Song of the day: “I will follow him” by Sister Clara in Sister Act. Hah. I don’t know why this particular song is in my head, but there you have it.
Well, first thing first, I busted my shoulder somehow. Could have been the digging, or maybe the wheelbarrowing, or carrying rocks, or lifting them into/out of the car. *sigh* I was a little busy, in particular since big brother had to take it easy.
But anyway, let’s get down to business. Yesterday I had a bit of a nightmare, but since I woke from it, and then fell back to sleep for another half hour or so, it faded too much for me to jot down the details. Darn how fast those fade so early in the morning.
The day started as usual, despite the fact that there really wasn’t time for a workout. There was laundry to do (a washing machine to fix, because the pump wasn’t working) a car to unload and a tenant to be helped down to my terrace where there was sunshine without wind.
Caregiver had to go to go out for some legal stuff, so tenant needed some extra time after breakfast. The walk went well, though, and when we took of her coat, she actually stretched out her whole hand. This doesn’t happen all that much, so it was definitely a milestone.
Before heading down to the yard, grandpa asked me to trim his hair and beard, which I did, of course. He always says “not too short” and “not to pointy” to which I say, “Okay, okay” I’ll try, and finish up ten minutes later, thinking that the wild hair and beard look way better than the neat trim. *sigh*
Tenant asked me to trim her soon, too. She thinks her hair is getting too long again.
Called the garage for an appointment for the Opel. There’s this metal grinding squeak whenever we push the breaks so, we’re going to have the brakes checked on Tuesday. Called, chatted a bit with the receptionist who quit smoking a couple of months ago (for a moment I was surprised she remembered me, but then I remembered that I really spent a LOT of time there with the Opel hassles) and then asked if I could bring the car in Tuesday morning. It was no problem, so that’s what we’ll do. Hopefully they’ll be done in a day.
Hauled a wheelbarrow of rocks down the mountain. Meaning the path and three sets of stairs, hah. There was more work to do on the narrow terrace for the citrus trees, and since grandpa and cousin Ed were there to help, I added another six feet or so to the length of it. Since I did the same today, (yes another six feet, or so) I planted a cherry tree and a blood orange tree. That makes for the last two in this particular area, by the way, with between them two rows of strawberry plants, which Cousin Ed and I planted today. Yay.
But yesterday, after planting the cherry tree, finishing the last of the rocks that we had in storage, and making potato salad for supper, I had to head on over to the doctor’s to pick up my insoles. Of course they weren’t there yet. They never are when they say they are, so big brother, cousin Ed and I got a new load of rocks that we had to load ourselves, of course, because that’s the deal.
I was told to come back tomorrow. *sigh*
After loading up the car with rocks, and then unloading it back home, we headed out again for a new pick up, which had us end up with a full car around nine in the evening, thank you very much. We were so late! For a while I thought that an edit wasn’t going to work, but it did, so no matter. Got another chapter done. Yay.
This morning I was somewhat later, but it didn’t matter, because, once again there was no time for a workout. Added to that, my shoulder was being a pain in the…well, shoulder, hah, so the way I figured kickboxing wasn’t the smartest move for me to make right then. Hah.
After the usual chores, breakfast and once again unloading the car, cousin Ed, grandpa and I headed down with each a wheelbarrow of rocks once more, and resumed on the small citrus wall. In the mean time big brother worked in the greenhouse, sowing zucchini, pumpkins (three kinds), cucumbers, a few more peppers, some Marmande tomatoes and some Atrix.
After Cousin Ed and I finished with the strawberries, grandpa had finished clearing the last bit of debris away, allowing me to dig a ditch in which we could lay the last bit of the wall. It took some hauling, but in the end I did manage to plant another orange tree before it was time to head on up and have supper of chard with boiled basmati rice.
Did finally get around to varnishing the new passage between my two cabins and the last slat of the cabinet in my bathroom, which was high time, if you ask me. It’s been more than a week, I think.
But no matter, I was a in a bit of a rush to get changed (can’t go out in my work clothes, you know, they’re spotted, blotted and gawd knows what else) and then headed out to pick up my insoles.
What followed was another rock hauling trip, along with a quick drop in at the sewing shop in the village because mom needed new needles for the sewing machine. Which brings us to now, where I have taken way too long to write this blog, and with the dogs lying around me, being annoyed with the fact that I’m in front of the stove where they want to be. Hah.
I’m outta here.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
2 for 2. Seriously?
Song of the day: “This woman’s work” by Kate Bush. Such a beautiful song, and appropriately sad. Yep, these were some pretty heavy days and anything remotely cheerful would not have suited.
First off, yesterday morning grandpa informed me that Gaucho, our Afghan Greyhound was having pains in his sides, so after a quick breakfast, cousin Ed and I took him to the vet, who took one look at him and said, “Oh my, he’s old, isn’t he?” And yes, he is…or was. I think we got him in ’98. He was about eight weeks old and as cute as a button. We got him from a family about two hundred and fifty miles away from here, who couldn’t find a buyer for him because he was black colored, and here in Spain a lot of folks still don’t like black pets. There’s a similar problem with black cats. Don’t ask me why, I don’t really understand it either. Maybe it’s a superstition thing.
But anyway, Gaucho was a sad puppy, (looked a little like lemur with a thin curly tail, when big brother carried him into the house so many, many years ago) who grew into a big dog with a mixture of both haughtiness and shyness. He was always a little apart from us, as much as the rest of the dogs, and was most content living at grandpa’s place where at least the big pack didn’t bother him.
Over the years, he developed arthritis and became terribly stiff, and in the past year lost most of his hearing, and now, yesterday morning, after a short discussion with the vet, we decided to not put him through a hole battery of tests after we were both pretty sure that his kidneys were failing (lots of drinking, smelly pee, and now the pain in his sides) and made the dreaded decision.
He went with dignity, as I expected of him, really, and fell asleep with both me and Cousin Ed holding him.
It was definitely not the most auspicious beginning of the day, and it kept us from cleaning Njanna’s and Carla’s ears again. Ah well, it couldn’t be helped. After a quick burial, we headed down into the yard and basically spent the remainder of the day planting a couple of trees (clementina and a plum tree) and clearing away more debris from where we’re rebuilding the old terrace…and adding a new one.
There was the preparation of supper, and then a trip to town to pick up some more stuff for the market (just like today, for that matter). We did manage a good edit, so that was a reassurance at least. We did more than nine pages in fact, and what with everything going on, that’s not bad at all.
Then of course, today came…
Yep. After a rather late workout, followed by laundry and some chores, grandpa informed us that Njanna, who he’s been trying to take for short walks, hasn’t been wanting to get up for the past couple of days. So big brother checked on him, since he appeared to have been doing better ever since we’ve been treating his infected ear. Turns out his benign skin growth, had doubled its size in the past three days since we last cleaned his ears. And he was in pain, poor Njanna. Boy was he in pain.
You have to know a few things about Njanna to understand why I say that.
In ‘99/’00 Njanna came from a local breeder who couldn’t find a buyer for this particular Golden Retriever. He was a shy dog of one year when we got him. He had spent the majority of his life in a three by six cage, and had so little musculature that he could barely walk properly when we got him.
Due to faulty breeding Njanna has had a lot of medical problems most of his life. First problem he had at age two was a vein popping in his penis after he tried to hump one of the other dogs. It earned him a long operation where they had to locate the punctured vein if for no other reason than to have his penis retract. It was not a fun procedure, nor the weeks of aloe vera with ice water treatments designed to help his skin recover. The long term exposure had made the top skin of his penis come loose. I know, TMI, but this is important in regard to Njanna’s character.
During all that time, with everything that had to be done to save his little willie, Njanna never made a single sound.
Several years later, when his ear started to swell, and kept on swelling no matter what, he once again went through surgery. 64 stitches later, daily scrubbings to keep it from infecting, and then a continuing ear problem since the vets were never able to find that final stitch: Not a sound.
A few years ago, a large skin cancer on his hip the size of half a football, while at the same time a malignant tumor grew in his back foot until it had literally devoured one of his bones. Both had to be removed and again, poor Njanna never made a sound.
And yet there was this morning when we tried to carry him up the mountain, but he didn’t want to because it clearly hurt, he trudged up the mountain and let big brother lift him into the back seat of the Opel. Then, while driving, he started to whimper, which brought tears to my eyes, because in all the years I have never heard him utter such a sound before. Gawd, the poor thing must have hurt so bad. I couldn’t get to the vet fast enough, and when we did, and the vet turned out to be unavailable for at least half an hour, we asked the nurse to give him a pain shot.
She decided to go for morphine, and while we waited for the vet, sitting on either side of him on the floor, he slowly calmed down.
When the vet finally arrived it was over with little to no discussion. The cancer on his chest was swollen to the point of bursting, the others all over his body were too numerous to all remove and…well, he was done. He was so very done with life.
So, with his head in my hands, he got the injection and was gone in less than five seconds. Quick and quiet. The best way to go if they can’t pass in sleep at home, if you ask me.
I had that panicky feeling again. The one that goes "Notsofast, notsofast, notsofast" in my head, over and over again. It makes no sense whatsoever, but there you have it. *sigh*
There was a decidedly heavy atmosphere when we got home and buried him under a tree. Two in a row was definitely not the highlight here, even though I know full well that it is just consequence to a decision we made so many years ago. Part of life, the way it functions, the way we are able to appreciate it to the fullest, is because it is finite and part of a chain that will allow those after us to live. Still, at the moment I have a severe dislike for time in general. *sigh*
After helping tenant, who was understandably sad about the two debacles (she too is a dog lover and has lost her share of pets in her life) and settling her on my porch (regretfully I wasn’t my usually chatty self, *sigh*) grandpa and I headed down into the yard to continue with the terrace stuff while big brother worked on the Opel, which had a broken headlight. Since his back is still not fully healed, there wasn’t much he could do down in the yard anyway.
Added a few more feet to the narrow fruit tree terrace, and scraped away more debris, calming down considerably with the basic activity. After that there was lunch of veggie burgers before we headed out to get a batch of rocks, and then, after unloading at home, went to town for another pick up trip.
Which brings us to now, several hours before midnight, and seriously DONE for the day…right after a
short edit of course.
First off, yesterday morning grandpa informed me that Gaucho, our Afghan Greyhound was having pains in his sides, so after a quick breakfast, cousin Ed and I took him to the vet, who took one look at him and said, “Oh my, he’s old, isn’t he?” And yes, he is…or was. I think we got him in ’98. He was about eight weeks old and as cute as a button. We got him from a family about two hundred and fifty miles away from here, who couldn’t find a buyer for him because he was black colored, and here in Spain a lot of folks still don’t like black pets. There’s a similar problem with black cats. Don’t ask me why, I don’t really understand it either. Maybe it’s a superstition thing.
But anyway, Gaucho was a sad puppy, (looked a little like lemur with a thin curly tail, when big brother carried him into the house so many, many years ago) who grew into a big dog with a mixture of both haughtiness and shyness. He was always a little apart from us, as much as the rest of the dogs, and was most content living at grandpa’s place where at least the big pack didn’t bother him.
Over the years, he developed arthritis and became terribly stiff, and in the past year lost most of his hearing, and now, yesterday morning, after a short discussion with the vet, we decided to not put him through a hole battery of tests after we were both pretty sure that his kidneys were failing (lots of drinking, smelly pee, and now the pain in his sides) and made the dreaded decision.
He went with dignity, as I expected of him, really, and fell asleep with both me and Cousin Ed holding him.
It was definitely not the most auspicious beginning of the day, and it kept us from cleaning Njanna’s and Carla’s ears again. Ah well, it couldn’t be helped. After a quick burial, we headed down into the yard and basically spent the remainder of the day planting a couple of trees (clementina and a plum tree) and clearing away more debris from where we’re rebuilding the old terrace…and adding a new one.
There was the preparation of supper, and then a trip to town to pick up some more stuff for the market (just like today, for that matter). We did manage a good edit, so that was a reassurance at least. We did more than nine pages in fact, and what with everything going on, that’s not bad at all.
Then of course, today came…
Yep. After a rather late workout, followed by laundry and some chores, grandpa informed us that Njanna, who he’s been trying to take for short walks, hasn’t been wanting to get up for the past couple of days. So big brother checked on him, since he appeared to have been doing better ever since we’ve been treating his infected ear. Turns out his benign skin growth, had doubled its size in the past three days since we last cleaned his ears. And he was in pain, poor Njanna. Boy was he in pain.
You have to know a few things about Njanna to understand why I say that.
In ‘99/’00 Njanna came from a local breeder who couldn’t find a buyer for this particular Golden Retriever. He was a shy dog of one year when we got him. He had spent the majority of his life in a three by six cage, and had so little musculature that he could barely walk properly when we got him.
Due to faulty breeding Njanna has had a lot of medical problems most of his life. First problem he had at age two was a vein popping in his penis after he tried to hump one of the other dogs. It earned him a long operation where they had to locate the punctured vein if for no other reason than to have his penis retract. It was not a fun procedure, nor the weeks of aloe vera with ice water treatments designed to help his skin recover. The long term exposure had made the top skin of his penis come loose. I know, TMI, but this is important in regard to Njanna’s character.
During all that time, with everything that had to be done to save his little willie, Njanna never made a single sound.
Several years later, when his ear started to swell, and kept on swelling no matter what, he once again went through surgery. 64 stitches later, daily scrubbings to keep it from infecting, and then a continuing ear problem since the vets were never able to find that final stitch: Not a sound.
A few years ago, a large skin cancer on his hip the size of half a football, while at the same time a malignant tumor grew in his back foot until it had literally devoured one of his bones. Both had to be removed and again, poor Njanna never made a sound.
And yet there was this morning when we tried to carry him up the mountain, but he didn’t want to because it clearly hurt, he trudged up the mountain and let big brother lift him into the back seat of the Opel. Then, while driving, he started to whimper, which brought tears to my eyes, because in all the years I have never heard him utter such a sound before. Gawd, the poor thing must have hurt so bad. I couldn’t get to the vet fast enough, and when we did, and the vet turned out to be unavailable for at least half an hour, we asked the nurse to give him a pain shot.
She decided to go for morphine, and while we waited for the vet, sitting on either side of him on the floor, he slowly calmed down.
When the vet finally arrived it was over with little to no discussion. The cancer on his chest was swollen to the point of bursting, the others all over his body were too numerous to all remove and…well, he was done. He was so very done with life.
So, with his head in my hands, he got the injection and was gone in less than five seconds. Quick and quiet. The best way to go if they can’t pass in sleep at home, if you ask me.
I had that panicky feeling again. The one that goes "Notsofast, notsofast, notsofast" in my head, over and over again. It makes no sense whatsoever, but there you have it. *sigh*
There was a decidedly heavy atmosphere when we got home and buried him under a tree. Two in a row was definitely not the highlight here, even though I know full well that it is just consequence to a decision we made so many years ago. Part of life, the way it functions, the way we are able to appreciate it to the fullest, is because it is finite and part of a chain that will allow those after us to live. Still, at the moment I have a severe dislike for time in general. *sigh*
After helping tenant, who was understandably sad about the two debacles (she too is a dog lover and has lost her share of pets in her life) and settling her on my porch (regretfully I wasn’t my usually chatty self, *sigh*) grandpa and I headed down into the yard to continue with the terrace stuff while big brother worked on the Opel, which had a broken headlight. Since his back is still not fully healed, there wasn’t much he could do down in the yard anyway.
Added a few more feet to the narrow fruit tree terrace, and scraped away more debris, calming down considerably with the basic activity. After that there was lunch of veggie burgers before we headed out to get a batch of rocks, and then, after unloading at home, went to town for another pick up trip.
Which brings us to now, several hours before midnight, and seriously DONE for the day…right after a
short edit of course.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Little accident
Song of the day: I have no idea…I’m completely blank and I’m blaming the rain. It’s coming down in buckets at the moment. Yay!!! The plants are going to love this. What with the drought of this winter, we were hoping for this, in particular since we’ve been going through the basin water like mad these past few months. This is good, this is excellent. All those trees we planted already (got half of them in now, I think) and the veggies of course, they’ll be soaking this up.
But anyway, I’m incredibly late. It is already ten thirty, and I haven’t even had time to edit yet today, which is nothing short of a sin. First off, the reason I’m so late is because first I had to see my foot doctor, due to those freaky insoles (for which I had to sell a kidney, mind you), then we had to go to town for a few groceries…with a pit stop at home before that, (couldn’t think, or drive had to pee).
Getting ahead of myself, I know. But since I have to keep this short anyway, it doesn’t really matter.
Let’s see. For the most part there was garden work. Watering got done by big brother, though, seeing as he pulled something in his back yesterday. This of course meant that grandpa and I were on our own continuing with the terrace for the citrus trees. Hauled down two wheelbarrows of rocks, and helped grandpa with his to add another four feet to the small terrace before we put in the blood orange.
That done, and with big brother watering the recently placed trees, grandpa and I continued clearing away years of bougainvillea branches, rotting tree stems and vibrant morning glory vines crisscrossing over it all. Then of course, there was the old Broom we found growing underneath, which had to be tackled with an axe. We’ll get the whole yard sorted out some day yet.
I had wanted to work a little on creating a path on the east side of the yard, but since caregiver was at her other job and tenant wanted to exercise on the home training bike, I had to go up early (harvested enough veggies for supper first) help her bike, and then head to the kitchen to get supper started at least.
Let’s see, what else was there these past couple of days…well, I made tomato soup…or was that even before the last blog. I can’t remember. These things tend to blur together.
Market went well for mom and the sibs yesterday. Not a lot of customers, but those that came bought well. Hah.
I really have to get back to the workouts…but on the other hand, all that rock hauling is really digging in too…so’s the digging for that matter. Ah well, I’ll get to that, once time is a little less tight again.
Knight II really got spoiled about our sleeping arrangements these days. I was once again wrecked this morning because pain in the behind Knight decided that it is nice to curl up in the unnatural curve of my spine. Ergo, he makes said curve, which I can’t appreciate for some reason. Hah.
Well, this is a short blog, in particular since this is the end of it. I can’t remember anything else that was…oh my Gawd, I almost forgot to tell the most exciting thing that happened. We bought three gallons of varnish (they were on sale) this afternoon, and while we were on our way home we heard “plop, glupglupglup”, and both glanced to the back of the car where a whole gallon of brownish liquid gushed through the car. It went EVERYWHERE. Shloshing back and forth, from side to side, and at times even up. Yep. That was definitely the highlight of the day, when groceries, stainless steel shelves that we’d picked up too, were all doused in this foul smelling liquid that started gushing out onto the street. I do hope that people didn’t think that it was something other than brownish varnish. Hah.
Once we got home, I headed inside to get supper done, while big brother and cousin Ed started on cleaning the mess up. Once I had dinner done, I went there to help, and I think we got the worst of it at least. Seriously, I should head back to the store and slap someone about not taping that canister shut. Grrr.
Okay, gotta go.
But anyway, I’m incredibly late. It is already ten thirty, and I haven’t even had time to edit yet today, which is nothing short of a sin. First off, the reason I’m so late is because first I had to see my foot doctor, due to those freaky insoles (for which I had to sell a kidney, mind you), then we had to go to town for a few groceries…with a pit stop at home before that, (couldn’t think, or drive had to pee).
Getting ahead of myself, I know. But since I have to keep this short anyway, it doesn’t really matter.
Let’s see. For the most part there was garden work. Watering got done by big brother, though, seeing as he pulled something in his back yesterday. This of course meant that grandpa and I were on our own continuing with the terrace for the citrus trees. Hauled down two wheelbarrows of rocks, and helped grandpa with his to add another four feet to the small terrace before we put in the blood orange.
That done, and with big brother watering the recently placed trees, grandpa and I continued clearing away years of bougainvillea branches, rotting tree stems and vibrant morning glory vines crisscrossing over it all. Then of course, there was the old Broom we found growing underneath, which had to be tackled with an axe. We’ll get the whole yard sorted out some day yet.
I had wanted to work a little on creating a path on the east side of the yard, but since caregiver was at her other job and tenant wanted to exercise on the home training bike, I had to go up early (harvested enough veggies for supper first) help her bike, and then head to the kitchen to get supper started at least.
Let’s see, what else was there these past couple of days…well, I made tomato soup…or was that even before the last blog. I can’t remember. These things tend to blur together.
Market went well for mom and the sibs yesterday. Not a lot of customers, but those that came bought well. Hah.
I really have to get back to the workouts…but on the other hand, all that rock hauling is really digging in too…so’s the digging for that matter. Ah well, I’ll get to that, once time is a little less tight again.
Knight II really got spoiled about our sleeping arrangements these days. I was once again wrecked this morning because pain in the behind Knight decided that it is nice to curl up in the unnatural curve of my spine. Ergo, he makes said curve, which I can’t appreciate for some reason. Hah.
Well, this is a short blog, in particular since this is the end of it. I can’t remember anything else that was…oh my Gawd, I almost forgot to tell the most exciting thing that happened. We bought three gallons of varnish (they were on sale) this afternoon, and while we were on our way home we heard “plop, glupglupglup”, and both glanced to the back of the car where a whole gallon of brownish liquid gushed through the car. It went EVERYWHERE. Shloshing back and forth, from side to side, and at times even up. Yep. That was definitely the highlight of the day, when groceries, stainless steel shelves that we’d picked up too, were all doused in this foul smelling liquid that started gushing out onto the street. I do hope that people didn’t think that it was something other than brownish varnish. Hah.
Once we got home, I headed inside to get supper done, while big brother and cousin Ed started on cleaning the mess up. Once I had dinner done, I went there to help, and I think we got the worst of it at least. Seriously, I should head back to the store and slap someone about not taping that canister shut. Grrr.
Okay, gotta go.
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