All lit up

Song of the day: “International Love” by Pitbull and Chris Brown. Irrelevant, really. But what the heck.

So…there’s been some serious excitement over here for the past couple of days. It’s not Sally’s cabin, despite the fact that it arrived this afternoon and we did get started on it. Nope. It’s by far more serious than that. And no, I’m not talking about Sitabah. I haven’t taken her back to the vet yet, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure now that there might be a problem. At first I thought that maybe her cough was only during the night, but since I’m paying attention, I now know that she coughs every time she exerts herself. Darn it.
It’s not the arrival of our visitor, who is going to stay over for the next two week. But that’s not it either. Nope. There’s a fire raging over here in these parts and at home we had front row seats.

I kid you not. While cousin Ed and I were at the Thursday market in Marbella, big brother phoned to let me know there was a fire starting in the wilds across our valley, and that it was moving fast. Worst part was, it was two hours before sundown, meaning that if the firefighters didn’t manage to get it under control in time it would have ten solid hours to rage through a country side that hasn’t been this dry in more than fifteen years.

Here’s a shot of what I was able to see from the beach some odd 25 miles away from the scene.



Gawd, it looked impressive…not to mention frightening. Basically we spent the evening checking up on the progress, keeping an eye on things, in case we had to pack up and hurry home to start evacuating dogs. Luckily the wind was away (slightly to the side) from our property, but you never do know how that works, do you, it can shift, just like that.

Considering the market was a slow day, and considering several of the folks working there lived in the rapidly threatened area and were leaving to check if their homes were in danger, we too started packing up around 11 PM. 50 minutes later we were on our way home, not taking the beach road seeing as big brother informed us that it was highly likely that they would close that down at some point, so we went the opposite direction, being treated with some awesome views, I totally didn’t get around to photographing, because it was late, I was stressed, and well… we wanted to get home.

It was past one in the morning when we did, and it was to finding the rest of the family standing around, watching the action going on. There were flashing lights all through the valley, and I tried to take a pic, here:



but am disappointed with the result. It looked way more impressive.

Didn’t get to bed until three thirty in the morning. Seriously, I saw some really big bushfires going on the mountain facing ours. A really expensive area which is usually hidden within trees and bushes, went whoosh with such speed and ferocity, and I could see it light big brother’s face up despite the fire being miles away. Scary.

It was still going strong this morning.
Two shots during the course of the day:





Further away (thankfully) but the firefighters started attacking the fire by air again, so that helped a lot. Bad news was that most of the roads to Marbella was closed off, meaning that we couldn’t make it to the appointment at the hospital…worst of it was, the option was there that the hospital might needed to be evacuated, too, so we really hoped that Sally wasn’t stressing too much. We couldn’t ask, because we couldn’t reach her for hours on end. She wasn’t stressed at all, the nurses at the reception didn’t even know anything about the fire, and Sally said she had thought it was just a small fire near Ojen. A big relief that, in particular since she was feeling bad after the biopsy that had been far more painful than the last one.

So, keeping an eye on the smoke that swelled and diminished constantly…and had planes and choppers swarming around like bees around a hive, Sally’s new cabin arrived. We unloaded that, and in the hours that followed cousin Ed and I painted about a quarter of the wood, while grandpa and big brother worked on putting the beams of the floor down (I took some pics and will post them in sequence when it’s done) on the foundation big brother already made.

Before sundown, we took a quick tour of the damaged area…here are some shots:





Above: To the left is our mountain, all that stopped the fire from going into the valley, was the road. *shivers








Worst part is, we can still see red light behind the mountains, meaning it is still going. I gotta say I'm properly impressed with the firefighters once again, they saved lives and properties like the best!!!

Other than all the excitement, life went on as usual. There was cooking to do, plants to water, tenant to take care off (she was a little worried, but stated it would give her a good incentive to walk again)and garbage to take out...good opportunity to do that while we went out, in particular since the roads were filled with disaster tourists.

And that’s it for today. The dogs didn’t mind the tension all that much. They ate like pigs regardless. Hah.



Gawd, I’m tired…and tomorrow will be another long day.

Let's see how it goes

Song of the day: “Marry you” by Bruno Mars. I know, very unlike me, what with my views on that particular institution, but what the hey, it’s cheery and lord knows I need some cheery at the moment.

Like I explained yesterday, some stuff is going to change around here on the blog. I don’t have the time to do an every other day blog anymore, so instead I’ve decided to try a Monday, Wednesday, Friday sequence for a while. If that is still too much, depending on all the work that needs to be done, I will bring that down to two a week even. Sacrifices have to be made, I’m sorry to say.

I have discovered that there is nothing quite as depressing as being in a hospital practically every day of the week. It doesn’t help that for the most part we’ve been getting nothing but bad news. Don’t worry, I’ve asked Sally, and she has no problems with me talking about her toils. Well, let’s get to it then.

First off, we finally got to talk to her treating doctor. Not good. We got to see her photos and it’s bad. There’s a mass the size of something between a golf ball and a tennis ball in her right lung, and this has metastasized to her brain, causing lesions, which is what’s to blame for her distractedness, lack of coordination and whatnot. According to him if we hadn’t brought her in when we did, and she hadn’t gotten on the steroids that she’s been getting for more than a week now, she probably wouldn’t have made it. A daunting thought, that.

But anyway, he showed us several MRIs, some of a healthy brain, and the others of Sally. Not good. Basically the right side of her brain is distorted with lesions and growths, which is nothing, if not incredibly scary to see.

He spoke about what to do next, and how they were unable to get a proper sample from the biopsy they did last week. Apparently the mass is too far away from her bronchia for them to scrape of any of the affected cells. They had hoped that they would get a hint from the first attempt but that was a no go. They’re going to have to go in again and try it differently…which is better than the other option where they’d have to cut her open in order to get a sample. Very dangerous, he says…to which I say: Duh.

Be as that may, the doc is a nice fellow, thoughtful, informative and clear, which is something Sally needs right now. He spoke to us about possible options once they figure out her treatment, but on the most part, what I can understand of it, he’s not expecting to see her make it through a year. Yikes. I have not told her this opinion yet, it is hard enough for her to keep her head clear with the not knowing part…but she’ll have to know at some point, I guess. I asked her if she wanted to know if the news was bad (once they know, that is) and she does, so I better rehearse that a bit in the near future. I mean seriously, how do you tell someone you’ve known for more than twenty years that they’re going to die??? Seriously, a hint would be awesome.

As to the options (again, what I understood. Doctors confuse me, they are never really, really clear in their answers) I was a little startled to hear him talk in terms of months, rather than years, when he started talking about chemo and radio. I mean, I always figured that they got better at that sort of thing, but if things are the way he suspects (that’s what he wants the good test results for) chemo would give her, maybe three to four months extra. I mean seriously, isn’t that just postponing the inevitable with a lot of misery? Gawd. How am I going to tell her that?

But I’m going to wait with the actual explanations until the test results get in. Her next biopsy will be on Friday, which was a relief to hear considering that’s when the cabin should arrive. So, best case scenario, she will be allowed to go home sometime next week, which is when we should have the new cabin as good as ready (foundation is done)…I hope. There are other things to arrange as well, including someone who comes for a few hours a day to help out. Since we’ll have two people who can’t take care of themselves now, and we (they neither) can’t afford to have a full time carer for both of them, so we’ll have to see how that goes. Considering they are both unable to take care of themselves, social care should be supplied to them according to the law, so…let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Now the nasty bit of news…I know, that was more than enough, but what the hey, let’s go all out…last night she got a doctor in her room telling her that she needed a colonoscopy, so they gave her some really nasty medication with strong diuretic effects, and had her drink three liters of water in two hours. Oh, my, gawd. She was on the toilet till six in the morning, didn’t sleep a wink, and then they told her that the colonoscopy was cancelled and that she would be rescheduled for another day…which was what had her in tears when we arrived this morning. Worse thing is, when the doctor arrived almost an hour later than planned, it turned out that there had been a mistake and that she wasn’t supposed to get a colonoscopy, but that it had been meant for a different patient. Made me want to do some serious damage. Jeez. Sally almost burst into tears over it, while the doctor kept apologizing, and saying that a mistake like that hadn’t happened in nine years and that it wouldn’t happen again because he’d ripped the ones responsible a new one…well, he didn’t use those words, but that’s what we liked to imagine. Hah. Jeez! That’s what happens when you treat folks like a number.

Okay, enough about the depressing stuff. Let’s get to the normal life things, for as far as that’s possible.

Big brother had to pick up grandpa again, seeing as his moped gave the spirit again, so we finally gave up and decided to retire the katana and head on down to our insurance agent (on our way to Sally) to transfer the insurance to the Keeway Milan. Got a good deal for it, too. Heck, the price was half the old one, which was a bit of news I could live with very well, thank you very much. It did take almost fifty minutes to arrange (making us a little late for Sally) but then it was done. Yay.

Day before yesterday, I had a busy morning. Since we weren’t sure whether Sally would be coming home that day, I headed down after chores such as laundry, to clean up her apartment a little. There was garbage all over the floor (I hadn’t been in there for a while), laundry everywhere, and once I was done, I had to carry along three bags. Still, it looked better in there.
Then it was off to the igloo to do some final cleaning, to hang the last painting, check the lamps and to put a mug, glass and some tea in there. Now all she needs is a microwave to heat water, some sheets and then our visitor (arriving tomorrow) is all set for the next week or so.

Was a bit under the weather myself that day. In particular after we got home from the hospital and the DIY store where we bought a toilet to install in Sally’s cabin, some groceries and then headed home in high ninety temps. Definitely needed a dip in the pool after that.

There were two cooking sessions since the last blog. Stir fry noodles with lots of sambal and baked eggs. It made up most of yesterday’s meal too. Since I was cooking anyway, some cleaning got done too, making things look a lot better down there. Need to clean more, though, in particular since we’ll have visitor visiting. And I’ve got to clean my cabin, which at the moment resembles a friggin’ pigsty. Arrrgh.

Thank gawd for the yard, which is a blessing in days like these. I did two watering sessions and they really calmed me down. In particular yesterday when my day hadn’t been going all that well, and I needed to get my head on straight. Of course it didn’t help I had to go out a second time afterward (wanted a jog really bad, but there just wasn’t time) to get electrical supplies for Sally’s cabin, including one more pot of varnish.

Also had to take Sitabah to the vet. She’s been suffering from a cough I don’t like and I had her checked out. Now she’s on an anti-inflammatory, and if the problem persists until Saturday, I will have to go back for a second shot, along with an x-ray of her chest. The vet didn’t like the sound of her lungs all that much. As if she’s not using all of them.

Got home late last night, and found that a bucket of paint had topped over in the car port, meaning dogs had spread it everywhere, including over my chairs and my floor…meaning I had to scrub it all with paint remover. *sigh*

As for writing. Considering my limited time at the moment, along with my exhaustion at the end of the evening, I’m not getting more than a couple of pages a day done. Have reached 81K word count now, though, so it’s a good thing the story is slowly coming to the end. I’m writing about an oracle at the moment, and I’m wondering what the heck you’d ask of an oracle? I mean, something other than the thing you went to the oracle for, because I can’t just have my heroine ask one question and then have her leave again. There has to be some dialogue for crying out loud.

The dogs…well, they’re there, and despite the fact that at the moment I wouldn’t mind some peace and quiet, they are also a comfort when you’re a bit down. Hah.

Well, that’s it. Gotta go. Seeya on Friday, I hope.

A change

I'm going to have to make some changes in the blog in the near future. Time is getting more precious of late, and I don't have enough of it, so (for a while at least) I'm going to see if doing it differently will work.

I'm thinking 3 blogs per week, rather than one every other day, so in the future you should be able to come round at Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a new one. If that doesn't work...well, there's always two days a week, I guess. Hah

But not today. Too little time and too many things to do. I'll bring you up to date tomorrow.

Right. I'm off.

Back to projects

Song of the day: “Some nights” by Fun. Still an awesome song, and I don’t mind at all having it stuck in my head at the moment. Hah.

First off, I am terribly late (not even because of a jog. Didn’t go, because big brother busted his middle toe. Nail was slammed back into the skin and everything. Aaargh) and should really get to bed on time.

I had an utterly whacky dream the other night. We were spending time in our old trailer (haven’t seen the dratted thing in more than sixteen years, I think), staying at a camping site. There was a massive fire somewhere nearby, and in the late evening air I could see the red glow all through the night. Then it happened, some crazy psychopath thought it fun to start messing with people at the camping ground and was keeping hostages. Then, he came at me, and I panicked a little, so I started throwing stuff at him (not my smartest move in a dream, but what the hey). There was some pretty heavy stuff to throw, and most of it hit him, and yet he kept coming at me. Finally I got my hands on this big heavy wrench and conked him on the head with him, making him woozy, and the second send him to the floor.
That’s when I grabbed the phone I’d been trying to get at before he came after me, and ran. I kept trying to get through to the cops, but the connection was crappy, my Spanish nearly nonexistent, their English too, and too much staff occupied with the massive fire that was coming roaring over the mountain. I woke up breathless, to say the least, in particular since just before I woke, the psychopath had regained his footing and came at me. Grrr.

So yeah, been a busy couple of days. First off, we’ve been doing what we can to prepare for the arrival of the cabin. Yesterday there was the painting of the wooden boards of the toilet space behind it, and the floor with an anti termite stuff that had no color, and no smell, which freaked me out a little.

While cousin Ed and I (also grandpa at one point) focused on painting (both yesterday and today) big brother worked on getting the first bits of the foundation in place, and grandpa on sawing wooden beams that will suspend the cabin once it arrives. Yesterday even tenant helped out with the painting bit, which was nice. It’s been a while since she felt like doing something like that.
This afternoon’s painting involved adding white to the transparent varnish, because Sally likes it to be light, and I want her to feel pleasant during her recuperation, so light it is.

Yesterday morning involved making lentil burgers (she asked if I could make a few for her because the hospital food was so bland) and starting on the chili of our supper later in the day.
Both worked out well, actually, and I did manage to eat it even after I added very small bits of beef to the mix. Managed about three quarters of my portion before I started getting the gagging reflex when one of the beef bits turned out to be a bit on the big side. *sigh*

At the end of the afternoon big brother and I had to go out to pick up a donation prior to going to Marbella to visit Sally, but it turned out to be so much that we had to drive back home and unload…which took way too long too, so we ended up phoning Sally, who said not to bother, she was so very tired anyway, and she would see cousin Ed in the morning. Which was a bit of a relief, considering there was still the dog food to cut and an attempt at writing to make.

Didn’t manage much, though. My eyes kept falling shut during that, and I finally gave up after one page and just went to bed. Jeez. It’s been some long days of late.

And that refers to everyone, considering the younger sibs are hard at work in the main house to paint the walls (that haven’t seen a lick of paint in over three years) so that we won’t be embarrassed once our visitor arrives four days from now. Lotsa stuff got backed up these past few years. Just too much to do, ya know.

This very morning big brother and I did some more work in the igloo. The power is working, and so’s the water for that matter. We are going to have to figure something out for that, by the way. Because that tube is now lying about in full sunlight, you can actually scald your skin on it. It’s a pickle, and something we’ll have to solve fast. The clock’s ticking.

Had a wonderful watering session of the yard today (the basin is half full again. We had to drain the pool, because one of mom’s Cocker spaniels (he’s blind and not in good health) pooed in it. Eeewwww. I’ll share my pool with dogs, no problem, but I draw the line somewhere. Hah. But anyway, we had to drain it, meaning that the watering is going nice and fast again, and while I was at it, I took the time to harvest most of the red peppers, cut them and freeze them for later use. Those little bushes are definitely doing a splendid job. We can’t eat them fast enough.
But the watering is getting less, thankfully. What used to take up to three hours, now only takes one, so we’ve got it down to a manageable size at the moment.

There were the usual chores such as laundry, feeding the dogs, and cutting dog food, of course. They loved it this morning, in case you’re wondering, there were all sorts of treats in it. Barbecue pizzas, ham pizzas, turkey slices, ham slices. They devoured it. Hah.

As to the writing: I only managed a page yesterday, but went well into two today, so, maybe, just maybe I’ll get this stuff done yet. I really shouldn’t let all these troubles mess with my focus. This is my future, after all. *sigh*

Mom and the sibs were in a bit of slump today. Their market day wasn’t at its usual level, meaning that they only made half. Darn economy and summer. Both are making folks less prone to sell.

The dogs have been rather chipper today, seeing as I didn’t go out at all and they made a nuisance of themselves by getting my way constantly. Chaos is still the least forgiving in that regard. He’s still ignoring me a little, while Knight II gets so affectionate that I’m getting bruises all over the place. This very morning, he was throwing himself against me, slamming his bony behind into my thigh over and over again. It friggin’ hurt. Got out of bed ASAP.

Today’s supper, as opposed to yesterday’s healthy chili, involved wonderful pizza. Loved that. The fresh dough, the fresh veggies and sauce, and of course the cheese. What smells nicer than that combination? I just couldn’t make myself wreck it with meat.

Well, this is it for today. No time to dawdle, despite the fact that I could of course fill pages and pages with mindless banter. *snort*