Song of the day: “Not as we” by Alanis Morrisette, it was in my head when I woke this morning and hasn’t left since.
The past couple of days were all about yard work, I fear. It’s heavy work, it’s grubby work and more than a little tiring. I swear, last night I was so friggin’ tired, I was actually nauseous with it by the end of the day. Not surprising, really, considering that it had been an incredibly long day.
First of all, we spent the majority of it digging up the lower terrace (turning the earth, technically, but still it comes down to the same thing) and putting in small plants. I personally turned 9 square meters, which I could definitely feel in my shoulders by the end of the evening.
But anyway, we put in cauliflower, red cabbage, onion, and broccoli in…just to see what is going to work best in this particular area. Oh, and we put in red beets seeds and a few pepper plants. Hah.
Once that was done, I headed on up to grandpa’s bungalow, where the younger sibs and I could resume working on the little wall. While we were at it, big brother, grandpa and mom left for town to get a new toilet. Apparently, little sister went to the bathroom the night before and somehow managed to break the bowl, poor sis was all startled. Since they were going out anyway, we decided that they check out some other veggie plants as well for today’s planting.
But anyway, the sibs and I were just about finishing up with the day’s efforts on the knee high wall, when suddenly Knight II gets a bug up his behind, or something and literally attacks Chaos (Basset Hound) and rips a two and a half inch hole in the poor Basset’s forehead. Though Chaos took it like the macho he is, he did have considerable pain and when I looked at the damage, I could see his skull beneath it, yikes.
So, I called big brother and told him they had to come home so I could take Chaos to the vet to get stitched up. Big brother agreed, and then proceeded to take two hours before he finally got home, because the road he took had been shut down and they had to go cross country to get through. *sigh*
This meant that little sister and I didn’t arrive at the vet’s until an hour before closing time, which in turn meant that we had to kill an hour while they did their thing with Chaos. Then, when we got back to pick him up, the parking place in front of the clinic was occupied, and we had to park a good fifty yards away, in a different street.
91 bucks later, with 84 pounds of sleeping dog in my arms (he was still KO, of course) we made our way back to the car, where I literally had to wedge the Basset against the side of the car while middle sister opened the door.
He now has seven stitches on his gorgeous face, along with a drain against the swelling, and looking as if he's afraid he's lost his good looks forever. So vain, my Chaos. *sigh*
I did try to do some writing later in the evening, when I finally had some food, had settled down with Chaos comfortable on a pillow and the other dogs somewhat at ease, but I was just too tired to get a lot done.
I finally just decided to head for a bed a bit early and pass out for the remainder of the night, ‘cause I wasn’t worth a dime for the duration of the evening. Chaos’s sedative had worn off enough for him to walk up the mountain, rather than me carrying him, so there was a small plus in that at least. Of course, I didn’t want to risk him toppling off the bed, seeing as he was still woozy, so I tucked him under a blanket on a pillow and let him sleep it off while I “passed out” for the night.
Today started rather beautifully. There was a clear blue sky and a fresh eastern breeze that turned chilly within two hours of awakening. There was laundry of course, when is there not, and then it was up to the bungalows to get our tenant down to my porch, where she would be able to sit out of the wind and in the sun. She did the walk down herself, so, yay, we were both so proud, and she was nice and warm.
That done, I headed down with the new plants, and spend the first part of the day putting in tomatoes, and then turning more earth for strawberries, peppermint and some more veggies in the absolute lowest part of the garden. A nice little triangle, boxed in by rocky drywall, which we gathered from all over the yard to prevent disasters from happening.
Next it was up to the kitchen to make dinner, mashed potatoes with baked red cabbage and cheese through it…it was delicious, thank you very much, even though I didn’t get to eat until much later, darn it…and then wheeling our tenant back up to her place for the evening.
Rain started by then. Clouds had already rolled in ‘round noon, but the rain didn’t start until six, or something. We were about to head in too, when a phone call from a friend had us jump in the car to drive on over. Apparently, a natural rock face gave way over the family home due to the extended amount of rain these past few weeks, and the eucalypti growing on top were threatening to tip onto the house. This meant that both brothers and I were resigned to spending a couple of hours in the full rain (I hadn’t been that wet and cold outside the shower, in years, I tell ya) chopping down the trees and lugging them away from the house.
There was coffee afterwards, putting the cut trees into the car…we could have them, seeing as we “came to the rescue” hah…and headed back home. Everything was so darn wet, and the car so fogged up that I wasn’t able to see properly, making the turn into our driver sweep, which meant that I swiped the railing at the top, damaging both door handles on the passenger side of the car, darn it.
Scared the crap out of me when I heard the squeak of metal against metal. I have made that turn so many times, and yet somehow I calculated it wrong. That POs me, if for no other reason than that we need to buy replacement handles. Grrr.
Once the car was unloaded and the coats discarded, we went into the house at sundown.
The dogs were ecstatic when we got inside, of course, and after a much-needed hot shower, it was time to have dinner and sit down behind the computer to check the messages and whatnot.
As to writing, the thing I should have been doing for forty minutes already, I’m still fitting in the second scene, before I can begin writing again. Seriously, this fitting in bit is driving me bonkers. I shiver at the thought of starting the edit by mid-March.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
It's starting early...gawd!
Song of the day: “Stuck on you” by 3T…I know, talk about tacky, but it is such a cute song.
I am despairing, seeing as I can’t, for the life of me remember what all has been going on the past few days. I’m scrambling, I tell you, so I’m just going to write down whatever pops up in my mind, I guess.
What did we do, what did we do? Aw, this is really bad, Alzheimer’s? Dementia? Gawd, it’s setting in early, aaargh.
Okay, okay. Writing: I’m still fitting in the scene, but seeing as that is mostly about editing an older scene, making it flow into the rest of the story, it is going really slow. I am really bad at setting my mind to editing, when I’m fully into the creative part of writing. Three more pages and I can get back to writing, thank God!
So writing is going slow, or in this case, editing. Grrr.
The other projects, gawd lets go to something that at least fills an entire paragraph.
Oh yes, yesterday I decided to start on the small rock wall in front of grandpa’s bungalow, digging out the foundation, and then setting down rocks, of which two were actually to big and heavy for me to lift. (That frustrates me, by the way.) I ended up rolling one of them and called big brother to do the second.
The lot was looking so great, lying there in their gutter, neatly tucked together and everything that, when the younger sibs arrived, I did decide to mix a couple of batches of cement so we could pour the concrete after all.
Succeeded, too, creating a rather nice beginning for us to work with in the near future. Right now it’s not possible, considering the weather is downright horrid again, clouds everywhere, but yesterday and the day before that (you know, grocery day, aaargh) were wonderfully sunny, which makes me at least somewhat human today.
We went for a run after work yesterday, seeing as we had to get a new batch of sand anyway; figured we might as well head for our usual spot to get some running in. The run went well too, did the full length with barely a breather, which is like, totally awesome. Hah. Of course, I cooled off way to much last night, seeing as we needed to unload the sand still, and by the time we were done my shoulders were so stiff I really had to take a hot, hot, hot shower. I was still sore like heck, though.
I was a tad exhausted afterwards, but who cares; it’s good to be in that particular state at the end of the evening anyway, hah. But anyway, on to today, I guess.
This morning I started the day by making two apple pies. Our family friend was coming for a visit today and since it is her birthday, we figured we might as well treat her with something she really likes. Little brother made a curry meal, to precede the desert. It worked out really well too, and when she left at the end of the day, she was packed with an extra piece for later in the evening. Always a pleasure when a baking session works out properly.
Other than that we spent the majority of the morning turning the earth in the lower garden, so we could put the first batch of seedlings in. It went rather well, turning the earth, that is; it was wet, so the shovel went right in. Did a proper patch too, so we put in at least fifty little plants. Now it is time to see how they’d do, eh?
The entire thing drove the dogs bonkers, of course. Jeez, they literally tried to rip through the fence in their attempts to join us. Finally we had to lock them into the courtyard.
And now I’m just going to stop, and hope that my memory works better a couple of days from now, because I want to try to get through the last couple of pages so I can continue writing again…this is depressing me.
I am despairing, seeing as I can’t, for the life of me remember what all has been going on the past few days. I’m scrambling, I tell you, so I’m just going to write down whatever pops up in my mind, I guess.
What did we do, what did we do? Aw, this is really bad, Alzheimer’s? Dementia? Gawd, it’s setting in early, aaargh.
Okay, okay. Writing: I’m still fitting in the scene, but seeing as that is mostly about editing an older scene, making it flow into the rest of the story, it is going really slow. I am really bad at setting my mind to editing, when I’m fully into the creative part of writing. Three more pages and I can get back to writing, thank God!
So writing is going slow, or in this case, editing. Grrr.
The other projects, gawd lets go to something that at least fills an entire paragraph.
Oh yes, yesterday I decided to start on the small rock wall in front of grandpa’s bungalow, digging out the foundation, and then setting down rocks, of which two were actually to big and heavy for me to lift. (That frustrates me, by the way.) I ended up rolling one of them and called big brother to do the second.
The lot was looking so great, lying there in their gutter, neatly tucked together and everything that, when the younger sibs arrived, I did decide to mix a couple of batches of cement so we could pour the concrete after all.
Succeeded, too, creating a rather nice beginning for us to work with in the near future. Right now it’s not possible, considering the weather is downright horrid again, clouds everywhere, but yesterday and the day before that (you know, grocery day, aaargh) were wonderfully sunny, which makes me at least somewhat human today.
We went for a run after work yesterday, seeing as we had to get a new batch of sand anyway; figured we might as well head for our usual spot to get some running in. The run went well too, did the full length with barely a breather, which is like, totally awesome. Hah. Of course, I cooled off way to much last night, seeing as we needed to unload the sand still, and by the time we were done my shoulders were so stiff I really had to take a hot, hot, hot shower. I was still sore like heck, though.
I was a tad exhausted afterwards, but who cares; it’s good to be in that particular state at the end of the evening anyway, hah. But anyway, on to today, I guess.
This morning I started the day by making two apple pies. Our family friend was coming for a visit today and since it is her birthday, we figured we might as well treat her with something she really likes. Little brother made a curry meal, to precede the desert. It worked out really well too, and when she left at the end of the day, she was packed with an extra piece for later in the evening. Always a pleasure when a baking session works out properly.
Other than that we spent the majority of the morning turning the earth in the lower garden, so we could put the first batch of seedlings in. It went rather well, turning the earth, that is; it was wet, so the shovel went right in. Did a proper patch too, so we put in at least fifty little plants. Now it is time to see how they’d do, eh?
The entire thing drove the dogs bonkers, of course. Jeez, they literally tried to rip through the fence in their attempts to join us. Finally we had to lock them into the courtyard.
And now I’m just going to stop, and hope that my memory works better a couple of days from now, because I want to try to get through the last couple of pages so I can continue writing again…this is depressing me.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Kindled!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Just stuff, rain and pics.
Song of the day: “Sweet Goodbyes” by Krezip. Definitely had this one before, maybe even twice. Kind of a nice song.
There have been two days of rain, which was interrupted by a few hours of sunshine at the end of each day. Seriously, if I hadn’t had that bit of sunshine I might have become homicidal…but I’m not, so all is well in my world…sorta anyway.
This is so predictable, but I am once again drawing blanks as to the things that happened in the past couple of days. I know I did one cooking spree, which was a bit of a disappointment because for some inexplicable reason the meal turned out to be tasteless. So annoying that…and the being unable to remember anything remotely interesting, well, that just makes me PO.
But anyway, good news is that I did six pages for the book the day before yesterday, and then another three last night, which brings the manuscript up to 91.500, give or take a few, which means that I am going to have to wrap this up pretty fast. I can only screw around ‘till I hit a 100K and preferably 5000 before that, so I’ll have room left to do changes throughout the upcoming edit.
At the moment I am inserting a scene, one near the end of the story, and trying to get the flow right. Rather interesting to see if the pieces will match…and if not, see if I can alter it in such a way that it’ll fit at least.
Other than that…well, yeah, in the spirit of adventure and trying something new, big brother and I took our tenant down to the main house, so she’d have some company during the day. It was a rather daring enterprise, all things considered. The way down she went in her wheelchair, but the way back, after at least four hours in a comfortable chair, right in the middle of everything going on (we did cleaning and organizing in the house and office) it was exercise time. Twenty-six steps up, and then hopping back in her chair for drive the rest of the way up. She was exhausted, she was more than ready for some peace and quiet, but she was also thrilled. This is the first time in more than a year that she has mounted a stairwell, and that is another milestone in this week. Yay.
We did some weeding in the yard, the dogs are going to have to learn to stay behind the fence, because they literally keep wrecking the fence just to be able to get to us. Thorgal (golden retriever) got bloody, somehow. We think it was caused by Prama, who was being ridiculously pesky today and got a gash in her ear for it. Such a difficult dog Prama, we caught her and her sister attacking Abacara (also a golden) for no conceivable reason, so there was so excitement going on for sure. It might be the rainy days, and the fact that the dogs absolutely hate leaving the house whenever it is wet outside (whiners, I know).
As for projects; I made this cute little cabinet for my bathroom. Just open shelving of beautiful hardwood, and though it took ridiculously little time, I did enjoy doing it. Most of the painting to the glass and wood wall got done, book shelves cleaned, spider webs removed and on the overall, I felt very June Cleaver-ish…with the distinction that I was totally grumpy from the bad weather. Considering the dogs are grumpy, snappish even too, the mood is catching on. Hah.
But anyway, it might be the case that “W.I. Investigations/Shape-Shifter” will be Kindle-ized soon. Yay. We were finally able to go through the entire proceeding last night (we’d been preparing for it for months, after all) and if all goes well--toitoitoi, spit, cross-your fingers and all that--it should be on Kindle by this time tomorrow. Aaaah. Such marvelous fun!…that sounds so snotty, but it is. Hah. Now, if all looks good, and there is no reason it shouldn’t, we should be able to do the other three before April, and that would be totally awesome. By then, A Taste of Life should be all done, the edit over and done with and the first batch of letters in the mail. Ah well, you never know.
And that is it for today, there is much more to do, and I have been waffling things considerably by taking way too long for the blog. No matter, though, time is, still, somewhat free after all. Hah.
I feel a tad guilty about the short post, so lets do some pretty pics here at the end, huh.
Remember the Igloo I'm always mentioning? Well this is it. The neighbors, and probably the entire neighborhood, call it the spaceship. I can't imagine why, hah.
This was a shot of the valley today. More rain coming, definitely.
Yesterday's cloudburst, it was absolutely gorgeous to see.
A clear day last week. That's the type of view I really enjoy, thank you very much.
Same day. *sigh*
That's it. :-)
There have been two days of rain, which was interrupted by a few hours of sunshine at the end of each day. Seriously, if I hadn’t had that bit of sunshine I might have become homicidal…but I’m not, so all is well in my world…sorta anyway.
This is so predictable, but I am once again drawing blanks as to the things that happened in the past couple of days. I know I did one cooking spree, which was a bit of a disappointment because for some inexplicable reason the meal turned out to be tasteless. So annoying that…and the being unable to remember anything remotely interesting, well, that just makes me PO.
But anyway, good news is that I did six pages for the book the day before yesterday, and then another three last night, which brings the manuscript up to 91.500, give or take a few, which means that I am going to have to wrap this up pretty fast. I can only screw around ‘till I hit a 100K and preferably 5000 before that, so I’ll have room left to do changes throughout the upcoming edit.
At the moment I am inserting a scene, one near the end of the story, and trying to get the flow right. Rather interesting to see if the pieces will match…and if not, see if I can alter it in such a way that it’ll fit at least.
Other than that…well, yeah, in the spirit of adventure and trying something new, big brother and I took our tenant down to the main house, so she’d have some company during the day. It was a rather daring enterprise, all things considered. The way down she went in her wheelchair, but the way back, after at least four hours in a comfortable chair, right in the middle of everything going on (we did cleaning and organizing in the house and office) it was exercise time. Twenty-six steps up, and then hopping back in her chair for drive the rest of the way up. She was exhausted, she was more than ready for some peace and quiet, but she was also thrilled. This is the first time in more than a year that she has mounted a stairwell, and that is another milestone in this week. Yay.
We did some weeding in the yard, the dogs are going to have to learn to stay behind the fence, because they literally keep wrecking the fence just to be able to get to us. Thorgal (golden retriever) got bloody, somehow. We think it was caused by Prama, who was being ridiculously pesky today and got a gash in her ear for it. Such a difficult dog Prama, we caught her and her sister attacking Abacara (also a golden) for no conceivable reason, so there was so excitement going on for sure. It might be the rainy days, and the fact that the dogs absolutely hate leaving the house whenever it is wet outside (whiners, I know).
As for projects; I made this cute little cabinet for my bathroom. Just open shelving of beautiful hardwood, and though it took ridiculously little time, I did enjoy doing it. Most of the painting to the glass and wood wall got done, book shelves cleaned, spider webs removed and on the overall, I felt very June Cleaver-ish…with the distinction that I was totally grumpy from the bad weather. Considering the dogs are grumpy, snappish even too, the mood is catching on. Hah.
But anyway, it might be the case that “W.I. Investigations/Shape-Shifter” will be Kindle-ized soon. Yay. We were finally able to go through the entire proceeding last night (we’d been preparing for it for months, after all) and if all goes well--toitoitoi, spit, cross-your fingers and all that--it should be on Kindle by this time tomorrow. Aaaah. Such marvelous fun!…that sounds so snotty, but it is. Hah. Now, if all looks good, and there is no reason it shouldn’t, we should be able to do the other three before April, and that would be totally awesome. By then, A Taste of Life should be all done, the edit over and done with and the first batch of letters in the mail. Ah well, you never know.
And that is it for today, there is much more to do, and I have been waffling things considerably by taking way too long for the blog. No matter, though, time is, still, somewhat free after all. Hah.
I feel a tad guilty about the short post, so lets do some pretty pics here at the end, huh.
Remember the Igloo I'm always mentioning? Well this is it. The neighbors, and probably the entire neighborhood, call it the spaceship. I can't imagine why, hah.
This was a shot of the valley today. More rain coming, definitely.
Yesterday's cloudburst, it was absolutely gorgeous to see.
A clear day last week. That's the type of view I really enjoy, thank you very much.
Same day. *sigh*
That's it. :-)
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