…and it’s not yet 8:30.
Rolled out at the usual time for summer solstice, just as the sky was getting good and light. Wanted coffee and a quick breakfast but I’d kept that half-loaf of bread a day too long. Feed moldy bread to the chickens while the coffee brews. Give LB his walkie, but we’re cutting it short this morning because we’ve got a lot to do and I’m wearing sandals for the weekend to let this little patch of heat rash heal. We’re not going into the brush in sandals. And anyway we need to get on the road ASAP.
S&L are gone, leaving me in charge of Ghost. But since he can’t get in and out of the Jeep anymore and has made his opinion of me and the Lair quite apparent, we’re trying something new: I’m going over there three times a day to feed him and give him walkies. He doesn’t trust me when I call on him to come outside, he knows he’s been left again and assumes I’m trying to trap him into the Jeep. But I thought he was getting outside to do his chores enough. This morning at quarter to six I learned how very wrong I’d been about that. Ah, swell. Continence issues. Damn, that dog is getting old fast.
Okay, this is a great big house and it’s spotless – I just know that somewhere around here L has an entire floor-cleaning infrastructure, right? And it’s probably got its own well-stocked closet. Somewhere. So now I’m wandering around these folks’ house, something I’m extremely reluctant to do, looking for the closet or corner with a bunch of cleaning stuff. Turned one corner … you know that scene where Igor is stealing Hans Delbruck’s brain and gets scared by his own reflection in an unexpected mirror? Yeah. Except for the part with the brain, that happened.
Yup. Just turn a corner in somebody else’s darkened house, and there’s a guy with a flashlight. Boy, that mirror was clean.
Finally found the mop and bucket, cleaned up Ghost’s offering, fed him, aspirined him, went outside, (he didn’t want a walky, and why should he? He’d already dealt with his problem) cleaned out the bucket and watered the plants. Stopped at Landlady’s to feed chickens on the way back to the Lair. Yesterday we had a problem at Landlady’s: I went into the powershed to get the egg basket and the batteries were going nuts, boiling themselves dry. I checked to see if they were on an equalization charge, they’ll boil a lot while that’s happening, but this was way beyond that and had been going on for quite some time. I just topped them off eight days before but they were half-empty and had made a mess on the floor. Some problem with the charge controller, I presume but don’t know. So, since Landlady wasn’t around anyway, I shut everything down and sent a text to S. Of course, as previously mentioned, S is on the road. So maybe that’ll get diagnosed before her next visit. If not, at least the batteries should be good and charged, right? Fed the chickens, filled the waterer, loaded up the empty water bottle and headed home to find that my chickens had shit all over their own waterer – It’s now like 6:30 in the frickin’ AM and my day is going rapidly to hell, and I haven’t even really accomplished anything.
Scrub out the waterer at the laundry table. This reminds me that I forgot to put my concrete-pouring clothes out to soak yesterday so I do that. Wash up and get the yeast to proving for bread before it gets hot – except that now my stomach and blood sugar level remind me I haven’t had breakfast. So I’ve got three things going on and now I need a fourth. I’ve got nothing to make toast with. What can I eat quick?
Oh, what the hell? I already had hot water…
Breakfast of Champions
So a quick breakfast of delicious 40-year-old beans and franks, then start to make dough and remember my flour bucket is almost empty. Meant to haul in the full one from the pantry.
Guess who’s been pissing all over my food buckets again? Get the dough made, knead it out, put it in the oven to rise, then go out and scrub the bucket lids…
So now it’s quarter to nine, my morning chores are caught up, I’ve got bread about ready to go into the oven…
My stomach’s full, my concrete-spattered BDUs are soaking (two days late,) I need to fill a flour bucket right after I wash this enormous pile of dishes from last night and this morning’s breadmaking – there’s a pot of water heating on the stove for that as I type this…
…and I could really use a second cuppa.
Ah! The simple life!
You write a damned good blog. Honest to God, you should try your hand at writing one of those books like Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire.” Stick in on Amazon as a digital novel and then get one published in hard back. I’m not kidding you, I think you could do it.
And then I could say ” I knew him before he was rich and famous.” 😉
Actually I wrote one. Called it “You Never Completely Lose,” and then found I couldn’t epublish it because it’s loaded with photos and the file is much too big. I have been thinking of a publishable revision: It’s got a great cover, if nothing else. Trouble is I’ve been blogging so long now I write in terms of photographs.
Oh Joel… It’s the little things that get us. I sympathize with you on the animal incontinence thing, been there had to clean that… BTW the bread looks great.
I suspect that Landlady’s batteries have been overcharging for a while, and that is related to the apparent terminal leakage you blogged about. But now the problem has gotten worse and made itself apparent.
Found your blog through Harry Flashman and I’ll be adding you to my blogroll.
I appreciate it. Reciprocated.