Song of the day: There were several yesterday, and most of them were infomercials, so I’m not going to list them all up. It was downright ridiculous.
Let me think as to what all has happened in the past couple of days. Thankfully the edit is slowly progressing, and we now have about one chapter done in the rewrite. Phew. It is so very tough to get used to the new characters after a year of Nina and Rory, but Callie and Alex are slowly starting to grow on me. The dialogue is starting to smoothen, and the actions of the two protagonists are beginning to get more natural. I think we’re getting into the swing of it.
The shelving project is all done, standing beautifully in my bedroom beside the new wardrobe. It looks great, and now that all the old closets (they were falling apart) are out and torn down into rubbish pieces and stuff that can still be used, there’s a lot of room, which I love.
There was another fight between Groovy and Mati…this sometimes happens when there’s bad blood between two dogs; it’ll take a while for them to get over it. We’re going to have to keep them apart for a bit now, but soon they’ll have forgotten all about it, they always do.
Lots of wind again. Yesterday there were heavy winds from the west…which hardly ever happens…and these tore the roof plates of the old horse stable, which meant that big portions of yesterday and today were spent reattaching the plates (we had to gather them from all over the place) and taking two big ones from the courtyard roof to replace those that were damaged beyond repair. The darn things should hold now…I hope.
Though the nights are starting to get pretty darn cold, big brother and I did two more runs. The moon is no longer out at this time, but luckily the stars are bright enough to make a relatively visible road for us. The progress is slow, but I am starting to notice improvement with the runs. Big brother can already do the whole piece without needing to catch his breath, and I’m slowly doing bigger stretches at an even pace. Whenever I can’t keep it up, I just switch to a brisk pace instead, which does the trick well enough. It’s not as if I want to push myself. I want the process to be fun and natural.
There were three more “prison breaks” of the chinchilla into the rabbit cage, poor thing. It looks all harassed when he’s in with the two bunnies, and yet it continued to attempt escape. Now the rabbit cage has been fully closed off, so the chinchilla should remain in place in the future. It’s so strange that it kept trying to get out, when every time I put it back, it crawled up against its sister and immediately started to snooze.
The traumatized puppy we’re trying to get over the shock is slowly showing improvement. It’s (Niobe) less scared now, and will actually join the other dogs again without making a racket. His little brother, Morpheus, on the other hand, is starting to be a rascal though. Hah.
More carpentry projects, such as repairing (or repairing) drawers, are in full swing, and finally drawing to an end. Painting is still prominent, too, and to keep things interesting big brother and I have gone on a “scavenge hunt” at the nearby landfill. We found a lot of raw materials again, which has replenished the slowly depleting supplies. We’re going to have to go out more often in the future, since we’re going through the stuff at a fast rate. There really isn’t much that’s more fun than do actual recycling of stuff people just threw away. Something that looks downright horrid and then making it look beautiful again is certainly very satisfying.
The recently remodeled office is working out well, by the way. When the dogs join us in the space during the evening it warms up nicely, making it an excellent spot when winter gets to be in full swing. The only thing that still needs to be done is put in proper power outlets ‘cause the old ones aren’t sufficient at all.
A bit of disturbing news is that middle sister’s dog Rhumba appears to be feeling poorly. Last night the poor ten-year-old Samoyed had a high fever, but luckily, after we pumped antibiotics into him, he started to improve slowly. I do hope that he manages to overcome this particular problem; he really is too old to be messing around with diseases and such. For a while there, we were afraid that we were going to have to take him to the vet…in the middle of the night, mind you, and on a Sunday to boot.
Another bit of sad news is that we heard today that our maternal grandfather died sometime last week. It is not as if we had seen the man in a long time, or that he was an actual part of our lives, but still, it leaves an impression. From what we heard, he didn’t suffer and died peacefully in his sleep, so that is something at least.
Regretfully death is very much a part of life, no matter that there are times when we want to stop time from advancing.
Well, with that, another Blog comes to an end. I’m just about ready to call it a day now.
Showing posts with label chinchilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinchilla. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Projects, fight, edits, escape...not in that order.
Song of the day: The Chiquita banana advertising tune. I know, insane, right. Couldn’t get it out of my head for crying out loud. Does anyone remember it? “I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to stay. I am the top banana in the world today…” and so on. I can’t believe that stuff is still in my head. The last time I heard it, is at least a decade ago. Insanity!
But okay, that really was just a small part of the day, so I’ll get down to business.
It was an early morning for me, considering I had to take our tenant and her caretaker to Marbella hospital for her monthly check up, but luckily my schedule has changed in such a way that I had to get up only an hour earlier than usual. The trip there was relatively uneventful, and while waiting, I managed to write about half a page for the-as-of-yet-untitled story.
Our tenant was a little upset because (according to her) she was degraded. Her doctor said that it was useless to continue with therapy due to the damage in her brain. Why the bastards. Who are they to decide that…yeah, I know, that bureaucracy for you, along with a governmentally funded healthcare. If you don’t fit into a particular schematic, you’re pretty much screwed. I don’t know what the heck these doctors are doing, last month she was doing brilliantly, according to them, and this month they cut her off at the knees.
Well, we’ll show them, I tell ya. We’re going to look into some physical therapy for her and astound those folks yet six months from now when she has to return for a check up. Looking at her improvements so far, I’m pretty convinced she can do a lot better with a bit of incentive. She’s really looking forward to it too…a good thing. We’ve (her included) decided to look at it like a challenge, rather than a disaster.
It’s stuff like this that makes me rather heated about all the healthcare discussions going on all over the world. It sooooo doesn’t work to have that governmentally run. At least when you do private insurance you can chose a different company when they don’t work out to satisfaction. If it is run by government, you’re pretty much screwed when they make this decision…hmmm. Okay, I better not get started about the subject, or else I might blow like a gasket.
But anyway, after returning home, and giving our tenant the reassurance she needs, I head down to the house where big brother and I resume with the edit/rewrite of “Calamity’s Luck”
It goes pretty well, considering that it usually doesn’t work at all during a day where I had to go out.
Once done with computer work, we head out to the terrace to continue with the ongoing projects.
First up, is making a pedestal kind of thing for “caretaker’s” bus apartment. She is annoyed with a section over the tires where she can’t put anything because the floor is slanted. It takes only half an hour, after which little sister and I start working on making three drawers, one for “caretaker” and the other two for my new closet, which should be ready to go into my cabin late tonight, or tomorrow.
The temperatures were a little bit more moderate last night, but still sweater-worthy for as far as I was concerned. Less wind, though, and that is always a plus.
After work and a relatively early dinner, big brother and I went for a drive, only to return with a cab load of wood and glass that had been disposed of at local landfills again.
It amazes me every time, I’ll admit: The stuff people throw away…like wood that really shouldn’t be considered waste at any time, since you can always re-use/recycle it in some shape or form, as long as you’ve got some imagination. It is almost scary to see how they throw it away like last week’s garbage when the world is rapidly getting a shortage of forests all over. I mean, let’s thing about it, could it be that so many trees are needlessly taken away because they throw perfectly fine wood away at random?
Ah well, it is much too late for such “profound” wanderings. Hah. On to today…
Song of the day: “Mary Pickford” by Katie Melua. I don’t mind this one at all.
The day started off at the normal time, with relatively mild weather—still a little cool for me, but what the hey—which allowed me to head down to the house in just a sweater. There was laundry to tackle, of course, and then, when I deposited it on the kitchen counter and glance down (I’m prone to greeting the little pets in the morning) I can’t see the youngest chinchilla in the new cage at the bottom…oh did I mention that the youngsters were moved to the lower cage. Middle sister did it the other day, and the youngest really didn’t like it. Poor thing was gnawing at the trellis, trying to get out, which brings us to this morning’s surprise: He/she (don’t know what it is yet) wasn’t in the case with Sonny, the older sister, and when I looked around worried, he suddenly saw it seated on the tree stump, over in the rabbits’ cage.
The poor thing was looking all harassed, and I wait until big brother joins me before I capture it and return it to his/her sister. Oh boy, was it happy to be back. I think the mere scare of its “little” adventure will have it very happy to settle into the new cage.
I gotta admit that do feel bad for it, being away from mom and dad, but inbreeding really isn’t a risk we want to take with the little darlings.
So, with the excitement of the morning, over, big brother and I got to the edit, of course. It didn’t go as well as yesterday, but we made progress at least. The first rewrite/edit is always hardest; it is slowly shaping up, however.
Five hours after commencing, it is time to head into the warm November sun—which was absolutely delightful—so we could continue with the projects.
Big brother and grandpa put the new sawing blades into the big saw-table…it goes through wood like it’s butter, hah…and then headed to the bungalow to try out the gym bridge they started on yesterday. The contraption works and thrills our tenant considerably. This way she’ll be able to do her exercises at home.
Little brother works on sanding down to small cabinets, middle sister is…off to, I don’t know where, and little sister opts to resume work with me. First, an almost finished drawer got its bottom put in…worked out too.
With that one out of the way, little sister take out the pre-cut sections for my two drawers and start to assemble those as well. The fronts get adjusted…the original ones were a tad too wide, and to get them the right size takes some figuring, but with time and effort I persevered, hah. Has anyone every noticed that some difficult projects can seem like a challenge of wills. Will you win, or will the friggin’ wood. Grrr.
Suddenly, while we were just moseying along with the projects, there was a commotion at the bottom of the yard. Groovy (boxer) and Mati (Labrador) started to fight and we…well, the sibs in fact, since I had to stay away to keep my dogs, like Knight II at bay…pounced on the lot to get the two fighters apart. Some dogs flew…literally. Little brother actually had to throw several over the fence to prevent them from joining the melee…and within several minutes, the dogs were dragged into separate directions. Groovy has a few nicks, but Mati has a one-inch rip in his ear that thankfully looks worse than it is. It’ll heal, but we’ll need to keep an eye on it.
Back to the projects:
While the readjusted fronts dry, I start putting in the sliders, make a slight error that earns me three wrong holes in the new shelving (hate it when that happens) which luckily were on the side that will be in the corner, so it won’t be noticeable, phew.
With that first real error under my hat, more stuff begins to go wrong, so by the time the night falls, I give up on the endeavor and decide to go on a run with big brother, just to clear my head.
The run goes blissfully well, yay, even though it was rather cold and I was wearing this ridiculously pink woolen cap because I get way too cold otherwise.
While we were out, we decided to do a little off road exploring and almost got lost. Once we retraced our proverbial steps, we got back on the road though and just drove home, rather than try out more bumpy back roads.
Dinner waited, little sister made spaghetti and sauce, yay, and after…ehm, stuffing my face I was more than ready to settle down behind the computer for a quick recount of the past two day. Hah.
But okay, that really was just a small part of the day, so I’ll get down to business.
It was an early morning for me, considering I had to take our tenant and her caretaker to Marbella hospital for her monthly check up, but luckily my schedule has changed in such a way that I had to get up only an hour earlier than usual. The trip there was relatively uneventful, and while waiting, I managed to write about half a page for the-as-of-yet-untitled story.
Our tenant was a little upset because (according to her) she was degraded. Her doctor said that it was useless to continue with therapy due to the damage in her brain. Why the bastards. Who are they to decide that…yeah, I know, that bureaucracy for you, along with a governmentally funded healthcare. If you don’t fit into a particular schematic, you’re pretty much screwed. I don’t know what the heck these doctors are doing, last month she was doing brilliantly, according to them, and this month they cut her off at the knees.
Well, we’ll show them, I tell ya. We’re going to look into some physical therapy for her and astound those folks yet six months from now when she has to return for a check up. Looking at her improvements so far, I’m pretty convinced she can do a lot better with a bit of incentive. She’s really looking forward to it too…a good thing. We’ve (her included) decided to look at it like a challenge, rather than a disaster.
It’s stuff like this that makes me rather heated about all the healthcare discussions going on all over the world. It sooooo doesn’t work to have that governmentally run. At least when you do private insurance you can chose a different company when they don’t work out to satisfaction. If it is run by government, you’re pretty much screwed when they make this decision…hmmm. Okay, I better not get started about the subject, or else I might blow like a gasket.
But anyway, after returning home, and giving our tenant the reassurance she needs, I head down to the house where big brother and I resume with the edit/rewrite of “Calamity’s Luck”
It goes pretty well, considering that it usually doesn’t work at all during a day where I had to go out.
Once done with computer work, we head out to the terrace to continue with the ongoing projects.
First up, is making a pedestal kind of thing for “caretaker’s” bus apartment. She is annoyed with a section over the tires where she can’t put anything because the floor is slanted. It takes only half an hour, after which little sister and I start working on making three drawers, one for “caretaker” and the other two for my new closet, which should be ready to go into my cabin late tonight, or tomorrow.
The temperatures were a little bit more moderate last night, but still sweater-worthy for as far as I was concerned. Less wind, though, and that is always a plus.
After work and a relatively early dinner, big brother and I went for a drive, only to return with a cab load of wood and glass that had been disposed of at local landfills again.
It amazes me every time, I’ll admit: The stuff people throw away…like wood that really shouldn’t be considered waste at any time, since you can always re-use/recycle it in some shape or form, as long as you’ve got some imagination. It is almost scary to see how they throw it away like last week’s garbage when the world is rapidly getting a shortage of forests all over. I mean, let’s thing about it, could it be that so many trees are needlessly taken away because they throw perfectly fine wood away at random?
Ah well, it is much too late for such “profound” wanderings. Hah. On to today…
Song of the day: “Mary Pickford” by Katie Melua. I don’t mind this one at all.
The day started off at the normal time, with relatively mild weather—still a little cool for me, but what the hey—which allowed me to head down to the house in just a sweater. There was laundry to tackle, of course, and then, when I deposited it on the kitchen counter and glance down (I’m prone to greeting the little pets in the morning) I can’t see the youngest chinchilla in the new cage at the bottom…oh did I mention that the youngsters were moved to the lower cage. Middle sister did it the other day, and the youngest really didn’t like it. Poor thing was gnawing at the trellis, trying to get out, which brings us to this morning’s surprise: He/she (don’t know what it is yet) wasn’t in the case with Sonny, the older sister, and when I looked around worried, he suddenly saw it seated on the tree stump, over in the rabbits’ cage.
The poor thing was looking all harassed, and I wait until big brother joins me before I capture it and return it to his/her sister. Oh boy, was it happy to be back. I think the mere scare of its “little” adventure will have it very happy to settle into the new cage.
I gotta admit that do feel bad for it, being away from mom and dad, but inbreeding really isn’t a risk we want to take with the little darlings.
So, with the excitement of the morning, over, big brother and I got to the edit, of course. It didn’t go as well as yesterday, but we made progress at least. The first rewrite/edit is always hardest; it is slowly shaping up, however.
Five hours after commencing, it is time to head into the warm November sun—which was absolutely delightful—so we could continue with the projects.
Big brother and grandpa put the new sawing blades into the big saw-table…it goes through wood like it’s butter, hah…and then headed to the bungalow to try out the gym bridge they started on yesterday. The contraption works and thrills our tenant considerably. This way she’ll be able to do her exercises at home.
Little brother works on sanding down to small cabinets, middle sister is…off to, I don’t know where, and little sister opts to resume work with me. First, an almost finished drawer got its bottom put in…worked out too.
With that one out of the way, little sister take out the pre-cut sections for my two drawers and start to assemble those as well. The fronts get adjusted…the original ones were a tad too wide, and to get them the right size takes some figuring, but with time and effort I persevered, hah. Has anyone every noticed that some difficult projects can seem like a challenge of wills. Will you win, or will the friggin’ wood. Grrr.
Suddenly, while we were just moseying along with the projects, there was a commotion at the bottom of the yard. Groovy (boxer) and Mati (Labrador) started to fight and we…well, the sibs in fact, since I had to stay away to keep my dogs, like Knight II at bay…pounced on the lot to get the two fighters apart. Some dogs flew…literally. Little brother actually had to throw several over the fence to prevent them from joining the melee…and within several minutes, the dogs were dragged into separate directions. Groovy has a few nicks, but Mati has a one-inch rip in his ear that thankfully looks worse than it is. It’ll heal, but we’ll need to keep an eye on it.
Back to the projects:
While the readjusted fronts dry, I start putting in the sliders, make a slight error that earns me three wrong holes in the new shelving (hate it when that happens) which luckily were on the side that will be in the corner, so it won’t be noticeable, phew.
With that first real error under my hat, more stuff begins to go wrong, so by the time the night falls, I give up on the endeavor and decide to go on a run with big brother, just to clear my head.
The run goes blissfully well, yay, even though it was rather cold and I was wearing this ridiculously pink woolen cap because I get way too cold otherwise.
While we were out, we decided to do a little off road exploring and almost got lost. Once we retraced our proverbial steps, we got back on the road though and just drove home, rather than try out more bumpy back roads.
Dinner waited, little sister made spaghetti and sauce, yay, and after…ehm, stuffing my face I was more than ready to settle down behind the computer for a quick recount of the past two day. Hah.
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