Socializing

Song of the day: “A happy place” by Katie Melua. Considering I was a tad under the weather today, it was an appropriate song. Do you know that feeling, that everything seems to be going a little too fast and that your head just can’t keep up. Well, that’s what today was like for me. Hah.

Be that as it may, I had a little nap, and that improved my “state of being” considerably, so all is well again. I think it was partly due to all the excitement going on the past couple of days.

First off yesterday morning, I headed out to the vacation cottage to pay the owner for the week’s use. Was a nice little visit, talking about how she ended up in Spain and how she built her home there with her ex, and how she now spent her life. Sometimes I wonder if I should start writing about real life. Seriously, sometimes the stories I hear are just better than fiction. Hah. Lovely woman, though. Friendly, chatty and all the good stuff.

While I was there, tenant’s daughter phoned because they needed the exact address for the car rental, so there was some confusion about that. The connection wasn’t all that grand, so the owner gave the phone to me so I could explain, then son-in-law couldn’t hear me properly and gave me to the car rental agent, whom I had to tell to hand be back to son-in-law, who could finally hear me so we could sort out the mess. That dealt with, I departed and went back home.

There was still tenant’s place to mop the floor and sort through the last bit of the mess together with cousin Ed before we helped tenant outside to the table we had rearranged to welcome the visitors. It looked so nice, and thankfully, despite being occasionally cloudy the weather was very accommodating.

Tennant was out there under the umbrella since noon, watching every car pass with grave impatience. She firs decline supper which we had there with her, but then, after seeing us eat, asked for “a nibble” anyway. Hah. She always changes her mind afterward. She was positively psyched when they called that they were coming, and then promptly arrived. Tenant’s daughter of course asked for a moment alone with her mom. The question made me laugh a little seeing as that was what we’d planned to do just as soon as we’d supplied everyone with drinks. Hah.

For the next half hour or so we went down to my terrace where we prepared the dog food for the next day. As for the rest of the day…well, didn’t get a lot done, really. Later we were invited to join the reunion, so I got a taste of what it was like to sit for an afternoon, petting Knight II and listening to stories of the past. It was a cozy and sociable occasion. The relatives were friendly and tenant’s granddaughter a sweet little thing that was definitely on the shy side. The most important thing of the day was that tenant loved every minute of it.

I did, at some point notice that all the adult stuff was boring the kid, so I offered to give her and her dad a tour of the premises, leaving tenant and daughter a moment of privacy. Always a pleasure to show off the yard, of course. All the trees that weren’t there when we got here, the yard, the greenhouse, the paths. You never realize all the work you’ve done until you see it through the eyes of others, so in that regard I really liked giving the tour.

The dogs were at their best. Not a single one threatened to bite, and even Tadaika behaved wonderfully as we walked down through the majority of the pack. There was some barking (Chaos in particular) from the scared ones, but on the overall they were just curious and sniffed “the strangers” with wild abandon. Guess all the years of taking in new dogs, the occasional visitor, and just easy living has mellowed the darlings enough to have this be such a pleasant experience.

So after the day came to an end. Presents presented (licorice for Ed and me, lots of cute little doodads for tenant with pictures and everything on it) cookies eaten, drinks drunk and the usual chitchat exchanged, the relatives departed for the vacation cottage…oh, before I forget, that was a success for sure. They love the place, so yay!...where they were going to unwind, have a dip in the pool and generally enjoy their vacation prior to returning the next day.

The aftermath talks followed, asking tenant how she felt and if she was happy (yes, of course) and then eating a snack before heading down to start up the fire for the dog food and turning on the computers for the day’s edit. Got the prologue done, thank you very much, and we were both pretty satisfied with the end result. Definitely improved lots after the last edit.

Were in bed on time for a change. Seriously, it was five past one in the morning when I pulled the blankets up to my chin and turned off the light. *blissful sigh*

Which brings us to this morning. I was running a little behind, but since Cousin Ed had things well in hand with taking care of tenant until her relatives arrived to take her out on the town for a day, I took my time. It was raining when I got up, which is splendid for the yard, mind you. Added half an inch to the basin during the course of the day, so YAY!

I had a shower prior to getting started on the morning chores such as laundry, chatting to the birds, chinchilla and rabbits for a bit. The new bird is adjusting nicely, though he doesn’t like dogs at all. He will move to his biggest perch as soon as he sees a dog. Hah. Poor fellow. He’ll have to be more like Tika, who has taken a liking to giving the dogs “the eye”.

What followed was preparing the dog food and starting the feeding frenzy. They loved the meal, of course, seeing as we had bread again and they do love that so. Even Knight II ate slightly more than his usual half of the bowl. But anyway, the dogs fed, I was just in time to help tenant settle in the rental and wish her a good day.

The remainder of today was spent in the yard where we hunted bugs in the greenhouse, planted pumpkins, broccoli and herbs, while yanking weeds, harvesting our own supper. In one word: Wonderful. Despite the clouds still being there, while we were in the yard we didn’t have rain and could even occasionally enjoy the sunshine. Of course there was the interruption of Sally, who had missed her bus and who needed to be brought to her job, so I headed back up the mountain (all the way) and drove her. I was back in the yard within 20 minutes, though.

But like I said, I was feeling a bit off today, so I took a nap after supper of fresh veggies with patties and then got to work on preparing tomorrow’s dog food. Grandpa made a deal with the local vegetable store who gives us all the “bad” stuff he can’t sell, for the dogs and today he got a rather nice batch to supplement the small amount I’d gathered in the yard. They do love those mushy tomatoes. Hah.

Okay. I better get to work on the edit, big brother is getting a mite impatient with me, I’m sure.