2010/2011 Happy New Year!

Song of the day: “I will survive” by…something Gaylor? Gloria? Maybe I should check…nah. Who cares anyway? Let’s get down to business instead.

The last day of the year is almost gone and it has been a turbulent year to say the least.
I mean seriously, so much is different now from last year that I figure I might as well do a bit of what all the big networks are doing and look back upon 2010.

So what all happened? Personally, this year and the last are pretty much a blur for me, but I am trying, rather desperately, to come up with some good ones.

Okay.

First one: As of this evening, around midnight last year, I think it was I smoked my last cigarette. Now, I would like to say that it was my New Year’s resolution, but considering that at the time I had forgotten that it was old year’s eve, that would be a gross lie. Hah.
But anyway. My first anniversary as a none smoker, after six years of chain smoking. Personally I would say, “Let’s celebrate it with a nice cigarette,” but that would be kind of counter productive, now wouldn’t it. *snort*

I did prove my own point to myself, I’m happy to say. Smoking for me was definitely an oral fixation, and not all that hard to overcome. I liked smoking, and if the prices hadn’t gone up so much (just last week the bastards brought the prices up another 30 percent, or so) I would still be doing it. Heck, if it weren’t for exorbitant taxes and my refusal to fatten the coffers even more, I’d be lighting one up right now. *sigh* Alas, this is not the case, so I am once again a non-smoker, blast it.

But enough about that.

Second one: We did it. We won the bet. We built a greenhouse without buying anything other than screws and paint and it worked out splendidly. We scavenged, we scrounged, and we dove into places that I would much rather forget, but it is there and plants are growing in it even as I write this down. It’s beautiful, it’s sturdy and it’s there. What more can a person ask for?

Third one: Tenant is hardly ever using her wheelchair anymore, and that after her doctors proclaimed that it was highly unlikely that she would ever walk again. The arm they claimed she would not be able to use either, might not function properly yet, but she can raise it, tighten a fist and grab hold.
These days she walks down the mountain in the morning and then back up at the end of the day with hardly any assistance, and without breaking out in a sweat.
Screw the doctors!

Fourth: We build the basin, which, admittedly crashed again just weeks ago, but we’ll rebuild and know what to do now to make it as sturdy as it should be to hold the water that will come. The rocks are there and waiting, so are the bricks, so just as soon as the infernal rain stops coming down we’re going to tackle the wall once more.

Fifth: We lost quite a few dogs. And I much rather not linger on that particular issue.

Sixth: I finished writing two books, which should both be ready to go out to publisher in one, maybe two months. They were written, edited and re-edited within the time we allotted for the task and soon we will see if the effort was fruitful. I do admit to being curious about what the responses are going to be.

Seventh: Ehm. Is there a seventh? Just kidding.
There is the yard, of course. We had quite a successful year with our own veggies this year. More zucchini’s than we could eat, but luckily the dogs loved them. Same goes for the tomatoes, which the dogs loved as well. Hah. We had cauliflowers, melons, eggplants, onions, potatoes, leek and more chard than we could eat…which the dogs didn’t like, for a change. Hah. There were the piles of pumpkins, the strawberries (way to few of ‘m) bushes full of peppers, the broccoli, cucumbers and the white and red cabbages. All of them delicious, and several of them saved long enough for an occasional soup this chilly winter.

Eight: The weather. We’ve had a relatively cool summer to follow a chilly spring. We hit the hundreds only a few times after all, and the coolness stayed consistent through out autumn where we’ve already hit the lows that were three degrees from the freezing point. On the plus side, I don’t mind as much as I used to. Hah.

Nine: Remodelling and building wise we’ve been busy, I guess.
1. We built tenant’s solarium, and put up a wall in her kitchen. Sure, the new floor still has to be poured, but once we’ve done that, all will be beautiful in there.
2. Also put in a floor in big brother’s room, of course, along with a new bed with a drawer system beneath it and new walls and everything. While busy there we also put a lick of paint on the wall so it’s looking good.
3. We fixed my broken floor earlier this summer, of course, and soon we’re going to put in my new floors as well, so, yay.
4. The bus was painted, and a new wooden partition built behind it. Soon we’ll be putting in vinyl tiles in there as well, so it’ll be a good as new.

Ten: Got a job. Yes, finances are low and it just couldn’t be avoided any longer. It’s not bad either. I get my exercise, meet lots of fascinating people and earn a few extra bucks that’ll pay for dog operations if nothing more.

Eleven: Had a massive amount of car repair bills, in particular since we got the Daewoo for the smaller stuff. Seriously, for the car bills alone we could have a full-time job. The way I figure, soon the car will be entirely new. Hah.

Twelve: I took the first step in starting a column by spending a day at a cocktail lounge. I’m still working on the format of the telling, but I’ll get there. As of now I am looking for interesting jobs that I could do for a day and write about, so if you can think of something, feel free to leave a comment and suggest one.

Should I do a thirteen? Okay, last one. After two years and half a year of doctor’s visits, my foot is finally starting to show some improvement. I now actually have moments per day where it doesn’t hurt, and that is still the best news of this year, I think. Hah.

Seriously, I’m starting to lose track. Stuff pops up in my head but then I don’t know what I’ve already had, and what not. Maybe I should leave it at this. I’ve described everything in the blogs anyway, so if you’re a “follower” you’ll remember most of this stuff anyway. Hah.

So let’s wrap this up and move onto 2011.
Edits are still going well. We passed the middle of the book, so yay!

The past two days I spent working on the new patio door I am designing. No, not the one I had already finished three days ago, that one was for inside. But a heavier, sturdier and pretty hardwood one for the outside. It’s starting to look bloody gorgeous, and is definitely worth the effort of spending the whole day in smoke and sawdust while I sawed the slats to the right size. Seriously, I can still smell the stuff now, after a shower and dinner. For some reason the hardwood I’m using smell likes a mix of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Very pungent.

Added to that, we headed into the yard for a bit…it felt like we were in northern England in October for all the green and wetness, to check how everything was doing. While we were wandering through the moist undergrowth, looking for an occasional tomato and pepper, the dogs were happy for the break in the rain too, and dashed up and down the mountain with noisy appreciation.
In the yard, all was well, so I could get back to work on the door. Since the sawing table overheats on the long stretches, we spent the time in-between sawing sorting through the piles of screws and doodads.

Which brings us to the very last words of this year.
Hope you had as great a year as I did, and that the next one will be even better.

Have a GOOD and HAPPY New Year!!!

Hauling butt.

Song of the day: “Irish Son” by Brian McFadden. I nicely simple song to sing, so those who were forced to spend time in my company got to hear it too. Hah.

Whazzup, whazzup? (Gawd that sounds stupid) Give me a second here to gather my thoughts.

Oh yeah, yesterday.

It was big brother’s birthday, but since he doesn’t like cake or pie at all, I didn’t make any. It was kind of a relief, since I would have had to get up at least two hours early if I needed to make something. As it turned out, Sally offered to make one later in the day anyway, so it was an unnecessary worry.

The day started with laundry, just like every other day, of course. But, what with the crappy weather (no rain yet, but lots of clouds and moist air) nothing is drying so practically all the lines are filled to full capacity, which I find highly frustrating.

But anyway, laundry got done I was free to head out into the fresh morning air. First thing up was hanging four gorgeous copper lamps in the greenhouse. The day before we worked in the carport for an extra hour or so to get the wiring right.

It took some doing, but in the end we did manage the chore and they look wonderful. Very fancy in fact, and yet I’ve made pictures, but I am not going to post them yet. Seriously, writing about it takes less time.

Since we were down there already, big brother and I also took the opportunity and the momentary break in the cloud cover to take the wall apart and put the large concrete blocks in a neat pile so we can start over (darn it) one of these days. It wasn’t as heavy as I remembered, actually. The last time I had to haul those blasted things those 80-100 pound blocks felt almost too heavy to carry, but compared to then it went easy enough. I think it took the two of us less than an hour to get them all neatly stacked on the floor.

Admittedly, I was a tad tired last night and actually had a fifteen-minute catnap before I could get myself to start on the edit. Good thing I had that nap, by the way, because we had a full chapter edit that rent bloody well, if I may say so. Hah.

So that brings us to today: Again laundry, duh, but this time I could actually take some stuff off because it was relatively dry. Yay. Next, we cleaned Tika’s (Eclectus parrot) cage, because the place was a mess, and we’d been postponing it too long. Of course, the bird was eyeballing us the whole wile, her indignation implying that she didn’t appreciate us taking her stash away. But no matter. In the end the cage was nice and clean again, and we could head outside to get down to business.

While big brother continued with the box of the car, I sanded the new door so our friend Danni could paint it later in the day.
It was moist and cold today, so we lit up the vat for some comfortable heat at least. I’d missed the vat, I’ll admit. Nothing like working on some project while back and butt are kept warm by a blazing fire. Hah.

That done I made a small roof section for grandpa beside the carport. There is a serious lack of storage space, so I took the opportunity to create some extra by building it underneath the eucalyptus that stand between my house and the carport. I love working around nature that way, it creates the most interesting little nooks and crannies, if you must know and…well, it just looks nice.

Hauled some stuff up the mountain, which my dogs didn’t like at all. They would have much preferred to stick by the vat, by smooching up to it as close as they can without getting burned.
Talking about the dogs, I made a list the other day and it turns out that we lost a LOT of dogs in the past couple of years. Gawd, by the last count we had ninety-two, and now we’re down to seventy-seven. It was a tad scary to realize that, in particular just looking at the list I could see that in the near future we’re going to lose at least another 20 to age and sicknesses. *sigh*

Better not think about it, because that is definitely the thing I hate about having our pack.
But alas it cannot be helped and feeling bad about things that you cannot change won’t do anything except cause frustration so until the time comes that we actually lose them, Screw it!

I’ve got more edits to do, and a book to prepare for sending off, and…well, just more than enough to do yet, before the day is through.

Busywork on the most part.

Song of the day: “How do you do” by Shakira. Funny song.

Busy work has been going on, but I’ve gotta give the good news first. Yesterday, (26th of December...it is going in the history books for me) was the first day in almost two years that my friggin’ left foot, the one I have been threatening to chop off for a long time, didn’t hurt like bloody fuck (pardon my French) by late afternoon. Heck, it wasn’t even hurting yet at midnight, so for me that was cause for celebration. Well...sorta anyway. I burst out in tears, in fact, but you know what I mean, right. That’s progress right. The stupid appendage wasn’t burning, stabbing, or throbbing, just a little tired from a long day, so YAY!

I do wish the doc had mentioned that the friggin’ insoles wouldn’t work in anything other than sturdy high boots, because for the past few months I seriously pondered getting rid of those darned insoles because they only seemed to worsen the problem.
Nope. Army-like boots, tough black leather and thick soles. Gonna beat this thing, hoorah.
Sorry, that came across a little inelegant but what the heck. Hah.

So what’s been going on, what’s been going on? No, no, no...don’t blank out!
Yesterday. Let’s start with yesterday. Yesterday we had beautiful weather again, and we spent the majority of it with busywork too. Hah. First off, I made a wall lamp for Sally who decided to change her quarters and needed extra light. The light actually turned out nicely. Elegantly curved and mounted on a piece of beech wood.

I also found Sally some curtain rods, and hung her other light as well…after fixing the piece that allowed for hanging, because it had gotten lost when she moved here.
Afterwards I sawed more boards for big brother’s room, so our friend Dani could paint them already.
There was some garden work, along with the greenhouse where I pulled weeds from the pots, just because it was so nice to work there for a bit. Got some more peppers from the yard too, along with tomatoes, and soon we’ll be able to eat some more chard, so everything is doing pretty good down there.
Fortuyn (pointer) killed one of the young Eucalypti while we were down there, darn it, so we’re going to have to get a new one from our stash and plant there some day soon.

There was an unfortunate accident in my bedroom. Somehow, my closet came of its perch and when I entered my cabin I had to do a double take before I managed to identify what was in front of my bedroom entrance. It was really weird. I was looking at the side of the closet for a solid five seconds before I knew what it was. Then, of course, I had to get down on the floor to wiggle through the narrow strip that was left in the entrance so I could get under the closet and push it back up straight.

With grandpa’s help, I got the thing back in place and shoved my shoes back on top.
We had a good edit last night. Which was peculiar, considering my focus wasn’t all that good. Still. The book is still working out well, so we did a good job with the first edits.

Oh I heard from J (the soldier from Operation Desert Swap) who is presently working on the island of Hawaii, lucky son of a gun. Seriously, according to him it is not cold there, and that…well, I want it to not be cold here too. *pout*

But anyway, there was more busywork today. Since we went on a nice scavenge last night, there was the car to unload, but, the water main broke, so we spent about an hour finding the leak, then dug it out and fixed the problem.

Note to self: “If the water looks white from oxygen bubbles in it, there’s a leak somewhere.” Grrrr.

So next we unloaded the car, pondered the big mimosa growing above the house and decided that soon we’re going to have to tackle it and saw the big branch off, lest a storm breaks it off and lets it fall on the house. That would be bad. Duh.

Considering the dogs finally really wrecked the door of the patio, I went up to the storage and got out a replacement. Since I didn’t like the idea of a closed one, I opted to put a window in the frame, allowing for looking through (to check what you’re facing, really. Meeting fifty dogs without preparation is a little hairy sometimes. Hah) before you open the thing. It worked out well too, since we fitted it in just an hour ago. It looks a bit like a mix between a boat cabin door and an old farm door. I’ll take a picture soon and post that too…I hope.

Big brother and grandpa went down to the basin while I was working on the door, and put in a new tap under the basin. The old one got clogged, and since they needed to open it up anyway, they also added and extra one and a drain to prevent the problem from occurring again.

The basin looks abysmal at the moment, by the way, seeing as big brother tackled the wall with the big hammer the other day. Only half of the slabs are still standing, and the rest, well, they’re going to have to come down soon. *sigh*
This time we’re going to do the support wall at the same time. Not much choice there, really, but we do need the weather to be in our favor.

Tenant joined us on my terrace today, and the dogs kinda like her company. Knight II, for instance, will try to sit on her lap, and all the other come by for a petting every other minute. Poor woman…well, it would be if she didn’t enjoy their affection so much. Hah.

The idea for the new book that stopped me the other day, had flitted from my reach by the time I got to it, so now I’ve got to be patient and wait for it to return. Darn it. The next time a scene tumbles into my head like a freight train, I’m so going to have to rush to get it down on paper.

Well, that about sums it all up, doesn’t it. It is rather strange to not have to go out to work today. Guess you get used to it after all, because I really had to remind myself that I didn’t need to hurry to get ready. Hah.

Well, I’ve got an edit to do, and…well, other stuff too.