A hot slow day with a bit of rain

Song of the day: “Say it right” by Nelly Furtado. Strange, it took me a while before I actually liked this song, and yet here it is going through my brain every now and then.

Nothing of much interest during the morning hours, just the fact that I really would love sleeping in for a bit; but since it is getting decidedly warm in my cabin, I figure that this might not be the best idea. I hate that feeling of my head filling up with the proverbial cotton, so getting up is all for the best.

Sometime during the night, after 3 AM, some sort of warm front rolled in, bringing the temperature up to 27 degrees (Celsius, naturally. Too lazy to look up the Fahrenheit) without warning. Whew. Took me by surprise for a bit. Especially since the temperature was so very pleasant when I went up to my cabin.

This is actually the first night that I felt forced to use the fan. I had so wished I could postpone that for a bit longer, but it seems that the time has arrived. I’m definitely going to need to dig up my summer clothes.

But anyway…I head down to the house, tackle the laundry and then set up shop at the table, before quickly grabbing some breakfast and a large mug of coffee. My eyes just refuse to open, so by the time we’re an hour into preparing more query letters for publishers, I’ve downed three cups, and still am not feeling the effects. In the end I’m forced to do a quick exercise session, just to get some endorphins pumping.

Suitably jacked up by caffeine and exercise, I dive back into the most annoying part of being an author. Writing letters…one couldn’t possibly just send a chain letter, or anything. Nooooh. They need to be personalized and pimped and whatnot…printing them, checking them-and checking them again before putting them in their envelopes. Shut them, check them again, reopen a few just to make sure a mistake wasn’t made…aaargh…then reprinting the errors, and going through the process all over again. Hah.

We sit at the dratted computers, running back and forth between the printer, for six hours, checking addresses, folding paper and…well, you get my drift. By the time we decide to call it a day-both brothers worked alongside me-cross-eyed, punchy and rearing to be active for a bit.

While keeping track of addresses and such, little brother has been busy, working on the cover of “A Taste Of Life” which we intend to put out on either CreateSpace or Lulu sometime in the near future. It’s different…the cover that is…it took me a minute to get intrigued by what he’d done with the picture, but it is definitely growing on me. Some sort of aquarelle-like print; I would never have thought it, but it has a certain charm. I’ll post it on here as soon as we’ve decided that the final draft is really done.

We shut down the computers, gather up our working gloves and head on outside to spend an hour or two lugging rocks down the mountain. We’re going decidedly slower than we did yesterday. Not so much that it is heavier, just that we’re a tad more tired, I think.

Another ton or two gets hauled, followed by diner and then heading out to get another load from a new treasure spot we located the other day. While we arrive, clouds have gathered overhead and let loose a sporadic sheet of chubby rain. Strange, really; we never get rain this late in the summer. It is rather pleasant, however and cools us down pleasantly while we’re gathering rocks and pile them into the back of the truck.

Fully loaded, we return home and replenish the piles we so laboriously emptied during the past two days and then wearily return to the house for some much deserved relaxation.

By the time we finally get to sit down, the read-through edit is set on a back burner. We’re too tired to focus on much more than messing around with the computers…well, staring at the screen is a more accurate description, I guess.

Even the dogs are tired. They went back and forth with us while we were lugging rocks, so it’s no big surprise, all things considered. Even little Sita was having a party, for a bit, getting the same enjoyment from darting around our feet and making climbing down the steep path a somewhat dangerous venture.

Sleep! My bed! Aaahhh. ‘Tis luring me, I tell you. I think I’m going to surrender to it and start again tomorrow when my brain is functioning again. Hmmm. That might be asking for a bit too much, but then, hope springs eternal, or so they say. Hah.

Late, late, late.

Song of the day: “Taking back my love” by Enrique. Yay. Makes me want to bounce around the floor.

I am really, really late, and since it’s already 2:30 AM when I start writing this blog I am so screwed…and whoever is actually bothering to read this too, I guess since you’re gonna be stuck with a sum-up.

Worked on putting together, printing and then preparing a couple of query letters to go out to publishers on Monday. This always makes me nervous and today was no exception. I actually hate this part of publishing, but it needs to be done, so the letters get signed, checked one last time and then slipped neatly into their envelopes. Next they are stored away in a plastic folder, in which they’ll stay until they can be mailed.

Next, since we’ve been slaving away at the computer, luckily sharing a laugh or two, we head on out into the damp, somewhat misty day that somehow managed to be hot anyway. Rocks that have been piled in massive numbers all over the construction site need to be picked up, and carried down the mountain.

We’re too late to start building, so this is the next best option to get something done at least. For the next hour we go down and up and down again, figuring we might as well get some exercise out of it by going up at a slight jog and then hauling down rocks…well, us ladies did anyway. The brothers were lugging wheelbarrows. Hah.

The dogs love this kind of thing, naturally. For the first twenty trips or so they go along, back and forth, over and over again, and then when they start to tire, they’ll pick a spot somewhere in the middle…preferably right on the path where we’re walking with heavy rocks…to watch us like they’re at Wimbledon. Idiots!

Sita III is quite the cheering part too, dashing around our heels, looking all excited as if saying: “Oh, this is soooo much fun! Up, down, and up again. Look at me, I get there faster.” At one point she exhausts herself so much she just drops down and sleeps for a couple of minutes, just to start all over again.

We move at least 3 tons in total, which is starting to look like an impressive collection that will at one point be used for the fortification of the verandah. Not until the end of summer, hopefully, but before winter for sure.

Big brother, grandpa and I head out for another load of rocks afterwards (also a quick dinner of potatoes with red beats and cheese, yum) and by the time we return we’re pleasantly exhausted. Once I’ve dealt with the laundry, ate a cookie and swallowed down half a liter of cold water…man, was I parched…we settled down to do some more research online.

Well, that’s about it for today. I need to hit the sack, ASAP…before my face smashes my keyboard. Hah.