem that has been known to happen to the computers of that year, we’re going to have to find the receipt in order to get a new hard drive. Though we didn’t find the receipt, we did locate the antibiotics we needed for Knight II (he’s still swollen on the side), which means that he is now getting the required dose.

The dogs were a tad restless during the day that involved being herded in and out of the courtyard, to prevent utter wetness. Hah. They didn’t care much about that, of course, but since we didn’t much appreciate the prospect of the house utterly wet, it seemed more prudent to keep them contained during the rain. The plants all got planted, though.

While grandpa and big brother were still working at the stable, little sister and I tackled the crack in the wall of the veranda. It has been a sore spot for months now, so I figured I might as well mix a bit of cement and seal it shut. Worked out splendidly, if I do say so myself. We got the entire wall ready for painting this spring. Only eight more walls to go. Hah.

The mountain bike has been an eyesore for several weeks too, ever since we rearranged the carport, so once done with the wall, little sister and I hung it behind my cabin, nicely out of the way, and safely tucked high up from the ground.

It was approaching late afternoon when it was time to haul garbage to the car, and get ready for our agreed upon run…only to remember that mum was working on the new covers for the car seats and the driver’s seat was, at that particular moment covered in needles to keep the new fabric in place.

Determined to go for our run after all, we headed out by foot, mounted the drive sweep, followed the main road for a bit and then went straight up the incline for the path that curls high up the mountain over our house. We set a nice brisk pace, chortling a little about the fact that we were likely to be wiped-out by the time we reached the upper path, and got there breathing heavy after only three skids on the incline. Hah.

A nice run, I’ve got to say, and while we were on the trail, we came upon a spot where a mudslide had taken down a young pine tree. Since it was lying there, it’s roots laid bare and everything, we decided to take it home with us, stick it in the ground and see if it would survive.
Would be nice if it did, seeing as the four pines that we used to have, back in the day, didn’t survive our hot summers. It will make a nice change to the eucalypti, mimosas and poplars that basically make up our garden.

Solidly exhausted from running back with the tree in hand, I took a quick shower and then settled behind the computer with dinner over and done with.
Only managed to write three pages, what with the day having been a tad busy, but progress after all.

Which brings us to today: Rain! Again. *sigh* I’m not happy, in case you couldn’t tell.
Now it wouldn’t be all that bad, (got a friend visiting, and that is usually fun) if I weren’t totally scatterbrained today. I swear, I’ve had to lumber up the mountain seven to nine times already, just because I forgot one item or other (for painting the wall) in the carport.

And that makes up my recount for today, I guess. A pity, but I really don’t have anything else to say other than I seriously DISLIKE rain. *sigh*
Let’s hope the weather improves before the next blog. Hah.

Freaked/Bonkers, take yer pick. ;-)

Song of the day: “Did it again” by Shakira. Strangely enough, it was pounding into my head when I woke up this morning…and that while the power was out due to the storm.

Rain, rain and more rain. Aaaargh. It drove me so friggin’ bonkers that I literally shouted “the sun, the sun; I’m out!” when it peeked from behind the clouds for about half an hour this afternoon. Seriously, this winter I have discovered that I am most definitely not an inside person anymore. Really, two years ago I would have gladly stayed inside for a solid three months without ever giving a peep, but no more; staying inside is giving me hives, I’m sure of it. Hah.

But let’s get down to business, ‘cause I’ve got serious writing to do yet. Writing is going a little better again; I’m not passing out during the evening sessions at the moment so that means I’m actually getting somewhere. As of yesterday evening (another miserably rainy day, grrr) I’ve hit 85.000 words, which means that I’m going to have to start thinking about wrapping the story up. I need a 100K after all, and considering I need to finish it in less than four scenes, it’s going to be a close call, that’s a fact.

Most of the past miserable rainy days were spent with indoor projects again, in this case the wood and glass wall we’re making for the living room. Some final touches had to be seen to yesterday (prior to painting, which is happening even as I write this) such as putting lead paint on the bottom…lots of water damage possible with ninety-something dogs…and attaching the wood to its wood and brick surroundings.

Little sister and I hung these quilted panels in front of the second floor banister throughout the house, so that looks neat again. Also had to change clothes twice yesterday, considering everything was so bloody wet that my trousers were completely soaked after every chore. The worst being, emptying the pantry of floodwater again. It was bad, I tell you, which isn’t a surprise now that most of Andalusia is suffering through a rather serious deluge. People are being evacuated and rescued by firemen, animals are taken out of their flooded paddocks to higher pastures, and on the overall, everyone is being downright miserable with the weather. Can’t blame them, either, considering I feel quite the same.

Our luck, despite the flooded pantry (it comes from the back of the house where water seeps straight through the rocks) and bathroom, is that we really do live on top of the mountain. The only way we get an actual, hold-on-to-your-socks flood up here is for all the ice on the world to melt in a single instant and cause a dramatic Tsunami ‘bout 800 yards high. Hah.

Well, apparently I am still fully capable of freaking myself out, just like I could back in the day, ‘cause silly me was looking for information on witchcraft on Wikipedia when I somehow ended up on the page about Gregori Rasputin. Nothing new there, since I’ve known about the man for a long time…or at least the broad strokes, due to movies and books.

And yet, I was intrigued as I read about this rather scary looking dude (seriously, he’d do well in a horror flick) and the rather gruesome way he came to his end. I don’t know, but anyone who has to be (a) poisoned with cyanide, (b) shot three or four times in chest and head, (c) beaten into submission, (d) castrated on the spot and (e) wrapped in a carpet and ropes to be thrown in a frozen river, just to “give the spirit” has to possess some serious bad juju. I ain’t joking, all that happened prior to his drowning in the river and still they found him in a clawing position under the ice. Yikes! Talk about persistent; I would find a psychopath in any of my fictional books surviving such a long row, unrealistic. Suffice it to say that the reading material seriously freaked me out.

Afterwards, I of course ended up at the witch trials of Salem, the Spanish, Portuguese and all those other lovely Inquisitions, only to end up feeling a tad…ehm, yeah, UNCOMFORTABLE. I hate it when I can’t control my curiosity and end up like that.

There was also some nice bits of historical research, such as the mythical stories of Ireland, and how their tales of history are basically the same as those of the Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists and all those others, only described with different names and places. Fascinating how they all tell of the same incredible events, and it makes one wonder how much of it is true. Oh, the thoughts of a variety of books kept tumbling through my head. So very tempting, but a temptation I have to stand strong against considering I’ve got more stories-in-progress than I have the time to write, darn it.

All of this was interrupted by a six-hour blackout, which didn’t make the rainy day any more pleasant. Oh my Gawd, I’d forgotten how bloody annoying it is to be without electricity. Everything was dark, wet, cold and gloomy and I don’t suppose that helped my “uncomfortable” state either.

Knight II is on antibiotics, and though the big lump on his side is still there, he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it so much at the moment. Clue’s drain is out; we put him on the kitchen counter yesterday, cut three stitches loose and removed the rubber. He’s fit as a fiddle again, and doesn’t care a fig about the most recent injury. Such a happy dog, our Clue.

The seedlings in the new seedbed are doing well. Small green sprouts have jumped from the soil and are slowly filling up the bottom of the glass-covered container.
After another morning of four hours, without electricity the sun finally broke through for a bit, allowing us to head out into the yard and put the new, rather massive, batch of thyme into the ground. It’ll remain to be seen if they’re going to make it, but if they do they are going to look rather grand in their rocky ground behind the fence to the bottom garden.

It smelled rather splendidly too, all that thyme. From the trimming that needed to be done on the small bushes, I filled an entire crate with scented twigs, which I brought up to our tenant. She so badly wants to be useful that I figured she might as well look through the branches and sort out the ones we can use for drying. The last couple of days we haven’t been able to do much of her exercises, but today, when the sun was out for a bit (the clouds are back, by the way. Looks like rain) we took a short stroll in the paddock and sat there for a bit as she caught her breath. The way we figured, what with the bad weather predictions persisting, it would do her well to catch some fresh air while she could.

While yesterday we missed lunch again, I made baked potatoes with peas, corn and peppers on the side, so at least we won’t go hungry again today, hah.

There was another rock-fetching trip; big brother and I gathered mostly big rocks, seeing as we’re going to need quite of few of them for the bottom of the wall’s foundation, but as an effect my shoulder muscle knotted up yesterday morning (hurts like a son of a gun, I’ll tell ya that much) while I was pulling my pants up, darn it. That’s a first. Guess I picked up bigger rocks than I’d expected, and was ready for.

Well, that about sums the past couple of days up, doesn’t it. I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of annoyance and frustration in the next few, since the clouds are persisting and there is definitely more rain in the air, aaargh.
I’m going to see if I can go outside for a bit yet, before it starts pouring again.

Can't shake it...for now.

Song of the day: “A kiss from the rose” by Seal. Oh my gawd, it has been ages since I last heard this one, let alone sung it. Still, a gorgeous song, most definitely.

I am a tad distracted today, I can’t say why, and for some reason I can’t shake it either. It is most frustrating. Everything seems to be going slow, and yet fast, and there is a weirdness about everything that has me a teeny bit uncomfortable, for some peculiar reason.

Well, be that as it may, the weather these last couple of days is making me crabby, to say it mildly. The temperatures are low, the air is moist and my limbs feel as if I haven’t been warm in months, instead of days. Seriously, I’m contemplating about moving to the equator, or something, ‘cause this is downright awful. I have definitely acclimated to Spain too well, ‘cause anything below ten degrees feels horrid.

Yesterday was most certainly a work-inside day, and we treated it as such. We tucked tools and supplies into the toolbox, hauled it down with the suitcase filled with screws and then dragged the start of what will be the third glass and wood wall inside the house. What with the low temperatures this winter, and the way time is going way too fast, we decided we might as well start with it today, and finished enough of the main frame to set it in place. It took some effort, as in taking out the old closet and moving it into the corner.

There was some serious cleaning involved there, seeing as it was a mess, but then the frame allowed more light inside, which is always a plus. It looks rather spacious, and that I love.
While big brother was doing the majority of the carpentry (we really work on a “you snooze, you lose” basis and he started first, darn it) I decided to replace the old wind protection flaps of the front door, with new rubber ones. Worked like a charm too, and now it is wait and see if these are going to hold any longer than the others.

Next I hung a small reed basket in the bathroom, which I have been trying to do for weeks now, and just didn’t get around to. The last part of the evening was spent scavenging again, which wasn’t all that fun what with the low temperatures and the icy northern wind. Still we managed to unearth a big load of plants from underneath the massive pile that had been dumped behind the nursery…which was why, after I added another two pages (last night I did three, by the way) to the manuscript, it was out into the cold again, to plant twenty beautiful little plants. They’re mostly thyme, lemon thyme, and rosemary, of which the first two are excellent against lung problems of any kind.

It would be an excellent thing for our tenant, who is once again developing a nasty cough, and would like to do without chemical medication this time. We’re going to try it out, before going to the doctor, seeing as that is always possible as a last resort. Her exercises went really well too, considering she walked a considerable distance across the old paddock again.

Clue’s wound is doing excellently, stitches should be going out soon. Knight II on the other hand, needs some extra attention, seeing as his swelling is still there and he does have some pain. The stupid eejit won’t let me drain it, however, (he actually bit me in my hand) which means that this is going to go the hard and slow way. Antibiotics are going to be inevitable, I fear.

The last few hours of today were spent getting rocks again. Got two big loads of major rocks that should go a long way with the soon-to-be-built wall around grandpa’s bungalow. We got some pretty big ones, and just ten of those should do well as a foundation alone.

By the time we got back from the second trip, rain started up again, so we quickly unloaded and headed inside for dinner and today’s blog…which brings us to the end again, ‘cause I still need to write some actual book stuff and then I just might be in time to go to bed sometime soon. *sigh* Yes, bed. I could write poems about my bed and how I could seriously contemplate hibernation at this point. Oh my, can you imagine, just skipping the winter and blissfully sleeping through it until spring. Yes, a wonderful fantasy, that. I think I’m going to wallow in it a bid. Hah.