On the road again...sorta anyway.

Song of the day: “I am I feel” by Alicia’s Attic. Funny song, really.

So this is another blog on the road, so to speak. Right now, I’m sitting in a small park in Malaga, waiting for the garage to fix the hand break of the Land Rover. We had made the appointment on Tuesday, but today, upon arrival, we were almost an hour late.

You see, at the doctor’s I was told to get a blood test this morning as well, and I had fully intended to do that really quick, only to need to go back home halfway there because I’d forgotten my insurance papers. Then, when I got there, two people were already waiting for there turn, so we didn’t get away from the village until ten past nine.

Of course, it has also been raining all morning, so driving was slow going, not to mention the traffic that was going around at a snail’s pace. That’s Spain for you. People are so unfamiliar with rain around here (admittedly I’m starting to share the feeling, hah) that everyone goes about 10 miles per hour less than usual. Of course, those that don’t get an accident, but it is a tad frustrating.

Anyway, we arrived at the garage at ten, instead of nine, but they didn’t throw up a fuss, so it doesn’t really matter. But that brings us to me sitting in the park with my borrowed computer tapping away at the keys and the local seniors looking at me oddly. This is old Malaga, and what with my 6’ tallness, blond hair and way too pinkish skin I stand out like a sore thumb…big brother isn’t any better mind you, seeing he’s four or five inches taller than me. Ah well, at least it stopped raining for a bit…oh wait, I can hear thunder in the distance again. Marvelous. And that while I’ve still got at least two, to three hours to kill yet, *sigh*

So we’ve already been walking around for a bit, in case you’re wondering. Which wasn’t fun with my knee…oh that reminds me, you don’t know yet. The day before yesterday, about an hour…maybe two, after I posted my blog, Knight II and Fortuyn got into a fight. With my knee between them! I don’t know who the culprit was but, dayam, that friggin’ hurt, thank you very much. Jeez, it was as if the penetrating tooth went right under my kneecap and the stupid spot kept bleeding for several hours to boot.

Now, after a day or two, the hurt isn’t as bad as it appeared in the first few hours, it just makes walking a little less comfortable for me. My pants keeps chafing it, and the joint feels stiff, but what the heck, this too shall pass and a little bit of pain never hurt anyone. Oh my, is that pun? Hah.

Yesterday was spent putting my clothes back into my fixed closet, and though I will leave the cute stuff like plants and decorative items away for a bit, at least until the rat problem is over. It shouldn’t take long, last night Sitabah grabbed another one cheerily went to search for the next afterwards. Seriously, cats have nothing on my Sitabah…she of course thinks that no one’s got anything on her, in particular not Labhana, who (poor darling) really tries, but just isn’t fast enough.

Fully enthusiastic she will chase Sitabah into the cabin and try to nose her way into the fray whenever Sitabah is on the hunt. It has happened more than once that the black lab made Sitabah lose her pray in fact and I can just imagine her response whenever Labhana tries to “help”.

“Get out of the way you stupid cow!” Seriously, that is the expression that I see in her eyes whenever she loses her target. Gawd, they do crack me up at times, and they have so much fun with it. For that reason alone I don’t mind the rat plague all that much. In the car port the dogs (at least seven of them) will squat on the floor most of the day, gazing up devoutly as the rodents rush past. And in my cabin, every night, my Touri, Sitabah, Labhana and Dax will wag their tails like mad during their daily exercise hour. Hah.

Oops, a few raindrops over here. I better hurry it along.
Where was I? Ah yes, wandering through Malaga. You really do notice the difference between the city and small towns. People are a lot more suspicious out here, less friendly. They are, I think, so accustomed to too little space that they automatically fight for every measly inch of it. Small towns are far more relaxed, casual even and everyone is decidedly friendly. It’s such a pity. I feel eyeballed here.

Right, moved to a coffee shop because it really was getting chilly outside. Besides I need to go to the bathroom. *sigh*
Two more hours to go.

What else. Writing. Slow but steady still. At the moment I am working on an intense emotional scene, and I really don’t know how it will work out. I’ll need to make adjustments with the edit, I’m thinking, seeing as it still misses something. Well, since I don’t have this computer along to mess around on the net, but to do some serious work on editing, I’m going to leave it at this and hope that I have good news to tell by time the next one comes ‘round.

Rats!!!

Song of the day: “This woman’s work” by Kate Bush. Great song. Got hooked on it back in the day I saw “She’s having a baby” with Kevin Bacon. Check it out some time, it’s well worth the effort.

Okay, let’s pick up where we left off. The car trouble, followed by the paper route in the Daewoo (our friend Dani came to the rescue, remember?) while Dani stayed with the Land Rover and had it picked up by Triple A. Considering I left the computer with her, she killed time surfing the net, which she enjoyed since she rarely has time to do so.

I was just about done with the biggest part when her battery ran and out, and was headed up to where she was waiting at a restaurant at that very moment. She did the remainder of the route with me, so we got to chat while finishing up.

Six hours after fitful sleeping…I don’t know what is wrong with Mondays but every one of them goes wrong for some reason…I came to a tentative decision on the Sales job thing. I didn’t have a choice really, since it was keeping me up. I’m going to give it a shot. At least the commission based one and see where it leads. No sense in wondering when it is really just a question of jumping in and see where the sharks are at. Hah.

Okay, bad analogy. I just managed to freak myself out again. I’m not, really, I mean it. It’s and adventure…or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself the past couple of days. Who knows, maybe I misunderstood, and this is all for nothing. Might as well let it slide ‘cause worrying about it has no use whatsoever.

But anyway, next morning we went to pick up the Land Rover at this specialty garage in Malaga, and after big brother and I did the village route together (takes about an hour) and then shot straight through to the city so we could see our sweetie Defender. Turns out the darlings (I was feeling very generous due to their efficiency) had already fixed her. Some sort of plug thing in the ignition that had worn down. The entire thing cost us 170 buck three hours of work and the part, but it was worth it when we were allowed to take her home with us.
Seriously, I was ecstatic.

But anyways, we immediately made an appointment to get the hand break fixed, so big brother and I will be heading over there again on Friday. We’ll take the computer along and kill some hours in a park somewhere, editing. That way it won’t be a wasted set of hours.

We got home, had lunch with tenant and then spent a few hours working at the old horse stable to make a bigger roof over our supplies. The weather forecasters are predicting rain in the near future, so we’ve got to be surprised.

Our dogs were, of course upset, seeing as they hadn’t seen us for at least twenty hours in 36.
Poor Bommel (Bobtail) is having a harder time keeping up all the time, and I think that his health is rapidly dwindling. I dread the day, but it looks like I’m going to have to look at his quality of life soon.

Knight II isn’t feeling well. The big lug has got an inflammation and has been remarkably quiet. Though the quietness is rather wonderful, I am a bit concerned. I think I’m going to have to wrestle him down to see if he’s got a splinter somewhere, or something.

Bad news: At the moment we’re having a rat plague again. It was one of the reasons we’ve build the new lean too; a closed space for the dog food. But since we’ve done that, the rats are migrating rampantly into my cabin. Seriously. Just last night there were six of ‘m driving me and the dogs bonkers. I’ve got very little against rats, but if their numbers go above two or three they start freaking me out.

Sitabah (weimaraner) loves it of course. Seriously, her hunting instincts are bouncing as enthusiastically as she is on any given day. These past three days she’s killed a total of five rats and is loving every single second of it. I’ll be reading, or heading for my cabin and hear something crash, et voila, she’ll have another one.

This plague does, of course forced me to take some measures in my cabin. They were getting into my clothes, cabinets and shelves, so I spent the majority of today cleaning out everything. Throwing practically all my clothes into the laundry, using chloride and soap on everything and hanging my closet up against the wall, rather than leaving them on the floor. Rats love going over, behind and underneath closets so the way I figure they should really dislike being unable to do at least two of those things. *sigh*

It is a rather distasteful job, not to mention difficult with the dogs jumping up and down in front of me whenever there’s a whisper of a sound. Let’s hope that the lack of food, the eager doggies, and the wild cats of the neighborhood do their job fast, ‘cause I want my cabin clean again, darn it.

Other than this particular task…oh wait, we didn’t need to go out today to get our friend from Marbella. Her replacement at her job was sick so she’ll come for a visit tomorrow instead. I was rather grateful, cause this week is once again taking me from home time and again.

This afternoon I had to go to the doctor…remember my bimonthly check up, due to the anemia. Well, I don’t get why I had to come by anyway, seeing as the only thing the guy did was ask how I was doing and telling me that I should get a blood test on Friday so he can see if there’s improvement. The way I figure I could have done the blood test first and then only come by ones, but what the hey.

I do get a bit exasperated with the medical world works these days. I mean seriously. The guy asked me if, seeing as we were doing a blood test anyway, I would like to have anything else checked. Cholesterol, etc. Really, the guy sounded excited about the prospect of checking out some nifty little gadget, or something. It was like going the hair stylist where they’d ask: “Would you like to have a little perm while we’re at it anyway?”
*sigh*

I’m seriously thinking about not going back after next week when the blood tests come in. I don’t really see the point for it seeing as there isn’t anything he can do at this point. The sole has to do its job and the foot should adjust, or something.

Not much writing these past couple of days, of course (darn it!) but that was to be expected. Let’s see if I can change that today. Gotta go.

By the side of the road...weird.

Song of the day: “Don’t marry her, have me” by the Beautiful South. I don’t know why I have this particular band in my head these days, but considering I like them, I don’t mind all that much, really. It’s a fun song after all.

So, I would like to say I have good news, but since I’m writing this while I’m standing by the side of the road with a borrowed computer and a broke-down car, I can’t think of a single thing that would make this GOOD news. *sigh* Well, I do have the computer at the moment, so at least I can write my blog during this wasteful time, and the weather is pretty darn pleasant, and waiting here, leaning on the car as if it were a bar isn’t all that bad either, so…who gives a fig anyway. It will cost time, and that’s about it.

I don’t know what’s wrong with the car, by the way. I would think that the friggin’ garage people screwed up, ‘cause let’s face it, there weren’t any problems before that, but who knows. We’re going to have to call for the Grua (triple A), because any other way isn’t going to work. It does appear to have something to do with the alarm, as if it is blocking the entire machine, for some peculiar reason. Seriously, I want to scream right now…no I don’t. no use in it, really, just a waste of precious energy, considering that with every passing minute, this day is getting longer and longer, when it concerns what needs to be done before the end of it.

Let’s do something normal, shall we? Let’s just get to the normal schedule of blogging, rather than complain and whine the way some part of me is inclined to do so at this particular moment. All very theatrical, I’ll admit. In my head I’m falling to my knees, shaking my fists at the heavens above, screaming: “Why? Whyyyyyyy?!” Like I said, theatrical.

Everything else is going pretty well, in particular since yesterday we spent the majority of our time putting the new floor in the basin, finishing the task in two part stretch that was interrupted by me hauling more sand down the mountain so grandpa could continue mixing concrete for big brother and I. While the first worked on the corners that had to be rounded and smooth, I worked on the majority of the 18 by 9 feet floor that had to be smooth as well.

I was sore as heck at the end of the day, my friggin’ foot pounded and burned, but since we had put up a protection cloth on top, it was a nice day, working pleasantly in the shade, with a nice south eastern wind blowing in.

There was only a bit of writing, all things considered, but we’re well past hundred now, so that means we’re also well past the middle, yay. Gawd, it is actually getting a little chilly, here. Imagine that, mid September, and already cooling down. Weird, I tell ya.

So we were just about to have brunch this afternoon when my main distributor called, telling me he would be arriving in town right after three and if I could make it down there myself as well. Sure, no problem. Went right down and while big brother went over to the hardware store to get some stuff we’re going to need for the basin, I talked a bit with the man. Apparently he is in dire need of a media sales rep, and was fishing a bit if I would be interested in the job. Now don’t get me wrong, but I wonder what made him ask.

Seriously. I don’t know nothing about sales. And when I say nothing, I mean, nada, nothing, zero, zilch. I said I would think about it, though. I’ve got to, considering it would be a full time job that would earn me a solid 20 K a year, and that while I have no resume to speak of. (Meaning, none at all.)

I’m just going have to give it a shot, considering that it is commission based in the first place, and if I do it well I would get expenses, company car, etc. It would be good to exercise my people skills, which are, admittedly, limited, at the very least. I mean, right now, the mere thought of having to walk up to some sort of company owner, or manager freaks me out quite a bit. But then, if I ever get the opportunity to pitch my book to some agent, or publisher, I do need to learn how to go about it, don’t I. Like I said before, I’m going to have to wait and see, and perhaps the opportunity will present itself at some point. No way to know unless I try, I guess.

Well, standing here on the street, typing away at the computer, I don’t suppose I’ll get away from here soon. Gawd, it’s going to be another loooooong night, I’m practically sure of it. Luckily our friend Dani is already on the way, so if we don’t manage to get the car going, we’re going to switch cars so I can finish the route at the very least. Darn it.

Gotta go.