Song of the day: “Where have all the flowers gone” by Dolly Parton. A little sappy, but I guess that the brain needs sappy sometimes too.
I hear you wonder, I do. Your brain is just itching to know what’s been happening in Samaya’s world. Well, to be honest, not all that much. *sigh*
There were some wonderful workouts, however, including a jog this very morning that was short but sweet. Yay. Been working on stretching a lot lately, rediscovering suppleness, realigning joints, lubricating muscles and so on and on. Have been pumping iron too, of course, along with a bit of boxing just because I like it so much. Hah.
Been doing a proper amount of cooking, mostly hard veggies with loads of herbs and potatoes on the side, which are filling in the gaps rather nicely. Did eat beef the other day (good Sammy), with a rich satay that we used on a stir fry noodle dish right after. Was stuffed to a point of discomfort (strange how meat does that, by the way) which was a bit unhandy since we had to haul these big concrete tiles to Grandpa’s side of the porch. He has this little yard outside his door, which has been rather messy, not to mention sandy. Got a start going at least, but still, there’s a lot to do there yet.
Oddly enough we have a few rather skinny dogs at the moment. One of whom is Jelly. We checked his teeth, which are astonishingly pristine (big surprise there) so that can’t be it. We are a bit worried about some sort of parasite, seeing as there are a few more dogs that have lost quite a bit of weight, so at the moment I am giving a large number of them an anti-parasite tincture that has proven to be effective. Let’s see what it does. If there is no improvement, I’m going to have to take one of them to the vet and have some tests done.
Knight is still trying to eat himself, meaning two ugly socks. Grrr. He makes me wanna…
Am still working on the computer a lot. Making quite a bit of progress on the book, thankfully.
Have been gathering second hand chairs for my upcoming party. Friends with leftovers, or slightly damaged ones. We’ll get there yet. Have ten chairs now, so we’ll get there yet. Yay. Also the tables won’t be a problem. I got to massive boards (single bed-sized), a large outside table, a few smaller tables, so that’s also set. No problem there. Need a few more chairs, but I’ll figure it out.
Now the main thing will be deciding on the menu. So many possibilities in my head, a tight budget to work with and…well, we’ll have to wait and see how it works out, because part will depend on what kind of products I can get on sale, of course.
Did a cookie experiment the other day. Really needed a cookie, ya know, and we have none at the moment, so I used an old cupcake mix I still had in the cupboard to make a batter, added some chocolate cornflakes and baked them in a skillet (who’s got time for the oven anyway) and ten minutes later devoured a couple of cookies. Yummy.
Did a book review this week, which I posted on the ‘Zon and Goodreads, of course. Will stick it on here as well, just for those who are curious. It was a nice book. I think we’ll see more of this Indie Author.
You won’t believe it but we had actual rain this week. I know, astonishing, right, but I woke to a cloudy sky, and the smell of rain, and heard from grandpa that we actually had a nice splasher earlier that morning. The plants were more than happy, and so was I for that matter, since the day was decidedly cooler because of it…same goes for now, for that matter. A northern wind picked up, hurtling down the mountain, making it almost nippy now.
Work wise things have been quiet, except for the daily stuff.
Did have a scrap metal run for recycling, which will pay for groceries at least.
Also did some more cleaning in the yard, which is obviously always necessary.
Today I’m definitely going to try to work on my future sink in the kitchen, because it is driving me bonkers to be without necessities when we come home late, and grandpa is already in bed, meaning that I can’t get anything because his sink is behind the house, which only can be reached through his bedroom. *sigh* Very frustrating, on the overall.
Well, that’s going to be it. Can’t think of anything else that is remotely interesting…unless you want to hear about my fascinating trip to our insurance agent, and the half hour conversation I had about insurances, silly laws and whatnot. No? Okay then.
I’ll post that review a little later, like in a couple of days, alright? Could stick it on this one, but that wouldn’t do it any justice. Gotta go.
Showing posts with label rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rain. Show all posts
Friday, August 1, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Prepared!
Song of the day: “Come on” by Will Young. I always see the video when I hear it in my head, which is, admittedly, a little embarrassing for the singer. In fact, Big Brother actually dislikes that clip because it is so very silly. Me, I just have to smile at the silliness.
So writing is going to be a little difficult today, I’ve got eight dogs clustering around me because they have been feeling left out lately, and demand attention now that I’m home, trying to get some serious work done on the computer. *sigh* Poor darlings. They dislike being weekend dogs as much as I dislike having them. Poor darlings deserve full-time attention, but alas, such is life. We all have to make due, don’t we? And like all dogs in the world, they’ll survive a little less human attention.
Gawd, Knight II just came to me, right after he drank…which means sticking his snout into a bucket up to his eyeballs and sucking up half a gallon, of which he loses a quarter on his way to me…meaning that I just got a slimy shower. Grrr.
Right. So what has been happening lately? Well, I’ll have you know that I actually managed a full evening of writing this week, adding a whopping four pages to “Gun!” Yay! The last character has been introduced (we’re going to be following four…maybe five in this story) and he’s…interesting. Second generation Japanese-American and a very good cop who can’t stand PC. We all know that feeling, right? Gawd, don’t get me started on PC. *sigh* You have to be PC, but no one is expected to have manners anymore.
Anyways…I’ve a feeling that grandpa is feeling a little overtaxed lately, which is not surprising with all the extra work hours big brother and I have been doing, so I’ve been trying to sneak in some cleaning in our little kitchen. The fridge was a disaster area, and so were the cupboards. Of course I can’t do it when he is there (pride is important after all) but at least there are some clean horizontal surfaces again.
Cooking has all been about nutritionally potent and fast to fix, so there really isn’t anything awesome to share in that regard. Did make a wonderful pumpkin soup the other day, which was a big hit, not to mention filling. Must make that again one of these days…or maybe a carrot soup. I don’t know what it is with spring, but this time of the year I always have a terrible yen for carrots. Seriously, I’ve been eating between 4 and 8 raw carrots a day, just because I feel like raw carrots. I also sometimes have that with apples. Most of the year the fruit and veg have little to no appeal for me, and then there is this time in the year where I can’t get enough of either. The way I figure, I’ll overdose on the stuff. My body knows better what I need than I do after all, so there’ll probably be a very good reason.
Am going to try to make some patties today, and maybe go for a jog and a workout. Am in desperate need of all three, but the last two are on top of my priority list.
Been getting some free books, which I’m looking forward to reading in the near future. Quite a few already. I think I downloaded more than a handful of them, several of them classics. The Phantom of the Opera, The Three Musketeers, you name it. Will be a nice change from my usual reading choices. Hah.
Knight II was without a sock for a couple of days. He wasn’t as bad as he usually is, but he did some serious licking regardless. Did need to put a sock back on, before he caused serious damage, which is a pity. That skin is never going to get tough again if he keeps at it like this, darn it.
Had a massive storm here yesterday. After work we spent several hours doing damage control around the yard. There have been mud-slides, which were way worse than any of the years before due to all the stuff that is gone now. All our gutters have been wrecked, so it went every which way. We hadn’t expected such a splasher, so there were pillows outside, a couple of books, bags, and an open window in the car. *sigh* Good for the yard for sure, but as to damage control, a total pain in the behind.
Just today I spent re-hanging and washing about seventy percent of about a week’s worth of clean laundry, darn it. Forgot I’d piled them in a spot where it leaks when it rains hard. But then, who was expecting a splasher like this, this time of year?
No matter. I had to sort through it anyway due to the fact that I can slowly start packing for my trip to the UK. What can I say, I like to take my time with such things, and since everything that goes into my backpack will need to be washed anyway. I found a skirt which should work fine for any occasion where I need to look a little bit “nicer” than just jeans and a T. I’ll get it sorted somehow, make more selections, dismiss them, then reconsider. I’m a desperate over packer, you know. I mean, you’re away from home, then it rains and you get soaked. Yikes, you’ll need this. You drop your coffee over the front of your nice top and you need that, the possibilities are endless and I hate to be unprepared…so I won’t!
I am going to look at this trip as an adventure, regardless that it is work and that I’ll miss my doggies like mad. I mean, this is the UK. It should be fun, not to mention an excellent opportunity to revisit some places I saw once more than 18 years ago. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get around to doing some touristy bits…or else have a few walks through the woods where I will soak up every molecule of green that I can get. Hah.
This week was car insurance week, at least for the Land Rover. Before the end of the month the same goes for the Opel, but I am not thinking of that yet. Another major cut into our savings, but what can you do, right? Some things just have to be paid.
Gonna have to have Knight II vaccinated soon. What with me taking him out for runs it just isn’t smart to postpone that. He won’t like it, but that is just another one of those things that need to be done, isn’t it? Luckily he likes the vet, so it won’t be traumatic, or anything. I might drop by the practice tonight and have that done before the jog. No sense in postponing it, I guess.
No big news from tenant and Sally…The latter is still hanging in there, but basically everyone is holding their breaths for the end. A sad thing, that, but can’t be helped.
Tenant is enjoying herself with lots of outings to a place where she spends time with her peers, not to mention that a landline phone allows her to communicate with her friends, and that there is a taxi service that allows her to travel long distances to visit those same friends when she wants to. I’m happy to hear that she is busily building a new life there, and enjoying it.
Well, I’m starting to draw blanks, so I’m going to leave it at this. Plenty to do still today, so…gotta go.
So writing is going to be a little difficult today, I’ve got eight dogs clustering around me because they have been feeling left out lately, and demand attention now that I’m home, trying to get some serious work done on the computer. *sigh* Poor darlings. They dislike being weekend dogs as much as I dislike having them. Poor darlings deserve full-time attention, but alas, such is life. We all have to make due, don’t we? And like all dogs in the world, they’ll survive a little less human attention.
Gawd, Knight II just came to me, right after he drank…which means sticking his snout into a bucket up to his eyeballs and sucking up half a gallon, of which he loses a quarter on his way to me…meaning that I just got a slimy shower. Grrr.
Right. So what has been happening lately? Well, I’ll have you know that I actually managed a full evening of writing this week, adding a whopping four pages to “Gun!” Yay! The last character has been introduced (we’re going to be following four…maybe five in this story) and he’s…interesting. Second generation Japanese-American and a very good cop who can’t stand PC. We all know that feeling, right? Gawd, don’t get me started on PC. *sigh* You have to be PC, but no one is expected to have manners anymore.
Anyways…I’ve a feeling that grandpa is feeling a little overtaxed lately, which is not surprising with all the extra work hours big brother and I have been doing, so I’ve been trying to sneak in some cleaning in our little kitchen. The fridge was a disaster area, and so were the cupboards. Of course I can’t do it when he is there (pride is important after all) but at least there are some clean horizontal surfaces again.
Cooking has all been about nutritionally potent and fast to fix, so there really isn’t anything awesome to share in that regard. Did make a wonderful pumpkin soup the other day, which was a big hit, not to mention filling. Must make that again one of these days…or maybe a carrot soup. I don’t know what it is with spring, but this time of the year I always have a terrible yen for carrots. Seriously, I’ve been eating between 4 and 8 raw carrots a day, just because I feel like raw carrots. I also sometimes have that with apples. Most of the year the fruit and veg have little to no appeal for me, and then there is this time in the year where I can’t get enough of either. The way I figure, I’ll overdose on the stuff. My body knows better what I need than I do after all, so there’ll probably be a very good reason.
Am going to try to make some patties today, and maybe go for a jog and a workout. Am in desperate need of all three, but the last two are on top of my priority list.
Been getting some free books, which I’m looking forward to reading in the near future. Quite a few already. I think I downloaded more than a handful of them, several of them classics. The Phantom of the Opera, The Three Musketeers, you name it. Will be a nice change from my usual reading choices. Hah.
Knight II was without a sock for a couple of days. He wasn’t as bad as he usually is, but he did some serious licking regardless. Did need to put a sock back on, before he caused serious damage, which is a pity. That skin is never going to get tough again if he keeps at it like this, darn it.
Had a massive storm here yesterday. After work we spent several hours doing damage control around the yard. There have been mud-slides, which were way worse than any of the years before due to all the stuff that is gone now. All our gutters have been wrecked, so it went every which way. We hadn’t expected such a splasher, so there were pillows outside, a couple of books, bags, and an open window in the car. *sigh* Good for the yard for sure, but as to damage control, a total pain in the behind.
Just today I spent re-hanging and washing about seventy percent of about a week’s worth of clean laundry, darn it. Forgot I’d piled them in a spot where it leaks when it rains hard. But then, who was expecting a splasher like this, this time of year?
No matter. I had to sort through it anyway due to the fact that I can slowly start packing for my trip to the UK. What can I say, I like to take my time with such things, and since everything that goes into my backpack will need to be washed anyway. I found a skirt which should work fine for any occasion where I need to look a little bit “nicer” than just jeans and a T. I’ll get it sorted somehow, make more selections, dismiss them, then reconsider. I’m a desperate over packer, you know. I mean, you’re away from home, then it rains and you get soaked. Yikes, you’ll need this. You drop your coffee over the front of your nice top and you need that, the possibilities are endless and I hate to be unprepared…so I won’t!
I am going to look at this trip as an adventure, regardless that it is work and that I’ll miss my doggies like mad. I mean, this is the UK. It should be fun, not to mention an excellent opportunity to revisit some places I saw once more than 18 years ago. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get around to doing some touristy bits…or else have a few walks through the woods where I will soak up every molecule of green that I can get. Hah.
This week was car insurance week, at least for the Land Rover. Before the end of the month the same goes for the Opel, but I am not thinking of that yet. Another major cut into our savings, but what can you do, right? Some things just have to be paid.
Gonna have to have Knight II vaccinated soon. What with me taking him out for runs it just isn’t smart to postpone that. He won’t like it, but that is just another one of those things that need to be done, isn’t it? Luckily he likes the vet, so it won’t be traumatic, or anything. I might drop by the practice tonight and have that done before the jog. No sense in postponing it, I guess.
No big news from tenant and Sally…The latter is still hanging in there, but basically everyone is holding their breaths for the end. A sad thing, that, but can’t be helped.
Tenant is enjoying herself with lots of outings to a place where she spends time with her peers, not to mention that a landline phone allows her to communicate with her friends, and that there is a taxi service that allows her to travel long distances to visit those same friends when she wants to. I’m happy to hear that she is busily building a new life there, and enjoying it.
Well, I’m starting to draw blanks, so I’m going to leave it at this. Plenty to do still today, so…gotta go.
Monday, February 18, 2013
The glorious flu
So… yeah, still pretty sick. Had a slightly better day yesterday. Actually managed to tag along with grandpa and play gofer at the very least. Good thing too, because big brother got hit by the same bug and is exactly one day behind me with his symptoms. Meaning, he was basically out of commission yesterday, like I was the day before that.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Friday got skipped at the blog, so I better get you up to date.
First some good news. Tenant is home, and she is of course ecstatic being back with her doggies. Regretfully she’s giving us fits refusing to eat and drink proper. She tries, but then just…meh. It’s a struggle.
But okay, Friday. We went to the job, and I was feeling only slightly under the weather, which was okay, since we had hang the tankless water heater together. Worked just fine, I gofed, big brother did complicated stuff, and around two the first wave hit me. Wooh. Seriously. I had to sit down a moment. All of a sudden I was absolutely freezing. Big brother wasn’t affected so he told me to lie down before I passed out, which I did (the heater was hung after all)…lie down that is, for about thirty minutes, in the full sunshine, which did take care of the freezing feeling, for a bit. Did some more gofing, hauled supplies for big brother, started shivering again, helped drilling holes and measuring, got worse. Lied down again, pains starting all over, dozed a bit, only to have big brother wake me, telling me that the power went off about an hour earlier. Sweet mother of gawd! I have never been so happy in my life. I managed, to help load up our stuff, hauled my butt into the car, sent an SMS the boss lady (it’s not that she would have minded if we’d canceled due to my rapidly deteriorating health, I just hate doing that. The power was a good reason, since none of our machinery were of any use.) and conked out on the way home.
Once there, I just barely managed to drag my sick butt to my cabin, threw off my clothes, put on sweats and passed out for the next sixteen hours. Seriously, the flu has never hit me like that.
Spent the entire Saturday in bed too, after feeding the dogs, that is, only to have the fever break Sunday night, leaving me feeling markedly better. Changed my sheets (soaked everything during the night) washed my cups, hung a massive amount of laundry, and proceeded to help grandpa prepare for the predicted rain.
Packed up stuff by the igloo, finished laying the roof by the storage, put a cover on a leak of the old RVs roof.
Helped tenant (with a mouth cover, mind you. No way we’re risking her on this flu, only short amounts of time inside for me) and was more than ready to call it a day. Did watch the movie Salt, which I found a surprisingly nice movie. They don’t make them like that a lot anymore, but then Phillip Noyce is a terribly good director, and Jolie knows how to put a character down.
I liked that she managed to keep it gritty, and didn’t insist on staying “pretty” the way a lot of actresses do these days. When you play beat up in a movie, you’re supposed to look it, and she did that.
This director can totally make Saving Nina into a movie for me.
But anyway, I had a bit of a relapse today. Mostly because the night was pure horror. I kid you not. Torture can not be much worse than what went on during the night. I was cold in my bones. Yes. You read that right. Nothing feels quite as scary as feeling cold prix of ice in your bones, while back, legs and whatever kept aching and cramping. Finally gave up and asked grandpa to bring me a hot water bottle to warm me up, trying to do what two painkillers couldn’t. The heat helped a little, allowed me to drift off for an hour of two, then heat was gone and I had to start all over again, twice before the night was over.
Had to take several naps during the day, and the aches are still there, but…okay, I survived. Hah.
Today I didn’t do much of anything, except sleep, which felt healing, rather than passing out, and I had to take Knight to the vet to have his ear checked.
Afterward, despite the fact that I would much rather take a nap, I made supper, can’t be without proper supper after all, and then helped tenant to bed because caregiver had to take Sally to the hospital for her MRI.
Which sums up the past weekend. I, for one, would sell my soul to go to bed, so I better do that, eh? Hah.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Friday got skipped at the blog, so I better get you up to date.
First some good news. Tenant is home, and she is of course ecstatic being back with her doggies. Regretfully she’s giving us fits refusing to eat and drink proper. She tries, but then just…meh. It’s a struggle.
But okay, Friday. We went to the job, and I was feeling only slightly under the weather, which was okay, since we had hang the tankless water heater together. Worked just fine, I gofed, big brother did complicated stuff, and around two the first wave hit me. Wooh. Seriously. I had to sit down a moment. All of a sudden I was absolutely freezing. Big brother wasn’t affected so he told me to lie down before I passed out, which I did (the heater was hung after all)…lie down that is, for about thirty minutes, in the full sunshine, which did take care of the freezing feeling, for a bit. Did some more gofing, hauled supplies for big brother, started shivering again, helped drilling holes and measuring, got worse. Lied down again, pains starting all over, dozed a bit, only to have big brother wake me, telling me that the power went off about an hour earlier. Sweet mother of gawd! I have never been so happy in my life. I managed, to help load up our stuff, hauled my butt into the car, sent an SMS the boss lady (it’s not that she would have minded if we’d canceled due to my rapidly deteriorating health, I just hate doing that. The power was a good reason, since none of our machinery were of any use.) and conked out on the way home.
Once there, I just barely managed to drag my sick butt to my cabin, threw off my clothes, put on sweats and passed out for the next sixteen hours. Seriously, the flu has never hit me like that.
Spent the entire Saturday in bed too, after feeding the dogs, that is, only to have the fever break Sunday night, leaving me feeling markedly better. Changed my sheets (soaked everything during the night) washed my cups, hung a massive amount of laundry, and proceeded to help grandpa prepare for the predicted rain.
Packed up stuff by the igloo, finished laying the roof by the storage, put a cover on a leak of the old RVs roof.
Helped tenant (with a mouth cover, mind you. No way we’re risking her on this flu, only short amounts of time inside for me) and was more than ready to call it a day. Did watch the movie Salt, which I found a surprisingly nice movie. They don’t make them like that a lot anymore, but then Phillip Noyce is a terribly good director, and Jolie knows how to put a character down.
I liked that she managed to keep it gritty, and didn’t insist on staying “pretty” the way a lot of actresses do these days. When you play beat up in a movie, you’re supposed to look it, and she did that.
This director can totally make Saving Nina into a movie for me.
But anyway, I had a bit of a relapse today. Mostly because the night was pure horror. I kid you not. Torture can not be much worse than what went on during the night. I was cold in my bones. Yes. You read that right. Nothing feels quite as scary as feeling cold prix of ice in your bones, while back, legs and whatever kept aching and cramping. Finally gave up and asked grandpa to bring me a hot water bottle to warm me up, trying to do what two painkillers couldn’t. The heat helped a little, allowed me to drift off for an hour of two, then heat was gone and I had to start all over again, twice before the night was over.
Had to take several naps during the day, and the aches are still there, but…okay, I survived. Hah.
Today I didn’t do much of anything, except sleep, which felt healing, rather than passing out, and I had to take Knight to the vet to have his ear checked.
Afterward, despite the fact that I would much rather take a nap, I made supper, can’t be without proper supper after all, and then helped tenant to bed because caregiver had to take Sally to the hospital for her MRI.
Which sums up the past weekend. I, for one, would sell my soul to go to bed, so I better do that, eh? Hah.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Coming down in buckets
Song of the day: “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias, of course. I have his songs in my head often, don’t I? Not strange, since his songs are rather catchy most of the time.
Had a wonderfully calm couple of days, thank you very much. The weather didn’t permit much, forcing me to hide under the cover of a roof most of the time. Seriously, there were rivers streaming down our mountain (got the basin full completely), sweeping everything along. The new partition of the carport is working well, by the way. It’s keeping the wind out perfectly, and the water is only going where it’s supposed to…the gutter. Yay.
It was good to get small stuff done. Did some more leather branding experiments. Got some nice little patterns going, and I’m slowly learning new ones, and tricks how to make it look better, less amateurish. Hah.
Got some good writing done, not necessarily a lot, but good. Have added a new character to the story, a teenager who’s having some serious problems at home, has a big trauma in his past, and who is going to be an important part of the story, I think…at least, that’s what it’s looking like now. He’s not a transient. Turns out my “alien” is a little goofy and quite innocent, so I should be able to have some fun writing about him, too.
Spent some time this morning clearing away piles, and piles of laundry in my cabin. Too much was getting dirty again from just lying there, Dax jumping on top for a nap, that sort of thing. Took some time, seeing as there was so much of the stuff, but at least I’ve got some horizontal surfaces cleared again. High time, too. Hah.
During my second session of hiding in the car port of the insistent rain, was repairing a leather purse that can also be worn as a back pack. I’ve been planning on using it for the market, so I can keep my valuables on me, but just haven’t gotten around to it. Worked out well enough, thankfully, so I should be able to use it Sunday…which reminds me, due to the weather (despite that it has been clearing up for the past few hour) the Saturday market has been cancelled. Yay. Nothing against the market, mind you, but I kinda like the free day (for as far as you can call it free since I fully plan on doing something constructive at home), in particular since working on the balcony will start on Wednesday and we’re going to have to do some prepping for that.
There were of course the usual chores such as laundry and my daily trips to the vet with Knight II. He’s behaving remarkably well, but still, it is requiring a lot of attention. If I don’t pay attention to him, he’s either going to tug at the denim “boot” or he’ll come over to press himself against me. Like he’s in dire need of a petting, or something. Silly dog.
Chaos is upset with me at the moment. He’s having a bit of a bladder problem at the moment (a very mild infection) meaning that I can’t let him on the bed without me being there. That being the case he will try to get me to take him inside and lift him on the bed, despite my multiple explanations that he cant’.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: No Chaos. You can’t.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Stop barking. I said no.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: No. Come here! (he doesn’t of course, but stands, instead in the open doorway, trampling his paws like a horse and staring at me balefully)
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Chaos!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Shut up.
Big brother: He’s not going to listen.
Me: Shut up!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Chaos. You shut up, too, please.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Big brother: He’s going to continue until you put him on the bed.
(He shakes his head while I gesture at Chaos to come to me.)
Me: Chaos! Pretty please with a cherry on top.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: CHAOS!!!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf. Wharf, wharf. (more trampling, more looking)
This is usually where I give in and follow him inside to let him on the bed. But not today. I stood firm, thank you very much.
Me: Chaos! Please. Come on. Lie down over here, you don’t need the bed. You’re a big boy.
Chaos: Wharf.
Big brother: Persistent little bugger.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Yes, I know, Chaos. You’re the gorgeous. Come here, gorgeous. Come on.
Chaos: Wharf. (a shuffle, a step in the right direction.)
Me: Come on, gorgeous. You can lie right here in front of the stove. (I nudge Tadaika aside to make some room for him.)
Chaos: Wharf, wharf. (Sniffle) Wharf, wharf!
Me: CHAOS! Get. Over. Here. And stop whining.
Big brother chortles, while the Chaos turns “the eye” on him. Then he sighs deeply, trots over and flops down onto my feet. Thank you, Chaos. *sigh*
He’s a character for sure.
But enough about the Chaos. What else happened. Well, I Cooked supper twice, of course. A nice mashed tomato carrot mix that I put together last night after big brother and I got back from a donation. Not much, but all the little bits help, right? And today a lentil veggie mix that I really needed to fix in a way that didn’t remind me at all of dhal. I love the smell of dhal, I just don’t like the taste, oddly enough.
A bit of news on the side about two dogs we’ve taken in for a week. Something went wrong during transport to the Netherlands (the owners are from there) where somehow the dogs got left at the airport, which meant that mom and little brother went to pick them up. So we’ve got stay-overs again. I’ve yet to meet them, really, seeing as they arrived late last night, but I’ll get to it somehow.
This morning, while taking Knight II to the vet, we also took along 14 year old Rammi, who’s gradually getting to be thinner and thinner, despite the fact that she’s eating extremely well. Though there are some lumps, the vet thinks it has more to do with her age than anything else.
Grandpa has been busy cleaning up in the carport, in particular since we’ll be spending a lot of days there during the rainy days. Busy there, in particular since Sally is joining us too. Good thing that, seeing as I don’t like it when she locks herself up in her cabin on her own. That can’t be good for her.
I spent some time on working with wood today. Those Chinese boxes, remember. I managed to glue together the new lid I’m designing, despite the fact that the moist air had the glue take forever to dry, darn it. Only managed to do one for that very reason. Ah well, maybe tomorrow.
Liane came today, bringing us the first installment for the balcony so we can buy the supplies we need to get started. With a little luck we’ll manage that tomorrow morning, while I take Knight to the vet, otherwise we’ll have to do it on Monday. I was pleasantly surprised that the dogs hardly responded to her, which is quite some change from the past where at least half of them would have stood there barking their heads off. Jeez. We used to have some serious barkers, but now, with age, they’re slowly quieting down, I think. Such a relief.
As expected the dogs were a little restless most of the day. It is a common occurrence during bad weather, of course, so I hope that the “clearing up” holds out tomorrow. They need to move…like me, for that matter. Seriously, if there’s no sunshine tomorrow I might crawl up the walls exorcist style. Hah.
Well that’s it for today. Let’s see on Monday if the Sunday market got canceled as well, eh? Would be a pity, considering I am allowed to take Knight II along until he’s healed, but whatever. We’ll see how it goes. According to the predictions the weather should be a tad better for the next few days.
Had a wonderfully calm couple of days, thank you very much. The weather didn’t permit much, forcing me to hide under the cover of a roof most of the time. Seriously, there were rivers streaming down our mountain (got the basin full completely), sweeping everything along. The new partition of the carport is working well, by the way. It’s keeping the wind out perfectly, and the water is only going where it’s supposed to…the gutter. Yay.
It was good to get small stuff done. Did some more leather branding experiments. Got some nice little patterns going, and I’m slowly learning new ones, and tricks how to make it look better, less amateurish. Hah.
Got some good writing done, not necessarily a lot, but good. Have added a new character to the story, a teenager who’s having some serious problems at home, has a big trauma in his past, and who is going to be an important part of the story, I think…at least, that’s what it’s looking like now. He’s not a transient. Turns out my “alien” is a little goofy and quite innocent, so I should be able to have some fun writing about him, too.
Spent some time this morning clearing away piles, and piles of laundry in my cabin. Too much was getting dirty again from just lying there, Dax jumping on top for a nap, that sort of thing. Took some time, seeing as there was so much of the stuff, but at least I’ve got some horizontal surfaces cleared again. High time, too. Hah.
During my second session of hiding in the car port of the insistent rain, was repairing a leather purse that can also be worn as a back pack. I’ve been planning on using it for the market, so I can keep my valuables on me, but just haven’t gotten around to it. Worked out well enough, thankfully, so I should be able to use it Sunday…which reminds me, due to the weather (despite that it has been clearing up for the past few hour) the Saturday market has been cancelled. Yay. Nothing against the market, mind you, but I kinda like the free day (for as far as you can call it free since I fully plan on doing something constructive at home), in particular since working on the balcony will start on Wednesday and we’re going to have to do some prepping for that.
There were of course the usual chores such as laundry and my daily trips to the vet with Knight II. He’s behaving remarkably well, but still, it is requiring a lot of attention. If I don’t pay attention to him, he’s either going to tug at the denim “boot” or he’ll come over to press himself against me. Like he’s in dire need of a petting, or something. Silly dog.
Chaos is upset with me at the moment. He’s having a bit of a bladder problem at the moment (a very mild infection) meaning that I can’t let him on the bed without me being there. That being the case he will try to get me to take him inside and lift him on the bed, despite my multiple explanations that he cant’.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: No Chaos. You can’t.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Stop barking. I said no.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: No. Come here! (he doesn’t of course, but stands, instead in the open doorway, trampling his paws like a horse and staring at me balefully)
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Chaos!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Shut up.
Big brother: He’s not going to listen.
Me: Shut up!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Chaos. You shut up, too, please.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Big brother: He’s going to continue until you put him on the bed.
(He shakes his head while I gesture at Chaos to come to me.)
Me: Chaos! Pretty please with a cherry on top.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: CHAOS!!!
Chaos: Wharf, wharf. Wharf, wharf. (more trampling, more looking)
This is usually where I give in and follow him inside to let him on the bed. But not today. I stood firm, thank you very much.
Me: Chaos! Please. Come on. Lie down over here, you don’t need the bed. You’re a big boy.
Chaos: Wharf.
Big brother: Persistent little bugger.
Chaos: Wharf, wharf.
Me: Yes, I know, Chaos. You’re the gorgeous. Come here, gorgeous. Come on.
Chaos: Wharf. (a shuffle, a step in the right direction.)
Me: Come on, gorgeous. You can lie right here in front of the stove. (I nudge Tadaika aside to make some room for him.)
Chaos: Wharf, wharf. (Sniffle) Wharf, wharf!
Me: CHAOS! Get. Over. Here. And stop whining.
Big brother chortles, while the Chaos turns “the eye” on him. Then he sighs deeply, trots over and flops down onto my feet. Thank you, Chaos. *sigh*
He’s a character for sure.
But enough about the Chaos. What else happened. Well, I Cooked supper twice, of course. A nice mashed tomato carrot mix that I put together last night after big brother and I got back from a donation. Not much, but all the little bits help, right? And today a lentil veggie mix that I really needed to fix in a way that didn’t remind me at all of dhal. I love the smell of dhal, I just don’t like the taste, oddly enough.
A bit of news on the side about two dogs we’ve taken in for a week. Something went wrong during transport to the Netherlands (the owners are from there) where somehow the dogs got left at the airport, which meant that mom and little brother went to pick them up. So we’ve got stay-overs again. I’ve yet to meet them, really, seeing as they arrived late last night, but I’ll get to it somehow.
This morning, while taking Knight II to the vet, we also took along 14 year old Rammi, who’s gradually getting to be thinner and thinner, despite the fact that she’s eating extremely well. Though there are some lumps, the vet thinks it has more to do with her age than anything else.
Grandpa has been busy cleaning up in the carport, in particular since we’ll be spending a lot of days there during the rainy days. Busy there, in particular since Sally is joining us too. Good thing that, seeing as I don’t like it when she locks herself up in her cabin on her own. That can’t be good for her.
I spent some time on working with wood today. Those Chinese boxes, remember. I managed to glue together the new lid I’m designing, despite the fact that the moist air had the glue take forever to dry, darn it. Only managed to do one for that very reason. Ah well, maybe tomorrow.
Liane came today, bringing us the first installment for the balcony so we can buy the supplies we need to get started. With a little luck we’ll manage that tomorrow morning, while I take Knight to the vet, otherwise we’ll have to do it on Monday. I was pleasantly surprised that the dogs hardly responded to her, which is quite some change from the past where at least half of them would have stood there barking their heads off. Jeez. We used to have some serious barkers, but now, with age, they’re slowly quieting down, I think. Such a relief.
As expected the dogs were a little restless most of the day. It is a common occurrence during bad weather, of course, so I hope that the “clearing up” holds out tomorrow. They need to move…like me, for that matter. Seriously, if there’s no sunshine tomorrow I might crawl up the walls exorcist style. Hah.
Well that’s it for today. Let’s see on Monday if the Sunday market got canceled as well, eh? Would be a pity, considering I am allowed to take Knight II along until he’s healed, but whatever. We’ll see how it goes. According to the predictions the weather should be a tad better for the next few days.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Rain
Song of the day: “Don’t marry her” by the Beautiful South. It’s been a while since I heard that one. Good song, though.
Had a somewhat restless night the other day. Don’t know why, I’ll blame it on the moon, or something. Hah. The day got started with a quick dip in the pool, followed by walking the visiting dogs…much like I’ve been doing most mornings.
Yesterday was spent primarily by the basin terrace. Even tenant went along, and sat down there, reading while big brother and grandpa continued to haul more sludge out of the basin to prepair for the predicted rain. Might not have been the smartest thing for big brother to do, what with him having pulled his back, but he did it regardless, which he paid for today, poor fella.
But anyway, while they did that, cousin Ed and I started cleaning up the outside kitchen, and put everything away in the basement for winter. It took some time, the cleaning, the sorting, the carrying and going up and down the stairs. Up and down, back and forth. In the end it was all down there though, and since Sally and caregiver had gone to the hospital for the last day of radio therapy. Her sight is better now, and though she is a bit wobbly after therapy, she does feel there is an overall improvement.
Before we could store stuff down there, however, there was the linoleum to remove off the floor. It was so old, it was literally breaking apart while I was taking it out. Then, after everything was put away, it was time to get garbage up to the car, which took several trips to say the least. Afterward tenant had to be walked up, and she was pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t as tired as she has been the past few days, and that she hadn’t expected that she’d manage to walk all the way up, in one session.
Good news is that little brother passed his driver’s license exam at last. (Yay for little brother) His usual sense of humor was intact, seeing as he SMSed mom to come pick him up, saying he failed. Then when she arrived, he came out, claiming that he was never going back there, ever again, which had mom totally depressed of course. Then he started grinning and told her he made it. Little bastard. He likes riling folks. Hah.
Big brother and I spent the remainder of the afternoon heading out and getting rid of a full load of garbage. Seriously, we only got half out and will need another trip to get it all out, but it’s a start at least.
Bad news, the Opel, once again, is in trouble. It is making some sort of wacky sound, meaning that we can’t drive it, again, and that we really have to have it towed to the garage again, darn it. What is wrong with our transportation of late? Jeez.
Writing. Almost done with the book. Almost. Did two pages yesterday, double that today, and am well into the last scene. Very intense, very sad. Seeing as the weather was particularly rainy today, not big splashes but a miserly thing mostly. Just enough of to be annoying, but incredibly good for the plants, so mother nature is forgiven.
Sally has her new closet, as of yesterday evening, and the beginning of today, after doing my normal chores, I spent putting my cabin to rights. Seriously, it was such a mess I stood the for about ten minutes wondering where the heck to start. Finally decided to just pick a spot and start and then see where I end up. Did finally get all my horizontal surfaces cleared, which is a good start. Looks a little better now, less like a pigsty.
What else? I went down into the yard for a bit, seeing as big brother wasn’t worth much today. He spent the majority of the day in his room, resting his back, doing some edits, resting some more. Harvested some peppers and such, and then went up to cook supper. Fried rice with veggies, a satay sauce and a bit of fried beef on the side. The fried beef was heavy on the stomach, but what the hey, had to be done.
Dogs. Well, mine spent the majority of the day inside my cabin making a nuisance of themselves. Seriously, there is nothing quite as annoying as having to work around a pack in the rain. It was wet everywhere! Aaaargh.
Okay, time for bed. I need to get horizontal fast and head for a new day. Rainy days exhaust me.
Had a somewhat restless night the other day. Don’t know why, I’ll blame it on the moon, or something. Hah. The day got started with a quick dip in the pool, followed by walking the visiting dogs…much like I’ve been doing most mornings.
Yesterday was spent primarily by the basin terrace. Even tenant went along, and sat down there, reading while big brother and grandpa continued to haul more sludge out of the basin to prepair for the predicted rain. Might not have been the smartest thing for big brother to do, what with him having pulled his back, but he did it regardless, which he paid for today, poor fella.
But anyway, while they did that, cousin Ed and I started cleaning up the outside kitchen, and put everything away in the basement for winter. It took some time, the cleaning, the sorting, the carrying and going up and down the stairs. Up and down, back and forth. In the end it was all down there though, and since Sally and caregiver had gone to the hospital for the last day of radio therapy. Her sight is better now, and though she is a bit wobbly after therapy, she does feel there is an overall improvement.
Before we could store stuff down there, however, there was the linoleum to remove off the floor. It was so old, it was literally breaking apart while I was taking it out. Then, after everything was put away, it was time to get garbage up to the car, which took several trips to say the least. Afterward tenant had to be walked up, and she was pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t as tired as she has been the past few days, and that she hadn’t expected that she’d manage to walk all the way up, in one session.
Good news is that little brother passed his driver’s license exam at last. (Yay for little brother) His usual sense of humor was intact, seeing as he SMSed mom to come pick him up, saying he failed. Then when she arrived, he came out, claiming that he was never going back there, ever again, which had mom totally depressed of course. Then he started grinning and told her he made it. Little bastard. He likes riling folks. Hah.
Big brother and I spent the remainder of the afternoon heading out and getting rid of a full load of garbage. Seriously, we only got half out and will need another trip to get it all out, but it’s a start at least.
Bad news, the Opel, once again, is in trouble. It is making some sort of wacky sound, meaning that we can’t drive it, again, and that we really have to have it towed to the garage again, darn it. What is wrong with our transportation of late? Jeez.
Writing. Almost done with the book. Almost. Did two pages yesterday, double that today, and am well into the last scene. Very intense, very sad. Seeing as the weather was particularly rainy today, not big splashes but a miserly thing mostly. Just enough of to be annoying, but incredibly good for the plants, so mother nature is forgiven.
Sally has her new closet, as of yesterday evening, and the beginning of today, after doing my normal chores, I spent putting my cabin to rights. Seriously, it was such a mess I stood the for about ten minutes wondering where the heck to start. Finally decided to just pick a spot and start and then see where I end up. Did finally get all my horizontal surfaces cleared, which is a good start. Looks a little better now, less like a pigsty.
What else? I went down into the yard for a bit, seeing as big brother wasn’t worth much today. He spent the majority of the day in his room, resting his back, doing some edits, resting some more. Harvested some peppers and such, and then went up to cook supper. Fried rice with veggies, a satay sauce and a bit of fried beef on the side. The fried beef was heavy on the stomach, but what the hey, had to be done.
Dogs. Well, mine spent the majority of the day inside my cabin making a nuisance of themselves. Seriously, there is nothing quite as annoying as having to work around a pack in the rain. It was wet everywhere! Aaaargh.
Okay, time for bed. I need to get horizontal fast and head for a new day. Rainy days exhaust me.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
In the jungle, the mighty jungle...
Song of the day: “Bruises” by Chairlift. Incredibly cute song, only a tad annoying since the part “for youhoooohooo” is the most prominent in ones memory. Hah.
So yeah, I’m incredibly short on time. We’re heading out tomorrow for the second to last workday on that fence. Setting the gates this time, so plenty to do, plenty to do. Let’s hope we don’t need to dig the holes again. And that everything held. *snort* That’s my panicky side talking. Since we did a sturdy job, I don’t see how it could have gone wrong unless someone willingly wrecked it. Hah.
But anyway, let’s get you up to date so that we can all continue with our lives. *wink*
Yesterday:
A busy day, of course. Nothing new about that, is there? Best thing of yesterday was definitely the morning workout. Yay. Did a solid hour and a half despite the miserly rain that came down. I pounded, kicked and punched. Pumped, bounced and tread, working up a nice sweat (like this morning too, as a matter of fact. What can I say, I had some catching up to do) before starting on the day (same as this morning again, hah).
I totally forgot to say that the day before we put the new water tank in place. It was quite a hassle actually, since the dratted thing was so big that we couldn’t get it through the carport and the smaller gates. We contemplated taking it along the perimeter of the garden, and then lift it over the fence where we’ll need it, but finally decided against it. There’s a short path on that side, but it would be too dangerous to navigate with that massive “bucket”. Finally decided to carry it through the big gate and then OVER the small gate beside the old RV. We were a funny sight for sure. Cousin Ed, me, grandpa and big brother, rotating our way through, that tank as high as we could possibly hold it.
That done, the tank had to be hosed clean, and then gradually lowering it to the new platform big brother finished the other day. It fit like a glove, thank you very much. While cousin Ed and I were busy elsewhere, grandpa and big brother installed all the tubing, making the tank completely ready for yesterday. And boy, were they on time!
Did do laundry, but since the air was damp and the rain was coming down (most of the night as well) there wasn’t all that much to fold. By the time we finished feeding the dogs for the day, the rain started for real and after breakfast cousin Ed and I decided to get to work on 60 pounds of lemons that had to be squeezed into juice. Yep. Got a cheap batch the other day which meant we had to make lemonade to save them properly. Took most of the day, all of it spent in the carport cutting, squeezing (by hand too, since the poor little machine couldn’t hack it) and putting it in pots and bottles. Had about eight pots of lemon juice and five bottles of lemonade. Success!
While cousin Ed and I were doing that big brother and grandpa did more in the bungalow’s kitchen. It’s coming along nicely now. Looking grand with the beautiful wooden shelving behind it.
By the time the rain finally let up for a bit, all reservoirs were filled. YAY! No kidding. The new tank was filled to full capacity, the main basin as well, and of course the small pool. This means that we’ve earned ourselves a solid two weeks extra of free water this summer. Ergo, free, homegrown, utterly ecologically grown veggies. Double Yay!
Since the rain stopped we rushed down to the yard to harvest veggies for dog food and broccoli for ourselves. Jeez, everything was soaking wet, me included by the time we were done. Sweater was wet up to my elbows, pants up to my knees…as were my shoes. Hah. I would have changed clothes then, if we didn’t still need cut everything. Instead, eating mac&cheese big brother prepared, we finished preparing the dog food, at which time the sky slowly started to clear. So nice of Mother Nature that she stopped pouring the moment we had everything filled. Hah.
Managed a nine page edit by the end of the day, despite having moments of being cross-eyed with exhaustion. Went well enough, only ten pages away from being one third of the way. I’m not displeased with how the last edit’s changes turned out. I think it’s working so far.
Strangely enough squeezing lemons wasn’t good for my shoulder. The darn thing has been whining somewhat fierce ever since that. Same goes for the foot, but what the heck. Nothing new there. Hah
Was only a little late getting to bed, but managed getting up right on the dot for that workout. Yay.
Again laundry, but a lot was still wet despite the air having cleared throughout the night. The weather has definitely improved overnight. In fact, we had a wonderfully warm sun today.
After the usual chores, coffee and breakfast, I headed down into the yard to check the tomato plants for bugs (plenty of those again, blasted creatures) and then clear some of the terraced under the house. The malva and reed just got too big this winter, and we really needed to clear at least a pat. Then I suddenly saw myself standing in front of this dense forestry (the place where some odd eight years ago there used to be a path) blinking at the sound of Gandalf in my head, saying “thou shall not pass”. Hah. Seriously, the bushes, vines, papyrus and weeds were basically challenging me. So I took the big cutters, a scythes, and got to work.
I hacked, I cut, I sliced and by some sort of miracle, after several hours of work had a semblance of a path. It was really rather amazing. One moment you’re looking at a vast jungle, and the next (naturally I had “the lying sleeps tonight” in my head during this particular chore. Hah) there was an actual path to navigate as Ed and I started dragging branching and such away. It was wonderful work to do, in particular since the poplar, the oleanders and such protected the path and us from the sun. It was wonderfully cool in there.
Gawd, some of those vines were as thick as my index finger, by the way. I can’t believe how big it’s all become down there. I’m thinking that working on paving that path, and then making the stairs to the individual terraces is going to be a blessing once summer starts. It’ll actually be cool un there.
That done, we headed up to where grandpa had made us some pancakes for a snack and heard that mom and the younger sibs had a good day at the market. Then of course we got a call, that made it necessary for us to head on out with the car and do a pick up. Got a nice donation batch, so it was worth our wile. Still, it would have been better if we didn’t have that, seeing as we still had to prepare for tomorrow’s work day.
While unloading the car, we also loaded up. The three gates on the imperial. A load of sand in the back. Bags of cement in the backseat and of course a whole set of tools that we’re going to need. Luckily grandpa and big brother could do most of this while I got started on the blog. Hey. I’m about done, and only took an hour to write it. Yay.
Okay, gotta go. Need to have an early night, and I would like to do a few edits still.
So yeah, I’m incredibly short on time. We’re heading out tomorrow for the second to last workday on that fence. Setting the gates this time, so plenty to do, plenty to do. Let’s hope we don’t need to dig the holes again. And that everything held. *snort* That’s my panicky side talking. Since we did a sturdy job, I don’t see how it could have gone wrong unless someone willingly wrecked it. Hah.
But anyway, let’s get you up to date so that we can all continue with our lives. *wink*
Yesterday:
A busy day, of course. Nothing new about that, is there? Best thing of yesterday was definitely the morning workout. Yay. Did a solid hour and a half despite the miserly rain that came down. I pounded, kicked and punched. Pumped, bounced and tread, working up a nice sweat (like this morning too, as a matter of fact. What can I say, I had some catching up to do) before starting on the day (same as this morning again, hah).
I totally forgot to say that the day before we put the new water tank in place. It was quite a hassle actually, since the dratted thing was so big that we couldn’t get it through the carport and the smaller gates. We contemplated taking it along the perimeter of the garden, and then lift it over the fence where we’ll need it, but finally decided against it. There’s a short path on that side, but it would be too dangerous to navigate with that massive “bucket”. Finally decided to carry it through the big gate and then OVER the small gate beside the old RV. We were a funny sight for sure. Cousin Ed, me, grandpa and big brother, rotating our way through, that tank as high as we could possibly hold it.
That done, the tank had to be hosed clean, and then gradually lowering it to the new platform big brother finished the other day. It fit like a glove, thank you very much. While cousin Ed and I were busy elsewhere, grandpa and big brother installed all the tubing, making the tank completely ready for yesterday. And boy, were they on time!
Did do laundry, but since the air was damp and the rain was coming down (most of the night as well) there wasn’t all that much to fold. By the time we finished feeding the dogs for the day, the rain started for real and after breakfast cousin Ed and I decided to get to work on 60 pounds of lemons that had to be squeezed into juice. Yep. Got a cheap batch the other day which meant we had to make lemonade to save them properly. Took most of the day, all of it spent in the carport cutting, squeezing (by hand too, since the poor little machine couldn’t hack it) and putting it in pots and bottles. Had about eight pots of lemon juice and five bottles of lemonade. Success!
While cousin Ed and I were doing that big brother and grandpa did more in the bungalow’s kitchen. It’s coming along nicely now. Looking grand with the beautiful wooden shelving behind it.
By the time the rain finally let up for a bit, all reservoirs were filled. YAY! No kidding. The new tank was filled to full capacity, the main basin as well, and of course the small pool. This means that we’ve earned ourselves a solid two weeks extra of free water this summer. Ergo, free, homegrown, utterly ecologically grown veggies. Double Yay!
Since the rain stopped we rushed down to the yard to harvest veggies for dog food and broccoli for ourselves. Jeez, everything was soaking wet, me included by the time we were done. Sweater was wet up to my elbows, pants up to my knees…as were my shoes. Hah. I would have changed clothes then, if we didn’t still need cut everything. Instead, eating mac&cheese big brother prepared, we finished preparing the dog food, at which time the sky slowly started to clear. So nice of Mother Nature that she stopped pouring the moment we had everything filled. Hah.
Managed a nine page edit by the end of the day, despite having moments of being cross-eyed with exhaustion. Went well enough, only ten pages away from being one third of the way. I’m not displeased with how the last edit’s changes turned out. I think it’s working so far.
Strangely enough squeezing lemons wasn’t good for my shoulder. The darn thing has been whining somewhat fierce ever since that. Same goes for the foot, but what the heck. Nothing new there. Hah
Was only a little late getting to bed, but managed getting up right on the dot for that workout. Yay.
Again laundry, but a lot was still wet despite the air having cleared throughout the night. The weather has definitely improved overnight. In fact, we had a wonderfully warm sun today.
After the usual chores, coffee and breakfast, I headed down into the yard to check the tomato plants for bugs (plenty of those again, blasted creatures) and then clear some of the terraced under the house. The malva and reed just got too big this winter, and we really needed to clear at least a pat. Then I suddenly saw myself standing in front of this dense forestry (the place where some odd eight years ago there used to be a path) blinking at the sound of Gandalf in my head, saying “thou shall not pass”. Hah. Seriously, the bushes, vines, papyrus and weeds were basically challenging me. So I took the big cutters, a scythes, and got to work.
I hacked, I cut, I sliced and by some sort of miracle, after several hours of work had a semblance of a path. It was really rather amazing. One moment you’re looking at a vast jungle, and the next (naturally I had “the lying sleeps tonight” in my head during this particular chore. Hah) there was an actual path to navigate as Ed and I started dragging branching and such away. It was wonderful work to do, in particular since the poplar, the oleanders and such protected the path and us from the sun. It was wonderfully cool in there.
Gawd, some of those vines were as thick as my index finger, by the way. I can’t believe how big it’s all become down there. I’m thinking that working on paving that path, and then making the stairs to the individual terraces is going to be a blessing once summer starts. It’ll actually be cool un there.
That done, we headed up to where grandpa had made us some pancakes for a snack and heard that mom and the younger sibs had a good day at the market. Then of course we got a call, that made it necessary for us to head on out with the car and do a pick up. Got a nice donation batch, so it was worth our wile. Still, it would have been better if we didn’t have that, seeing as we still had to prepare for tomorrow’s work day.
While unloading the car, we also loaded up. The three gates on the imperial. A load of sand in the back. Bags of cement in the backseat and of course a whole set of tools that we’re going to need. Luckily grandpa and big brother could do most of this while I got started on the blog. Hey. I’m about done, and only took an hour to write it. Yay.
Okay, gotta go. Need to have an early night, and I would like to do a few edits still.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Rainy weekends...slow!
Song of the day: “If I were a boy” by Reba McIntire. Wonderful cover of this song, and though Beyonce doesn’t do it bad, I think I like Reba’s version best.
This is going to be a boring blog, seeing as it has been raining rather badly, off and on for about two whole days and there really isn’t all that much to tell…except maybe during the biggest downpour yesterday afternoon where it came clear that we hadn’t finished grandpa’s little roof in time. There was so much of it that it filled up the roof and came pouring down on all sides. This meant that big brother had to pretend being support beam while I ran back and forth through the rain getting supports and slats to keep the lot up. The water came up to my ankles, thank you very much.
Did have an eye-roll moment during the entire thing. I went to the carport to get grandpa, and when I told him what was going on, he kept repeating: “I told you, told you, told you,” in that annoying tone that has absolutely no use in moments like that, and when we full well knew that, but simply didn’t have the time to finish it, prior to the rain. Hah. Ah well, we got the supports up now, so it’ll hold until the weather dries out again.
Workout yesterday morning (none today, thank you very much. Too cold and wet) was a chilly venture, where standing still wasn’t wise, since it would cool you off in five seconds flat, getting goosebumps to break out all over. Despite that, workout didn’t go bad at all.
Checking the garden was oddly reassuring, considering this kind of weather makes me want to crawl up the walls and howl at the moon, or something…or am I now just messing up my metaphors? Well, whatever. I’ve had enough water for now, thank you very much. The weather Gods can take a bloody vacation and give me back my sunshine. Grrr.
The dogs are not enjoying the wetness either. By the time the wood stove goes on, they will cluster around it (like us whiners) and literally go up to it with only an inch to spare. Seriously, you should see Sitabah. She is sitting in front of it right now, her eyes drooping and her body tight and languid at the same time while she lets the waves of heat roll over her. Same goes for the others who are lying on their blankets, fully enjoying the rolling heat.
I worked on tenant’s embroidery frame yesterday, seeing as there wasn’t much we could do outside once I got into dry clothes. Sanded the wood, made the metal clamp around it, and put an old blouse in it, with a patch to see if tenant wanted to fiddle with it. I’m not sure she’s going to try it much, but we’ll see. Gotta try it anyway. Besides, if she doesn’t like working with it, I’ll have a frame myself. Hah.
Started the edit early in the afternoon, and got into a heated argument about sentence structure again. Big brother likes to go the well-travelled road when it concerns writing, while I like to take a bit of risk every now and then, hah. It can lead to fierce conflicts…luckily I didn’t feel the need to conk him on the head this time.
Decided to finish the day with a movie. “The final cut” with Sam Elliot. Such a cute little movie, and it keeps being nice. They don’t make ‘m like that anymore, do they?
It did make me late getting to bed, so I slept little over five hours last night, darn it. Knew I needed a nap today, even as I got up to start on the day.
So what was today? Making zucchini soup over breakfast of course, which followed the usual session of laundry hanging and hot coffee. Laundry is a science in this kind of weather. What with laundry for seven people, you gotta fill every single line to full capacity to get everything hung in hopes that it will dry enough for your to rotate the new batches. Luckily I’ve had lots of practice. Hah.
That done, I did some sorting in the storage area. Would have liked to haul stuff around, but since the rain kept going, that didn’t happen. Instead I went down to the greenhouse to check the plants for bugs, and water the raised seedbed. Knight II took the opportunity to run around like a lunatic and almost bowled right over me in his enthusiasm. Seriously, you do not get in the way of a Great Dane when he’s enthusiastic. Strangely enough, it gets Dax excited as well, and he’ll get Knight II riled up even more, making being around them a tad dangerous.
Luckily Gada knows this, and stays carefully out of the way in these moments.
But anyway, the soup ready, macaroni was boiled for supper, while I chatted a little with tenant and then headed down to my cabin for some cleaning up. My bathroom needed a scrubbing, and since big brother was busy with the computers (one of the fans gave the spirit, blasted things! Can’t even handle an inch or two of dust) I put away the piles and piles of clean laundry that I’d been stacking on top of my horizontal surfaces for the past month or so. *sigh* Glad to be able to see those surfaces again, even though they are dirty, meaning that I’ll have to spend another few hours in there cleaning them in the near future. *double sigh*
That done I did some sewing. First my jeans. The dogs got their teeth in it, so I had to fix the waistband and one of the belt loops. I had also wanted to fix one of my bed sheets, but Knight II and Chaos ruined that one good by removing a square foot or so. Mom is going to see if she can put a new piece of fabric in it. She and the younger sibs came back from a successful market day, and she sat in the carport with us for a bit while the sibs put away what couldn’t stay out in the rain. Those dog baskets are going like fresh bread, really.
There was supper made by big brother, and then some more sorting in the carport followed by that much anticipated nap. Didn’t drop off well, however, seeing it was so nippy. The temperature dropped below 45 in fact, and I wasn’t appreciative of that fact. My fingers and toes felt frozen, despite my ski boots…by now I’ve warmed up a little from the stove though. Yay.
Well, this will be it for today, I guess. Sorry that I have nothing scintillating to tell, but life is just that, life. Nothing glamorous, it just IS.
This is going to be a boring blog, seeing as it has been raining rather badly, off and on for about two whole days and there really isn’t all that much to tell…except maybe during the biggest downpour yesterday afternoon where it came clear that we hadn’t finished grandpa’s little roof in time. There was so much of it that it filled up the roof and came pouring down on all sides. This meant that big brother had to pretend being support beam while I ran back and forth through the rain getting supports and slats to keep the lot up. The water came up to my ankles, thank you very much.
Did have an eye-roll moment during the entire thing. I went to the carport to get grandpa, and when I told him what was going on, he kept repeating: “I told you, told you, told you,” in that annoying tone that has absolutely no use in moments like that, and when we full well knew that, but simply didn’t have the time to finish it, prior to the rain. Hah. Ah well, we got the supports up now, so it’ll hold until the weather dries out again.
Workout yesterday morning (none today, thank you very much. Too cold and wet) was a chilly venture, where standing still wasn’t wise, since it would cool you off in five seconds flat, getting goosebumps to break out all over. Despite that, workout didn’t go bad at all.
Checking the garden was oddly reassuring, considering this kind of weather makes me want to crawl up the walls and howl at the moon, or something…or am I now just messing up my metaphors? Well, whatever. I’ve had enough water for now, thank you very much. The weather Gods can take a bloody vacation and give me back my sunshine. Grrr.
The dogs are not enjoying the wetness either. By the time the wood stove goes on, they will cluster around it (like us whiners) and literally go up to it with only an inch to spare. Seriously, you should see Sitabah. She is sitting in front of it right now, her eyes drooping and her body tight and languid at the same time while she lets the waves of heat roll over her. Same goes for the others who are lying on their blankets, fully enjoying the rolling heat.
I worked on tenant’s embroidery frame yesterday, seeing as there wasn’t much we could do outside once I got into dry clothes. Sanded the wood, made the metal clamp around it, and put an old blouse in it, with a patch to see if tenant wanted to fiddle with it. I’m not sure she’s going to try it much, but we’ll see. Gotta try it anyway. Besides, if she doesn’t like working with it, I’ll have a frame myself. Hah.
Started the edit early in the afternoon, and got into a heated argument about sentence structure again. Big brother likes to go the well-travelled road when it concerns writing, while I like to take a bit of risk every now and then, hah. It can lead to fierce conflicts…luckily I didn’t feel the need to conk him on the head this time.
Decided to finish the day with a movie. “The final cut” with Sam Elliot. Such a cute little movie, and it keeps being nice. They don’t make ‘m like that anymore, do they?
It did make me late getting to bed, so I slept little over five hours last night, darn it. Knew I needed a nap today, even as I got up to start on the day.
So what was today? Making zucchini soup over breakfast of course, which followed the usual session of laundry hanging and hot coffee. Laundry is a science in this kind of weather. What with laundry for seven people, you gotta fill every single line to full capacity to get everything hung in hopes that it will dry enough for your to rotate the new batches. Luckily I’ve had lots of practice. Hah.
That done, I did some sorting in the storage area. Would have liked to haul stuff around, but since the rain kept going, that didn’t happen. Instead I went down to the greenhouse to check the plants for bugs, and water the raised seedbed. Knight II took the opportunity to run around like a lunatic and almost bowled right over me in his enthusiasm. Seriously, you do not get in the way of a Great Dane when he’s enthusiastic. Strangely enough, it gets Dax excited as well, and he’ll get Knight II riled up even more, making being around them a tad dangerous.
Luckily Gada knows this, and stays carefully out of the way in these moments.
But anyway, the soup ready, macaroni was boiled for supper, while I chatted a little with tenant and then headed down to my cabin for some cleaning up. My bathroom needed a scrubbing, and since big brother was busy with the computers (one of the fans gave the spirit, blasted things! Can’t even handle an inch or two of dust) I put away the piles and piles of clean laundry that I’d been stacking on top of my horizontal surfaces for the past month or so. *sigh* Glad to be able to see those surfaces again, even though they are dirty, meaning that I’ll have to spend another few hours in there cleaning them in the near future. *double sigh*
That done I did some sewing. First my jeans. The dogs got their teeth in it, so I had to fix the waistband and one of the belt loops. I had also wanted to fix one of my bed sheets, but Knight II and Chaos ruined that one good by removing a square foot or so. Mom is going to see if she can put a new piece of fabric in it. She and the younger sibs came back from a successful market day, and she sat in the carport with us for a bit while the sibs put away what couldn’t stay out in the rain. Those dog baskets are going like fresh bread, really.
There was supper made by big brother, and then some more sorting in the carport followed by that much anticipated nap. Didn’t drop off well, however, seeing it was so nippy. The temperature dropped below 45 in fact, and I wasn’t appreciative of that fact. My fingers and toes felt frozen, despite my ski boots…by now I’ve warmed up a little from the stove though. Yay.
Well, this will be it for today, I guess. Sorry that I have nothing scintillating to tell, but life is just that, life. Nothing glamorous, it just IS.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Rain, rain and more rain
Song of the day: “The Flood” by Katie Melua. Strangely appropriate these past couple of days. Even infected big brother with it. Hah.
Rain.
It had been an annoying constant for the past couple of days, and for me it has been more than enough. I want the summer back. I mean it. Let’s skip winter and just go straight through to summer…please?…pretty please with a cherry on top?
My clothes are wet, and despite the fact that I changed into dry ones earlier, everything still feels wet. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with yesterday.
Thunder was roaring like mad when I woke about half an hour prior to my alarm going off yesterday morning. The ground was shaking, rain pounding down, and trees swaying like mad in the hard wind. It was not a workout day, so I headed down into the house to do some cleaning. Tackled spider webs, cleaned some glass, and on the overall tried to make the house remotely presentable. It did result in neck pain, regretfully. Darned high ceilings.
Afterwards, the rain still coming down, we went down to the yard to check everything, and found that the basin had filled up to two feet during the first rain. Excellent.
By then the rain got worse again, so I had breakfast and then went to the carport where I spent the majority of the day repairing clothes that had been lying about for just such a rainy day.
Fixed four pants, two tops, a bra and both body warmers, which were ripped in the back. It didn’t help my neck pain any, but what the heck. It was quite satisfactory to have my repair clothes box empty for a change. Hah.
While I was sewing, big brother worked on the moped. Remember how I told that grandpa went to the village and got caught by a flood? Well, it looks like the moped got the worst of it. In all likelihood we’re going to have to bring it to the repair guy again. *sigh*
Turned out that despite the bad weather, mom and the sibs had a good day at the market. Mom’s bags and dog beds are really taking off with the local foreigners, and they are getting to be much in demand. I do have to admit that the fabrics used in stores and such are deplorable, so I totally agree on that part. Mom’s fabrics are the rich and beautiful colored kind.
Rather than head inside, which I deplore these days, I cooked dinner on a one pit stove in the carport, and it was delicious. Tenant even came down to the terrace to share supper with us, and we ended up talking about the past, and India and some of our other travels. She does love those kind of chats, I must say. Her eyes start to sparkle. Wasted at least an hour chatting about such things, but it was worth it…especially since with this weather she is cooped up inside a lot.
Through the course of the day we had a sum total of three thunderstorms with rain and lighting, but luckily the sky cleared around dusk, allowing us to sit outside on the terrace during the daily edit. I do love that at the moment this seems to be par for the course. Rain all day, only for the sky to clear at the end of it, allowing for outside work in the evening. Soon it will be too cold for that, of course, but until then, I intend to fully enjoy the fresh air.
As cold wet days tend to do, I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the day and was more than happy to call it a day…which led to this morning’s workout, naturally.
Despite the wind and rain workout went rather well. Managed to go through all the motions, even though I shortened a few of the routines in favor of having to go out into the rain for them to be accurate. But I punched and kicked the ball, pumped steel and jumped around on the beat. All in all, not bad. Hah.
That done, and with grandpa and big brother on their way to the village to get fresh bread and dairy, I went up to tenant’s where we made white bean patty dough for tonight’s snack, and pumpkin soup of supper. The way I figured, tenant could use the diversion. You can hardly sit on a chair and read all day, all winter long without going absolutely bonkers. Luckily she likes helping with cooking.
By the time breakfast of fresh bread was over, grandpa came rushing up the mountain (fully geared in rain clothes and boots) telling us that the basin was already overrunning. We rushed down ourselves, getting completely soaked in the process of digging a new gutter to lead the river of water away from the main ducts. Having stopped the main flow, we headed for the garden pit and put in two hoses to drain the massive amount of water that was making its way towards the greenhouse.
By then there wasn’t a single dry spot left on my body, and I could feel water run into my waterproof boots by dripping down my legs and past my ankles. *sigh* Going through wet bushes to lead hoses down the incline is not a good way to protect yourself against the rain. Hah.
That done, and having changed into dry clothes and boots, I went to the carport to get away from the wetness and sort through a couple of pounds of mixed screws. Grandpa has this tendency to throw any screw he finds into one big box, meaning that we get to sort through about four of them during winter. Hah.
My dogs are not really all that upset by the weather, seeing as they much prefer staying in my cabin when it rains. Seriously, they’ll saunter inside, take up a lounging position, and look at me as if saying, “that’s fine, just close the door now, boss. That’s it. Nice and closed, leaving us toasty and dry.” *sigh* Sometimes I worry about my dogs not being normal at all.
Another trip to the yard to save cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, kale and red cabbage from drowning, didn’t result in another clothes changing session, thankfully. For the duration of that particular chore the rain stopped for a short time, allowing us to put the baby plants inside the greenhouse, and drain the outside table.
There was pumpkin soup aplenty, and since I put in a pot of lentils it filled our stomachs properly.
Well, that about sums it up. I would like to get some edits done tonight, and maybe a spot of writing, or otherwise reading in the review book, so let’s leave it at this.
Rain.
It had been an annoying constant for the past couple of days, and for me it has been more than enough. I want the summer back. I mean it. Let’s skip winter and just go straight through to summer…please?…pretty please with a cherry on top?
My clothes are wet, and despite the fact that I changed into dry ones earlier, everything still feels wet. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with yesterday.
Thunder was roaring like mad when I woke about half an hour prior to my alarm going off yesterday morning. The ground was shaking, rain pounding down, and trees swaying like mad in the hard wind. It was not a workout day, so I headed down into the house to do some cleaning. Tackled spider webs, cleaned some glass, and on the overall tried to make the house remotely presentable. It did result in neck pain, regretfully. Darned high ceilings.
Afterwards, the rain still coming down, we went down to the yard to check everything, and found that the basin had filled up to two feet during the first rain. Excellent.
By then the rain got worse again, so I had breakfast and then went to the carport where I spent the majority of the day repairing clothes that had been lying about for just such a rainy day.
Fixed four pants, two tops, a bra and both body warmers, which were ripped in the back. It didn’t help my neck pain any, but what the heck. It was quite satisfactory to have my repair clothes box empty for a change. Hah.
While I was sewing, big brother worked on the moped. Remember how I told that grandpa went to the village and got caught by a flood? Well, it looks like the moped got the worst of it. In all likelihood we’re going to have to bring it to the repair guy again. *sigh*
Turned out that despite the bad weather, mom and the sibs had a good day at the market. Mom’s bags and dog beds are really taking off with the local foreigners, and they are getting to be much in demand. I do have to admit that the fabrics used in stores and such are deplorable, so I totally agree on that part. Mom’s fabrics are the rich and beautiful colored kind.
Rather than head inside, which I deplore these days, I cooked dinner on a one pit stove in the carport, and it was delicious. Tenant even came down to the terrace to share supper with us, and we ended up talking about the past, and India and some of our other travels. She does love those kind of chats, I must say. Her eyes start to sparkle. Wasted at least an hour chatting about such things, but it was worth it…especially since with this weather she is cooped up inside a lot.
Through the course of the day we had a sum total of three thunderstorms with rain and lighting, but luckily the sky cleared around dusk, allowing us to sit outside on the terrace during the daily edit. I do love that at the moment this seems to be par for the course. Rain all day, only for the sky to clear at the end of it, allowing for outside work in the evening. Soon it will be too cold for that, of course, but until then, I intend to fully enjoy the fresh air.
As cold wet days tend to do, I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the day and was more than happy to call it a day…which led to this morning’s workout, naturally.
Despite the wind and rain workout went rather well. Managed to go through all the motions, even though I shortened a few of the routines in favor of having to go out into the rain for them to be accurate. But I punched and kicked the ball, pumped steel and jumped around on the beat. All in all, not bad. Hah.
That done, and with grandpa and big brother on their way to the village to get fresh bread and dairy, I went up to tenant’s where we made white bean patty dough for tonight’s snack, and pumpkin soup of supper. The way I figured, tenant could use the diversion. You can hardly sit on a chair and read all day, all winter long without going absolutely bonkers. Luckily she likes helping with cooking.
By the time breakfast of fresh bread was over, grandpa came rushing up the mountain (fully geared in rain clothes and boots) telling us that the basin was already overrunning. We rushed down ourselves, getting completely soaked in the process of digging a new gutter to lead the river of water away from the main ducts. Having stopped the main flow, we headed for the garden pit and put in two hoses to drain the massive amount of water that was making its way towards the greenhouse.
By then there wasn’t a single dry spot left on my body, and I could feel water run into my waterproof boots by dripping down my legs and past my ankles. *sigh* Going through wet bushes to lead hoses down the incline is not a good way to protect yourself against the rain. Hah.
That done, and having changed into dry clothes and boots, I went to the carport to get away from the wetness and sort through a couple of pounds of mixed screws. Grandpa has this tendency to throw any screw he finds into one big box, meaning that we get to sort through about four of them during winter. Hah.
My dogs are not really all that upset by the weather, seeing as they much prefer staying in my cabin when it rains. Seriously, they’ll saunter inside, take up a lounging position, and look at me as if saying, “that’s fine, just close the door now, boss. That’s it. Nice and closed, leaving us toasty and dry.” *sigh* Sometimes I worry about my dogs not being normal at all.
Another trip to the yard to save cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, kale and red cabbage from drowning, didn’t result in another clothes changing session, thankfully. For the duration of that particular chore the rain stopped for a short time, allowing us to put the baby plants inside the greenhouse, and drain the outside table.
There was pumpkin soup aplenty, and since I put in a pot of lentils it filled our stomachs properly.
Well, that about sums it up. I would like to get some edits done tonight, and maybe a spot of writing, or otherwise reading in the review book, so let’s leave it at this.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Love recycling!
Song of the day: “Black Velvet” by Alanah Myles. An oldie, but still awesome. Heard it again the other day, and it’s been going through my head ever since.
I better start with yesterday and see where it’ll get me. From fear of blanking out I made a little list for myself so I could keep track if the worst happened. Hah.
First off, yesterday morning, we started the day with a good workout and clearing out the car, preparing it for today when the younger sibs would need it to load for the market tomorrow. Wow, that’s a confusing sentence, isn’t it, it has a yesterday, today and a tomorrow in it. Hah.
That, and breakfast over and done with, we headed out into the old horse paddock and jacked up the Opel. It’s been making a racket of late, and we wanted to check if there maybe was a hole in the muffler. We couldn’t find anything, and after checking everything we could out, decided it couldn’t be too serious (crossing my fingers, knocking on wood and all that carp).
There was a sharp wind yesterday, but the sun was out so we took tenant with us down into the yard where she sat in the sun while big brother and I worked in the greenhouse and yard. There were quite a few caterpillars to annihilate, along with leaf miners that just make it their business to take all the green stuff from the leafs. Seriously, there are times I’m surprised at finding the bugs every single day, in particular the bigger ones since I basically check every single leaf at least once a day. Somehow one or two escape my notice every time.
Since I was working in the greenhouse and tenant was helping big brother cook, I took the opportunity to fill a couple of big pots and putting in new tomato plants. Regretfully the leaf miners I playing rampant within the tomato plants and we’ve already lost quite a few.
After supper we headed on out to the village where we got a new fire extinguisher and inquired after getting the other two refilled. Apparently doing a refill is half the expense, so we’ll definitely be doing that in the near future. Also got a bucket of paint, considering we found another slat with some sort of termite in it, meaning that, for safety, we’re going to have to redo my cabin completely, lest we risk the wood to the eager little buggers that literally eat their way right through everything. Saw the larvae for the first time, by the way. Perfect horror story material, in case you’re wondering. A white ribbed, legless creature with this huge, cross like mouth that eats its way through wood, for crying out loud. They gave me the willies.
Shopping done we got another load of rock, loading up the car completely and letting Knight II meander about all the while. Not that he does a lot of running, or anything, but at least he gets some movement. *sigh* He’s soooo lazy.
Once we got home there was the usual edit of course, along with an internet search of real estate in the US for back ground research we’re doing for our next book. Got some nice locations, if I do say so myself.
For a change, I was in bed on time…sorta. 1:30 is definitely earlier that usual for me.
Woke to rain this morning, which made workout an interesting endeavor. I was on my own for a change, and was about halfway in when there was a phone call from grandpa. He was in the village and had been surprised by a flash flood that had soaked him and his moped straight up to his waist. Turns out, in his attempt to avoid the sideways downpour, he’d gone through the center of the village where all those tiny little streets open into, meaning that the water had no place to go except up, much to grandpa’s and other traffic’s chagrin.
Before big brother could go and pick him up, we first had to unload it of the rocks, meaning that there was a slight change in routine for me during workout. Hah. Luckily lifting rocks is not a bad way to get the muscles warm.
Once big brother was on his way, I finished what I could of the session, because what with the bad weather I had to drive caregiver to her other job too, rather than have her face the downpour.
Once I got home and checked on tenant, I went down for a much needed shower. My limbs were chilled to the bone, so I really have to be more careful in the future. Within an hour I was sore all over, making lifting Chaos on the bed not at all easy. Poor Chaos doesn’t like the cold at all, and it won’t surprise you to hear that he slept on the bed for six straight hours without a peep. Jeez. I don’t know how he does it, but he was psyched with the beauty sleep. Hah.
Big brother was back round then, and we headed into yard to check that everything was doing well. The basin is steadily filling (Yay!), and I found a few more caterpillars. More beans are finally coming up in the raised seedbed, and the pepper plants in the new lean too, were enjoying the moist heat for sure.
Everything checked we headed back up where I changed into dry clothes and hat. I’m loving my new Goretex boots, by the way. Went through puddles, wet grass and bushes, and they looked soaked through, but kept my feet dry. Double Yay!
Lots of rain and thunder going on for the majority of the day.
And since there wasn’t much else we could do we worked in the carport for the most part. But first we had to attach a big slate of granite in the corner of tenant’s room, which will hold her stove soon.
Afterwards, while big brother worked on a measuring stick for the basin, I took an old cupboard apart, getting out screws and anything else useful, for personal recycling. There’s nothing I dislike more than wasting building materials.
That done, I got metal plating from storage and prepared the section for tenant’s window that I had to cut with the angle grinder. It will be time for her stove again, so we need to finish getting it back inside. This meant that I had to cut the metal, make a perfect circle in it, and replace one of the small windows in her new doors so we can stick the tube through. Had a nice piece of metal tool. It was from the old geyser, so the white paint matches her door perfectly. (See. Gotta love recycling.)
We’re all set to put that stove back.
The rain stopped at last by then, and the sun actually broke through, and since big brother and grandpa went down to check waste water tracks and such, I took the opportunity to put away my clean laundry. Seriously, what with the wetness and cold, Dax has decided that my clean laundry is the perfect spot to cuddle up in, meaning I had to get it stored fast. One bag had to go back to the laundry, however. *sigh*
What followed was a meal of leftovers, which we made into a full meal by adding pancakes for dessert. By then the clouds had really broken apart, making sitting down on my terrace a pleasant experience since for about half an hour we were in the full sunshine…right before it dropped behind the distant horizon.
Which brings us to the now, doesn’t it. You’ll be pleased to know that Chaos (my Basset Hound, in case this wasn’t clear) was impatiently dancing in front of me, crooning rather pitifully right until I gave in and said, “Okay. Go then.” At which point he stormed into my bedroom and jumped up to stand against the bed, waiting for me to lift him up (I am so happy that my bed is too high for all except three of my dogs. Can you imagine how many of them would be on it if it was lower to the floor.
But anyway, delightedly Chaos flounced about on the blankets, threw his head down on the pillow and let the rest drop in an elegant flounce that had him prostrate and asleep in less than a minute. *sigh* I sometimes do realize that I have dogs that are absolutely crazy.
Going to edit, so…
I better start with yesterday and see where it’ll get me. From fear of blanking out I made a little list for myself so I could keep track if the worst happened. Hah.
First off, yesterday morning, we started the day with a good workout and clearing out the car, preparing it for today when the younger sibs would need it to load for the market tomorrow. Wow, that’s a confusing sentence, isn’t it, it has a yesterday, today and a tomorrow in it. Hah.
That, and breakfast over and done with, we headed out into the old horse paddock and jacked up the Opel. It’s been making a racket of late, and we wanted to check if there maybe was a hole in the muffler. We couldn’t find anything, and after checking everything we could out, decided it couldn’t be too serious (crossing my fingers, knocking on wood and all that carp).
There was a sharp wind yesterday, but the sun was out so we took tenant with us down into the yard where she sat in the sun while big brother and I worked in the greenhouse and yard. There were quite a few caterpillars to annihilate, along with leaf miners that just make it their business to take all the green stuff from the leafs. Seriously, there are times I’m surprised at finding the bugs every single day, in particular the bigger ones since I basically check every single leaf at least once a day. Somehow one or two escape my notice every time.
Since I was working in the greenhouse and tenant was helping big brother cook, I took the opportunity to fill a couple of big pots and putting in new tomato plants. Regretfully the leaf miners I playing rampant within the tomato plants and we’ve already lost quite a few.
After supper we headed on out to the village where we got a new fire extinguisher and inquired after getting the other two refilled. Apparently doing a refill is half the expense, so we’ll definitely be doing that in the near future. Also got a bucket of paint, considering we found another slat with some sort of termite in it, meaning that, for safety, we’re going to have to redo my cabin completely, lest we risk the wood to the eager little buggers that literally eat their way right through everything. Saw the larvae for the first time, by the way. Perfect horror story material, in case you’re wondering. A white ribbed, legless creature with this huge, cross like mouth that eats its way through wood, for crying out loud. They gave me the willies.
Shopping done we got another load of rock, loading up the car completely and letting Knight II meander about all the while. Not that he does a lot of running, or anything, but at least he gets some movement. *sigh* He’s soooo lazy.
Once we got home there was the usual edit of course, along with an internet search of real estate in the US for back ground research we’re doing for our next book. Got some nice locations, if I do say so myself.
For a change, I was in bed on time…sorta. 1:30 is definitely earlier that usual for me.
Woke to rain this morning, which made workout an interesting endeavor. I was on my own for a change, and was about halfway in when there was a phone call from grandpa. He was in the village and had been surprised by a flash flood that had soaked him and his moped straight up to his waist. Turns out, in his attempt to avoid the sideways downpour, he’d gone through the center of the village where all those tiny little streets open into, meaning that the water had no place to go except up, much to grandpa’s and other traffic’s chagrin.
Before big brother could go and pick him up, we first had to unload it of the rocks, meaning that there was a slight change in routine for me during workout. Hah. Luckily lifting rocks is not a bad way to get the muscles warm.
Once big brother was on his way, I finished what I could of the session, because what with the bad weather I had to drive caregiver to her other job too, rather than have her face the downpour.
Once I got home and checked on tenant, I went down for a much needed shower. My limbs were chilled to the bone, so I really have to be more careful in the future. Within an hour I was sore all over, making lifting Chaos on the bed not at all easy. Poor Chaos doesn’t like the cold at all, and it won’t surprise you to hear that he slept on the bed for six straight hours without a peep. Jeez. I don’t know how he does it, but he was psyched with the beauty sleep. Hah.
Big brother was back round then, and we headed into yard to check that everything was doing well. The basin is steadily filling (Yay!), and I found a few more caterpillars. More beans are finally coming up in the raised seedbed, and the pepper plants in the new lean too, were enjoying the moist heat for sure.
Everything checked we headed back up where I changed into dry clothes and hat. I’m loving my new Goretex boots, by the way. Went through puddles, wet grass and bushes, and they looked soaked through, but kept my feet dry. Double Yay!
Lots of rain and thunder going on for the majority of the day.
And since there wasn’t much else we could do we worked in the carport for the most part. But first we had to attach a big slate of granite in the corner of tenant’s room, which will hold her stove soon.
Afterwards, while big brother worked on a measuring stick for the basin, I took an old cupboard apart, getting out screws and anything else useful, for personal recycling. There’s nothing I dislike more than wasting building materials.
That done, I got metal plating from storage and prepared the section for tenant’s window that I had to cut with the angle grinder. It will be time for her stove again, so we need to finish getting it back inside. This meant that I had to cut the metal, make a perfect circle in it, and replace one of the small windows in her new doors so we can stick the tube through. Had a nice piece of metal tool. It was from the old geyser, so the white paint matches her door perfectly. (See. Gotta love recycling.)
We’re all set to put that stove back.
The rain stopped at last by then, and the sun actually broke through, and since big brother and grandpa went down to check waste water tracks and such, I took the opportunity to put away my clean laundry. Seriously, what with the wetness and cold, Dax has decided that my clean laundry is the perfect spot to cuddle up in, meaning I had to get it stored fast. One bag had to go back to the laundry, however. *sigh*
What followed was a meal of leftovers, which we made into a full meal by adding pancakes for dessert. By then the clouds had really broken apart, making sitting down on my terrace a pleasant experience since for about half an hour we were in the full sunshine…right before it dropped behind the distant horizon.
Which brings us to the now, doesn’t it. You’ll be pleased to know that Chaos (my Basset Hound, in case this wasn’t clear) was impatiently dancing in front of me, crooning rather pitifully right until I gave in and said, “Okay. Go then.” At which point he stormed into my bedroom and jumped up to stand against the bed, waiting for me to lift him up (I am so happy that my bed is too high for all except three of my dogs. Can you imagine how many of them would be on it if it was lower to the floor.
But anyway, delightedly Chaos flounced about on the blankets, threw his head down on the pillow and let the rest drop in an elegant flounce that had him prostrate and asleep in less than a minute. *sigh* I sometimes do realize that I have dogs that are absolutely crazy.
Going to edit, so…
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Homerun!!!...well, sorta anyway. *snort*
Song of the day…there was none. I had stuff on my mind, so a song couldn’t find room. Hah.
Okay, let’s get the embarrassing part over with: I got out of the car during the paper route, my arms stacked with ‘bout 200 hundred papers. I had my baseball cap on, raincoat hood tugged over it, and was about a yard away from the overhang belonging to the chain store where I needed to make the drop. I spun away from the door, determined not to get the papers wet and sprinted the sum total of two feet when it hit. It was like a baseball bat swung against my shin. Going full speed, my leg decided to stay behind (a mid-shin high concrete block) and I went down like a log.
In a big puddle of water, of course, with the papers that I was trying to keep dry. They went flying and though I doubt it looked that way, I somehow managed to immediately roll to my feet. Yep, that would not have happened two years ago. I would have gone down and lay their like a beached whale or something, wondering what hit me.
As it was, I felt the wetness on my side, decided to go with the momentum, and continued until I was back on my feet. Seriously, once I stopped swearing, got over the shock, and my right shin started swelling, and I had stopped swearing again, I was impressed. Hah. Yeah, I know, but really, it was very unlike me.
Luckily, I had spare clothes with me, ‘cause I was soaking wet on one side, and big brother drove me to the nearest pharmacy so I could buy pressure bandage. My leg was swelling considerable--a patch of three inches in diameter, I think--but all in all it got better once I had the pressure bandage on. Big brother dropped off the bigger amounts of bundles, and I only did the small ones, taking my time crossing the distances.
On the positive side, my body did an excellent job of making a natural painkiller, because for about an hour it didn’t hurt all that bad, not even my left foot, which is nothing short of a miracle on paper bringing day. On the not-so-positive side, after that first hour my left foot and right shin started hurting with a vengeance. For the most part I wasn’t sure which side to limp, so I decided to alternate. Hah. Okay, that sounds bad, but it really wasn’t. I might not have been my “cheery” self, but I did manage to get the job done in the end. Yay.
Lost about eighty papers to the debacle too, which wasn’t good either but manageable since, due to the pissy weather (it was coming down in buckets for the first part of the day) several drop points were firmly closed. It was a quiet day too, considering there was a big football game going on…except for the bars, actually, of which some were literally stacked to full capacity.
But anyway, the entire job thing was very end-of-the-world in atmosphere for some reason.
The sky was overcast, rain pounded down, the sea churned and only a few people ventured outside. If it hadn’t been for the traffic (there were those who appeared to be in a hurry to get to the hospital in a rush, hah) the world could have been deserted. We did manage to get the whole thing done before two in the morning, which isn’t bad considering we lost about forty-five minutes to the incident.
Once we got home the dogs were of course in their usual ecstatic states, meaning that they were rubbing against, bumping into and scratching at my hurt leg, aaaaargh, but big brother thankfully kept them a little bit at bay. Hah. They always do this. If you have a hurt foot, leg, stomach, arm, heck finger too, they'll find a way to hit it. Darn it!
Enough about the job, what else has been going on? Weeeeeeell, this morning was absolutely grand since big brother and I had to get up in time to finish was what left of the route in the village and then shoot straight through to Malaga (that was sarcasm, by the way, the grand thing, that is) to drop the car off at the garage. Yay. Seriously, I could have done without, all things considered. It was a rather restless night considering turning didn’t go all that well. Ah well, what must be done, must be done.
Afterwards, (today that is) we spent a bit of time drying the imperial and then heading out into the yard to check on the veggies and such. Took in a nice harvest of peppers, and even a few late tomatoes, so, yay! While we were out there, the sky actually broke open for a few minutes, allowing for actual sunlight…in the distance. Not on our mountain, regretfully, but seeing it was enough to remind me that this is Spain and I am likely to see the sun shining again overhead soon enough. I tend to forget that every now and then when it rains. I’m so spoiled. *sigh*
I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. I definitely did more than enough complaining for one day and I would like to get back to editing so we can actually finish this book soon and do something new. I’m ready for something new…and fast. Hah.
Okay, let’s get the embarrassing part over with: I got out of the car during the paper route, my arms stacked with ‘bout 200 hundred papers. I had my baseball cap on, raincoat hood tugged over it, and was about a yard away from the overhang belonging to the chain store where I needed to make the drop. I spun away from the door, determined not to get the papers wet and sprinted the sum total of two feet when it hit. It was like a baseball bat swung against my shin. Going full speed, my leg decided to stay behind (a mid-shin high concrete block) and I went down like a log.
In a big puddle of water, of course, with the papers that I was trying to keep dry. They went flying and though I doubt it looked that way, I somehow managed to immediately roll to my feet. Yep, that would not have happened two years ago. I would have gone down and lay their like a beached whale or something, wondering what hit me.
As it was, I felt the wetness on my side, decided to go with the momentum, and continued until I was back on my feet. Seriously, once I stopped swearing, got over the shock, and my right shin started swelling, and I had stopped swearing again, I was impressed. Hah. Yeah, I know, but really, it was very unlike me.
Luckily, I had spare clothes with me, ‘cause I was soaking wet on one side, and big brother drove me to the nearest pharmacy so I could buy pressure bandage. My leg was swelling considerable--a patch of three inches in diameter, I think--but all in all it got better once I had the pressure bandage on. Big brother dropped off the bigger amounts of bundles, and I only did the small ones, taking my time crossing the distances.
On the positive side, my body did an excellent job of making a natural painkiller, because for about an hour it didn’t hurt all that bad, not even my left foot, which is nothing short of a miracle on paper bringing day. On the not-so-positive side, after that first hour my left foot and right shin started hurting with a vengeance. For the most part I wasn’t sure which side to limp, so I decided to alternate. Hah. Okay, that sounds bad, but it really wasn’t. I might not have been my “cheery” self, but I did manage to get the job done in the end. Yay.
Lost about eighty papers to the debacle too, which wasn’t good either but manageable since, due to the pissy weather (it was coming down in buckets for the first part of the day) several drop points were firmly closed. It was a quiet day too, considering there was a big football game going on…except for the bars, actually, of which some were literally stacked to full capacity.
But anyway, the entire job thing was very end-of-the-world in atmosphere for some reason.
The sky was overcast, rain pounded down, the sea churned and only a few people ventured outside. If it hadn’t been for the traffic (there were those who appeared to be in a hurry to get to the hospital in a rush, hah) the world could have been deserted. We did manage to get the whole thing done before two in the morning, which isn’t bad considering we lost about forty-five minutes to the incident.
Once we got home the dogs were of course in their usual ecstatic states, meaning that they were rubbing against, bumping into and scratching at my hurt leg, aaaaargh, but big brother thankfully kept them a little bit at bay. Hah. They always do this. If you have a hurt foot, leg, stomach, arm, heck finger too, they'll find a way to hit it. Darn it!
Enough about the job, what else has been going on? Weeeeeeell, this morning was absolutely grand since big brother and I had to get up in time to finish was what left of the route in the village and then shoot straight through to Malaga (that was sarcasm, by the way, the grand thing, that is) to drop the car off at the garage. Yay. Seriously, I could have done without, all things considered. It was a rather restless night considering turning didn’t go all that well. Ah well, what must be done, must be done.
Afterwards, (today that is) we spent a bit of time drying the imperial and then heading out into the yard to check on the veggies and such. Took in a nice harvest of peppers, and even a few late tomatoes, so, yay! While we were out there, the sky actually broke open for a few minutes, allowing for actual sunlight…in the distance. Not on our mountain, regretfully, but seeing it was enough to remind me that this is Spain and I am likely to see the sun shining again overhead soon enough. I tend to forget that every now and then when it rains. I’m so spoiled. *sigh*
I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. I definitely did more than enough complaining for one day and I would like to get back to editing so we can actually finish this book soon and do something new. I’m ready for something new…and fast. Hah.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
There it goes...blasted wall!
Song of the day: “Sisters of Mercy” by Leonard Cohen. I know, how depressing is that? But he does sing some good songs.
Considering I am running way behind, I am going to try to kept things a little short, because I’ve got a book to edit still, messages to catch up on and well, I would like to get some sleep since tomorrow appears to be a working day after all. Aaaargh.
First off, I’m going to start with the disaster: Yesterday if rained all day. And around four in the afternoon, just when I was about warmed up from the morning’s chores in the carport and tenant’s kitchen (we put in the new ceiling) grandpa came to warn that we had to go down to the basin because it was almost full. We needed to plug the tubing, lest it would start to overflow into the small section in front of the greenhouse.
When we came there, ready to plug the tubing, it became clear that the wall was slowly expanding outward. Obviously we waited too long finishing the wall (meaning adding the one foot thick natural rock part of it) because where there was first and inward slant, it is now going outward. I never realized solid concrete could bend like that, but there you have it. Hah. But anyway, water was spewing all over the place and while big brother, grandpa and our friend Dani were running around throwing in big hoses to start draining, gradually the water evened out until the entire water amount was evenly spaced…including into the greenhouse. *sigh*
This means that the massive concrete wall I wrote about and posted pictures of at some point this summer, needs to be redone. Grrrr. Pesky rain. This time we’ll be sure to work with our usual tendency for overkill again. Darn it.
Not so nice is that the guest quarters had a floor of water as well, so that means as soon as stuff becomes dry a little, we’re going to have to take everything out and hang it out to dry in the sun, or something. Preferably before Wednesday. If worst comes to worst, tenant’s caregiver has offered to spend the night on a cod in tenant’s bungalow, so that her “apartment” will be available for tenant.
Dog-wise, my Touri (black cocker Spaniel) is feeling a bit under the weather at the moment. Poor dog has a swelling on his bum and though I have already attempted to drain it, the thing is persisting. Didn’t get all that much sleep last night because he was just too uncomfortable. I ended up giving him a piece of anti-inflammatory, at which point he calmed down a little. Hopefully tonight he’ll feel better.
After yesterday’s rains, a harsh, freezing Northern wind picked up during the night, clearing the sky of all clouds, which I was immensely grateful for, I assure you. Most of yesterday’s clothes got hung out to dry during the day, and I took tenant away from her gas stove and deposited her on my terrace. Nothing warms her up the way the sun does, no matter how hot we make her bungalow. She enjoyed the sunshine while reading on my porch all day, and it was good to see her so happy there.
Like yesterday, we painted the imperial again. We want to make sure that it won’t start to rust so the paint has to keep really well. We also spent most of the afternoon pouring concrete in front of grandpa and tenant’s places, since there was some leakage there as well.
Next, we added new supports in front of her door and put up a transparent roof that will let light through and yet keep her, caregiver and grandpa dry.
It looks good, bigger somehow.
While we were working, the dogs really enjoyed the sunshine too. You should have seen them (I know, I should have taken pictures, but I forgot) but they were all clustered (about twenty of them) on the wide threshold concrete of the gate where the sun shone through the eucalypti. It really was absolutely beautiful. Black, white and brown fur gleaning in the bright light, green trees swaying in a orchestra of whispering leaves; their shadows dappling the yellowish soil.
Beautiful.
Well, enough about that. Editing wise we’re still going at it…and I should get to it right now. I’ve written more than enough about the past couple of days.
Considering I am running way behind, I am going to try to kept things a little short, because I’ve got a book to edit still, messages to catch up on and well, I would like to get some sleep since tomorrow appears to be a working day after all. Aaaargh.
First off, I’m going to start with the disaster: Yesterday if rained all day. And around four in the afternoon, just when I was about warmed up from the morning’s chores in the carport and tenant’s kitchen (we put in the new ceiling) grandpa came to warn that we had to go down to the basin because it was almost full. We needed to plug the tubing, lest it would start to overflow into the small section in front of the greenhouse.
When we came there, ready to plug the tubing, it became clear that the wall was slowly expanding outward. Obviously we waited too long finishing the wall (meaning adding the one foot thick natural rock part of it) because where there was first and inward slant, it is now going outward. I never realized solid concrete could bend like that, but there you have it. Hah. But anyway, water was spewing all over the place and while big brother, grandpa and our friend Dani were running around throwing in big hoses to start draining, gradually the water evened out until the entire water amount was evenly spaced…including into the greenhouse. *sigh*
This means that the massive concrete wall I wrote about and posted pictures of at some point this summer, needs to be redone. Grrrr. Pesky rain. This time we’ll be sure to work with our usual tendency for overkill again. Darn it.
Not so nice is that the guest quarters had a floor of water as well, so that means as soon as stuff becomes dry a little, we’re going to have to take everything out and hang it out to dry in the sun, or something. Preferably before Wednesday. If worst comes to worst, tenant’s caregiver has offered to spend the night on a cod in tenant’s bungalow, so that her “apartment” will be available for tenant.
Dog-wise, my Touri (black cocker Spaniel) is feeling a bit under the weather at the moment. Poor dog has a swelling on his bum and though I have already attempted to drain it, the thing is persisting. Didn’t get all that much sleep last night because he was just too uncomfortable. I ended up giving him a piece of anti-inflammatory, at which point he calmed down a little. Hopefully tonight he’ll feel better.
After yesterday’s rains, a harsh, freezing Northern wind picked up during the night, clearing the sky of all clouds, which I was immensely grateful for, I assure you. Most of yesterday’s clothes got hung out to dry during the day, and I took tenant away from her gas stove and deposited her on my terrace. Nothing warms her up the way the sun does, no matter how hot we make her bungalow. She enjoyed the sunshine while reading on my porch all day, and it was good to see her so happy there.
Like yesterday, we painted the imperial again. We want to make sure that it won’t start to rust so the paint has to keep really well. We also spent most of the afternoon pouring concrete in front of grandpa and tenant’s places, since there was some leakage there as well.
Next, we added new supports in front of her door and put up a transparent roof that will let light through and yet keep her, caregiver and grandpa dry.
It looks good, bigger somehow.
While we were working, the dogs really enjoyed the sunshine too. You should have seen them (I know, I should have taken pictures, but I forgot) but they were all clustered (about twenty of them) on the wide threshold concrete of the gate where the sun shone through the eucalypti. It really was absolutely beautiful. Black, white and brown fur gleaning in the bright light, green trees swaying in a orchestra of whispering leaves; their shadows dappling the yellowish soil.
Beautiful.
Well, enough about that. Editing wise we’re still going at it…and I should get to it right now. I’ve written more than enough about the past couple of days.
Friday, September 17, 2010
On the road again...sorta anyway.
Song of the day: “I am I feel” by Alicia’s Attic. Funny song, really.
So this is another blog on the road, so to speak. Right now, I’m sitting in a small park in Malaga, waiting for the garage to fix the hand break of the Land Rover. We had made the appointment on Tuesday, but today, upon arrival, we were almost an hour late.
You see, at the doctor’s I was told to get a blood test this morning as well, and I had fully intended to do that really quick, only to need to go back home halfway there because I’d forgotten my insurance papers. Then, when I got there, two people were already waiting for there turn, so we didn’t get away from the village until ten past nine.
Of course, it has also been raining all morning, so driving was slow going, not to mention the traffic that was going around at a snail’s pace. That’s Spain for you. People are so unfamiliar with rain around here (admittedly I’m starting to share the feeling, hah) that everyone goes about 10 miles per hour less than usual. Of course, those that don’t get an accident, but it is a tad frustrating.
Anyway, we arrived at the garage at ten, instead of nine, but they didn’t throw up a fuss, so it doesn’t really matter. But that brings us to me sitting in the park with my borrowed computer tapping away at the keys and the local seniors looking at me oddly. This is old Malaga, and what with my 6’ tallness, blond hair and way too pinkish skin I stand out like a sore thumb…big brother isn’t any better mind you, seeing he’s four or five inches taller than me. Ah well, at least it stopped raining for a bit…oh wait, I can hear thunder in the distance again. Marvelous. And that while I’ve still got at least two, to three hours to kill yet, *sigh*
So we’ve already been walking around for a bit, in case you’re wondering. Which wasn’t fun with my knee…oh that reminds me, you don’t know yet. The day before yesterday, about an hour…maybe two, after I posted my blog, Knight II and Fortuyn got into a fight. With my knee between them! I don’t know who the culprit was but, dayam, that friggin’ hurt, thank you very much. Jeez, it was as if the penetrating tooth went right under my kneecap and the stupid spot kept bleeding for several hours to boot.
Now, after a day or two, the hurt isn’t as bad as it appeared in the first few hours, it just makes walking a little less comfortable for me. My pants keeps chafing it, and the joint feels stiff, but what the heck, this too shall pass and a little bit of pain never hurt anyone. Oh my, is that pun? Hah.
Yesterday was spent putting my clothes back into my fixed closet, and though I will leave the cute stuff like plants and decorative items away for a bit, at least until the rat problem is over. It shouldn’t take long, last night Sitabah grabbed another one cheerily went to search for the next afterwards. Seriously, cats have nothing on my Sitabah…she of course thinks that no one’s got anything on her, in particular not Labhana, who (poor darling) really tries, but just isn’t fast enough.
Fully enthusiastic she will chase Sitabah into the cabin and try to nose her way into the fray whenever Sitabah is on the hunt. It has happened more than once that the black lab made Sitabah lose her pray in fact and I can just imagine her response whenever Labhana tries to “help”.
“Get out of the way you stupid cow!” Seriously, that is the expression that I see in her eyes whenever she loses her target. Gawd, they do crack me up at times, and they have so much fun with it. For that reason alone I don’t mind the rat plague all that much. In the car port the dogs (at least seven of them) will squat on the floor most of the day, gazing up devoutly as the rodents rush past. And in my cabin, every night, my Touri, Sitabah, Labhana and Dax will wag their tails like mad during their daily exercise hour. Hah.
Oops, a few raindrops over here. I better hurry it along.
Where was I? Ah yes, wandering through Malaga. You really do notice the difference between the city and small towns. People are a lot more suspicious out here, less friendly. They are, I think, so accustomed to too little space that they automatically fight for every measly inch of it. Small towns are far more relaxed, casual even and everyone is decidedly friendly. It’s such a pity. I feel eyeballed here.
Right, moved to a coffee shop because it really was getting chilly outside. Besides I need to go to the bathroom. *sigh*
Two more hours to go.
What else. Writing. Slow but steady still. At the moment I am working on an intense emotional scene, and I really don’t know how it will work out. I’ll need to make adjustments with the edit, I’m thinking, seeing as it still misses something. Well, since I don’t have this computer along to mess around on the net, but to do some serious work on editing, I’m going to leave it at this and hope that I have good news to tell by time the next one comes ‘round.
So this is another blog on the road, so to speak. Right now, I’m sitting in a small park in Malaga, waiting for the garage to fix the hand break of the Land Rover. We had made the appointment on Tuesday, but today, upon arrival, we were almost an hour late.
You see, at the doctor’s I was told to get a blood test this morning as well, and I had fully intended to do that really quick, only to need to go back home halfway there because I’d forgotten my insurance papers. Then, when I got there, two people were already waiting for there turn, so we didn’t get away from the village until ten past nine.
Of course, it has also been raining all morning, so driving was slow going, not to mention the traffic that was going around at a snail’s pace. That’s Spain for you. People are so unfamiliar with rain around here (admittedly I’m starting to share the feeling, hah) that everyone goes about 10 miles per hour less than usual. Of course, those that don’t get an accident, but it is a tad frustrating.
Anyway, we arrived at the garage at ten, instead of nine, but they didn’t throw up a fuss, so it doesn’t really matter. But that brings us to me sitting in the park with my borrowed computer tapping away at the keys and the local seniors looking at me oddly. This is old Malaga, and what with my 6’ tallness, blond hair and way too pinkish skin I stand out like a sore thumb…big brother isn’t any better mind you, seeing he’s four or five inches taller than me. Ah well, at least it stopped raining for a bit…oh wait, I can hear thunder in the distance again. Marvelous. And that while I’ve still got at least two, to three hours to kill yet, *sigh*
So we’ve already been walking around for a bit, in case you’re wondering. Which wasn’t fun with my knee…oh that reminds me, you don’t know yet. The day before yesterday, about an hour…maybe two, after I posted my blog, Knight II and Fortuyn got into a fight. With my knee between them! I don’t know who the culprit was but, dayam, that friggin’ hurt, thank you very much. Jeez, it was as if the penetrating tooth went right under my kneecap and the stupid spot kept bleeding for several hours to boot.
Now, after a day or two, the hurt isn’t as bad as it appeared in the first few hours, it just makes walking a little less comfortable for me. My pants keeps chafing it, and the joint feels stiff, but what the heck, this too shall pass and a little bit of pain never hurt anyone. Oh my, is that pun? Hah.
Yesterday was spent putting my clothes back into my fixed closet, and though I will leave the cute stuff like plants and decorative items away for a bit, at least until the rat problem is over. It shouldn’t take long, last night Sitabah grabbed another one cheerily went to search for the next afterwards. Seriously, cats have nothing on my Sitabah…she of course thinks that no one’s got anything on her, in particular not Labhana, who (poor darling) really tries, but just isn’t fast enough.
Fully enthusiastic she will chase Sitabah into the cabin and try to nose her way into the fray whenever Sitabah is on the hunt. It has happened more than once that the black lab made Sitabah lose her pray in fact and I can just imagine her response whenever Labhana tries to “help”.
“Get out of the way you stupid cow!” Seriously, that is the expression that I see in her eyes whenever she loses her target. Gawd, they do crack me up at times, and they have so much fun with it. For that reason alone I don’t mind the rat plague all that much. In the car port the dogs (at least seven of them) will squat on the floor most of the day, gazing up devoutly as the rodents rush past. And in my cabin, every night, my Touri, Sitabah, Labhana and Dax will wag their tails like mad during their daily exercise hour. Hah.
Oops, a few raindrops over here. I better hurry it along.
Where was I? Ah yes, wandering through Malaga. You really do notice the difference between the city and small towns. People are a lot more suspicious out here, less friendly. They are, I think, so accustomed to too little space that they automatically fight for every measly inch of it. Small towns are far more relaxed, casual even and everyone is decidedly friendly. It’s such a pity. I feel eyeballed here.
Right, moved to a coffee shop because it really was getting chilly outside. Besides I need to go to the bathroom. *sigh*
Two more hours to go.
What else. Writing. Slow but steady still. At the moment I am working on an intense emotional scene, and I really don’t know how it will work out. I’ll need to make adjustments with the edit, I’m thinking, seeing as it still misses something. Well, since I don’t have this computer along to mess around on the net, but to do some serious work on editing, I’m going to leave it at this and hope that I have good news to tell by time the next one comes ‘round.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
On the move.
Song of the day: “Shake shake senora” by Harry Bellafonte. So much fun, and I always see Winona Ryder float to the ceiling with a bunch of dead football players swinging behind her. Hah…Drat, I really should watch Beetlejuice again.
I wish I could say that the past few days were downright exciting, but since we’ve been having a lot of rain that would be an outright lie. Today I am feeling a little under the weather (pesky emotions going haywire, grrr) for some reason, so don’t pay me no heed if a snarky remark escapes me…hmmm, I better stay the heck away from politics, ‘cause, seriously…oh my Gawd!
Using what we could of the rain there was some sowing going on. Filled two full seed trays with a variety of veggies. Also, considering we had to go to town yesterday anyway to get paint for the car, we picked up four more grapes, which I put in the ground down by the fence. They’ll do nicely there, I think, lots of room to grow…as long as the dogs keep their teeth and paw out of it. Hah.
Whenever the sun is gone the weather is remarkably cool these days. It’s freaking me out a little, considering that by this time of year the temperatures should be gradually rising instead.
The edit is once again going slow but steadily. We managed ten to twelve pages in the past three days or so, so it isn’t bad, I guess. Tension, for some reason, is high though, so concentration tends to overshoot the mark at times. Hah.
But anyways, I don’t have much time today. Little brother has a dog to save. The mutt will fill the gap dead Sita III left behind, and though I hoped to postpone this event a bit longer, it is in the end his and little sister’s choice. Ah well, I consider it a holiday, seeing as I will be playing chauffeur for the day. Hah.
So I’m going to leave it at this, there still is lots to do before I head out, and I better get to it.
I wish I could say that the past few days were downright exciting, but since we’ve been having a lot of rain that would be an outright lie. Today I am feeling a little under the weather (pesky emotions going haywire, grrr) for some reason, so don’t pay me no heed if a snarky remark escapes me…hmmm, I better stay the heck away from politics, ‘cause, seriously…oh my Gawd!
Using what we could of the rain there was some sowing going on. Filled two full seed trays with a variety of veggies. Also, considering we had to go to town yesterday anyway to get paint for the car, we picked up four more grapes, which I put in the ground down by the fence. They’ll do nicely there, I think, lots of room to grow…as long as the dogs keep their teeth and paw out of it. Hah.
Whenever the sun is gone the weather is remarkably cool these days. It’s freaking me out a little, considering that by this time of year the temperatures should be gradually rising instead.
The edit is once again going slow but steadily. We managed ten to twelve pages in the past three days or so, so it isn’t bad, I guess. Tension, for some reason, is high though, so concentration tends to overshoot the mark at times. Hah.
But anyways, I don’t have much time today. Little brother has a dog to save. The mutt will fill the gap dead Sita III left behind, and though I hoped to postpone this event a bit longer, it is in the end his and little sister’s choice. Ah well, I consider it a holiday, seeing as I will be playing chauffeur for the day. Hah.
So I’m going to leave it at this, there still is lots to do before I head out, and I better get to it.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
100.000 and counting. *sobs*
Song of the day: “Joan of Arc” by Katie Melua. Had it once or twice before, I think. I really should start going through the past blog posts soon and see if there’s a pattern yet. I’m having a lot of repeats after all.
So yeah, yesterday time was short and something had to go…the blog got elected so now I’m going to have to rack my brain in an attempt to remember everything of the past few days for the usual recount. Rather difficult, I’ll admit, for some reason details always slip my mind.
Let me think…well, grandpas little wall (we’re doing an old English courtyard thing, just for the heck of it) is basically done. All it needs now is wooden poles and fence against it. There was some more rock hauling involved in the endeavor, cement, concrete and dirt, but it’s looking good. I can’t wait for when we can remove the temporary fence that has been there for the past five years or so. Hah.
Gardening: we did quite a bit of it in the past few days. There was turning the earth, tossing around seeds, putting in plants and weeding…boy, did we do a lot of weeding. The fun bit is that we found several clusters of what appear to be leek and onions. We actually have no idea how they got there, there’s like hundreds of ‘m, but whatever the cause it was a nice find. Means we’re going to have to plant a lot less of those, considering we’re all onion fiends. Hah.
Took stock of how all the new stuff is doing, and noted that iceberg slaw will soon be ready for consumption. The cauliflower is looking well, and so are the red cabbage and pak choi.
The new strawberry plants appear to be working, so are the tomatoes, and since we fully plan on getting a lot of our produce ourselves this year, we finally tied the knot and went to our favorite local Vivero (plant nursery) and looked around.
Ended up buying several fruit trees: Golden Delicious and Fiji apples, two kinds of cherry trees and navel, and blood oranges; also got two sweet lemon trees, one lunar lemon tree (this one gets new lemons every month, apparently), an almond tree, and two mango trees.
Added to that the owner gave use a couple of white grape plants, a fig tree and several herbs, such as mint and parsley, which is always a nice treat, hah.
The old guy, a true local Spanish dude and friendly as can be, informed us that this was, according to him, the wettest winter in sixty years. Oh my, is it ever! I swear, stuff is so wet these days that I sometimes fear I might actually be growing roots. Hah.
We do plan to go again next month or so to get raspberries, brambles and maybe a couple of plumbs and pears. If we’re going to do this “home growing” thing we might as well do it well and go for it the full hundred percent. Nothing worth having is done right if you do it halfheartedly, after all.
There was lots of planning going on. Though the new septic tank is one of the first projects on the list when the rains stop, we are fully planning on putting in the outside kitchen before then. Pizza oven, grill and stove all included are included in the design, along with a nice patch of roof for shade in the summer and dryness in the winter. It’s going to be an old fashioned, artisan kitchen, really, very basic and robust, and I can honestly not wait to see if it will look remotely like I’m imagining it. We’ve got a lot of the materials already…except chamotte, that is. That’s going to need some thought, as to where to get it *sigh*…though another trip or two for flat rocks will become a necessary thing in the near future.
Had two more sand hauling trips…we’re going through the stuff as if it’s water, for some reason, and every time we decide there should be enough for at least one big project, we do a small one and end up replenishing the supply. Got more rocks, too, which had to be “it” in light of exercise; there was no time for the actual thing. Hah.
Writing: One or two more pages for this scene and then we’re at the last one for the book. Crossed the 100.000 mark last night (the reason for not blogging last night; it was late and I had to prioritize in the last few hours of the day) and I’m balancing somewhere on the border of thrilled and sadness about the approaching ending. It’s not like I am going to twiddle my thumbs afterwards, or anything. There’s the edit, looming near like a friggin’ tsunami, and lots of other stories that still need to be written. I do hope I’m not going to fall into the post writing blues this time, ‘cause that is bloody annoying to say the least.
Did some cooking, naturally…nothing really special so let’s just say that food was consumed, hah. Some more exercises with our tenant happened, and considering I do not want her to feel obligated to mount stairs if she should be too tired to do it, I spent yesterday afternoon with the jackhammer, going through the bumpy rock surface of the path that leads to the courtyard. Now, if she decided that she can’t handle the stairs after her “visit” we will be able to get her back up the mountain in her wheelchair.
The new handles for the Land Rover arrived today, which meant that I went for an early morning trip to the village with grandpa. The weather has been downright atrocious since yesterday afternoon. It started right after we got back from the plant nursery: The wind suddenly picked up from the east and rain started pounding down…or in our case in. Literally had horizontal rain that was downright chilling on the skin. The wind has been howling and the rain has been pounding ever since…which is why I took grandpa to the village this morning, rather than let him risk life and limb on the moped.
The dogs are, of course soaking wet again, and Knight II, well, he's not liking it any better than the others. Heck, he's even staying inside at times now. Chaos' stitches are doing well, by the way, and the others, well, they're making the usual nuisance of themselves. Hah.
Well, it’s time for me to start on supper, so I better wrap this up and get to it. I do hope that the sun will be out by the time I need to write the next blog. Hah.
So yeah, yesterday time was short and something had to go…the blog got elected so now I’m going to have to rack my brain in an attempt to remember everything of the past few days for the usual recount. Rather difficult, I’ll admit, for some reason details always slip my mind.
Let me think…well, grandpas little wall (we’re doing an old English courtyard thing, just for the heck of it) is basically done. All it needs now is wooden poles and fence against it. There was some more rock hauling involved in the endeavor, cement, concrete and dirt, but it’s looking good. I can’t wait for when we can remove the temporary fence that has been there for the past five years or so. Hah.
Gardening: we did quite a bit of it in the past few days. There was turning the earth, tossing around seeds, putting in plants and weeding…boy, did we do a lot of weeding. The fun bit is that we found several clusters of what appear to be leek and onions. We actually have no idea how they got there, there’s like hundreds of ‘m, but whatever the cause it was a nice find. Means we’re going to have to plant a lot less of those, considering we’re all onion fiends. Hah.
Took stock of how all the new stuff is doing, and noted that iceberg slaw will soon be ready for consumption. The cauliflower is looking well, and so are the red cabbage and pak choi.
The new strawberry plants appear to be working, so are the tomatoes, and since we fully plan on getting a lot of our produce ourselves this year, we finally tied the knot and went to our favorite local Vivero (plant nursery) and looked around.
Ended up buying several fruit trees: Golden Delicious and Fiji apples, two kinds of cherry trees and navel, and blood oranges; also got two sweet lemon trees, one lunar lemon tree (this one gets new lemons every month, apparently), an almond tree, and two mango trees.
Added to that the owner gave use a couple of white grape plants, a fig tree and several herbs, such as mint and parsley, which is always a nice treat, hah.
The old guy, a true local Spanish dude and friendly as can be, informed us that this was, according to him, the wettest winter in sixty years. Oh my, is it ever! I swear, stuff is so wet these days that I sometimes fear I might actually be growing roots. Hah.
We do plan to go again next month or so to get raspberries, brambles and maybe a couple of plumbs and pears. If we’re going to do this “home growing” thing we might as well do it well and go for it the full hundred percent. Nothing worth having is done right if you do it halfheartedly, after all.
There was lots of planning going on. Though the new septic tank is one of the first projects on the list when the rains stop, we are fully planning on putting in the outside kitchen before then. Pizza oven, grill and stove all included are included in the design, along with a nice patch of roof for shade in the summer and dryness in the winter. It’s going to be an old fashioned, artisan kitchen, really, very basic and robust, and I can honestly not wait to see if it will look remotely like I’m imagining it. We’ve got a lot of the materials already…except chamotte, that is. That’s going to need some thought, as to where to get it *sigh*…though another trip or two for flat rocks will become a necessary thing in the near future.
Had two more sand hauling trips…we’re going through the stuff as if it’s water, for some reason, and every time we decide there should be enough for at least one big project, we do a small one and end up replenishing the supply. Got more rocks, too, which had to be “it” in light of exercise; there was no time for the actual thing. Hah.
Writing: One or two more pages for this scene and then we’re at the last one for the book. Crossed the 100.000 mark last night (the reason for not blogging last night; it was late and I had to prioritize in the last few hours of the day) and I’m balancing somewhere on the border of thrilled and sadness about the approaching ending. It’s not like I am going to twiddle my thumbs afterwards, or anything. There’s the edit, looming near like a friggin’ tsunami, and lots of other stories that still need to be written. I do hope I’m not going to fall into the post writing blues this time, ‘cause that is bloody annoying to say the least.
Did some cooking, naturally…nothing really special so let’s just say that food was consumed, hah. Some more exercises with our tenant happened, and considering I do not want her to feel obligated to mount stairs if she should be too tired to do it, I spent yesterday afternoon with the jackhammer, going through the bumpy rock surface of the path that leads to the courtyard. Now, if she decided that she can’t handle the stairs after her “visit” we will be able to get her back up the mountain in her wheelchair.
The new handles for the Land Rover arrived today, which meant that I went for an early morning trip to the village with grandpa. The weather has been downright atrocious since yesterday afternoon. It started right after we got back from the plant nursery: The wind suddenly picked up from the east and rain started pounding down…or in our case in. Literally had horizontal rain that was downright chilling on the skin. The wind has been howling and the rain has been pounding ever since…which is why I took grandpa to the village this morning, rather than let him risk life and limb on the moped.
The dogs are, of course soaking wet again, and Knight II, well, he's not liking it any better than the others. Heck, he's even staying inside at times now. Chaos' stitches are doing well, by the way, and the others, well, they're making the usual nuisance of themselves. Hah.
Well, it’s time for me to start on supper, so I better wrap this up and get to it. I do hope that the sun will be out by the time I need to write the next blog. Hah.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Freaked/Bonkers, take yer pick. ;-)
Song of the day: “Did it again” by Shakira. Strangely enough, it was pounding into my head when I woke up this morning…and that while the power was out due to the storm.
Rain, rain and more rain. Aaaargh. It drove me so friggin’ bonkers that I literally shouted “the sun, the sun; I’m out!” when it peeked from behind the clouds for about half an hour this afternoon. Seriously, this winter I have discovered that I am most definitely not an inside person anymore. Really, two years ago I would have gladly stayed inside for a solid three months without ever giving a peep, but no more; staying inside is giving me hives, I’m sure of it. Hah.
But let’s get down to business, ‘cause I’ve got serious writing to do yet. Writing is going a little better again; I’m not passing out during the evening sessions at the moment so that means I’m actually getting somewhere. As of yesterday evening (another miserably rainy day, grrr) I’ve hit 85.000 words, which means that I’m going to have to start thinking about wrapping the story up. I need a 100K after all, and considering I need to finish it in less than four scenes, it’s going to be a close call, that’s a fact.
Most of the past miserable rainy days were spent with indoor projects again, in this case the wood and glass wall we’re making for the living room. Some final touches had to be seen to yesterday (prior to painting, which is happening even as I write this) such as putting lead paint on the bottom…lots of water damage possible with ninety-something dogs…and attaching the wood to its wood and brick surroundings.
Little sister and I hung these quilted panels in front of the second floor banister throughout the house, so that looks neat again. Also had to change clothes twice yesterday, considering everything was so bloody wet that my trousers were completely soaked after every chore. The worst being, emptying the pantry of floodwater again. It was bad, I tell you, which isn’t a surprise now that most of Andalusia is suffering through a rather serious deluge. People are being evacuated and rescued by firemen, animals are taken out of their flooded paddocks to higher pastures, and on the overall, everyone is being downright miserable with the weather. Can’t blame them, either, considering I feel quite the same.
Our luck, despite the flooded pantry (it comes from the back of the house where water seeps straight through the rocks) and bathroom, is that we really do live on top of the mountain. The only way we get an actual, hold-on-to-your-socks flood up here is for all the ice on the world to melt in a single instant and cause a dramatic Tsunami ‘bout 800 yards high. Hah.
Well, apparently I am still fully capable of freaking myself out, just like I could back in the day, ‘cause silly me was looking for information on witchcraft on Wikipedia when I somehow ended up on the page about Gregori Rasputin. Nothing new there, since I’ve known about the man for a long time…or at least the broad strokes, due to movies and books.
And yet, I was intrigued as I read about this rather scary looking dude (seriously, he’d do well in a horror flick) and the rather gruesome way he came to his end. I don’t know, but anyone who has to be (a) poisoned with cyanide, (b) shot three or four times in chest and head, (c) beaten into submission, (d) castrated on the spot and (e) wrapped in a carpet and ropes to be thrown in a frozen river, just to “give the spirit” has to possess some serious bad juju. I ain’t joking, all that happened prior to his drowning in the river and still they found him in a clawing position under the ice. Yikes! Talk about persistent; I would find a psychopath in any of my fictional books surviving such a long row, unrealistic. Suffice it to say that the reading material seriously freaked me out.
Afterwards, I of course ended up at the witch trials of Salem, the Spanish, Portuguese and all those other lovely Inquisitions, only to end up feeling a tad…ehm, yeah, UNCOMFORTABLE. I hate it when I can’t control my curiosity and end up like that.
There was also some nice bits of historical research, such as the mythical stories of Ireland, and how their tales of history are basically the same as those of the Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists and all those others, only described with different names and places. Fascinating how they all tell of the same incredible events, and it makes one wonder how much of it is true. Oh, the thoughts of a variety of books kept tumbling through my head. So very tempting, but a temptation I have to stand strong against considering I’ve got more stories-in-progress than I have the time to write, darn it.
All of this was interrupted by a six-hour blackout, which didn’t make the rainy day any more pleasant. Oh my Gawd, I’d forgotten how bloody annoying it is to be without electricity. Everything was dark, wet, cold and gloomy and I don’t suppose that helped my “uncomfortable” state either.
Knight II is on antibiotics, and though the big lump on his side is still there, he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it so much at the moment. Clue’s drain is out; we put him on the kitchen counter yesterday, cut three stitches loose and removed the rubber. He’s fit as a fiddle again, and doesn’t care a fig about the most recent injury. Such a happy dog, our Clue.
The seedlings in the new seedbed are doing well. Small green sprouts have jumped from the soil and are slowly filling up the bottom of the glass-covered container.
After another morning of four hours, without electricity the sun finally broke through for a bit, allowing us to head out into the yard and put the new, rather massive, batch of thyme into the ground. It’ll remain to be seen if they’re going to make it, but if they do they are going to look rather grand in their rocky ground behind the fence to the bottom garden.
It smelled rather splendidly too, all that thyme. From the trimming that needed to be done on the small bushes, I filled an entire crate with scented twigs, which I brought up to our tenant. She so badly wants to be useful that I figured she might as well look through the branches and sort out the ones we can use for drying. The last couple of days we haven’t been able to do much of her exercises, but today, when the sun was out for a bit (the clouds are back, by the way. Looks like rain) we took a short stroll in the paddock and sat there for a bit as she caught her breath. The way we figured, what with the bad weather predictions persisting, it would do her well to catch some fresh air while she could.
While yesterday we missed lunch again, I made baked potatoes with peas, corn and peppers on the side, so at least we won’t go hungry again today, hah.
There was another rock-fetching trip; big brother and I gathered mostly big rocks, seeing as we’re going to need quite of few of them for the bottom of the wall’s foundation, but as an effect my shoulder muscle knotted up yesterday morning (hurts like a son of a gun, I’ll tell ya that much) while I was pulling my pants up, darn it. That’s a first. Guess I picked up bigger rocks than I’d expected, and was ready for.
Well, that about sums the past couple of days up, doesn’t it. I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of annoyance and frustration in the next few, since the clouds are persisting and there is definitely more rain in the air, aaargh.
I’m going to see if I can go outside for a bit yet, before it starts pouring again.
Rain, rain and more rain. Aaaargh. It drove me so friggin’ bonkers that I literally shouted “the sun, the sun; I’m out!” when it peeked from behind the clouds for about half an hour this afternoon. Seriously, this winter I have discovered that I am most definitely not an inside person anymore. Really, two years ago I would have gladly stayed inside for a solid three months without ever giving a peep, but no more; staying inside is giving me hives, I’m sure of it. Hah.
But let’s get down to business, ‘cause I’ve got serious writing to do yet. Writing is going a little better again; I’m not passing out during the evening sessions at the moment so that means I’m actually getting somewhere. As of yesterday evening (another miserably rainy day, grrr) I’ve hit 85.000 words, which means that I’m going to have to start thinking about wrapping the story up. I need a 100K after all, and considering I need to finish it in less than four scenes, it’s going to be a close call, that’s a fact.
Most of the past miserable rainy days were spent with indoor projects again, in this case the wood and glass wall we’re making for the living room. Some final touches had to be seen to yesterday (prior to painting, which is happening even as I write this) such as putting lead paint on the bottom…lots of water damage possible with ninety-something dogs…and attaching the wood to its wood and brick surroundings.
Little sister and I hung these quilted panels in front of the second floor banister throughout the house, so that looks neat again. Also had to change clothes twice yesterday, considering everything was so bloody wet that my trousers were completely soaked after every chore. The worst being, emptying the pantry of floodwater again. It was bad, I tell you, which isn’t a surprise now that most of Andalusia is suffering through a rather serious deluge. People are being evacuated and rescued by firemen, animals are taken out of their flooded paddocks to higher pastures, and on the overall, everyone is being downright miserable with the weather. Can’t blame them, either, considering I feel quite the same.
Our luck, despite the flooded pantry (it comes from the back of the house where water seeps straight through the rocks) and bathroom, is that we really do live on top of the mountain. The only way we get an actual, hold-on-to-your-socks flood up here is for all the ice on the world to melt in a single instant and cause a dramatic Tsunami ‘bout 800 yards high. Hah.
Well, apparently I am still fully capable of freaking myself out, just like I could back in the day, ‘cause silly me was looking for information on witchcraft on Wikipedia when I somehow ended up on the page about Gregori Rasputin. Nothing new there, since I’ve known about the man for a long time…or at least the broad strokes, due to movies and books.
And yet, I was intrigued as I read about this rather scary looking dude (seriously, he’d do well in a horror flick) and the rather gruesome way he came to his end. I don’t know, but anyone who has to be (a) poisoned with cyanide, (b) shot three or four times in chest and head, (c) beaten into submission, (d) castrated on the spot and (e) wrapped in a carpet and ropes to be thrown in a frozen river, just to “give the spirit” has to possess some serious bad juju. I ain’t joking, all that happened prior to his drowning in the river and still they found him in a clawing position under the ice. Yikes! Talk about persistent; I would find a psychopath in any of my fictional books surviving such a long row, unrealistic. Suffice it to say that the reading material seriously freaked me out.
Afterwards, I of course ended up at the witch trials of Salem, the Spanish, Portuguese and all those other lovely Inquisitions, only to end up feeling a tad…ehm, yeah, UNCOMFORTABLE. I hate it when I can’t control my curiosity and end up like that.
There was also some nice bits of historical research, such as the mythical stories of Ireland, and how their tales of history are basically the same as those of the Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists and all those others, only described with different names and places. Fascinating how they all tell of the same incredible events, and it makes one wonder how much of it is true. Oh, the thoughts of a variety of books kept tumbling through my head. So very tempting, but a temptation I have to stand strong against considering I’ve got more stories-in-progress than I have the time to write, darn it.
All of this was interrupted by a six-hour blackout, which didn’t make the rainy day any more pleasant. Oh my Gawd, I’d forgotten how bloody annoying it is to be without electricity. Everything was dark, wet, cold and gloomy and I don’t suppose that helped my “uncomfortable” state either.
Knight II is on antibiotics, and though the big lump on his side is still there, he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it so much at the moment. Clue’s drain is out; we put him on the kitchen counter yesterday, cut three stitches loose and removed the rubber. He’s fit as a fiddle again, and doesn’t care a fig about the most recent injury. Such a happy dog, our Clue.
The seedlings in the new seedbed are doing well. Small green sprouts have jumped from the soil and are slowly filling up the bottom of the glass-covered container.
After another morning of four hours, without electricity the sun finally broke through for a bit, allowing us to head out into the yard and put the new, rather massive, batch of thyme into the ground. It’ll remain to be seen if they’re going to make it, but if they do they are going to look rather grand in their rocky ground behind the fence to the bottom garden.
It smelled rather splendidly too, all that thyme. From the trimming that needed to be done on the small bushes, I filled an entire crate with scented twigs, which I brought up to our tenant. She so badly wants to be useful that I figured she might as well look through the branches and sort out the ones we can use for drying. The last couple of days we haven’t been able to do much of her exercises, but today, when the sun was out for a bit (the clouds are back, by the way. Looks like rain) we took a short stroll in the paddock and sat there for a bit as she caught her breath. The way we figured, what with the bad weather predictions persisting, it would do her well to catch some fresh air while she could.
While yesterday we missed lunch again, I made baked potatoes with peas, corn and peppers on the side, so at least we won’t go hungry again today, hah.
There was another rock-fetching trip; big brother and I gathered mostly big rocks, seeing as we’re going to need quite of few of them for the bottom of the wall’s foundation, but as an effect my shoulder muscle knotted up yesterday morning (hurts like a son of a gun, I’ll tell ya that much) while I was pulling my pants up, darn it. That’s a first. Guess I picked up bigger rocks than I’d expected, and was ready for.
Well, that about sums the past couple of days up, doesn’t it. I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of annoyance and frustration in the next few, since the clouds are persisting and there is definitely more rain in the air, aaargh.
I’m going to see if I can go outside for a bit yet, before it starts pouring again.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Ditzy...moi?
Song of the day: “Grace Kelly” by Mika. Still a fun song.
So let’s see how things have gone yesterday and today…boy, I never figured that it would be almost more difficult to write an update every two days, rather than every night. I manage to shave off maybe half an hour in total, but that’s it, because it takes so friggin’ long to remember what I wrote already, and what not. Drat.
But anyways, yesterday morning started almost two hours late because my alarm was behind by two hours, which was frustrating as heck. Felt slightly off-stride all day, the way oversleeping tends to do.
Then when I came downstairs to start on the humongous batch of laundry, it became clear that the washing machine was on the frits again (still is, aaargh). This, of course means that I won’t manage to get through the stuff before the rains starts, which puts me out of sorts a little. Now we’re going to have to take the machine apart and hope that we can fix the problem. It’s one of the nasty side effects of modern machinery, I think. They make everything high-tech and impossible to fix without a master’s degree, or something. I mean, seriously, you can’t just take out a lever and replace it…nooo, you need to replace the motherboard, or some sort. It’s like looking into the bowels of a spaceship, for crying out loud.
But we’ll figure it out, somehow. On to the next item: Rather than do more proofreading, big brother and I opted to start on a new round of send outs, so the majority of the morning’s hours were spent going of the manuscript’s query letter. We looked up addresses for publishers and agents working in the genre of “Saving Nina” and going over the alterations and adjustments that have been made in the requirement lists of said companies. Tiring work, that, which makes my mind murm that’s a fact.
As is the norm for time, it passes way too fast, and soon we wrapped it up to start on the activities of the day.
While big brother and grandpa finished up the fence of the upper part of the yard, I helped the sisters mix paint for their room (the one with the new floor) and middle sister’s bedroom. Next, while they got to painting, I took out the laminated slats intended for the second landing at the top of the stairs and put in a new floor there too. This part only took about half an hour; the rest of the four hours of work were spent selecting plinths and doorsteps to add to it. Grrr, the detail work is so friggin’ time consuming!
Big brother fixed the bathroom faucet, which blew last night, for no apparent reason, and luckily he managed to (at least temporarily) correct the error. It would be a real pain to have to find a new faucet that is twelve centimeters, rather than today’s standard size 16; you actually can’t get the 12 anymore.
Be that as it may, my small section of floor gets done, and after a quick dinner made by mom, big brother and I head into our office for some much needed cleaning/organizing (because the weather is ominous of late, we’ve slowly been piling things into it, until we find the proper places for them.
It took an hour or so to create some room to work in, but once done we got down to printing the letters, synopsis and chapters. We don’t actually finish with the stuff until 1:30 AM, but what the hey, we overslept so, we could do with a few hours less of sleep.
Of course, by the time we were done and had moved up to my cabin for our habitual report of the day and the plans for the next, we started doubting if we had done something wrong with the letters so we had to reopen all the envelopes again to check. Aaaargh. We didn’t do it wrong, as it turned out in the end, but better safe than sorry.
Spent an extra half hour scrubbing out my bathroom, ‘cause seriously it was a mess. It is just so hard to find some decent time to do a proper cleaning, but I ended up getting it all done to my satisfaction.
So, yeah, got too little sleep today (darn me for checking my alarm last night, hah) and my eyes were bleary when I woke up, no matter, though, much to do and too little time. When all the tasks, projects and whatnot ahead started to pile up (they tend to do that from time to time) into this massive mountain ridge that I had to climb, I decided to just blank out. I picked a song from the top of my head (Unwritten by Natasha Beddingsfield, just for the heck of it) and not think of more than the next action.
Afterwards, I could just start on the day and have a positive outlook of all the happy accidents that might occur. Lots of accidents occurred, I assure you. Apparently I’m ditzy again, ‘cause at this very moment I’ve got five bandages on a variety of appendages from asinine little mishaps from the course of the day.
But I’ll get to that later. The morning started out with some writing for this rather new “thing” I’m working on (thing referring to a story I don’t have a title for yet, hah) and then delving back into the frustrating job of finding the right publisher/agent. Yesterday’s packages are in the mail, by the way, and this morning we spent the majority of the session preparing and sending out to three agents (one already said no. Why do I do this to myself, aaaargh), which isn’t at all easy because they all have different formats to which I need to adhere.
We were a little on the late side when we finally got down to the projects, but in the hours that followed, little sister and I put in the first section of the new floor for her bedroom. Which is one of the reasons I ended up with three band-aid, by the by. A tip: Do not turn your head around to call for a certain type of screws while your hammering in a plinth. OUCH! Didn’t feel anything for a full ten seconds and then it started: Oh my Gawd! Slammed a piece of skin right between the hammer and wood--not one of my smartest moments for sure. Hah.
The other band-aids are for other nicks that were just starting to heal. But no matter, we got the intended section in so the majority of her room looks rather neat right now. Once we were done, middle sister was doing the second layer of paint in their rec-room in the mean time and little brother is fixing one of his favorite cabinets, there was a short road trip.
As it turns out, we did anticipate correctly during the past few days, ‘cause on the way back, the car loaded to full capacity with wood and a new mattress for our tenant, the clouds burst open and the deluge started. I for one am not looking forward to having to slosh my way up to my cabin half an hour from now, yikes! I haven’t even dried out yet…better yet, nor have the dogs. Gawd, I’m going to have my entire cabin soaking wet if it doesn’t let up for a few minutes at some point. Darn it all to…okay, not thinking about that.
And so another day has come to an end. Yep, I’m definitely ready to hit the sack and get me some shuteye…hoping that tomorrow the weather will be sunny once more.
So let’s see how things have gone yesterday and today…boy, I never figured that it would be almost more difficult to write an update every two days, rather than every night. I manage to shave off maybe half an hour in total, but that’s it, because it takes so friggin’ long to remember what I wrote already, and what not. Drat.
But anyways, yesterday morning started almost two hours late because my alarm was behind by two hours, which was frustrating as heck. Felt slightly off-stride all day, the way oversleeping tends to do.
Then when I came downstairs to start on the humongous batch of laundry, it became clear that the washing machine was on the frits again (still is, aaargh). This, of course means that I won’t manage to get through the stuff before the rains starts, which puts me out of sorts a little. Now we’re going to have to take the machine apart and hope that we can fix the problem. It’s one of the nasty side effects of modern machinery, I think. They make everything high-tech and impossible to fix without a master’s degree, or something. I mean, seriously, you can’t just take out a lever and replace it…nooo, you need to replace the motherboard, or some sort. It’s like looking into the bowels of a spaceship, for crying out loud.
But we’ll figure it out, somehow. On to the next item: Rather than do more proofreading, big brother and I opted to start on a new round of send outs, so the majority of the morning’s hours were spent going of the manuscript’s query letter. We looked up addresses for publishers and agents working in the genre of “Saving Nina” and going over the alterations and adjustments that have been made in the requirement lists of said companies. Tiring work, that, which makes my mind murm that’s a fact.
As is the norm for time, it passes way too fast, and soon we wrapped it up to start on the activities of the day.
While big brother and grandpa finished up the fence of the upper part of the yard, I helped the sisters mix paint for their room (the one with the new floor) and middle sister’s bedroom. Next, while they got to painting, I took out the laminated slats intended for the second landing at the top of the stairs and put in a new floor there too. This part only took about half an hour; the rest of the four hours of work were spent selecting plinths and doorsteps to add to it. Grrr, the detail work is so friggin’ time consuming!
Big brother fixed the bathroom faucet, which blew last night, for no apparent reason, and luckily he managed to (at least temporarily) correct the error. It would be a real pain to have to find a new faucet that is twelve centimeters, rather than today’s standard size 16; you actually can’t get the 12 anymore.
Be that as it may, my small section of floor gets done, and after a quick dinner made by mom, big brother and I head into our office for some much needed cleaning/organizing (because the weather is ominous of late, we’ve slowly been piling things into it, until we find the proper places for them.
It took an hour or so to create some room to work in, but once done we got down to printing the letters, synopsis and chapters. We don’t actually finish with the stuff until 1:30 AM, but what the hey, we overslept so, we could do with a few hours less of sleep.
Of course, by the time we were done and had moved up to my cabin for our habitual report of the day and the plans for the next, we started doubting if we had done something wrong with the letters so we had to reopen all the envelopes again to check. Aaaargh. We didn’t do it wrong, as it turned out in the end, but better safe than sorry.
Spent an extra half hour scrubbing out my bathroom, ‘cause seriously it was a mess. It is just so hard to find some decent time to do a proper cleaning, but I ended up getting it all done to my satisfaction.
So, yeah, got too little sleep today (darn me for checking my alarm last night, hah) and my eyes were bleary when I woke up, no matter, though, much to do and too little time. When all the tasks, projects and whatnot ahead started to pile up (they tend to do that from time to time) into this massive mountain ridge that I had to climb, I decided to just blank out. I picked a song from the top of my head (Unwritten by Natasha Beddingsfield, just for the heck of it) and not think of more than the next action.
Afterwards, I could just start on the day and have a positive outlook of all the happy accidents that might occur. Lots of accidents occurred, I assure you. Apparently I’m ditzy again, ‘cause at this very moment I’ve got five bandages on a variety of appendages from asinine little mishaps from the course of the day.
But I’ll get to that later. The morning started out with some writing for this rather new “thing” I’m working on (thing referring to a story I don’t have a title for yet, hah) and then delving back into the frustrating job of finding the right publisher/agent. Yesterday’s packages are in the mail, by the way, and this morning we spent the majority of the session preparing and sending out to three agents (one already said no. Why do I do this to myself, aaaargh), which isn’t at all easy because they all have different formats to which I need to adhere.
We were a little on the late side when we finally got down to the projects, but in the hours that followed, little sister and I put in the first section of the new floor for her bedroom. Which is one of the reasons I ended up with three band-aid, by the by. A tip: Do not turn your head around to call for a certain type of screws while your hammering in a plinth. OUCH! Didn’t feel anything for a full ten seconds and then it started: Oh my Gawd! Slammed a piece of skin right between the hammer and wood--not one of my smartest moments for sure. Hah.
The other band-aids are for other nicks that were just starting to heal. But no matter, we got the intended section in so the majority of her room looks rather neat right now. Once we were done, middle sister was doing the second layer of paint in their rec-room in the mean time and little brother is fixing one of his favorite cabinets, there was a short road trip.
As it turns out, we did anticipate correctly during the past few days, ‘cause on the way back, the car loaded to full capacity with wood and a new mattress for our tenant, the clouds burst open and the deluge started. I for one am not looking forward to having to slosh my way up to my cabin half an hour from now, yikes! I haven’t even dried out yet…better yet, nor have the dogs. Gawd, I’m going to have my entire cabin soaking wet if it doesn’t let up for a few minutes at some point. Darn it all to…okay, not thinking about that.
And so another day has come to an end. Yep, I’m definitely ready to hit the sack and get me some shuteye…hoping that tomorrow the weather will be sunny once more.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Oh those rainy days.
This morning’s edit goes really horrid! I don’t know what brought it on, but everything reads “wrong” somehow, and my brain cannot form a single coherent sentence to make improvements. For some reason, I do manage to get down a page for the new scene, however, so all was not for naught. Still, it is frustrating that the edit isn’t working.
Since big brother is feeling pretty much the same, we give up on the endeavor after two pages (it is not a huge disaster, considering we only need to do about thirty more pages with the rewrite edit) and start thinking about doing something a little more constructive than get frustrated about sentences that don’t seem to make any sense. Hah.
Laundry, of course, but only hanging it because yesterday’s batch failed to dry during the miserably wet day. Though I contemplate starting on dinner early for a change, I’m really more in the mood for some actual physical activity, leaving one option.
The pantry, for several years now we have been planning to transform the outside door into a window and because the weather is downright awful we figure we might as well work on that. It shouldn’t be too hard, all things considered, so it is a nice task for a day like today.
It has been raining since I woke up, and though drops are still coming down, it has relented enough to allow me to venture out of the house to get cement and sand from the car…along with four concrete boulders…while big brother takes out the old door to saw off the rotting lower part.
By hand-or, more accurately, hand tool-I mix a nice batch of cement, and push the wheelbarrow into the house, to the back, where little sister helps me to get the cart inside the pantry…without the overly eager dogs.
Big brother is already busy removing the lower parts of the frame and the threshold, and I clean both while he and grandpa get the boulders necessary to close up the newly revealed part of the doorway.
It goes splendidly, the doorway is exactly the size of two boulders side by side, and with the other two on top of them, the section is rapidly closed. While I’m working on plastering both inside and outside of the new part of wall with the second batch of cement, big brother and grandpa are working on the section of fence that really needs to be replaced now that we’re going to work up the ground until it is down hill from the door turned wall.
Every winter, without fail, we’ve had flooding in the pantry, and since the new section of wall should go a long way of resolving that issue, we figure we might as well deal with the problem for once and for all.
While little sister is cooking dinner, and we are chopping away sections of rock and dirt where the fence used to be, the clouds finally pull away with the arrival of a gentle breeze, allowing the sun to shine at last. The window frame is finished (we managed to recycle the wood of the door for it perfectly).
Since we have to wait for the cement to dry before we can continue in this particular area, we finish up and head on inside where the dogs have been going bonkers because we wouldn’t allow them to join us. (They’d have barged straight through the knee-high wall for sure.)
Dinner is early today, but so very good, that we both feel properly revitalized and head on out into the courtyard rather than waste the remainder of the afternoon in front of the TV.
While we let the pool drain of the dog-washing venture several days ago, big brother decides to hose it down properly while I wash the tools we used. Since I’m done pretty fast and I’ve rearranged what I can in the courtyard, I decide to get shovel and pickax to start on what we have been working towards ever since we started on the wall.
Dirt. Before we began laying the foundation, a massive amount of it was dug away from the slanted natural rock wall that used to serve as the side of the courtyard. Now it needs to be chopped loose and thrown up the first section of the wall, to fill up the ground behind it until it levels with the top.
It is an arduous, but quite pleasant task in light of my mood, really. There’s nothing like building up a good sweat if the mind refuses to settle down. And sweat pours richly, I assure you, as half a ton gets thrown six feet into the air, starting a task that is going to take a couple of days at the very least.
Though I have been suffering from sore muscles in my legs from our recent jog, fifteen minutes into shoveling dirt up the wall, I don’t even feel it anymore. Wonderful how that works! Undoubtedly, I’ll have trouble raising my arms tomorrow, but my legs should be just fine. Hah.
Forty minutes into the chore, big brother finishes with the pool and joins me at the bottom of the wall.
Even more dirt joins the rapidly growing pile on the second level, and another fifteen minutes later, with perspiration dripping down my face, little brother joins in too.
With the three of us…me wielding a pickax so little brother can use the shovel in my stead…we manage to get quite a bit done and by the time dusk settles we’ve made an impressive dent in the transferal.
Properly exhausted, I take my dogs inside, have a long HOT shower and then settle behind my computer to work some more on the new scene my reader insisted on.
I manage to bring up today’s quota to two new pages, before big brother and I give editing another shot.
Since we’ve decided to do the read-edit this evening, rather than the rewrite kind, it goes well now. Six pages get the “Done” stamp, which is really necessary since my proofreader is starting to get impatient. She’s threatening me with bodily harm now. Hah.
I’m just about to finish up for the night, when I get the rather delightful message (with attachment) from my “fan”. His last book trailer (for Hero) is finally near to completion and I have the honor of seeing it first.
It’s…so very different, but…well…very accurate and downright brilliant, as usual. Can’t wait to start showing it off. Yay! He did such a marvelous job, once again. I’m curious to hear what those who read “W.I. Investigations/Hero” think of it, and if they see the scenes on the screen, like I did.
And, on that rather cheerful note, today’s blog draws to an end.
I need to get me some shuteye, ‘cause I’m bushed for sure.
Since big brother is feeling pretty much the same, we give up on the endeavor after two pages (it is not a huge disaster, considering we only need to do about thirty more pages with the rewrite edit) and start thinking about doing something a little more constructive than get frustrated about sentences that don’t seem to make any sense. Hah.
Laundry, of course, but only hanging it because yesterday’s batch failed to dry during the miserably wet day. Though I contemplate starting on dinner early for a change, I’m really more in the mood for some actual physical activity, leaving one option.
The pantry, for several years now we have been planning to transform the outside door into a window and because the weather is downright awful we figure we might as well work on that. It shouldn’t be too hard, all things considered, so it is a nice task for a day like today.
It has been raining since I woke up, and though drops are still coming down, it has relented enough to allow me to venture out of the house to get cement and sand from the car…along with four concrete boulders…while big brother takes out the old door to saw off the rotting lower part.
By hand-or, more accurately, hand tool-I mix a nice batch of cement, and push the wheelbarrow into the house, to the back, where little sister helps me to get the cart inside the pantry…without the overly eager dogs.
Big brother is already busy removing the lower parts of the frame and the threshold, and I clean both while he and grandpa get the boulders necessary to close up the newly revealed part of the doorway.
It goes splendidly, the doorway is exactly the size of two boulders side by side, and with the other two on top of them, the section is rapidly closed. While I’m working on plastering both inside and outside of the new part of wall with the second batch of cement, big brother and grandpa are working on the section of fence that really needs to be replaced now that we’re going to work up the ground until it is down hill from the door turned wall.
Every winter, without fail, we’ve had flooding in the pantry, and since the new section of wall should go a long way of resolving that issue, we figure we might as well deal with the problem for once and for all.
While little sister is cooking dinner, and we are chopping away sections of rock and dirt where the fence used to be, the clouds finally pull away with the arrival of a gentle breeze, allowing the sun to shine at last. The window frame is finished (we managed to recycle the wood of the door for it perfectly).
Since we have to wait for the cement to dry before we can continue in this particular area, we finish up and head on inside where the dogs have been going bonkers because we wouldn’t allow them to join us. (They’d have barged straight through the knee-high wall for sure.)
Dinner is early today, but so very good, that we both feel properly revitalized and head on out into the courtyard rather than waste the remainder of the afternoon in front of the TV.
While we let the pool drain of the dog-washing venture several days ago, big brother decides to hose it down properly while I wash the tools we used. Since I’m done pretty fast and I’ve rearranged what I can in the courtyard, I decide to get shovel and pickax to start on what we have been working towards ever since we started on the wall.
Dirt. Before we began laying the foundation, a massive amount of it was dug away from the slanted natural rock wall that used to serve as the side of the courtyard. Now it needs to be chopped loose and thrown up the first section of the wall, to fill up the ground behind it until it levels with the top.
It is an arduous, but quite pleasant task in light of my mood, really. There’s nothing like building up a good sweat if the mind refuses to settle down. And sweat pours richly, I assure you, as half a ton gets thrown six feet into the air, starting a task that is going to take a couple of days at the very least.
Though I have been suffering from sore muscles in my legs from our recent jog, fifteen minutes into shoveling dirt up the wall, I don’t even feel it anymore. Wonderful how that works! Undoubtedly, I’ll have trouble raising my arms tomorrow, but my legs should be just fine. Hah.
Forty minutes into the chore, big brother finishes with the pool and joins me at the bottom of the wall.
Even more dirt joins the rapidly growing pile on the second level, and another fifteen minutes later, with perspiration dripping down my face, little brother joins in too.
With the three of us…me wielding a pickax so little brother can use the shovel in my stead…we manage to get quite a bit done and by the time dusk settles we’ve made an impressive dent in the transferal.
Properly exhausted, I take my dogs inside, have a long HOT shower and then settle behind my computer to work some more on the new scene my reader insisted on.
I manage to bring up today’s quota to two new pages, before big brother and I give editing another shot.
Since we’ve decided to do the read-edit this evening, rather than the rewrite kind, it goes well now. Six pages get the “Done” stamp, which is really necessary since my proofreader is starting to get impatient. She’s threatening me with bodily harm now. Hah.
I’m just about to finish up for the night, when I get the rather delightful message (with attachment) from my “fan”. His last book trailer (for Hero) is finally near to completion and I have the honor of seeing it first.
It’s…so very different, but…well…very accurate and downright brilliant, as usual. Can’t wait to start showing it off. Yay! He did such a marvelous job, once again. I’m curious to hear what those who read “W.I. Investigations/Hero” think of it, and if they see the scenes on the screen, like I did.
And, on that rather cheerful note, today’s blog draws to an end.
I need to get me some shuteye, ‘cause I’m bushed for sure.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Dog fight, and a weird faint spell.
A most annoying thing happened last night. And just when I was drifting off to sleep, too. It was annoying, especially since I was having a rather fanciful dream of…well that’s not suited for sharing, actually, let’s just say that I was feeling pleasantly hot just about the time I felt a heavy weight settling on my face and shoulders.
I panic a little at the hardness and force of it, flaying out my arms to protect myself against the weight, coming up against a bony butt and flanks that are continuing to apply pressure to the majority of my upper body and head.
Knight! The big lug. Apparently he found the night’s chill to be somewhat “chilling” and was doing his very best to settle on top of me, rather than beside me in order to keep warm. Barely awake, I cursed at him, colorfully, smacking at his hard flanks and in the end heaving myself up–yes, I pulled another back muscle during that particular stunt–and twist until I got him from my chest enough to be able to breathe. No easy task, I assure you. I am forced keep smacking at him until he’s off the bed entirely, lest he’d show his stubbornness entirely by continuing the action as if nothing was amiss.
He has no respect for personal space, to say the least, and just peered at me indignantly from the side of the bed when I fell back in the pillow breathing heavily. By then he, of course, hopped right back onto the bed, this time settling against me, rather than on top, thank God. I didn’t really mind, since I too had felt the chill by then and drift right back to sleep, conking out for most of the night while ensconced by wonderful body heat and blankets aplenty.
I wake to a still frightfully chilly morning. It isn’t funny, especially not when I wake up half an hour before the alarm actually goes of, thinking, “Oh the dogs are still quiet and it’s still pretty dark. I can catch a few more Zzzz.” No such luck, however. Nope, with the first twitch of my head turning towards the clock, Trin Trin bounces right off the bed and starts making her usual ruckus.
There was dream, which was short but pretty vivid. It was a sunny morning in the dream and that confused me for a bit when I woke. In dreamland I was awakened by the sound of my phone ringing, and someone from the house informing me that there was someone at the gate.
I hate it when that happens; it makes me think that I missed a day, or something. It’s just too real. But, be that as it may, even though in the dream we had visitors who saw me with creepy Einstein hair–I didn’t have time to get dressed, or comb my hair before they arrived, at least it was warm there.
But anyways, in reality I get up with a deep sigh, not looking forward to the day ahead at all, what with rain pouring down in buckets, and rivulets of water cutting their way through the path, which I’ll have to follow to get to the house.
It’s layer weather, for sure. Pants covered by a skirt, thick socks in heavy boots, and three sweaters, two of which with turtlenecks, to make an outfit, finished of by a cap on my head. I look adorable…NOT! I don’t care though. I rather be warm than fashionable, any day, hah.
So, with my bag across my heavily padded shoulders, I chase the dogs down to the courtyard…almost landing flat on my back when I step onto the muddy concrete floor just inside, and promptly loose my footing. Grabbing hold of the post in the nick of time, I suck in a deep breath and shout for the dogs to get their butts out of the rain. They’re remarkably obedient for a change, even Trin Trin who storms right in.
I’m in a strange mood. My stomach’s still upset from yesterday, but I manage to choke down some bread while cutting a couple of pounds of carrots for a good winter soup that will brew on the stove for hours before it is ready for consumption.
A delicious smell fills the house within thirty minutes, making my stomach perk up just a little in anticipation.
The dogs are restless today too, for no apparent reason other than the cold, which always makes them cranky. So the heaters are lit, and blankets are dispersed throughout the house to allow the dogs some comfort on the tile floor.
About half an hour after arrival I settle at my computer for a few hours to go through the messages and then some writing. Not much gets done, my mind just won’t settle and only one page is written.
By the time the sibs arrive, big brother and I are forced away from our computers in order to jump right into the fray of a fight between Knight and little brother’s Bharam, who for some reason don’t like each other at all.
While I make a mad grab for my Dane, and little brother comes pounding down the stairs to reach his black cross breed, Fortuyn, big brother’s brown and white Pointer decides to join in by bravely nipping at Knight’s flanks. NOT SMART!
Total chaos ensues. Dogs come rushing towards the ruckus en masse, sending Knight into a wild frenzy of snapping and snarling at anything that comes near him. I just about wrap my hand around his collar when he sets his mouth into Fortuyn’s neck, shaking him like mad when I throw my weight backwards, smacking him a solid one on the head and yank him out of the sitting area, and away from the madly barking pack gathering.
Behind me I head big brother roar something about “it being broken” and try not to imagine Fortuyn’s skin being torn from his back, or some such, as I literally shove Knight into the pantry to cool down, and turn back to wearily look at the damage.
Fortuyn is hiding under a chair but is otherwise unharmed. Big brother, on the other hand is fretting over his pet-computer, swearing under his breath at the two Cocker Spaniels who’d decided to take a short cut across the table, dancing right on top of his computer screen and bending the frame enough not to allow the lid to be closed.
Though the damage is pretty ugly, the computer still functions, including the screen, so I exclaim a sigh of relief and join big brother at the table to see if we can do some damage control at least.
Around us the dogs are quiet once again, obviously sensing that the “pissed off” level among the humans is huge enough for them to take refuge into silence.
Rare fights among the pack always cause a certain burst of adrenaline, and today is no exception. We find that after this little fiasco neither of us can find the focus necessary for writing and carefully set our computers away to get some other work done instead.
The carrot soup has boiled enough to be finished with herbs, yogurt, cottage cheese and spices, before the blender purees it all together in a tasteful mix that’ll go a long way in sustaining us through dinner.
Next, while younger sister is cleaning the courtyard, I take out a batch of laundry to hang, even though it won’t be much use if the weather keeps up. Sis and I talk a bit while we’re both working in the chilling cold, Knight watching us somewhat warily, fully aware that he’s still in the proverbial dog house and for once not making a nuisance of himself during this particular chore.
Not at all hungry by then, I decide to postpone dinner for a bit as I start to lug in the newly built and painted drawers for the kitchen into the house, because big brother and I decided to fit them, now that writing isn’t working. After some fitting, we find that one dividing wall of one of the drawer cases has been placed wrong during construction, so after unscrewing the barrier and shifting if a couple of mm we begin the meticulous measuring and fitting.
After about an hour of slow progress, I decide to take a cup of soup with bread, and though it tastes well, my stomach revolts almost the moment I get it all down. Using a breathing technique I’ve acquired over the past few years, I do manage to keep it down as we continue on, hanging two drawers in total until it hits me right in the head. No, not the drawer…but a woozy feeling that sneaks up on me with a slight tremor in all my limbs.
Getting up from my knees, from where I’ve been carefully fastening one of the heavy gliders into the case, I can barely remain standing–let alone screw the last few screws in. Blinking against the black spots in my vision, I mutter something vague to big brother who takes the task from me, and watches with a worried frown as I am forced to sit down on the floor, fighting the symptoms I am then recognizing as the same ones I once had when I passed out.
Promptly I lower my head between my shaky knees, breathing in deeply until some of the weakness, and spots fade, and I feel well enough to squirt a liberal amount of honey into my mouth.
I let it seep on my tongue for a bit, my vision slowly clearing. I don’t know what the heck it is that just came over me, but it almost feels like a bug, or something.
But anyways, we manage to get all three drawers hung, allowing big and little brother to carry the entire contraption out again as I set to the task of treating the last two drawers with their final layer of paint. It gets done with reasonable speed, while a movie plays on the TV, keeping me pleasantly distracted.
After setting the paint materials away, along with the wet drawers, and cleaning my hands with turpentine and soap, the evening has progressed considerably, and we’re up for a break.
I’m still shaky by the time the sibs and I sit down to watch the recorded episode of Dexter, fully enjoying it even though it’s in German, and manage to choke down another cup of soup.
I pretty much slouch at the table most of the remaining evening, until at long last it’s time to withdraw to my quarters.
We had planned to do a bit more writing before the night was through, but we figure, what with our lagging levels of energy, we’ll call it an early night and head for our personal spaces for the last remaining hours of our days.
Upon arriving in my cabin–the rain stopped, but it’s still cold–I am shocked to find that some dog has managed to break in again, spreading another cushion’s contents all over the floor and requiring at least an hour of cleaning up from me, before finally I plunk down on the bed with a much deserved cigarette and a fifteen minute read to settle my turmoil mind. It doesn’t work.
Though the day started well enough, my mood is abysmal by the time I wind down, more than a little frustrated with the fritzing stereo that takes even longer than usual to get going. Damn thing. I’m going to toss it out one of these days and get a new one. This simply won’t do.
But, in the end I do manage to get it going again, and find my mind calming down at least a fraction as the calming music fills my head. An occasional house call with big brother in his room, earns us some new ideas for the latest writing project, which at the very least allows my mind to wander into different areas than just the “feeling miserable” thoughts that keep tumbling through my mind.
By the time I get online to chat on the forums I feel well enough to start on today’s blog.
I would like to say that today was a good day, but except for the fact that things got done…it really wasn’t.
I panic a little at the hardness and force of it, flaying out my arms to protect myself against the weight, coming up against a bony butt and flanks that are continuing to apply pressure to the majority of my upper body and head.
Knight! The big lug. Apparently he found the night’s chill to be somewhat “chilling” and was doing his very best to settle on top of me, rather than beside me in order to keep warm. Barely awake, I cursed at him, colorfully, smacking at his hard flanks and in the end heaving myself up–yes, I pulled another back muscle during that particular stunt–and twist until I got him from my chest enough to be able to breathe. No easy task, I assure you. I am forced keep smacking at him until he’s off the bed entirely, lest he’d show his stubbornness entirely by continuing the action as if nothing was amiss.
He has no respect for personal space, to say the least, and just peered at me indignantly from the side of the bed when I fell back in the pillow breathing heavily. By then he, of course, hopped right back onto the bed, this time settling against me, rather than on top, thank God. I didn’t really mind, since I too had felt the chill by then and drift right back to sleep, conking out for most of the night while ensconced by wonderful body heat and blankets aplenty.
I wake to a still frightfully chilly morning. It isn’t funny, especially not when I wake up half an hour before the alarm actually goes of, thinking, “Oh the dogs are still quiet and it’s still pretty dark. I can catch a few more Zzzz.” No such luck, however. Nope, with the first twitch of my head turning towards the clock, Trin Trin bounces right off the bed and starts making her usual ruckus.
There was dream, which was short but pretty vivid. It was a sunny morning in the dream and that confused me for a bit when I woke. In dreamland I was awakened by the sound of my phone ringing, and someone from the house informing me that there was someone at the gate.
I hate it when that happens; it makes me think that I missed a day, or something. It’s just too real. But, be that as it may, even though in the dream we had visitors who saw me with creepy Einstein hair–I didn’t have time to get dressed, or comb my hair before they arrived, at least it was warm there.
But anyways, in reality I get up with a deep sigh, not looking forward to the day ahead at all, what with rain pouring down in buckets, and rivulets of water cutting their way through the path, which I’ll have to follow to get to the house.
It’s layer weather, for sure. Pants covered by a skirt, thick socks in heavy boots, and three sweaters, two of which with turtlenecks, to make an outfit, finished of by a cap on my head. I look adorable…NOT! I don’t care though. I rather be warm than fashionable, any day, hah.
So, with my bag across my heavily padded shoulders, I chase the dogs down to the courtyard…almost landing flat on my back when I step onto the muddy concrete floor just inside, and promptly loose my footing. Grabbing hold of the post in the nick of time, I suck in a deep breath and shout for the dogs to get their butts out of the rain. They’re remarkably obedient for a change, even Trin Trin who storms right in.
I’m in a strange mood. My stomach’s still upset from yesterday, but I manage to choke down some bread while cutting a couple of pounds of carrots for a good winter soup that will brew on the stove for hours before it is ready for consumption.
A delicious smell fills the house within thirty minutes, making my stomach perk up just a little in anticipation.
The dogs are restless today too, for no apparent reason other than the cold, which always makes them cranky. So the heaters are lit, and blankets are dispersed throughout the house to allow the dogs some comfort on the tile floor.
About half an hour after arrival I settle at my computer for a few hours to go through the messages and then some writing. Not much gets done, my mind just won’t settle and only one page is written.
By the time the sibs arrive, big brother and I are forced away from our computers in order to jump right into the fray of a fight between Knight and little brother’s Bharam, who for some reason don’t like each other at all.
While I make a mad grab for my Dane, and little brother comes pounding down the stairs to reach his black cross breed, Fortuyn, big brother’s brown and white Pointer decides to join in by bravely nipping at Knight’s flanks. NOT SMART!
Total chaos ensues. Dogs come rushing towards the ruckus en masse, sending Knight into a wild frenzy of snapping and snarling at anything that comes near him. I just about wrap my hand around his collar when he sets his mouth into Fortuyn’s neck, shaking him like mad when I throw my weight backwards, smacking him a solid one on the head and yank him out of the sitting area, and away from the madly barking pack gathering.
Behind me I head big brother roar something about “it being broken” and try not to imagine Fortuyn’s skin being torn from his back, or some such, as I literally shove Knight into the pantry to cool down, and turn back to wearily look at the damage.
Fortuyn is hiding under a chair but is otherwise unharmed. Big brother, on the other hand is fretting over his pet-computer, swearing under his breath at the two Cocker Spaniels who’d decided to take a short cut across the table, dancing right on top of his computer screen and bending the frame enough not to allow the lid to be closed.
Though the damage is pretty ugly, the computer still functions, including the screen, so I exclaim a sigh of relief and join big brother at the table to see if we can do some damage control at least.
Around us the dogs are quiet once again, obviously sensing that the “pissed off” level among the humans is huge enough for them to take refuge into silence.
Rare fights among the pack always cause a certain burst of adrenaline, and today is no exception. We find that after this little fiasco neither of us can find the focus necessary for writing and carefully set our computers away to get some other work done instead.
The carrot soup has boiled enough to be finished with herbs, yogurt, cottage cheese and spices, before the blender purees it all together in a tasteful mix that’ll go a long way in sustaining us through dinner.
Next, while younger sister is cleaning the courtyard, I take out a batch of laundry to hang, even though it won’t be much use if the weather keeps up. Sis and I talk a bit while we’re both working in the chilling cold, Knight watching us somewhat warily, fully aware that he’s still in the proverbial dog house and for once not making a nuisance of himself during this particular chore.
Not at all hungry by then, I decide to postpone dinner for a bit as I start to lug in the newly built and painted drawers for the kitchen into the house, because big brother and I decided to fit them, now that writing isn’t working. After some fitting, we find that one dividing wall of one of the drawer cases has been placed wrong during construction, so after unscrewing the barrier and shifting if a couple of mm we begin the meticulous measuring and fitting.
After about an hour of slow progress, I decide to take a cup of soup with bread, and though it tastes well, my stomach revolts almost the moment I get it all down. Using a breathing technique I’ve acquired over the past few years, I do manage to keep it down as we continue on, hanging two drawers in total until it hits me right in the head. No, not the drawer…but a woozy feeling that sneaks up on me with a slight tremor in all my limbs.
Getting up from my knees, from where I’ve been carefully fastening one of the heavy gliders into the case, I can barely remain standing–let alone screw the last few screws in. Blinking against the black spots in my vision, I mutter something vague to big brother who takes the task from me, and watches with a worried frown as I am forced to sit down on the floor, fighting the symptoms I am then recognizing as the same ones I once had when I passed out.
Promptly I lower my head between my shaky knees, breathing in deeply until some of the weakness, and spots fade, and I feel well enough to squirt a liberal amount of honey into my mouth.
I let it seep on my tongue for a bit, my vision slowly clearing. I don’t know what the heck it is that just came over me, but it almost feels like a bug, or something.
But anyways, we manage to get all three drawers hung, allowing big and little brother to carry the entire contraption out again as I set to the task of treating the last two drawers with their final layer of paint. It gets done with reasonable speed, while a movie plays on the TV, keeping me pleasantly distracted.
After setting the paint materials away, along with the wet drawers, and cleaning my hands with turpentine and soap, the evening has progressed considerably, and we’re up for a break.
I’m still shaky by the time the sibs and I sit down to watch the recorded episode of Dexter, fully enjoying it even though it’s in German, and manage to choke down another cup of soup.
I pretty much slouch at the table most of the remaining evening, until at long last it’s time to withdraw to my quarters.
We had planned to do a bit more writing before the night was through, but we figure, what with our lagging levels of energy, we’ll call it an early night and head for our personal spaces for the last remaining hours of our days.
Upon arriving in my cabin–the rain stopped, but it’s still cold–I am shocked to find that some dog has managed to break in again, spreading another cushion’s contents all over the floor and requiring at least an hour of cleaning up from me, before finally I plunk down on the bed with a much deserved cigarette and a fifteen minute read to settle my turmoil mind. It doesn’t work.
Though the day started well enough, my mood is abysmal by the time I wind down, more than a little frustrated with the fritzing stereo that takes even longer than usual to get going. Damn thing. I’m going to toss it out one of these days and get a new one. This simply won’t do.
But, in the end I do manage to get it going again, and find my mind calming down at least a fraction as the calming music fills my head. An occasional house call with big brother in his room, earns us some new ideas for the latest writing project, which at the very least allows my mind to wander into different areas than just the “feeling miserable” thoughts that keep tumbling through my mind.
By the time I get online to chat on the forums I feel well enough to start on today’s blog.
I would like to say that today was a good day, but except for the fact that things got done…it really wasn’t.
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