Not done yet, darn it

Song of the day: “Somebody I used to know” by Gotye and Kimba. It’s been long enough now since the three day continuation of this particular song, not to mind anymore. Hah.

Still busy as heck, still way too much to do. Like today, I’m squeezing this little blog thing in here at around five in the afternoon, because I still have to go out, and probably have to do just that in just half an hour or so. *sigh* So little time, so much to do, right?

But okay, let’s stop dawdling and get down to business. Yesterday. Despite the time limit, big brother and I decided to just try and make it with the tree trimming business up in the mountains. Thirty trees, plus a handful of small ones were waiting for us, and we hoped, what with departing an hour early, we’d manage the chore…we didn’t. Hah. Ah well, can’t help it, worked hard, worked fast. Cut, sawed, and dragged, and as the hours passed it became clear that we wouldn’t make the five thirty deadline. We sure gave it our best shot, at times doubling it up the mountain, but it was all for naught. We’re gonna have to do another half day at the very least. That were a LOT of trees. Yikes. *sigh* Blasted deadline! Grrr. No matter, though, it’s only time, and as long as I look at it as fitness, who gives a bloody heck, right?

Getting home at six thirty, we unloaded wood from the car…since we have to get rid of the wood anyway, we took most of the thick stuff along for boiling of dog food and such. Got a nice batch, so in that regard we don’t mind all that much going again, there’s a bit more wood, so we’ll get something out of the extra hours. Hah.

But okay, once at home, we quickly helped cousin Ed load up the Opel for the Sunday market. It took only half an hour at this time. That done, I mixed a mayo and yogurt sauce for the potato and veggie salad cousin Ed had already prepared, at which time I was running on fumes and headed to my cabin for a nice little nap of about forty five minutes. Didn’t actually drop away, but it allowed me to stay awake afterward ‘til normal sleeping time, so, yay!

Which brings us to today, doesn’t it?
Well, I slept solidly. So solidly in fact that I didn’t even realize that it rained buckets during the night, until grandpa told me about it. Hah. Was nice enough, considering it meant that we didn’t need to go into the yard for watering at least. Just a bit of planting and harvesting instead. Hah.

For the rest of the day I worked in the carport. That decorative car I’m restoring? Well, it’s certainly getting there. I sprayed it with a lacquer that made the red paint I used on the body shine beautifully. Seriously, I will be posting pics of the process and the end result. Next Sunday the sibs and mom will try to sell it at the market.
In the end the wheels took most time, though. I had to get the rust off, and then paint all the tines and ridges. Not easy. Mixed a special paint for it too, seeing as I didn’t like silver or black with the reds and browns of the car. Ended with an iron gray/slate color. It’ll work nicely, I think.

That done, I started on restoring a small metal amphora standard that was so rusted that the old color had peeled and the shape had become oddly contorted. Ended up sanding and metal brushing the whole thing before painting it with a deep red metal paint. Will have to do the latter again, but what the heck. It’ll look nice for sure.

As for the markets, they didn’t go bad apparently, but not as good as they could have either. Cousin Ed sure had fun stories to tell. Her sunshield went flying, her clothes-rack toppled over and, well, the wind was a peach. Patrons were running all over the place trying to help her catch everything. Hah.

Editing...well, not much time for that the past few days, darn it. Time, energy and all that jazz is spread a little thin at the moment.

Akata (husky) really isn't doing well. Age is really catching up on him, I fear. He's from '98/99 at least, and well, now he really doesn't wanna eat anymore, and is just lying there, sleeping the day and night away. *sigh* So sad that.

Well, that’s it for today. Gotta go and all that. Let’s hope that the next time I write the trimming job will be done, eh? Hah.

More excesses to can

Song of the day: “Que sera sera (what will be will be) by Doris Day. What can I say, the oldies just sometimes come to haunt me.

Yesterday was totally awesome canning thirty pots of tomatoes, pumpkins, green beans, peppers and zucchinis...ehm, yeah...not thirty of each! But all together thirty, duh...for the winter. Sure it took ages, started around noon and didn’t finish until after eight in the evening, but what the hey. It got done, and several of the concoctions are once again experiments. I kinda liked them all, seeing as I made concentrated soups of them. I am definitely keeping several as recipes for the book later on. The way I figure, this winter I’ll pick a pot or two (whichever I’m in the mood for) toss it in a pan and add water until we have a full meal. Easy as pie, as they say. Hah.

Was thoroughly exhausted afterwards, however, and it took me a dip in the pool, supper and some staring-blindly-ahead for several minutes per hour before I recovered enough to start on the day’s writing session. Of course by that time was also thoroughly distracted by the whole debacle going on in Norway. Seriously, that is some far-out shaite, especially in this so called realistic world. *sigh* And here they say that movies are unrealistic when some villain starts on a killing spree. I can’t help but wonder what this fella thought to achieve with his actions. I mean, really, no one’s going to think much of his “message” now that he’s killed dozens of teenagers. I mean, I somehow get his his frustration (read a draft of his manifesto), in a weird way anyway, but this...

Totally book material...though if I had written it, I would have made him smarter. Personally I think, his message, if he had one, would have been far more credible if he had walked into parliament and started mowing down the politicians he blamed for modern day society’s problems. But a youth camp? Not smart! Not smart at all. They’ll dismiss him as a lunatic, and then what? He spends life in prison, foaming at the mouth about stuff he can’t ever possibly change anymore? Ah well, let’s just call the whole thing scary and leave it at that.

Okay, what else. I wrote about two pages last night, despite my distraction and my tiredness. The story is really rapidly developing now, and I really, really have to wrap it up now. I can add another eight thousand words, but that’s it. I need the remaining five for the edit, so that I can at least add extra necessities throughout the story, rather than first having to remove a few thousand words to make room.

So yeah, another trip to the garage is going to be necessary. The cooling liquid is still disappearing, so something is wrong. Aaaargh! So frustrating. Why can’t the friggin’ car just work fine for another year, or so?

Tick season (the tiny black ones) is in full swing, apparently. The little buggers are everywhere, sucking the poor dogs dry, and driving me bonkers because I can’t work on my computer without wasting at least a full hour picking ticks off of them, darn it. There are a few that are really considered a delicacy by the buggers.

This morning, seeing as caregiver was once again at her other job (for six hours this time) I spent a lot of time with tenant. First I helped her change, after which she waited in the kitchen for a bit while I prepared lentils/chickpeas patties for lunch. Then we walked down to my terrace where she sat reading in the shade while grandpa and I worked on sanding the boards of my future living room floor. They’re going to be beautiful, thank you very much, and it was a nice occupation early in the day.

Afterwards tenant and I both took a dip in the pool, and then headed on down to the basin terrace where we started on supper. The patties worked out just fine, and the vegetable mix to go with them...yummy. Seriously, is there anything healthier than fresh veggies in a cream-tomato sauce?

Well, I would like to do a bit of writing still, before the day is through, and after that...well, I just might hit the sack early today. Seriously, I’ve been getting way too little sleep again this week. *sigh*