Done at last

Song of the day: “You gotta be” by Des’Ree. Awesome song. Have known it for years, and it is still good.

I’m done, I’m done…well, technically anyway. Yay!!!
Oh right, you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. I finished the book. Another one. At last. 96,901 words (only slightly over the maximum) amounting to 309 pages. Sure. I’ll need to add stuff, change stuff, remove stuff, edit, proofread and all that jazz, but the story, as is, is basically done! Double Yay!

I cried buckets last night during the end scene, smiled my relief today with the conclusion of it, and on the overall spent some odd ten hours (spread over three days) in an emotional roller coaster. My characters were milked for all they were worth, their lives put at risk, their love toyed with, and their happiness set on that precipice of “will, or won’t they?”. It is mean, I know. I am infinitely mean to my characters as I take them on this road of discovery into the lives they live inside my head. At the start we are as oblivious about what will happen, creating a journey of discovery for every party involved. I do admit to moments of insanity when they start arguing with me about some horror or other that I put them through, but such is life. Can’t change it, and wouldn’t if my life depended on it. Hah.

Let’s just keep it on, “I’m done, I’m done!” Yippeeeeee!

But anyway, we’ve been living in a world of clouds and rain lately. Winter is coming, and you can feel it in the air. For that very reason we started on the carport wall yesterday so we’ll be able to work there regardless of the weather. First off, since big brother was still pretty much worthless in regards of heavy lifting and such, grandpa and I spent considerable time sorting through the storage in search of the wood we’d need for the project. Door posts, terrace doors, beams, slats and boards got hauled down and in a matter of hours the first semblance of a door with post began to take shape. I dislike the planning stages, in particular when I can’t hold onto a thought…which is often the case when we start on a new project. Once I’m in it, it’s not a problem, but beforehand…*shakes hand*…not pretty.

We were in the midst of the endeavor when mom and little brother returned from a trip to town with the new (second hand) industrial sewing machine mom managed to find. Apparently, after carrying the dratted thing (five people, apparently) to the car and putting it there, they forgot to tie it up, meaning, that during their trip home it tipped over and smashed the back window. *sigh* There’s another trip to carglass for a replacement. Thankfully broken windows are part of our insurance package, because otherwise, yikes. Got an appointment on Monday.

Since big brother was not allowed to do any heavy lifting, grandpa and I got the machine’s table from the car, while cousin Ed carried the relatively small machine down to the house. Though no featherweight, by any means, I don’t entirely get why they had to carry it with five people. Grandpa and I managed just fine. The fun part was removing all that machine oil from the back of the car, which little brother saw to, along with the glass while I taped up the window.

What was next involved supper. Chili sin carne (could have added meat, of course, but I totally didn’t feel like it) which, despite my best effort became so spicy that I was almost incapable of tasting anything except the spiciness, darn it. Sure, I added some sweet chili to the mix, and some dried pepper, but what was really the cincher was the hot pepper that somehow ended up between our sweet peppers this year and really added some zest to the meal. A whole pack of cream, two cottage cheese and tortilla wraps didn’t significantly change matters. Luckily neither big brother, Sally, nor Cousin Ed minded, and since tenant didn’t mention anything either, I figured it wasn’t too bad. Hah.

That done, big brother and I headed for town, first to check if carglass was still open, but it wasn’t. Seeing as we had to go out to get rid of the piles of garbage that have somehow ended up mounted in the old paddock, it was not a complete loss.

The rain yesterday was miserly…at least until the night fell and I spent it restlessly waking about every hour. First there was the wind, which made my door open and close at an annoying rate, so I wedged it open with a small wooden stool. Second there was the thunderstorm that was right overhead. One second I’m sleeping and the next light blasts straight through my lids, followed instantly by a clap of thunder that made our mountain shake impressively. Now I don’t mind thunder all that much, so I fell right back to sleep, but within an hour the wind changed, and before I knew it, I was slammed in the face by ice rain that somehow made it all the way to my bed. Aaaargh. Next wake-up call was from Knight II, who thought it a good idea to slam his spine into my ribs and disrupted a rather nice dream, by then I had so much adrenaline in my system that it was all I could do to doze the remainder of the night, until my early alarm went off, because the bad weather required me to drive grandpa to the village for dog food.

First I took a dip in the pool, however. I know, insane right? It was barely seventy degrees, it was raining, but I was in desperate need to taking a cold dip to get rid of the cobwebs in my head. I’m thinking that very soon the pool will cease to be useful, because boy was it cold. Hah.

Dog food picked up in the village, grandpa and I made a quick stop at the supermarket, and then went back home, where I called big brother out of bed, and walked the visiting dogs prior to doing laundry. Not much drying happening at the moment, and the lines are getting to be pretty full so far. It better not be this weather too long, because there’s plenty of laundry now that I did some serious cleaning in my cabin.

That done, and the dog food prepared and distributed to the hungry pack, it was time for my own breakfast and a continuation of the most recent project. What with the doors hung yesterday, and with big brother working on installing a handle, grandpa and I continued with the side panels. A new support beam had to be set in place, slats sawed, and more parts looked for up in the storage. In the end, grandpa finished up the last bits while I tried to catch a few winks in my cabin. Knight II, Sitabah, Dax (he crawled under the blankets with me) and Chaos loved it. We all snuggled together. Ended up with about fifteen minutes of rest, at which time big brother and I headed out to the construction company to get the supplies for the fence we’re going to put up next week.

Got a small discount, which is always nice, and which will allow us to stay under the price we agreed on. Nothing annoys me quite as much as wrong calculations. We’ll soon see if we missed anything.

But anyway, once we were back, and dined on French fries, and pumpkin fries, it was back to writing the ending of the book, and this blog, of course. Luckily both are now done, because I am in serious need of some horizontal time. *sigh*

Rain

Song of the day: “Don’t marry her” by the Beautiful South. It’s been a while since I heard that one. Good song, though.

Had a somewhat restless night the other day. Don’t know why, I’ll blame it on the moon, or something. Hah. The day got started with a quick dip in the pool, followed by walking the visiting dogs…much like I’ve been doing most mornings.

Yesterday was spent primarily by the basin terrace. Even tenant went along, and sat down there, reading while big brother and grandpa continued to haul more sludge out of the basin to prepair for the predicted rain. Might not have been the smartest thing for big brother to do, what with him having pulled his back, but he did it regardless, which he paid for today, poor fella.

But anyway, while they did that, cousin Ed and I started cleaning up the outside kitchen, and put everything away in the basement for winter. It took some time, the cleaning, the sorting, the carrying and going up and down the stairs. Up and down, back and forth. In the end it was all down there though, and since Sally and caregiver had gone to the hospital for the last day of radio therapy. Her sight is better now, and though she is a bit wobbly after therapy, she does feel there is an overall improvement.

Before we could store stuff down there, however, there was the linoleum to remove off the floor. It was so old, it was literally breaking apart while I was taking it out. Then, after everything was put away, it was time to get garbage up to the car, which took several trips to say the least. Afterward tenant had to be walked up, and she was pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t as tired as she has been the past few days, and that she hadn’t expected that she’d manage to walk all the way up, in one session.

Good news is that little brother passed his driver’s license exam at last. (Yay for little brother) His usual sense of humor was intact, seeing as he SMSed mom to come pick him up, saying he failed. Then when she arrived, he came out, claiming that he was never going back there, ever again, which had mom totally depressed of course. Then he started grinning and told her he made it. Little bastard. He likes riling folks. Hah.

Big brother and I spent the remainder of the afternoon heading out and getting rid of a full load of garbage. Seriously, we only got half out and will need another trip to get it all out, but it’s a start at least.

Bad news, the Opel, once again, is in trouble. It is making some sort of wacky sound, meaning that we can’t drive it, again, and that we really have to have it towed to the garage again, darn it. What is wrong with our transportation of late? Jeez.

Writing. Almost done with the book. Almost. Did two pages yesterday, double that today, and am well into the last scene. Very intense, very sad. Seeing as the weather was particularly rainy today, not big splashes but a miserly thing mostly. Just enough of to be annoying, but incredibly good for the plants, so mother nature is forgiven.

Sally has her new closet, as of yesterday evening, and the beginning of today, after doing my normal chores, I spent putting my cabin to rights. Seriously, it was such a mess I stood the for about ten minutes wondering where the heck to start. Finally decided to just pick a spot and start and then see where I end up. Did finally get all my horizontal surfaces cleared, which is a good start. Looks a little better now, less like a pigsty.

What else? I went down into the yard for a bit, seeing as big brother wasn’t worth much today. He spent the majority of the day in his room, resting his back, doing some edits, resting some more. Harvested some peppers and such, and then went up to cook supper. Fried rice with veggies, a satay sauce and a bit of fried beef on the side. The fried beef was heavy on the stomach, but what the hey, had to be done.

Dogs. Well, mine spent the majority of the day inside my cabin making a nuisance of themselves. Seriously, there is nothing quite as annoying as having to work around a pack in the rain. It was wet everywhere! Aaaargh.

Okay, time for bed. I need to get horizontal fast and head for a new day. Rainy days exhaust me.

Seriously hating hospitals

Song of the day: “Under the sun” by Cheryl Cole. It is starting to get a little old now. I’m ready for something else. If it is still in my head tomorrow, I’m going back to singing Will Young’s “Come on” darn it. Works like a charm to kill another song that keeps haunting me.

So yeah, the end of the weekend, and back into the new week, darn it. Why do the weekends go so fast as opposed to the…wait a minute, the entire week goes way too fast. Grrr.
But anyway, I had a wonderful dream about going to Ireland the other day. Was absolutely splendid, so I am totally going to do that one of these days, just to see if my dream compares to reality. I would fully describe the dream, but let’s face it, I’m late again, and wouldn’t be able to go into that much detail if my life depended on it. It comes down to the fact that I’ve had a ridiculously long day and am looking forward to calling it a night. Hah.

Oh gawd, I don’t know how I could have forgotten (or didn’t I) to mention that we have the Land Rover back. Yay. They fixed the transmission box, and she’s purring like a kitten again, so double yay on that, despite the fact that now there appears to be a problem with the speedometer. The mechanic promised to look at that later, because they weren’t sure if the problem had been there (it hadn’t) prior to them fixing the car. We’ll get to that later. I’m just happy it’s working again. Of course (this comes as no big surprise to me, by the way) now the Opel has an appointment again because there’s this weird screeching sound. Aaaargh. Stupid cars! Hah.

Saturday: Right now, thinking about it, I’m drawing a complete blank. Hah. Lemme just get my diary here…right. We went over to Liane, the lady with the fence we built, to check out the pool and to take measurements for the adjustments she would like us to make.
It didn’t take long to figure out what the problem with the pool was. After crawling through the water for about an hour I found a small hole about three inches from the wall, which had created a path toward one of the supports and literally streamed out there. Soaked through, and wary of the swarm of bees that had decided to make the leak spot their watering hole, we finished up our foray about two hours after arrival and headed back home.

There was cooking, and yard stuff. First cabbage seeds are in the multi pots. Coliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, red cabbage and kale, which should make up for part of this winter’s suppers. That done, big brother and I went back out for a donation, which took way too long of course, meaning that I didn’t have a lot of time to write…it’s a procrastinating thing, I assure you. When I do get to sit down at my computer, my focus decides to take a flying heap. No worries, though, I’ve reached the three hundred page line today, and that’s a yay too. The end is nigh.

That night I had a rather scary dream about finding a splash of blood on the floor, and then finding the cause of it. In the dream Arthur had basically been ripped to pieces, which make feel all icky when I woke up. Decided to give Arthur a good petting when he came outside, just because I felt like it. Hah.

Had our visiting dogs for company while I hung laundry, and rushed through breakfast so big brother and I could head down into the yard and take apart a wooden constellation because we’re going to use it for the wooden partition around Sally’s cabin. It took a few hours, and there was full sunshine, but the breeze kept it bearable at least. Only managed to drill out two of the poles, by the way, because apparently I put them in well last year, hah, because the jackhammer had trouble getting through it. Ended up with two poles before I had to rush up so I could drive middle sister to the gas station where mom had made an appointment with two separate couples who offered to take “yellow bird” and the chinchilla off our hands. Tight finances call for extreme measures after all. Both couples seemed nice, and the ones who took the bird said that if we ever needed a place for birds, we should just call them because they had three (or five) aviaries to fill yet. A reassuring thought what with the parrots still in the cage in the house. It is nice to know that they have a place to go if things ever get dire.

There was supper, of course, and though it was wonderful, my stomach did not agree with it last night. Half of it came right back up, darn it. I hate it when that happens. It reminds me of the times when that was a normal occurrence for me and depresses me. *sigh*

Sally’s been very tired, which is basically the only side effect she suffers from during the treatment. Which reminds me, this morning we headed out early because we had to go to two hospitals in a row. First in Malaga, where she got radiated as usual (after having to wait for a full half hour after we had been specifically asked to be there at one thirty on the dot. We were) and then Marbella where she had her first meeting with her oncologist.

Almost didn’t make it there either, seeing as there was some sort of traffic jam going on that appeared out of the blue on one of the most dangerous roads of the area. I had about three seconds of warning while the bloke in front of us stamped on his brakes and put on his flashers. I pumped my own, once, twice, and then came to a full standstill with the third, less than a yard behind the car in front of us. Jeez. My blood dropped straight from my brain, leaving me a little breathless as I looked from the stopped cars to Sally and Dani (she volunteered to go along to translate) to see if they weren’t plastered against the front windshield. Double jeez. That was close, but the brakes held true, I didn’t go into a skid, and we got through it without damage. Yay!

At the hospitals, we went through the whole song and dance, she was examined, all the questions got asked and filed and then there was the talk. The nasty business of what her previous doctors hadn’t gotten around to explaining: “You’re tumor is not curable, and there is nothing we can really do except treat your symptoms.” Yikes. She was startled, but not sure enough about her English to respond to it. That came later while we were in the car with her, and at home. She had thought that they were going to cure her, that the test result would come out as relatively harmless, but now she heard that they were basically aiming to make her life as pleasant as possible for what time was left for her. *sigh* She’s taking it well, so far, agrees that the doctors don’t know everything and that she’s going to make the best of it. I’m sure she’ll have some bad days coming, but so far her attitude toward it is admirable. Let’s hope she can keep up the positivity, which is one of the most important things at this stage.

The fence building job is going through, and despite the fact that I went through the majority of the DIY stores in the area to look at prices, Liane decided to keep it simple and picked the metal fencing to close it off. Good thing, since it will take the least amount of time…in particular with the predicted rain, and the yard stuff we still need to do. As it is, we’ll be busy with it, two to three days, which is going to make it all a tight squeeze.

My doggies are bound to be upset with me again, but it can’t be helped. Knight II will be going along, of course, but the Chaos will be resentful, to say the least.

But anyway, once we got home today, I was seriously running on fumes. I dislike hospitals severely, and the bummer is, that when Sally’s chemo starts we should prepare to spend a full day there because they will try to fit as much treatments into one appointment as they can. I better have a book and computer along for the occasion.

Luckily big brother cooked, so I didn’t need to do that. After walking through two hospitals (buildings and parking lots) and two massive DIY warehouses, I really wasn’t in the mood to cook. I was actually jealous of big brother and grandpa who spent the majority of the day in the basin, mucking out sludge. Seriously, it is preferable to hospitals. Hah.