Darn it!

Song of the day: “Let the sunshine” by Labrinth. Gorgeous song. Easy to hear in your head.

Well, another busy couple of days for as far as I’m concerned. Plenty to do, and not enough time to do it in. *sigh*

First off, writing has been going relatively well, regardless of the shortage of time. Am almost up to 10,000 words for the rewrite, meaning that it is going well, so far. Changed quite a bit, but nothing too massive to change the structure of the story. Semantics, mostly. The typing itself…well, I have to get used to the speed again. It’s been a while since I did this type of writing, and this little keyboard of the notebook makes for lots of wrong hits.

But anyway, besides the writing, (or rewriting, depending on your view) we did some work on the kitchen yesterday. Added another layer of rock to the walls, which brings us another step closer to completion…no matter that it seems to take forever to get it there, darn it.

Got to haul rocks down, which reminded me of the good old days, if you have to know. Did about four wheelbarrows, and that was at least enough for the one session of masonry. I like the appearance of the wall, actually. We’ve got a whole row of these massive slabs of rock, joined together by much smaller ones. Makes for an interesting sight.

There was also gardening, which was rather nice, all things considered. Not that the weather really allows for a lot of pleasure, heat wise. The temps have been going from nippy to downright warm without much warning. Very strange. Right now, for instance, it’s completely and utterly silent outside, like the silence before the storm. According to the weather channels, shaite is going to hit the fan soon with a big storm. Wonder if they’re right.

Today we cut down a eucalyptus tree, which was very necessary, seeing as it was getting to be too big right in the middle of the courtyard, and if it got to be any bigger we would have an even harder time getting it out. As it was, big brother did the sawing, while grandpa and I did the pulling. Of course, by the time the sawing was almost done, the wind picked up for a few minutes…which is something it has been doing for days now, every time we want to start on the trees. Weird how that works.
But anyway, with the wind pulling it the other way, big brother had to run to us, and hang on the rope as well, giving it an extra good yank to have it fall where we wanted it. Darn thing came down with a crash, damaging some of the fencing, but otherwise came down relatively easy. Took us about fifteen minutes to clear away the debris. Then big brother and I worked on the rest of the trunk, with me holding the rope attached to the six-foot trunk he cut down. Had myself fully braced, and was happy to discover that I could easily hold that weight. Managed to lower it to the ground without trouble.
The next piece of the tree was harder, though. Way bigger. Seven and a half feet at least, if not more, and Cousin Ed and I both hung on it, only to have it slam down to the ground anyway. No harm done in the end, but what the heck. It would have been nice if we’d managed it. Hah.

Worked on the job a bit, today. Managed to catch a few hours at the village house, with big brother finishing up with scraping and burning the wall, while I did some serious cleaning in the kitchen. Mopped two floors, cleaned the fridge, and scrubbed cupboards.
Progress, at the very least.

Had to go out for a donation yesterday, which had us end up with a fully loaded car. Good thing that, seeing as we’ve been getting small loads lately. Ah well, you never know if a big load is better than a small load, but whatever. Hah.

Did some leather work. Burnt several patterns for mom this very morning, despite the fact that I really should have started on the writing already. Got me a little harried, seeing as I got to run behind on everything (at least that’s what it felt like) after that.

The dog-sitting dogs arrived yesterday, too. Their owner had to travel out of the country for ten days or so, so that means walks with the three buggers in the morning again. Hah. They’re really used to it now, though, cheerful as heck about it, too. First thing they do in the morning, when I let them out, is jump against me, and then running off to do their business.

Had to do some shopping yesterday, involving underwear and socks for grandpa, pants for big brother and myself, including two sales, that I don’t think were sales (1 buck, due to the fact that they didn’t have a tag) that were really profitable. Hah.

We had the normal stuff, of course. Laundry, feeding the dogs, cutting the dog food, cleaning up after the dogs and all those fun bits.
Knight II has that swollen ear, and I fear that it is gradually getting worse now. If the swelling doesn’t get less soon, I’m going to have to take him to the vet. Drat!

Am a bit worried about Gada. Her bladder is going, I fear, and for the past few days she’s been vomiting. Regretfully this is a known side-effect of the anti-inflammatory she’s on, meaning that the darn things are starting to damage her internally. Was afraid of that, but ya keep trying to be positive, don’t ya.

Well…not thinking of that decision yet. Not now. But soon. I know that. Fear that. And there’s nothing I can do to change it. Damn it.

I’m out of here.