Maudlin' a little.

Song of the day: “The Great Pretender” by Queen...along with several Shakira songs of her latest She Wolf album. Things are seesawing all morning, for some peculiar reason.

Though yesterday was another genuine scorcher, 43 Celsius (110 approx), today the mercury dropped a solid twenty degrees. The thermometer showed me 23 degrees Celsius, which would have been awesome if there hadn’t been so much friggin’ moisture in the air. Seriously I’m sweating like mad. Phew.

But anyways, the floor project worked out fine. Got it all back in place before nightfall, and by the time I was ready to go to bed, big brother and grandpa helped out putting my furniture back inside. So strange to have a floor that doesn’t tilt a bit anymore…though I do need to watch out going the through the passage to my bedroom. Seeing as the sitting room is now two inches higher the lilt of the threshold has made me slam my forehead against the top two times already. Grrr.

Now, with a little luck, in a few months I’ll get a new parquet floor in both rooms, and a hardwood floor in my bathroom, which would be awesome considering the floor has been somewhat bouncy for months, hah.

The new schedule takes some getting used to (again) seeing as I’m friggin’ exhausted when I settle down for the evening to do some serious writing. Of late I’ve only been managing about two and a half pages a day, which is of course atrocious. No help for it, however. It’ll get better again, I’m sure. Besides, only twenty-five more pages and I’ll hit halfway-point. Yay.

Other than the usual stuff going on, the majority of the day was fitting the new backlights into the back of the trailer (the stupid stuff finally arrived) and they work at last. Yay. And unscrewing the woodwork of the gate so we could fit them together and add a solid two inch piece of wood between it. The heat shrunk it all rather severely, needing that thick a piece to fix the slits between them. Got half done, the other half is still waiting.

Oh yeah, for the past few days, I have been joining in on a romance forum at Amazon…or I have been lurking more or less, where a reader asked if the rather graphic (porn-like) novel she just read was the norm of this day and age. Apparently, she hadn’t read a romance novel in a few decades, so she’d come out shocked afterwards. I can’t say I’m surprised, really. Thinking back of how the romances used to be, and how the majority is now…well, it would be a tad TMY, I’m thinking. I remember it well, when I first graduated to the more graphic style: Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie, Linda Howard (some of my favorites). Seriously, the first time I read the last two I was reading with red ears and bug-eyes.

Now, I read, write and talk about the issue with nigh any trouble at all. It is like talking about last week’s football game (figure of speech) and that’s a big shame, I think. It has made something that should be special and wonderful (in real life and in romance novels) into something extremely average. I think we are seriously missing out on that special something if there is not some sort of change in the near future.

Because, let’s face it, by now I have become a tad immune for the whole thing. I barely notice it anymore and just skip to the pages. That is part of the problem, I think. Folks enjoy a little spice in their reading, as much as in their food. But like salt/pepper, or a painkiller for that matter, when you take too much of it, you become un-sensitized, so to speak. The more you add this particular ingredient the less likely you are to fully appreciate it. In fact, this appears to be the main source why “love scenes” are becoming so extreme. He needs to pound just a little harder, faster, she needs to writhe and gasp just a bit better. Instead of one, two or three orgasms, she needs six, and he needs to last through the night instead of a solid hour. A pity really. This way, it’ll never be enough, and the stories will need to be more extravagant in order to continue to astound. I miss those scenes where H/h meet the love of their life and consummate their commitment to each other by an act that (should) bring two people as close to one as is possible for us humans. *sigh* Color me sappy and old-fashioned, I don’t mind. Life is brutally realistic enough for me not to want to wreck fiction with it.

Well, enough philosophizing for now. I could yap on about it for days, considering this is a favorite subject of my talk group. Hah.
Which brings us to today: It’s fully cloudy, yay. I just spent the morning…oh, that reminds me. I had to get up a couple of hours early because mom and the younger sibs got stuck on the way up the drive sweep. Apparently the Land Rover refused to go up, so big brother and I had to head up there (I called him too, he knows more about low gear than I after all) in our pjs and get the car up. The trailer made it a little harder.

It took some gymnastics I’ll have you know. First I had to get in at the passenger side, sidle over the gearshift with one leg and take over the brake from mom (the drive sweep is at a 45 or so degree, you know, so the hand break had a bit of trouble). Then she had to slide out, big brother back in and take over before my leg totally cramped up from pushing at the pedal with the tips of my toes.

Suffice it to say, a few minutes later mom and the sibs could leave after all. Big brother and I debated just starting our day, but then decided to just catch another 60 z’s before tackling Sunday.
The dogs didn’t know what the heck was going on. They don’t like it when their usual schedule is disrupted and they were looking at me balefully when I returned and flopped face-down on the bed to promptly drop off to sleep.
Strange dreams, by the way. I had bought some sort of ancient mansion, and much to my delight it was still fully furnished with ancient furniture that I absolutely love. I was just about to start rearranging everything when the friggin’ alarm woke me up, darn it!

Time to get up, even though there were several voices in my head screaming for me to sleep the day away instead, do some laundry and then head down to the basin to plaster the biggest wall. It took me two solid hours, considering big brother couldn’t help. He did something with his wrist the other day, and he hasn’t been able to use it properly since. Still haven’t figured out what, by the way.
It went well though. I’m getting a hang of it again and that is always a plus. Considering the clouds were out (23 degrees, remember?) it was bliss, really. I had wanted to start again after the blog, but the sun is peeking through again, so we might resort to continuing with the gate instead.

Oops!

Song of the day: “Relax” by Frankie goes to Hollywood…at least I think that’s what the band’s called. I don’t have a clue why this one is in my head, seeing as I don’t even like it, but there you have it. Blaring in my brain, over and over, driving me friggin’ bonkers.

Hit 70 pages for the manuscript, yay. Coming along nicely, I should say, though if I hadn’t needed to go out every single day I might have been able to get more done, since I would have been able to keep my eyes open in the evening, aaargh.

So let’s do this fast, big brother is waiting impatiently for me to do this blog thing. I had a little accident last night at my place. We were talking in the middle of the living room, it was right before saying goodnight, when something underneath my floor said: “SNAP!” while both big brother and I were jostled about.

Turns out…after we broke the floor open and looked through the mess beneath, that two of the concrete support beams had come loose and went down a solid two inches on the right side of the cabin.
Considering we’ve only propped two up so far with the car jack propped underneath and then wedging solid concrete blocks underneath that should survive a nuclear holocaust. Hah.

Only one more block to go, and then it is putting the wooden floor back in. My dogs have been seriously freaked out about the missing floor by the way. Knight II has been possessively stretched out on the last remaining three feet that didn’t need to come out, while the rest is looking forlorn as if asking me, “Boss, seriously, where are we supposed to sleep tonight?” Poor darlings.

Yesterday, another scorcher, much like today is going to be, in case you’re wondering, was spent digging part of the ditch that will serve as waterway in the near future. It ain’t funny work in high summer, but it’s gotta be done before rainy season. Since it was so hot, I also had to take tenant to the pool so she could cool off a little…which I should do before resuming with the floor, ‘cause the poor woman is heating up to match the outside temperature fast.

Well, I’ve got a floor to fix, a pool to dive into, maybe have something other than brunch in the near future, plants to water and maybe, by the time the evening drops in, I might actually get some more writing done. It would be awesome.

Gotta go.

First time.

Song of the day: “Grace Kelly” by Mika. I’ve definitely had this one many, many times before, but since it is a great song, who gives a fig? I sure don’t.

Writing wise, I really have nothing interesting to tell today. I’ve hardly had time to fire up my computer, let alone start typing a scene for the present project going on. Darn it.
I’ve been suffering withdrawal symptoms, I assure you. Hah.

But anyways, let’s get to the interesting part: First day on the job…aaaaargh.
Hah.
Seriously though, it wasn’t too bad. Yep, it took an eternity, but since I had sort of anticipated as much, this wasn’t unexpected. What should have lasted about six hours, took me nine, plus another three the next day. Yeah, yeah. I never claimed I was the smartest of the litter.

I was all set to leave at four, seeing as I needed to go past the insurance and car sales man…right until my main distributor called and told me he was running two hours behind. Darn it. There I was, clean and without too much dog hair, and I had two hours to kill. In the end big brother and I decided to make use of the lapse, and did some editing.

In the scorching heat of August (yep, really summer now) I headed down the mountain and met the distributor at the mall. Apparently something had gone wrong at his supplier, cause they had given him packets of 40, rather than 20, so within no time at all the back of the car was filled about halfway through. The “misunderstanding” started there, FYI. I’ll explain later.

So it started out fine, got the first three down pat, at which point I came to this maze of streets where I literally took more than an hour to locate the four small businesses. Seriously, there were times when I was just standing there in the middle of the road needing to orient myself by the scent of the see, just because I was unable to see it over the houses that were everywhere.

But I persevered, got in and out unscathed in the end, and had another string of good hits before I got confused in memories, again, in yet another urbanization/golf course…seriously, the coast is one big chain link of golf courses and clubs. It’s insane!…where I had to go up and down for the six locations scattered throughout the area.

Now don’t worry about me going into detail every single stop I made. I met some nice folks, tired folks (near closing time, you know), grumpy folks and folks who were flying higher than a kite. At some point I came into a bar where I was supposed to place a stack and the owner was lounging about on a couch, looking seriously “outta-there”, hah. Luckily he was the friendly type, not entirely sure what I was doing there, I think. When I finally got through the haze and explained, he was nodding “wisely” and asked “What’s an angel like you doing out this late on a night like this?” Gawd, cracked me up, he did.
I assured him that it was just because I was running behind and doubled outta there.

The thing I discovered during my “route” is that people are apparently unused to smiling. I tend to do a lot of it, seeing as I know that a smile is reassuring when you meet a stranger. Seriously, some would actually do a double take when I’d just come up and ask if I can put a stack somewhere. I’d smile at them, and half the time I’d get a reluctant one in return. (Maybe it’s my smile. It might just freak people out. Hah) But anyway, at about three fourth of the way, I started to wonder about the rather massive pile that is still in the back of my car. Seriously, there were at least 60 stacks piled there, at which point it began to occur to me that the distributor expected me keep to the old count (as in stacks of 40 instead of stacks of 20) rather than just splitting the big packs in half. I know, I should have specifically asked, but I assumed that he would want me to keep to the list. Showed me what assuming does, doesn’t it?

But anyway, after being unable to locate three of the drop points, I arrive home at four in the morning, more than ready to hit the sheets and pass out for the night…did exactly that, too, right after popping a pain pill. A pre-emptive strike on my part. I learned from the last time, and my foot already felt like it was four sizes too big (sore like heck too) by the time I managed to peel my shoes off. It wasn’t funny, I tell ya, and my dogs were looking at me oddly during my noisy “ouchouchouchouch!” Poor darlings. All alone for nine hours. Thankfully one of the sibs had already put them in my cabin, ‘cause I still had to do about ten location in town before noon.

Half an hour before my alarm went off, I woke up from a dead sleep because I had to pee like mad. I don’t know why I would sleep through that last half hour too, but what the heck. I stumbled through my morning rituals, got dressed and hopped in the car (big brother went with me this time due to difficult parking in town. Good big brother! Hah) to deliver papers before noon. Managed it too, hah, and then spent another two hours in the small car to round up a few more locations. Sorta like a make up thing for misunderstanding the plan, I guess. Finally managed to get eighteen extra drop points, and even if only 3 or 4 of those pan out, it think it’s a fair exchange.

The extra part for the Matiz hasn’t arrived yet either, so either the car sales type is lying his pants off, or suffering from a multiple personality disorder (he keeps referring to his partner Ray, who hasn’t turned up as of yet though it has been promised). Whichever is the case, I’m still curious if this postponing part is a trick, or something.

The day ended (it was another scorcher, hitting the forties) with a wonderful couple of hours in the yard, watering plants and gathering whatever was ripe. I wrote a bit on paper throughout, dozed off for five, or ten minutes, and then we went inside where big brother helped me update the list for “work”. Afterwards I sent it to the distributor, at which time I could finally head to bed at two in the morning…just five hours before I had to leave again to pick up our friend in Marbella, aaargh.
I swear, there are days when I would love nothing more than an excuse to stay home for a solid two weeks without any trips whatsoever.

Well, my poor doggies are waiting for attention. I really should do something about the small carport I’m building for the Matiz. Then I’m heading down to the yard, which should relax me a little at least, after which I can finally settle down for the day, and do some writing. Yay.

Quicky!

Song of the day: “Alone” by Heart, I think. I mean seriously, I’ve known the song for years, and yet until a couple of years ago I never even heard of the band. Hah.

Well, I’m keeping this very short today. I’ve got to go to work in a few hours (you know, the glorified paper route, hah) and I really should try to add a page or two to the book. We hit the 65 pages mark by the way, so yay!

At the moment I am making a small carport for the Matiz, so I’ve been doing some serious digging, concrete pouring and wood work, while big brother and grandpa are working on the watering system. Since that should be ready before the raining season, we decided to get started on it.

There was some weeding, harvesting and cooking on my part, a dip in the pool, because, let’s face it, it was friggin’ hot yesterday. Gawd, I was dripping and got sunburned, darn it.
This morning I washed the car, took out the back seats and cleaned it a little on the inside for later on when I need to go…and I’m leaving it at this, lest I end up writing a full blog anyway.

I’ll be back tomorrow, I hope, and let you know how things went…or not. We’ll see. Hah.