Excuses

Song of the day: “Burn” by Ellie Goulding. Fun song, except when it starts repeating on the chorus, over and over and over again.

So, let’s get the bad news out of the day. Grandpa had his operation; it was tough for him, and he’s still at the hospital, battling the depression of a failed procedure. The clips that were placed on his valves are not functioning the way they had hoped, and once heart medication has stabilized, he can go home, leaving the doctors with little else to do for him. Grrrr. Poor guy. He’d put his hopes on the operation being successful, and now, according to the doctors, he’s going to have to continue muddling through.

He has finally agreed to start trying nutritional supplements, at least, so we’re going to see what effect that will have.

We have been visiting regularly, naturally, but it has been tough combining it with many hours at work…something we’ve been doing a lot, especially big brother, who has slowly been applying himself to assist our team leader in the more technical aspects of the job. This means that he is home very little, and does even less in chores than usual. I understand, naturally, but with my own hours, groceries and cleaning at our place, I’m pretty much bushed at the end of the day; this is not entirely beneficial to my writing, I’ll tell ya. Managed maybe a handful of pages since the last blog. But no matter. I’m going to keep trying…and added to that, I have an editor interested in reading it in the near future, which should get us some handy pointers, if nothing more.

I have decided to quit work at the thrift store, for the time being. First off, I don’t have the time for it. Secondly, store policy is changing, meaning that cozy is out, businesslike is in. Strange, considering at how well folks were responding to the cozy bit, but alas…not that it matters. In fact it is rather handy that this change has been announced, considering that it made quitting a lot easier. They don’t need me to do businesslike. My forte is definitely cozy. Hah. Anyway, my time there was fun, and I’ve got a nice friend from it, so…we’ll see what’s next.

In accordance to the agreement made with landlady, I accompanied her to a couple of markets. The latest having been a two day stint at a covered complex behind Utrecht. The first day was friggin’ boring, I tell ya, but at least our sales were relatively high. The second day, during which we took Gloria (crossbreed 7 month old dog that she’s looking to place in a new home) along as company and advertising. Made the day a lot more pleasurable, I’ll admit, considering she drew loads of customers and dog lovers who came in for a chat. All together we made the same amount this weekend, as we did the last time in one day, but still, it paid for gas, the stand and some extra, allowing land lady to pay her bills as well.

Spent my last free day, a couple of weeks ago, baking bread, cooking dinner, having a good workout session a the local gym (finally signed up) and snoozing on the couch (kept dropping off, I tell ya) until the day slipped by quick as you please. Annoying how that works, right? What can I say, I’m tired at a lot these days. Probably still getting used to it all.

Fall has really started here. Loads of yellow and red trees all around, but thankfully the trees are still full. It’s going to be a depressing state once the leaves are all gone. I gotta say that one of things I like in this country is that the ground is basically flat everywhere, allowing for easy biking and walking whenever the heck you please and weather allows. Another thing that is nice, at our present location pretty anything necessary is really close. We’ve got supermarkets, pharmacies, and most importantly public transportation basically at the door. That is really handy, in particular since recently we’re using it to get home from work. Takes about twenty minutes, which beats biking in the rain…like this morning. Our ride got stuck in traffic 40 minutes out, so we had to grab the bikes and rush to arrive four minutes before starting time, Yay!

A strange experience, working for a big company this way, but luckily it is accepted that I really don’t like doing cleaning more than four hours a day. Instead I’m put on all sort of projects like hanging mirrors, flat screens and clothes hooks throughout the facility, also soap and towel dispensers, designing and building wooden electrical boxes, installing outside lighting, and so on and on. The diversity keeps it interesting, I’ll admit.

Am slowly starting to get to know more of our colleagues, but I still think that it will take time until we know them all. There are more than seventy of them after all.

What else…well, very little. I am working on putting together some furniture. Found a gorgeous classic chair at the local landfill which I’m going to restore for my future room. It’s from sort of nutty wood, but some idiot painted it black…which is something I’m going to correct asap…might take a while with the schedule these days, but I can hope, right?

Further…the attic is a friggin’ mess. I really need to do something about that. It’s driving me bonkers to trip over shoes and clothes all the time. But like so many things, that will have to come some day soon. At the moment I just don’t have the time nor the energy…maybe that will change once we’ve got the routine settled, and managed to go to the gym more than a measly once a week. Grrr.

Well, that’s all she wrote…for now anyway. I didn’t keep to my promise of writing more often, did I. All I can say as an explanation (I don’t mean it as an excuse mind you, just fact) life, at the moment, is an emotional roller coaster, and so many things that I took for granted are changing, or falling away that I find it difficult to find the peace within myself to write everything down on the blog, the way I’m supposed to. There are things that I miss, and things that I don’t miss at all over there in Spain. Over here there are things that I like and that I don’t like, but that is life, I suppose. However good a place this is for now as we lick our wounds and try to figure out what to do with our future, I know more certain than ever that this here isn’t enough either. Someday I want to end up in the States, and that is just plain fact. How I’m going to manage it…I don’t know yet. It doesn’t matter, it is going to be a question someday somehow, is all.

As before, I will try to do better in the future, but if I don’t I hope you’ll forgive me.

Laughing fit

Song of the day: “Foolish games” by Jewel. It’s been a while since I had Jewel in my head. Good song.

I stole an extra twenty minutes of sleep yesterday morning, which was divine. Then of course the day started and chores had to be seen to. Put a bit of rush on it, because it was our turn to go visit tenant at the hospital. First did some writing. Not a lot, but some at least. Same goes for this morning. So much to do, so little time. Every free second I can find, I’m now putting into the photo blog, figuring out how to format it, how I’m going to do the whole thing when I barely have enough time to spend a full night sleeping, hah. Ah well, I’ll sleep when I’m dead, right?

Went to town to pick up oil for the Land Rover, did a pick up of a donation, which took longer than anticipated, and then had to drive straight through to San Pedro where we had and appointment with a fella who makes metal contraptions for markets. Since the one mom borrowed from a friend has to go back now that the fella has transportation again, she’d been frantically searching for a solution. Luckily I had saved the card of this guy when he came past at the market looking for clients, so now we could buy a decent replacement…even if we did have to travel for more than an hour to get it.
But anyway, the guy met us as the appointed time at a gas station, and had us follow him into this really remote area in the back town, where he opened up his van and started pulling out what we needed. I phoned home to check what all mom and the sibs wanted and then made a deal with the guy.

Nice fella. Lived in Paris for 24 years, and was married to a French woman. His French was almost as good as his Spanish, for crying out loud. I was so jealous. Hah. But anyway, once we loaded up, we were back on our and arrived at the hospital after five to visit with tenant.

At first I was a little startled that she was so far gone, but then she really woke from her mental wanderings and became really cheerful. We chatted for quite a bit of time, and she was in good spirits by the time we had to leave again.

Had a quick supper of my patties on burger bread, unloaded the car, and then quickly got to work on the book again.

Which brings us to this morning. Was a little early for a change (fifteen minutes, no more, don’t worry) and decided to just go for it. Quickly went through the chores, fed the dogs, which they loved because we had meat in it, and they were, like, “Oh yeah!” It was hilarious to see, in particular the fat dogs that did their vacuum cleaner imitation so splendidly.

Worked on the book, of course, quickly stuffed my face with breakfast, and then, by the time two hours had passed, it was time to go up to test out the new construction for the market. We set the whole thing up, tried out the fabric over the top (colorful sort of fabric, this time round. Red with blue, very much like tie dye. Picked it myself. Hah.)
I think it’s going to work well tomorrow.

That done I got to work on making patties for Sunday. Made the three basics, chickpea, lentil and bean, of each about thirty-two I think. That took an hour or two, seeing as the whole lot had to be packed as well, but if they don’t sell, we’ll have food for several weeks, which is so easy. Hah

That done, it was time to load up the Land Rover. Had to rush it too, because we had to be at the vet’s before closing time with Knight II so she could check his ear. Still some liquid in there, but she rather not stitch him up again, so we’re going to keep trying the squeezing his ear out bit. He doesn’t like it, but if it can save him some more stitches, I’m all for it.

A quick trip to the vegetable distribution center gave us a nice load of veggies for the four-legged ones, and then we were on our way to the store to get some groceries for mom before heading back home. Gawd, groceries take sooooo much time. Once at home again, we finished up loading. Had a massive laughing fit when I was carrying a table to the car and was lifting it onto the roof-rack when I noticed big brother working on combing the hair of a Barby doll we intent to sell tomorrow…or at some point. Seriously, it was hysterical, and I had a stitch in my side afterward. Seriously, such a strange image.

For supper, we decided to go for fried food so I could do a little bit more writing before starting on today’s blog. Which means that I am now done (25 minutes too late, darn it. I should be getting ready for bed already) with this blog, and only need to do a pic on the other blog before I can call it a day.

Gotta go.

Running late

Song of the day…I’m not sure. There were too many this weekend to just settle on one.

It was a busy weekend, and now it is late, so I’m going to have to do this fast.

First off, I'm a little worried about Knight II. The lump on his chest is still there, darn it.

Saturday market didn’t go bad. Had the booth set up in about an hour and a half, which meant that the waiting game started almost immediately. Hah. Stuff almost went wrong when we arrived a little late, and there was this guy standing there, acting if he had the right to be there. I immediately dug out my phone to check things out, but before I finished dialing he was off to his car, mumbling like a lunatic. Hah. Sold more than just the expenses for a change, and did have a nice chat with a Finnish woman and a woman from Canada. They were nice and one of them actually bought something, so that was a double treat. I also sold a tie dye shirt, which was very nice. She actually said she’d come by again to see if I have new stuff.

Started loading at two, and drove straight to our donation address afterward, hoping it would fit on top of the market stuff. It did, just barely, but it took time. When we finally did get home it was late, and I still had to get started on making the pumpkin chutney, yogurt sauce and of course the two mango cheesecakes. Yep, decided to make one for the market, and since making two mangos doesn’t take any longer than just one, I figured, what the hell.

Did manage some edits on Saturday. A good thing, considering Sunday was a bust in regards to edits. Didn’t get any done, but did manage to write two pages of my “Gun” story. That was of course after getting up at the crack of dawn, baking 12 burgers and driving to Funny Beach where we got to set up the stand once more. Good thing I like to set up a lot, because now I get to do it twice a week…did get a rather nice compliment the other day that I “dressed up” the stand so nicely. Almost like a cute little store. Hah. Good to see that it at least gets appreciated.

Made my first real profit with my patties, cheesecake and sauces. Came away with some odd ten bucks after the expenses were taken off. Yay. I loved those expression on some folks’ faces when they tried for the first time, and ended up totally surprised. There were plenty of responses that went like “Wow. That is REALLY nice” or “Very good, and there’s no tofu in this?”
Sold about a dozen of ‘m. Along with seven pieces of pie, and a bottle of sauce. Yay! One dude even bought some of everything. Hah. Nice.

Were done setting up within a couple of hours, at which time I took over the stand for about half an hour so Cousin Ed could take a quick dip in the sea. We’ve been trying to for the past few weeks, but what with everything going on we just didn’t get to it. But anyway, once she had her swim, it was time for me to get into the car and go to the hospital to visit Sally. She’s not doing well, I think. More so mentally than physically. She’s doing stuff that had me a tad shocked when she told me, and I don’t shock easily. It made me a little ditzy afterward. Heck, I even forgot my water bottle once I left.

Once I got back I stuffed my face with some crackers and cheese, and then headed into the restaurant where they were nice enough to let me have a table (despite it being busy) so I could write for an hour and a half. That went rather well. Character development is coming along nicely, as is the plot. I actually had to laugh several times while writing.

But anyway, once done with my writing, it was another hour before it was time to start packing up for the day. Didn’t finish with that until well after six (my friggin’ just about ready to be chopped off) and arriving at home around seven. Then there was the whole unloading bit, shoveling food down our throats and then sitting down for some relaxation finally. Did have some nice chats (regardless that the other participant is nicely nutters) before finally dropping into bed and passing out for the night.

Which reminds me. I was totally miffed this morning when I woke up from the alarm right when my dream was starting to get interesting. It was a continuation on my “Gun” story, and I was just about to kiss this Brad Pitt-ish dude when the friggin’ alarm went off. Could have had a bit more of that, thank you very much.

Did manage a ten page edit. Both big brother and I are pretty pleased with how things are turning out so far. The new scenes seem to match nicely, while still keeping the tone of the story intact, which is all one can really ask for, right?

Then, of course, we had to head into the yard, where I yanked weeds, planted some herbs and big brother watered. It took us about an hour, at which point it was time to have some lunch. I took my dose of meat, thank you very much. (Good Sammie) And we did a bit of Spanish when Cousin Ed, Grandpa and Tenant came home from the hospital. Tenant had an appointment for her kidneys, and grandpa visited with Sally, so that went all really fast.

Lunch eaten, big brother and I headed out for a pickup. Since we were out anyway, we went past several stores to look at prices for cameras. I’m playing with the idea of getting a digital one. I’ve been leaning toward it for a while, and who knows, I might actually try to get a job with it, here and there. We’ll see.

Well, once we got home it was almost nine, so I quickly cooked dinner and then tried to get to work. Regretfully I got a mail which took way too much of my time, so once again we didn’t get to edits. Darn it, we’ll never make that deadline now. I hope that that publisher won’t mind C.H. being late.

Well, it is almost two in the morning. I need to get some sleep, in particular since I am a little tipsy (had a nice white semidulce). If I don’t I might say something stupid.

Cooking up a whirl

Song of the day: “Things” still, by Robbie Williams and Jane Horrocks. Good song.
Woke at the alarm, as usual, of course. (I’m referring to yesterday, in case you’re wondering.) There were the normal chores, such as the average laundry of two batches per day. Feeding the dogs too, of course. Knight II doesn’t like it at all that he’s not allowed to eat along with the rest of them. In fact he’ll be in my cabin standing behind the glass door, trampling like some impatient horse. *sigh* Poor darling.

The paper edit is gradually progressing, still, despite all the distractions. We’re at a third, more or less, so that’s not bad. I’m pleased about what the last two edits achieved, I’ll admit. I’m finding very few typos and the glaring mistakes are gone. The changes now are semantics on the most part, which is incredibly good.

Big brother managed to fix the adapter of the computer, so we saved ourselves an odd forty bucks. Yay. Stupid plug didn’t work, so he had to attach a new one for it to work properly.
Managed to do some work in the kitchen. Tiled part (both cousin Ed and I did, anyway) of the walls, cleaned debris from the floors, and then had to abort right in the middle of that because we had to do a pickup.

Sally isn’t doing all that well. In fact, she is getting mighty snappy because she constantly forgets why certain things have to be done in a particular way. Like today she was all upset because she didn’t get a painkiller when she wanted one, and had completely forgotten yesterday when I’d found her with stomach pain because she’d been mixing up her medication. So we agreed that she wouldn’t control any of her pills, but let grandpa handle it completely. Since she’d forgotten all that, she was a tad upset this afternoon until I’d explained the whole thing once more. Very troublesome when someone’s memories start failing them. There are times when she is completely disoriented, not to mention upset. Like yesterday, before the pill discussion. She hadn’t taken a shower in more than a week, and when I asked her why not, she promptly started crying. Turns out that she worries so much about the effort it takes to see to that chore, that by the time she should be stepping under the shower, she’s basically scared herself out of it. I am well familiar with the problem, having seen it before. You can’t give into stuff like that, because if you start giving up on the most basic stuff, you will soon be left with nothing. *sigh*

But anyway. I’ve got a new hat. Fabric, this time, a bit Ausie, I think. I’ll have to take a picture when I try it on, eh? While I got my hat, I was also able to pick up my computer at the store and get this, they figured out the problem: The (hold your breath) battery (really, you would never have guessed) is (I couldn’t believe it) broken!!!
*sigh*
Seriously, why else did I bring it there, for crying out loud. A year and a half, and the battery dead. And that while I followed instructions and drained the battery completely every time before loading it again. *double sigh* And of course the battery’s warranty only lasts 6 months, meaning I’m screwed and in need of a new battery. Grrr.

Cooking, yesterday involved red cabbage with mashed potatoes, while today we had the same mashed potatoes with cauliflower. Both worked well enough when it concerned hunger, thank you very much.

Spent several hours in the kitchen, by the way. Made three batches of burgers. One on a lentil basis, one on white beans and one on chickpeas. All three worked out well, and each left me with 26 burgers for selling, while the remainder will be enough for the testers.

Also made two chutneys, an eggplant curry and the same pumpkin chutney of last week. No pie this time…at least, not yet. I might change my mind later, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

We had to load up the Land Rover today. Normally we do that on Saturday, for the Sunday market, but we’re going to try the market on Saturday as well, so that means a day earlier. Took a bit, but we’re getting a hang of it now.

Sonia is doing a teeny weenie bit better. There seems to be less paralysis in her back legs, and her pain is less severe as well. Phew. Luckily. Let’s hope she’ll be as good as new within a few days, because this was a big fright.

Well, that’s it for me. It’s been a long day, and I need to be up again in less than seven hours. Before I hit the sheets, I’ll be an hour further along at the very least, darn it! I’m goin’! I’m goin’ already. Grrrr.

"Things"

Song of the day: “Things” by (originally anyway) Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra. My head is alternating between that one and the one Robbie Williams did with Jane Harrick’s. Both are awesome.

Bad news first. Sonia, big brother’s Cocker Spaniel is not well as of yesterday. She didn’t get up during the course of the evening, was shaking, and when she finally did get up, she went straight through her legs, held her head at an odd angle, and seemed unable to hear us. This morning, it was only worse, so we left early and went right over to the hospital. The vet is ambivalent between a problem that can be caused by ticks, and a hernia of sorts, something for which she prescribed antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. I doubt this is it. In fact, I think she either had a spike in fever, or had some sort of stroke, but who am I, right?
Anyway, she’s not actually doing better now, but also not worse, so we’re just going to have to wait and see how it goes. We have agreed, however, that if she gets worse, we’re not going to drag this out for her. She’s and old girl, and she deserves to go without long days filled with pain, and with some dignity.

But alright. Time to get to yesterday. I woke on the late side, partly due to the fact that I’m constantly busy on the computer until way too late. It didn’t help that it was a restless night, with Knight II constantly pushing himself up against me. He is such a baby.

Had a wonderful panic attach that lasted through most of the day, yesterday. It’s been a while since I had that. Heck, except for the few incidents, it’s been years, in fact. I can’t say I liked it. From sheer frustration I decided to pound the kickboxing bag for a few minutes, to get rid of some of the tension at least. It calmed me down a little, at least.

I see you wondering. What the heck’s she been worrying about? I don’t really know, actually. The usual, maybe. Getting on in years and still not having achieved some of my goals? Could be. Money toils? Heck, who hasn’t got those. No reason to get a panic attack about that, darn it. The dogs getting on in years? Sure. But I worry ‘bout that a lot, and try to be realistic about that by seeing it as a good thing that the pack is slowly getting to be less in numbers. Let’s face it, if finances get worse, it is not a good idea to have as many dogs as we used to. I have to remind myself that it is a good thing that they are passing on, in particular since they have all led a wonderfully full life, and enjoyed it to the fullest…on the most part. No. this is not a good reason to have a panic attack either. I’m just going to dismiss is it as silly fears that have no place bothering me at this point in my life. I am doing the best I can, in the only way I know how, and that is all anyone can ever do. Right?

Had to go out for a small donation yesterday (that was after the usual chores, of course) and go over to a specific bazaar where we needed to get clamps for mom’s market stand. You know what I mean, right? One of those metal contraptions with fabric over it? All very professional, and most likely giving a rather quaint image. Hah. We’ll see how it goes on Saturday, when big brother and I use it in town for the new market we’re going to be trying out…if all goes as planned. We still have to hear from the person who owns the spot how and when we can use it.

Tomorrow, or the day after is going to be busy for me. I’ll be doing some experimenting in the kitchen. First of, I need to make that pumpkin chutney for Sunday. The lady who really liked it basically ordered a pot (let’s hope she turns up), and I’m going to try some others out as well. You never know, I might be onto something here. I’m going to try to just experiment and see if there is a market for it.

Had a talk with Sally yesterday. She’s having her ups and downs, being bothered by all sorts of discomforts, and is understandably concerned. There’s very painful cramping, for which we decided to try alcohol free beer. Since cramping is mostly caused by shortages in calcium (which she should have more than enough of due to milk products) and magnesium, it won’t hurt to try. Added to that, since grandpa is now regulating her medication (she can’t keep track of it herself anymore) he noticed that she is holding back on painkillers. It worried us a little, but she volunteered an explanation by telling me that when she’s not in pain she will postpone taking it until she really needs it. Phew.

Tenant has, it seems, reverted a little to her old ways now that her family is gone. Eating is a bigger problem again. In fact, she will say that she wants to eat pieces, but then when you give it, she doesn’t finish her plate. I’m afraid we’re going to have to go back to mashing it all.

Cooking these past two days involved mashed potatoes with baked carrots and broccoli today, and chili sin carne yesterday (I know, I should have added meat, but I couldn’t make myself, darn it) which went down well with a bunch of lentil burgers. Yay. Today’s desert was yogurt with cream. Hah.

Today was Spanish lesson day, of course. It didn’t go bad, despite the fact that I slept way too little (big brother was out and about with Sonia, and once I heard she was still doing bad, I couldn’t go back to sleep anyway). Didn’t get to bed until three, and was up before nine, darn it.
But anyway, Spanish didn’t go bad. We talked with our teacher (she works on a new technique that is based on what works best for her students. It is very intuitive, and unstructured, which works for big brother and me, I think.
Were a little late arriving at her place (due to Sonia) and had Knight along. It was rather hot, so he was more than a little fussy. With a little luck I’ll be able to leave him home again next week, because he disrupts lessons quite a bit. And what with the heat, I couldn’t leave him in the car.

Summer appears to have arrived, by the way. The clouds are pretty much gone, and the temps have peaked well into the eighties. Yay. With a little luck I’ll be cleaning the pool tomorrow morning, but it’ll depend on how things work out.

Once we got home today (which was late because we had to go to town for another pickup) I was so friggin tired, I decided to take a nap and literally passed out for an hour. Seriously, when Cousin Ed called me awake, I felt like I had to drag myself out of a near coma, for crying out loud. Jeez.

Edits. I did quite a bit on the paper edit, actually. I’m almost at a quarter now, so, Yay! Which reminds me. I better wrap this up so we can get started on applying the paper changes on the computer. Gotta go.

Izzy

Song of the day: “The boy does nothing” by Alesha Dixon. Yep. I made a play list while working on Chicago Hope, and that one just keeps popping up in my head.

Well, I’m late today, so I’ll have to rush through this. The past couple of days I’ve been incredibly busy working on the novella, adding to it steadily. Already I’ve written two more scenes that should do a good job of adding to atmosphere of the ‘20s. We’ve got moonshine, bootlegging, pinstripe suits and wingtip shoes. *sigh* I’ve been surfing Wikipedia way too much. It took me hours before I resurfaced from the prohibition page and all the mighty interesting mobster bits and pieces. Way more information than I can ever add to the story, but fascinating nonetheless.

On the down side we got a message from another publisher who declined A.T.O.L. (the PNR story), which is a tad disappointing, but not too bad since right now we have to focus on this project and see where it brings us. Still, it would have been fascinating.

But okay, that’s it on the writing side. Let’s quickly get to the rest so I can go to bed on time.
Was a little late yesterday morning, which was a good thing considering Cousin Ed was late too, and our dogs would have had a head-on collision if I’d been five minutes earlier. Hah.

First thing to do was fetching the visiting dogs and walking them in the lower yard with Hairy. That was of course followed by a session of hanging laundry, going up to feed the dogs, and then having my own breakfast. Had to help tenant to bed after she sat in her chair for a few hours, and then, thankfully, could get to work on the book.

The afternoon was spent driving the visiting dogs to the vet. Their inoculations were almost expired so it had to be done prior to the new dog that was going to arrive. Mom went along to, seeing as Empera had to be checked as well. The whole thing took about an hour, at which time we loaded the dogs into the second car, so mom could drive them home, while big brother and I headed to town for a donation.

We were just passing the cemetery when big brother saw something from the corner of his eye, and slammed his foot on the break in the middle of the road. “Puppy,” he said.
“What? Where?”
“Back there by the cemetery gates.”
I looked back. “Where. I can’t see it.”
“Just around the corner.”
“Maybe I should go fetch it?!”
“Yeah. Maybe you should.”
I bit my lip, weighing the horrors of a puppy alone on the street, and us ending up with another dog in a time where we really can’t afford to. “Okay. I’m going.”
Got out and headed back, only in time to see the puppy totter around the corner and cross the street as though it wasn’t risking its very life on a busy (blissfully deserted at that particular time) road like that. It was responding to my cooing noises, but overshot its aim by sliding down the incline beyond the sidewalk.
“No, no, no,” I chanted, going in pursuit, clicking my tongue, and cooing some more until it was slowly making its way up the incline once more, staring up at me with big brown eyes. Some of the ground, regardless of its fearful screech. And boy could this little girl screech. *sigh*
Took me a full minute to wind her down, at which time I’d wrapped her wet and cold little body (rather skinny to boot) in an old towel and we were back on our way. I dubbed the little one Izzy. She’s black, and either a waterdog mix, or a poodle mix. Either way, she’s a sweetheart, and after some calls, a friend offered to find her a home. Such a relief, that. I was already worrying what the heck to do with her.

Once in town we went past a vet, who was kind enough to check if she was chipped (she wasn’t) and then headed off to do what had to be done in town before heading back home. In the end Sally agreed to take the little one during the night. She seemed a little reluctant at first, but then later, when I suggested she could spend the night in tenant’s kitchen if she was too much of a bother, she said she actually rather liked the idea of company for the night. Phew. Glad that that worked. The little one spent the night, and it went just fine.

I was up at eight to take the puppy of her hands and get to work on the revision. Got some decent work done today. 1700 words, or thereabouts. I had some serious “stuck” moments, but the fact that I dreamt about “the world” for the majority of the night did help me to get the setting in my head.

There was of course cooking to be done. For ourselves and for tenant. She’s still being picky, but as long as we feed her it is going down. Drinking is still pretty exasperating, but at least it is more than it used to be.
Caregiver has managed to get a nurse to come over twice a week to check on tenant’s intubated urine bag, meaning that we won’t have to drag the poor woman to the village health center anymore.

Another trip to town today. I tried to connect it with another meeting with Pedro, but regretfully he didn’t have time today. Neither did we have time for homework for that matter, darn it. We shouldn’t forget that we still have to construct several sentences before Wednesday.

From the way things are looking right now, we are most likely going to go to the Funny Beach market on Sunday. It’ll be a nice change again, after all this time. With a little luck, I might actually manage to fit in some writing in the afternoon. What I’m looking forward to the most, is definitely the sunshine that has been forecast. Hah.

Went to the yard and gathered some harvest. Cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce and thinning out some of the broccoli plants in the big field. Everything is looking rather splendid at the moment, what with all the rain. Most of the fruit trees are in bloom, and despite the fact that there are still a million things to do in the yard, the weeding we did the other day did have some beneficial effects…we couldn’t actually walk over the terraces. Hah.

The owner of the visiting dogs came back today. She also took Hairy with her, and Izzy, whom she’s going to find a home for. I still wonder what kind of breed. I’ve got a better picture, somewhere, but this one will have to do for now.



Cute, huh?

Okay. I better go now. It’s already past midnight after all.

It's that time of the year

Song of the day: “Love is in the air” by…gawd, I don’t remember his name. I just know that the song was for Strictly Ballroom. Fun song, even if he does have a bit of a wonky voice.

First off, let me just get this one out of the way:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

*phew* Almost forgot it, but I didn’t. Kudos for me. Hope you’re having a splendid one.

Right. Let’s get to it then….

Well, today was a total bust, so I’m just going to ignore if for no other reason than the fact that we didn’t manage to do much today. Only thing we did was the piping for the future kitchen, which wasn’t much. Normal stuff, too of course, hauling some wood for the stacks, laundry, dog food, and cooking, but nothing remotely fun, so let’s turn this toward yesterday’s market which…well, which wasn’t a big success either, I fear.

Packing-wise, it was a lot easier seeing as big brother opted to go along. Loading, and unloading was a matter of an hour, rather than two in that regard. Had it all set up before noon, in fact, and we did manage to get home before sunset. Yay. But that was the only real plus to yesterday.

Not that I minded, on the overall my day wasn’t a bad one. We sold for the wondrous amount of two and a half bucks, and my day was…well, okay. Hah. The market was a slow one. If there were fifty customers it was a lot. Did manage to get some nice chats in with Dutch and German folk. There was a couple, who were vacationing these parts, who loved dogs (they weren’t in the market for a dog bed, regretfully, because their dog was killed through the means of poison) and we ended up chatting for a long time about how to train dogs.

Then with a father and son, who were there enjoying the day with friends and family and their little girl. Lots of laughter there, which was fascinating to observe. Big brother and I took a couple of hours in the middle of the day to sit down in the back of the restaurant where we edited over coffee. Managed about five pages, which wasn’t too bad, all things considered.

Also had a chat with the nice lady who organizes the market. She was a little down, as is the case these past few times. She’s taking it rather harshly that the customers are not coming, and since that makes the stand holders unhappy, she gets tossed in the middle a little. Not her fault that folks are watching their pennies, if you ask me, but I can relate. She is putting lots of work into it.

But anyway, afterward it was rushing to get to town in time for the weekly donation bit. Still haven’t managed to arrange it for a different. Well, we did sorta, seeing as Saturday we had another. That guy I met at the market the other week, who wanted to get rid of his stuff before moving back to the UK? Well, I got around to calling him, and we made an appointment at the mall for him to give over his stuff.

Gawd, that guy had some stories. Turns out he’s been away from the UK since ’66. And has basically traveled all over the place. First off he traveled all the way to Timbuktu, and then hitchhiked from England to South Africa. It took him a year, but he got stuck over there in…Mozambique, I think, for the following twenty year.
Then, he somehow ended up here in Spain where he put up this cute little business of designing terrace gardens, which he also maintained. And now he’s returning to the UK to take care of his 90 year old mum, which he feels he should do (as is the right thing, of course) but which he also dreads since he hasn’t been in the colder countries for more than thirty years. Yikes.

Did have a very good edit day on Saturday. It made yesterday’s five pages less disastrous for sure. I think we managed a total of twenty pages, so we’re not actually behind with today’s nine. Yay.

Cooking…well, I didn’t do any yesterday. We settled for fried stuff. But Saturday I made an Indian dish that didn’t work out the way I’d planned, and today there was a rather nice pasta fungi that went down really well.

Digging was part of Saturday, preparing for pouring the concrete foundation (which we didn’t get around to today, darn it). Finished digging the gutter for the tubing, set the concrete blocks of the wall in place (I carried two up while big brother used the wheelbarrow…almost wrecking it…with the remainder) and basically scraped as much rock as possible away.

Still haven’t gotten around to cleaning Chaos’ ear, nor Carla’s. That is something we’ll have to do tomorrow…after the edit. *sigh*

Weather wise we’ve been very lucky (except yesterday, since Funny Beach Marbella was completely in the fog) with clear skies and a warm sun. Strangely enough the valley has been mostly obscured by this thick blanket of clouds that lay on the hills and valleys like a thick fog. Up here, we’re not bothered by it, but the village, town and the sea have been utterly obscured for days. The only thing visible is Africa. The mountains are higher than the clouds, which makes for a rather splendid view. Jutting peaks of green in a blanket of cotton. Fascinating. Reminds me of horror movies, really. You know, the Mist, the Fog. Ya can just imagine dangerous creatures lurking within, or some sort of acid raining down and eating your face right off, or something along those horrible lines……I know, I have a rather gross imagination going there. Hah.

Well, that’s about it. I’m sure I’m missing something vital, but since you won’t know if I do, we’ll just leave it at this. *snort*

Too short days

Song of th day: “Rapper’s delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. Cool song, in particular when you’re digging, and need to walk to and fro the wheelbarrow over uneven patches of ground. It made for quite a sight, I tell ya, and I assure you that I made very sure that no one was around to see it. Hah. Good song to swing to. Made digging a lot nicer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Saturday’s first, then Sunday, and then, of course, today. *sigh*
Well, the usual stuff, naturally. Laundry, dog food, the feeding as much as the preparing, followed by editing.

Managed only a few pages on Saturday, which was a pain in the behind since also I wouldn’t manage a lot on market day, right? But anyway, after the edit (strangely enough like before, Saving Nina makes us break out in the occasional argument) we had to do some minor repairs in the house.

While I was doing the digging, big brother worked on the trunk of the eucalyptus tree, going through roots and in the end just wrenching the darn thing out while Cousin Ed and I loaded up the trailer for market day. Afterward big brother and I spent some time cutting wood up by the storage with the chainsaws. Got quite a bit done before it was time to head out for the food donation for the doggies. Got a good load, thanks to the drug rehab place. *sigh*

Once home we dined on French fries and other fried stuff, which went down well. Am glad to say that at the end of the day we did manage to reach our daily goal of ten pages. Yay. Which is not something I can say about Sunday which was of course spent at the market.

Started the day with a weird dream about us having to dig this massive, almost giant tree out of a pile of gravel. Where that came from I don’t know, but seriously, it was downright weird.

Yep, selling wise it wasn’t a bad day, but regretfully with today’s economy folks are in no big rush to buy anything significant. Lots of interest, lots of touching, talking and looking, but buying…? Nope. *sigh* Ah well, at least we made our expenses, and I did manage to add another two pages to the sci-fi story I’m working on.

Had a wonderful chat with this older English guy. Met him several times already, and we got to talking about how he was going back to England because his mom was getting on in years and needed help. For that reason he was on the market, trying to get rid of some of his stuff, rather than toss it away. He, and two of his friends (Austrian and Denish) decided that he would like to donate his stuff to us rather than bother standing on the market again.

He gave me his card so I could give him a ring next week and meet up somewhere to get his stuff loaded up. Since he’s a nice dude, I didn’t mind going with that arrangement.

There might be troubles up ahead for the Funny Beach market, because the customers aren’t coming in the amounts they were hoping for. There is already talk of bringing it down to once a month, which would be a pity, considering it is such a nice place. Ah well, we’ll see.

My friggin’ foot was killing me at the end of the day, but then what else is new, right? Kids that kept falling into our baskets with small toys were a wonderful distraction, though. They are just not resistant against that. Hah. Even sold a few, yay.

No more fun stuff to tell, since once we got home big brother and I headed out again immediately for a donation in town. I know. Shouldn’t do those on Sundays. *sigh* It wasn’t much, but what the hey, bits and pieces will get you there.

Had to phone the garage this morning to let them know that I couldn’t come in today. I totally forgot that Sally had to go to hospital for chemo, so I couldn’t drop the Land Rover off. They were understanding about it, and I really do have to start remembering not to pick Monday’s for the garage because I can’t cancel during the weekends because they’re closed then. Meaning I have to wait ‘till the last possible moment, darn it. I hate that. But they said it was okay to bring the car in tomorrow instead, so it’s okay.

There were the normal chores, followed by helping tenant while caregiver was out with Sally to hospital. Once I’d set her up with breakfast and coffee, big brother and I went to work at the edit again and managed about four pages before chores of the day demanded our attention.

First there was tenant to walk down to the house since she was going to visit with mom for the day.

Lots of digging afterward (involving Rapper’s delight, hehehe) and figuring out how much further we have to go. And then going up to see how we’re going to do the counters, which materials we’ll be using and all that jazz. Very exciting, all, despite the fact that the days just seem to be too short these days. *sigh*

Did cooking. Pumpkin with vegetable mix, on chickpea patties. Need the nutrients, and the taste is pretty good to boot. Had to interrupt the cooking session to pick up tenant and bring her back to her place. Once she was set up with food, (later I had to help her to bed too, since caregiver was still out) big brother and I got our own portions and got back to work on the edit once more…I know, I know, so boring eh, all that editing, but at the moment that is really part of our daily efforts…less than a month now until the competition. I would like to say I’m excited, or nervous, but I’m not. I’m not going to waste time on hoping. We’re going to see one way or other. Hah.

Then tonight, while writing this blog, well, close to midnight really, caregiver came home, informing us that Sally was going to have to stay at the hospital again, due to a very slight fever…which is why they spent the majority of the day in the waiting room of the ER. Bet that drove them bonkers.

Nasty bit of news is that Knight II's front left paw is now swollen. I don't what he did, where, or how, but he makes me want to scream. I should just strangle him, the idiot, with his crappy immune system Grrrr.
Well, that’s it for me. I’m off to bed.

Feedback at last

Song of the day: …I’m not sure. I know I had a song in my head this morning but now, for the life of me, I can’t remember it. Strange. But anyway, yesterday’s song was this new song I heard on the radio: Iyaz with Replay. Very cute. Superficial as heck, but who cares anyway. It reminds me of “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy. Hah.

Had a decent night’s rest yesterday, meaning that I wasn’t tired for a change. Yep, miracles do happen. I managed to be in bed before one in the morning. Yay!

Okay, first thing’s first. I got my official editor’s report for Saving Nina yesterday, and though I almost had a heart attack reading the first few sentences, there was enough positive stuff in the report not to have me dissolve into a puddle of misery. Yep, they know their stuff well over there at the agency where they help struggling authors like myself. Throw in enough positive, otherwise we’ll never have a return customer. Hah. But anyway, the editor seemed to be on the up and up, pointing out a few holes I’d missed and a handful of I-don’t-get-thats which I’ll need to work on. The biggest “problem” the editor pointed out was the references to the past and future in the story, which is going to be a terrible pickle. It means I will have to expand stuff that is supposed to come out in the prequel and sequels, without wrecking the plot of the others. *Phew* At the moment, thinking of that seems like I have to climb the Mount Everest for crying out loud. Better not think of that yet, eh? I’ll get to that when I get to it, or something like that. Hah.
To remain positive. I got a good response to my dialogues, action sequences, sex scenes, and pacing…as to the rest…well, it’s work in progress, I guess. For the most part I'm just glad that we finally have some idea of what the problems might be.

But enough about that. I wrote two pages today of the new book, which isn’t altogether bad, considering I’ve been massively distracted lately. I’m going to have to fit in more writing sessions when I can, because we’ll be working at Liane’s again soon. Building a cabin, installing a boiler and taking the pool away for the winter. It’s going to take some time, in particular the cabin, because according to my memory, wherever it will be put, we’re going to have to even out the ground underneath.
Another Mount Everest there, considering tomorrow is the start of market weekend again. Piles up a bit, ya know. Which is ridiculous, of course. It’s not like it’s heavy or anything, it just seems that way sometimes.

Anyways…the past couple of days.
Yesterday morning, after the morning chores and feeding the dogs, big brother and I headed for town with both cars so we could drop the Land Rover off. The shop seemed awfully full, so I anticipated that they probably wouldn’t get to our car yet…which was the case. The day passed without a single call from the receptionist, darn it. No matter, though, seeing as we were incredibly busy anyway.
When I called this afternoon I was told that they were done (the receptionist checked while I was on the phone) and that I could come pick it up…without charge. A big relief that, what with all the extra costs lately, another bill would have meant involuntary organ donation, or something. Hah.

While big brother and grandpa finished the roof of Sally’s cabin, (gawd it looks cute now. I’ve got to take a picture to show it off) I worked at the big sawing table preparing small slats of hardwood slats that I need for the restoration of the Chinese boxes. Needed to saw about thirty of them, which caused some considerable sawdust EVERYWHERE, and numb ears by the time I finally finished. *sigh*

Had to take Knight II to the vet, yesterday as well as today because she wants to keep track of his healing. It’s looking good. If I manage, by some miracle to keep him from licking the darn thing to pieces again, might actually end up with a good foot again. *sigh* The male vet was there today, by the way. He’s not quite as experienced as our usual vet, seeing as he thought it enough to put one layer of bandage on Knight II’s paw, meaning that as soon as I got home (the darn denim sock had also come loose) I had to redo the whole darn thing and put tape around it all to boot, just to keep the lot in place again. Luckily he allows it.

Knight II has been seeing a lot of civilization lately, by the way. What with me having to keep an eye on his paw, he’s going along practically everywhere (he won’t tomorrow and the day after, so big brother will have to keep an eye out) and is getting all the attention he ever wanted…or in his case not. Poor fella’s so scared, he’ll be shivering as soon as someone even looks at him, my poor darling. But he’s a hit at the garage, at the mall, and basically anywhere whenever folks see him. In fact, I’m a little afraid to walk by the street with him, seeing as folks in their car will actually look back while they’re behind the wheel. Makes me scared that the sight of him will cause an accident, or something.

As to the vet…the bills are mounting, considering both Djammi and Djoti had to go to the vet yesterday, too. *sigh* Ergo the reason for taking that extra work with building a cabin and installing a boiler.

Weather wise we’ve been having some rain during the evening and night. Nothing too impressive, just wetness, which, on the overall is a good thing for as far as we’re concerned…except that we won’t be able to go to market if it rains tomorrow. But the locals are saying that the worst of it is over now that the winds have changed, so in all likelihood we’ll be heading out tomorrow. Darn! Hah.

What else? Well, I’m still experimenting with the leather branding for the Tika Art purses. Got some nice ones going for sure, but we’re going to have to see if they go at all.
Tenant is spending a lot of time with mom down in the main house, so that’s freeing up a lot of our time. Considering she loves watching the younger sibs and mom work inside (makes her feel closer to it, I think) it works out well for everyone.

There was a cooking session, first making pattie dough this morning so we’d have food tomorrow at the market, and then tonight, after coming home from a long day in town (picking up the car, sending out a big package in the mail, looking for a particularly wonky battery for a Mac computer picking up a large donation of apples, 150 pots of tomato sauce, and, hold onto your socks, four massive chocolate mousse cakes…which the dogs can’t eat, of course, but us…jeez!) a nice batch of pumpkin to cover the patties with. Very tasty. And then the chocolate cake as dessert…not bad. Hah. That’s the first time we got something that we couldn’t resist using ourselves.

While cousin Ed and big brother loaded up the car for tomorrow, I rushed to the vet with Knight, dealt with the necessary bits and then went back home for supper and to sit down for the first time today. *sigh*

That’s it for now. I’m going to try for an early night, seeing as it looks like things are going to be busy in the near future. I’ll be back on Monday…I hope. Hah.

Full schedule

Song of the day: “We are young” by Fun. Not my fav from this particular band by any means, but it will do on most occasions. At least, there are worse ear worms. Hah.

I’m writing the blog a little early today. I’ve got a spare minute right now, three in the afternoon, and since I do want to do some writing still tonight, it’ll have to be now.

Still working on the porch thing for Sally’s cabin. It is looking infinitely cute, if you must know (I took pics, don’t worry), very much a Swiss cabin, which is a perfect image for a woman in her condition. Really a retirement cabin. Hah. I will show, one of these days. Only thing left to do is finish the balustrade and lay the tar roof.

Had a most peculiar nightmare yesterday. I wish I remembered enough of it to write it all out (it was a doozy for a story) but since I don’t I can only intimate that there was a psychopath, a big mansion somewhere in the middle of nowhere, a woman captured in the basement and no way for her to get out. There was also something about sacrificing babies, somehow. Ah well, ya gotta love the horror stories. Hah.

So, what else. There was the normal stuff, dishes, laundry, cleaning up, etc, but that really isn’t all that interesting, is it. I did write a page or so, yesterday, which means that I should be getting over my funk a little. At least I only mixed up names only twice. What annoys me at the moment, is that the last time I worked on this book, I had made lists with information about the characters, settings and all that jazz, only to be unable to find them now, when I need them. Very frustrating, I assure you.

Added to that, I was feeling very lethargic yesterday, which doesn’t work well, if you must know. It was like moving through molasses, which is odd, all things considered. The weather has cooled off some, and there are some clouds since yesterday. Did take a nap yesterday, so that made me function marginally better. Right after we headed for town to do some groceries, which took quite some time since we had to find shoes for both grandpa and Sally.
Once we were back, had a late supper, and settled for some writing, the day came to a gratifyingly quick end.

Which brings us to today. Started off early, with the usual such as laundry, feeding the dogs and feeding myself. Next I prepared the chickpea patty dough (Cousin Ed keeps calling them Sam burgers, but I’m not sure yet) and a sauce for tomorrow…did you realize yet that tomorrow it’s the weekend, meaning we’ll be out for two solid days again. *sigh* Market day: Let’s see how it goes this time…and hope that on Sunday the one near Benahavis will be open.

But I’m drifting, where was I? Oh yes, the patties. That done, it was time to unload the Land Rover (didn’t take the time to do that last night) before heading for the old paddock where mom’s shelving unit for her market had to be fixed and put back together. That took about an hour on my part, followed by heading back inside to load the Land Rover up for tomorrow.
Both Cousin Ed and I got that done in about one hour, at which time I headed down to start on this blog.

Soon it’s time to start cooking. Planned on pumpkin mush to put on the patties with some cauliflower on the side, but we’ll see how that goes. With a little luck we can then just binge on French fries tonight. Hah.

Well, that’s it for now. At the moment my dogs are clustered around my feet and driving me bonkers. Grrr. I need to start moving about fast before my six hours of sleep during the night has me fall asleep right here. *sigh*

Barely made it

Song of the day: “Come on” by Will Young. Still a good one, and in this case deliberate since I’m trying to get a very annoying children’s rhyme from my head. *sigh*

First off, yesterday was a “working” day at Liane’s so we once again got up early for that. An hour earlier than the normal wake-up time, gave just barely enough time to get the normal morning chores done. A dip in the pool, walking the visiting dogs, hanging laundry and then up to feed the dogs for the day. Barely had any time left to feed ourselves after that, but what the heck, we were on our way only five minutes behind schedule, meaning we arrived at work at the appointed time.

Was a clear and sunny day, and we didn’t dawdle because there was a big chance that we had to go home in time to pick up the Opel at the garage. Since Monday the garage is closed, we’d be without it for another three days, so if at all possible, we wanted to pick it up. But anyway, first thing up was checking if the pool was still properly attached everywhere, and then, with that ascertained we got to work on the fence itself.

First came the lines with the tensors, which took us a solid two hours and sore fingers…not to mention a load of little cuts because I forgot we had gloves in the car somewhere.

Me: How do you want this wire?
Big brother: Just attach it.
Me: Like this?
Big brother: Sure.
I started attaching it, he turns and frowns.
Big brother: Why are you doing it that way?
Me: What way? You said you wanted it attached like this.
Big brother: No. Do it the other way around otherwise the fence will float there.
Me: Then why didn’t you say that when I asked?
Big brother: I didn’t realize until you started attaching it.
I sigh, laboriously unwind the wire and start over, the other way around.
Big brother: Why are you doing it like that.
Me: Like what?! (exasperated)
Big brother: You like cutting up your hands?
Me: Not particularly.
Big brother: Then why are you not wearing gloves.
Me: I hate those clunky ones you took. The seams cut in my fingers.
Big brother: So you rather have metal cut in your fingers.

He had a point, so I donned the clunky gloves, worked with them a solid hour before I went to the car to get something from my bag and discovered that grandpa had put my good gloves in there. *sigh* Only ended up with about nine cuts in the end. Hah.

Knight II didn’t mind yesterday at all. I think that he is finally getting used to the other place, seeing as there are now moments that he will actually stay on a different terrace because he wants to lie in the shade or sun while I am elsewhere. Now he only checks on me every ten minutes or so, and occasionally follows me from car to working location and back again, hoping I forget to close the door, letting him get in on the soft couch. He’s such a couch potato!

After three hours of work, we took a short break, ate some grilled cheese sandwiches under the house overhang and discussed our progress. Decided that we’d hang the fence in the next couple of hours, then take another short break, eat some more, and then finish up attaching the fence everywhere. Of course, in the midst of hanging the fence, putting tension on it, my phone rang. The car was ready for pick up, so our time limit just went down by a full hour if we wanted to manage leaving at 16:45 h.

We discussed again, continuing to hang the fence, decided to skip our second meal and worked straight through until at ten to five we finished the fence…well, I finished my part, and while big brother finished his by tacking the fence to the corner poles, I ran back and forth gathering tools, pieces of plastic, metal pieces and everything else that wasn’t supposed to be there. It was exactly five when we turned off the power, the water and tore down the mountain as fast as the car would go…which isn’t all that fast considering the state of the road. Hah.

Went home doing our best not to break speed limits, and at fifteen to six, about two miles from home I was forced to call the garage to tell them we weren’t going to make it before six. There was some discussion as I suggested they leave the car out and I would just pick it up with the spare keys, at which point they suggested they wait for us before closing up. Yay.

Picked up mom and little brother who needed to go to Malaga, and then rushed down our mountain to town and the garage. Got the keys, discussed the problem with the mechanic, paid the bill and were on our way. Phew. Got it all done…and got news that we could pick up a donation of food for the dogs…double yay.

Oh, before I forget. I got some new shoes. I saw them at the store, these rounded soles, with thin heels and thin toes. I’m going to see if that is at all beneficial to my feet, seeing as it is bound to stretch my plantar tendon. Walked on them most of the day, and though my feet are tired, the burn isn’t all that bad.

Really finished the book’s writing yesterday. The last scene is in, and the connect scene is in place. Such a relief there. At the moment we’re discussing our options. Since big brother is still in the middle of the first edit, and I need some distance from the story before starting on it, I’m either going to write the next book, or am starting on an edit of Commanding Morgan, of the Rising Sun series. I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

This morning Sally discovered that she is losing her hair. She rubs through it, and a whole bunch goes out, so she decided to have me shave the whole lot off. Not a pleasant experience for her, since her head is hurting somewhat fierce. Strangely enough her head felt better after the shaving bit, some of the pain left.

The majority of the afternoon was spent loading up the car, sorting through the tie dye selection, hanging them out, folding them up and then putting them in a suitcase for transport. Luckily there wasn’t as much to load as usual, seeing as we’re not sure as to the size of our spot yet. This will be our first time at the day market, and they run it differently, apparently. Let’s see if tomorrow work, okay. Who knows, it might end up in a disaster, or a success. Only one way to find out. All I know is that I have to get up early to get there in time. Hah.

After loading up, it was time to head on down into the yard, give the peppers some water, harvest a lot of them, and then, while big brother cut dog food, I got to work on supper. Had a fresh tomato sauce, fried peppers with corn, and spaghetti with grated cheese over it. Went down well, thank you very much.

Did some reading for a different project, spent more time on it than planned and then at ten thirty headed out for a late jog, which I really, really needed. Didn’t even go all that bad, all things considered. Was somewhat exhilarated afterward, despite the fact that I was a tad sore from yesterday’s hauling and bending.

Time for bed. Gotta be up and about in six hours.

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.

Hospital toils

Song of the day: “Rapper’s delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. Strange song to have in my head, in particular since the rhythm makes me want to start doing “the robot” at the oddest moments. I tell ya this, it is downright weird when you’re at the hospital, and being weird there, is definitely not a smart thing. *sigh*

But okay, let’s get you up to date. Yesterday was a mess of a day. Nothing went at all as planned. First off, tenant insisted that she wanted to go to market, so after some discussion, I decided that I might as well take her and take the opportunity to look around for stuff that is in bad repair that I can fix up…as well as a bathing suit for tenant and Sally alike.

So we went, I dropped tenant off at mom’s stand and went over the market twice. Had load of fun chatting with the stand owners, haggling (bought two beautiful Chinese boxes that were in horrible repair, but only cost me five bucks. Yay) and hauling it all (I sinned and bought three books despite my no-book-buying-budget, hah) back to the stand where tenant was having fun chatting with mom. Packet up tenant and purchases and went on home.

Once there, it turned out I’d missed more than nine calls (seriously, it’s not smart that I kept it in my purse where I can’t hear it) from cousin Ed who’d found Sally in a bad state. I knew she fell the other day, and cut her hand (she wouldn’t let me look at it) but this wasn’t good. First we took her to the emergency room in town, where they referred us to the big city hospital because the cut (I was startled when I saw it. Was a cut halfway into the base of her finger) was too deep, and she’d waited too long to have it sutured. (Six hour limit. I could have told her that, but I figured she knew. Stupid of me, I know.) So we went to Marbella Hospital. Big place. Lotsa people, and thus lotsa waiting. Still, relatively speaking she got treated fast, despite us spending more than six hours there.

First off there was the talk with the triage doctor who listed her symptoms. Then we waited for our turn at the doctor’s. After the doctor, who listed her problems again and checked her motor functions, we waited again. This time a blood test. Then we waited again…and went back because something went wrong with the first blood and they needed another. Then we waited for her to have an MRI. Then We waited for an X-Ray of her chest, after which we had to wait to speak to the doctor again.

Said doctor called us into the office and informed us very gravely that Sally was suffering from severe lesions in the brain, meaning that she had to be hospitalized for observation. She took it remarkably well, showing some relief about the fact that at least now she knew what was wrong, and why “something” wasn’t right in her head. *sigh*
Gawd, I wish we’d insisted on taking her to hospital a week ago, or more. But she can be incredibly stubborn that way.

Cousin Ed helped her get dressed into a hospital gown, and while she was transferred to the observation hall, we were told to wait for a phone call in the waiting room for family and friends. That took a solid hour and a half, and then, when the call finally came and only (one person allowed) I was let through to see her. Once I arrived in the observation hall with loads of people suffering in uncomfortable beds, it turned out Sally wasn’t there because they’d wheeled her elsewhere again to treat her hand.
So again, another forty to fifty minute wait, at which time I went back to the observation room to see if she was done. She wasn’t there yet, and while the nurse working there went to see for me, she was wheeled inside. She was actually startled to see me, asking vaguely if I was back already. She had no idea of the time and was startled to hear that we were “still” there. Where else would we be, I wonder. You don’t leave a friend to her own resources at a time like that, do you? Jeez. Same goes for the fact that she didn’t want us to visit every day (because it would be too much trouble for a mess like her, double jeez). When I asked her if she wouldn’t come to visit if I were in hospital and she promptly answered that of course she would. That was of course the end of the discussion. Hah.

Had a “chat” with the nurse, or young doctor, on duty, and between his bad English and my bad English he managed to explain the basics of her chart, and give me the phone number of the main desk, the number of the room she would be transferred to in the morning (including the floor) and basically be nice about the fact that he had no idea what the real problem was. There are, at the moment treating it as a general constitution problem. But anyway, when I asked to talk to her doctor, he said the doctor was out, and that if I wanted to talk to a professional I would have to wait some more. *sigh*

I ended up promising Sally we’d be back the next day, so we could tackle the doctor together. Cousin Ed did call this morning to check how she was doing, and despite some confusion during the night she had a relatively good night, and was almost cheerful when she told us they are looking for the problem and doing all sorts of tests.

It was almost one in the morning when we finally left for home, and nearing two when we arrived. I was not doing well by then. I was cramping all over the place and my heels were killing me. I know, don’t laugh, but silly me didn’t eat, walked and stood a lot. First because of the market (I breakfasted and lunched on four small apples) and then because of all the hospital stuff, with half a French bread with cream cheese. Not the smartest move for someone with my deficiency problems. Luckily, big brother made spaghetti, meaning I didn’t go to bed hungry. *sigh* I tell ya this, I was wired tight as a drum.

Not a good night either. Woke up twice with my calf cramping so bad I had to get up and do stretches for several minutes. In the end I had to lie down flat on my stomach for the stupid feet dangling off the bed. Managed to fall asleep then. *sigh*

What followed, was me going through the slow, very slow motions of early morning chores (got up an hour later than usual, because I didn’t get to bed until 3 in the morning) such as laundry and feeding the dogs. Then it was getting online looking to see if we could find anything on what little I managed to understand from the explanations at the hospital. All sorts of nasty possibilities popped up, so I decided to leave it until the doctor actually explains it to us. *sigh*

As for the dogs...seriously, mine were completely bonkers last night, considering I had been gone for more than twelve hours. It was not a pretty sight when Knight II tried to jump me, Chaos ignored me, and Labhana and Gada gazed at me as if I had done them some great injustice. Poor darlings...worse, I forgot to give Knight II his second bowl of food in the evening. *gasp* I should be flogged.

Well, that’s it for today, I’m hoping to do at least a page for the book, and if not that…well…there will be other days, I guess.