Wind and almost-disaster. Aaaargh.

Song of the day: “You’re beautiful” by James Blunt. I positively dislike the song, but what can I say, it’s on the Itunes, and it’ll come by in the shuffle every once in a while, and then it’ll be stuck in my head for the day. Grrrr.

So, yesterday nothing short of a disaster occurred. The sawing table up and died on us. No, no, no. Not now. Not the sawing table; I still gotta make… Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! (that would be my response, in case you’re wondering, hah) Gawd, to be without the saw, would be like losing an arm what with all the projects going on.

Immediately big brother and grandpa set to taking the machine apart, in search of the problem, only to come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be something they could fix themselves. (Insert another aaag, please) That was depressing to say the least; it meant that the next day they would have to start going past local mechanics in hopes that they could fix a twenty year old German machine that isn’t even built anymore.

Yesterday was a windy day, by the way. And when I say windy, I mean really windy: Winds that’ll rip your clothes of your body and make you freezing cold. By the end of outside work (that would be in the afternoon. Yesterday morning was pretty bearable with the warm sunshine) I couldn’t feel my extremities, I had a headache from clenching my teeth together (they wanted to chatter, you see), and I decided to waste money by turning on my little electric heater by the end of the evening.

Considering our tenant is feeling a little lonely of late, what with no longer going to rehab, we have also decided to wheel her down to the work terrace, where she has company and can sit in a windless spot with lots of sunlight. Rather than hauling her down and just plunking her somewhere (sorta like picking up and dropping off) we decided to make it a challenge. She rose to it beautifully yesterday, managing to mount the four steps up my porch and then walking towards the comfortable chair I’d set up in the corner.
With only a minimal amount of help she got settled and was proud as a fiddle about it.

Little sister and I worked on making a drawer section in the carport that grandpa would like to have for storing capacity. I think he was under the misconception that I was being fresh with him, or something. When I asked him if I could use a particular slat of wood of a rather hideous bluish green color (I didn’t know if he had any plans of painting the thing afterwards) I thought I was teasing or something. Apparently, he doesn’t entirely get the fact that if I offer to help someone out with building, I consider it their project, and try to keep my own (sometimes rather prominent) opinion on how it should be done, under wraps. I don’t start using my own judgment because that would only lead to frustration when the other person wants to have something done in a particular way.

But anyway, after that slight misunderstanding, little sister and I finished the first section of the box-drawer structure, both of us packed into thick clothes, hats, scarf and gloves. And more than willing to head inside after nightfall.

Computer work: Basically we’re just reading stuff at the moment, going over old material, making minor adjustments, etc. etc.
On to today: Yep, the wind went to sleep, thankfully. When I woke this morning it was blissfully quiet and sunny outside…which was somewhat of a relief after a rather violent apocalyptic dream. I’m gonna have to see if I can organize the description well enough for me to write it down one of these days, ‘cause it would be fascinating to see it on the proverbial paper. Hah.

So yeah, I had the rather brilliant idea to suggest to big brother that maybe he should check the electrical wire, which we had been using for the sawing machine…I know, why didn’t I do that yesterday? Well, it didn’t occur to me until late last night when I remembered that the dogs had chewed their way through it and that we had to repair the wire before using it.

I had already fully prepared for the departure of grandpa and big brother to bring the saw motor away, intending to do a good kitchen cleaning and then maybe my blog, when it became clear that the saw wasn’t the problem. But the power outlet (not the before mentioned wire, but still, I thought it rather brilliant of myself, hah) it took big brother a few hours to fix the problem, and then a few more to put the machine back together, but now it is working again. Yay. And best yet, it cost us time and not a penny. Hah.

Though I would have liked to head out into the sunshine, I was already up to my elbows into cleaning the kitchen drawers, so I stuck with it. Man, were they dirty, I think I’ve actually annihilated living organisms from the corners, hah. Within the hours that followed, I got seven of them cleaned out, organised and shut, which is somewhat of a relief since they’ve been bugging me for weeks.

Afterwards, I did manage to get out into the sunshine for a bit, and then hung a few clothes hooks in my cabin, to replace the nails I’d been using until now. So much better, really. Maybe now I won’t kill clothes by pulling them off too hard. Hah.

The sawing machine is back in one piece, so we’re all set for continuing with the ongoing projects. (I was seriously worried there, for a bit.) We are going to do some different stuff soon, though. What with our tenant coming down more often, we’ve decided not to postpone pouring a concrete path down the mountain, so that’s up soon. It’ll also be handy for pouring the concrete floor in the carport, but once the rains start (if they do this year, that is) we’re going to need a good floor there with a drainage system.

And now I gotta quite writing for today. There’re still a few corrections to the manuscript that need to be made, and I promised I wouldn’t take “ages” today. Hah.

Pix and an update. :-)

Song of the day: “Tired of being sorry” by Enrique Iglesias. Had it before, but I probably will again. Great one.

Well, it has been a busy couple of days. I am once more at a loss as to where I left off the last time, so I’m going to past in a couple more pictures for the heck of it.

Here’s the bed/closet for little sister. There’s another separate section with two big drawers, sort of like a bench (the same materials) but I forgot to take a picture of it, darn it.
As usual I started on the design before I actually took measurements, but it worked out, thankfully. The separate sections are exactly the length of a mattress and putting the lot in…after breaking the old bed apart, which involved quite a bit of work. Luckily putting everything in place went so well that we had the new bed was set up and ready in just a few hours.





Here’s also a shot of what soon will be a nice light yellow desk in my room. Isn’t it cute? As a little girl I would have killed for something like this. Hah.
This is restoring, by the way, not building. Had to replace some broken elements, but the design is not my own. *sigh*



Here’s my old trunk, which mom painted during the course of the past week, very Arabian nights, isn’t it.




But anyway, other than these fun little projects going on, big brother and I have been working on the new front gate off and on, which means that we have now finished one side of the gate, about nine by nine feet of metal and wood that is starting to become rather pretty and solid.

There was also a nice little half hour involving changing Tika’s cage (parrot), which she doesn’t like at all. She’ll be glaring at us every time like she’s saying; “Hey, those are my food reserves, get out of my cage!” while banging her beak against her food bowl. Such a character, our Tika.

The weather, much to my regret, is slowly turning colder again. We’ve actually had a wee bit of rain, aaargh.

Also had another nice run, where I worked on endurance rather than speed. I hate the endurance part, I wanna RUN, darn it…but the other bit is necessary too, I guess.

We had a good scavenge again. Lots of wood that’ll do the trick with future projects. Also metal, which won’t go amiss what with working on the gate at the moment.

I did two more workout sessions with our tenant, who is slowly gaining more balance and strength in her legs. She really enjoys being able to walk again, even though she has to be helped. Can’t blame her, really; there’s nothing worse than being bed, or chairbound.

In between it all I have been trying to discipline Knight II, who’s gotten to be so big that I decided he’s going to need to learn to stay on the couch, rather than get in bed with us at night. There just isn’t any room for him.
Of course, it took me over an hour to get him to understand that he couldn’t snuggle up, but on the overall, it wasn’t as disastrous as I’d feared.

And with that I’ve gotta quit today’s blog. I’m running way behind…I heard from my soldier with Operation Desert Swap for the first time, so I got a little sidetracked writing this really long email to him (poor fellow; far away from home and then he gets stuck with me yapping his proverbial ear off).

On to the next day!

A quicky.

Song of the day: “The four Season: Spring” from Vivaldi. Don’t ask me why, but the stupid tune keeps spinning through my head.

Where was I with the last blog? Gawd it is so hard to keep track of. I guess I’ll just have to guess, ‘cause I’m too darn lazy to check. Hah.

A bit of sad news first: Grandpa’s old husky, Picard passed away from old age. Poor fella. He hadn’t been doing too well for the past few months. His hearing was almost non-existent, his eyes didn’t function, and during the past couple of weeks his hips could no longer support him. So sad to see a once so proud and happy dog being reduced to that. But at least he didn’t suffer through a long and painful disease, and just past away in his sleep. He will be missed.

Let’s start with the edit/rewrite of “Calamity’s Luck”. It’s going slow, considering we’re still getting used to the new schedule, but we’re steadily making progress. Technicalities are straightened out, logistics dealt with, and the characters are shaping up nicely. We’ve decided to keep with the humor angle, ‘cause let’s face it, it is just too much fun not to. Think “Hudson Hawk”, “Moonlighting” without actually going into the slapstick. I don’t like slapstick, just a fun punch-line every now and then, and an occasional quirk in the character.

Okay, considering I have to fill space anyway, let me introduce you to the two main protagonists:
Calamity Stewart. She’s quirky to say the least. A former war correspondent who had a full career as a non-fiction author under the name C.S. Pennyworth. Considering she hated the character (you know, the person she was when she wrote about serious stuff), Calamity decided to let Pennyworth die and threw herself on her real passion: Fiction/romance writing…I mean really, given the choice, who wouldn’t want to do fiction when given the chance.
Now, the twist to Callie is that she literally is a walking disaster. And when I say disaster, I mean that literally. She goes on vacation, there’ll be some sort of natural catastrophe; she takes a plane and it will crash, or close to it. Elevators, or any modern day technology…forget it. Something will happen that’ll blow it up, make it malfunction, or whatever.
It leaves her all a tad aggravated to say the least.
Now, meet the hero, Alexander Jessup: Alex is an engineer/inventor, and he…well he’s fascinated by Callie, of course. Considering that he is basically a scientist, Alex doesn’t believe in bad luck. Regretfully, as he gets to know her, he is starting to see a distinct pattern of way too many coincidences that he simply cannot explain.

So the two characters meet, they fall in love and then…well I’m working on it. Hah.

Enough of writing stuff, let’s move on to the projects at hand.
Little sister and I spent the majority of the time working on her bed/closet, and as of this morning I declare them ready to put in. Yay. Just as soon as I finish today’s blog, had something to eat and basically caught my breath, we’ll start on the process of taking out the old bed and putting in the new. Gawd, I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

While we were doing the cabinets (hinges and handles needed to be put in) big brother started on the new front gate. He’s got one of the two frames welded now (it went really well, after not having handled the welding machine for such a long time) and by tomorrow we should start putting in the wood. It’ll be a nice task that’ll need each and every one of us to pull together for an afternoon to get it done.

We might have to hurry a bit, what with the clouds gathering over the area. We already had a bit of rain this morning and afternoon…which was rather annoying since I was in the midst of putting the last hinges in. Got it don, however, and the clouds broke apart again, allowing for the sun to shine again.

New plans are once again in the making…what with little sister’s project almost done, the mind starts to wander. Maybe a big ol’ closet for little brother, who has been complaining some about his old wardrobe closet, so what with the right supplies being available, a design is starting to take shape in my head. It should work out properly if he agrees to it. If not, I might just make it anyway and put it in the pantry for storage. A good solid big closet won’t be bad at all in there.

Middle sister’s new door is looking grand by the way. For the first time she actually has a hinge that functions. Hah. It still needs a lick of paint, but other than that it looks great.

And I’m going to stop here, ‘cause I still have to go through my messages before I need to get started on the remodel of little sister’s room.

The usual.

Song of the day: “Lucy in the sky” by Katie Melua. It just kept going and going, and even though I tried to change the tune by starting another, I would just find myself switching back to this one as soon as I wasn’t paying attention.

I basically started the morning (yesterday) with a big load of laundry…so what else is new, right? Hah. Next, it was up to our tenant’s place so we could start her rehabilitation exercises. It went rather well, actually, and she enjoyed it, which is the most important thing, I think. She walked a total of thirty yards (the biggest part with us offering a little balance on both sides) and a third of that with only minimal support and her cane…the cane was the first time, so she was thrilled.

We also did arm exercises: the doctors said she would never again be able to move her arm, and yet here she is, moving it from side to side and even clasping her fingers around our hand when she tries to keep her balance. We’ve found that when she doesn’t think about it, but does stuff on instinct the appendage wants to work just fine. I think that with the right exercises and practice she can get at least eighty percent of her mobility back…given time, of course. We will see, however, and as long as she has fun with the process, success is already halfway there.

Right, what else…Yeah, little sister’s new bed/closet is working out nicely. Tight, straight and strong, while cute anyway. Last night, at the end of our outside workday, I decided to go to her room to do my first measurements (yeah, I know, I’m supposed to do measurements up front, but I…ehm, sorta forgot, hah) and found that the design will fit, like, perfectly. Phew.

The drawers slide, the doors don’t stick and aren’t too small either, so, yeah. Good job! I’m most curious what it’s going to look like once we’re done. It’ll certainly create more room, while allowing for more storage. Yep. I can hardly wait to see the end result.

My storage trunk is being repaired and painted too, and looks rather fancy with it’s golden metal sections. I’m going to have to remove a small cabinet to place it in my bedroom, but then I’ll have room for the desk that is going to be in my sitting room, so…who cares.

I also spent some time working in the courtyard. I needed to put heavy metal hooks into the rock wall, where the laundry baskets can be hung. There was a broken closure in the window that needed to be replaced, and my old laundry table was really getting to be too rotten for use, so I put in a new one. Once I got out the old shelving there too, it looked rather neat and usable.

While the sibs and I were working by the carport terrace, big brother and grandpa put in the new door for middle sister. It fit perfectly and is of a solid white wood that will finally work properly. The old one was really falling apart, so now that looks good again.

There was another short scavenge hunt last night, considering we had to go to town to return the DVDs we rented Tuesday; they were late, of course, so there was a fine. And then we went past the department store where we found the shoes for big brother. Since they are so comfortable, and getting shoes for him is such a chore in most cases, he wanted to buy an extra pair, but they were out of that particular size, so that was a bust.

On the scavenge hunt we found quite a bit of wood, which had grandpa thrilled again, naturally. Had the cab nicely full, so that was a successful conclusion of the day. We’re starting to get a good stash of slats to cover the outside of little sister’s room…it has been an eyesore ever since we built it.

Seeing as we were late getting back from the “hunt”, we did a short editing/rewriting session by the end of the day. Slowly, but steadily we’re making our way through the already-written part, and new ideas for the rest of the story are starting to develop, allowing for a plotline setup. As matter of fact, big brother is putting it down right now, while I’m racing through the blog. Hah.

This morning the pocket watch, we got for grandpa came in, and he seemed nicely surprised with the out of the blue present. Seeing as he doesn’t like wearing a wristwatch, we thought a pocket watch would do the trick nicely.

There was a lot of sawing this morning, the backs of little sister’s bed/closet, the top of the bench drawers that’ll be at the foot end of the bed, and of course slats to finish it all off. The chair that matches my new desk got a new seat put in, this morning…very hard making a rounded board, but still, it was a successful endeavor. We also unloaded the car, increasing the supplies considerably. Our tenant really enjoys this part of it, since we’ll be working outside where she’s seated in the sun most mornings, reading, and chatting a little.

With the car empty once more, it was back down to the car port, where big brother proceeded to take mom’s AC apart for a proper cleaning.
But anyway, this afternoon when big brother and grandpa are going over to the store to get the metal for the new front gate of the property (finally), as well as cement and butane gas for the stoves, little sister and I should be able to finish the bed/closet. At least, as completely as possible, before we can put the construction in her room.

We might need to make trip to the vet soon. Nanook (a malamute husky) appears to have growth of sorts on her paw, and if it is remotely like the one Njanna (golden retriever) had, it’ll need to be removed. Angie (middle sister’s Basset Hound) was feeling poorly, but now that she’s on an antibiotic she appears to be feeling better, so that is one less dog that needs a medical consult. Phew.

And that concludes the Blog for now. I really need to get back to work, so…