Ever felt you wanted to rewind the day and start again...?
Off I went to bed at about 3.30 am yesterday, to find my waterball off and the carpet on my side sodden. Half-awake-Ken tells me he woke about 1.30 with the horrible noise the pump was making, to find that the wind (which was pretty gusty last night, and of course our windows are open) had blown the curtain over the top of the ball and the fabric had acted as a wick, draining all the water onto the floor - so he'd switched it off... Thanks for letting me know, mate! [growl] So I had no water-sound last night, hence sleep was not as restful as I'd hoped.
Came down yawning to check email after dragging myself out of bed around 10.30, and nearly had a heart attack. Could I have the Dream book mss ready by the middle of September, or if that was too soon, how about mid-October? As Lutra would say, "...kin' what!?" Been fiddlefarting about with this since April, for gods' sakes, not the actual book, that was decided waaaay back, but whether they were going to commission me to write it. Mid-October would give me three months to write 60K words of a book I've planned to be the definitive (current) work on the subject. With my hands. Over Kai's summer holiday. With Ken going down to Dartmouth for a week in September to research/promote the ghosts and legends book. And I haven't even seen the contract yet!
The language here was very interesting at that point. Probably just as well Kai was at school.
So I did what any sensible author would do and emailed a rant to our agent...
Literary agents get a lot of bad press, but ours has always been great, and today was no exception. She rang just as I got home from collecting sprog to say she'd had words - the upshot being that the deadline has been extended 'til December, except for the two sample spreads which they need by the 28th July, which isn't a problem. So that's OK. I'm now waiting for confirmation of the new deadline. And the contract.
As of mid-July Wednesday is our new dustbin day: we had a flyer stuck to the bin a couple of months back advising us to leave the bin - and the recycling black box - inside our property boundary (I assume they've had complaints about the bins taking up all the pavement space, I know it annoys me!). So we did, unlike many of the others in the street. Last week they didn't empty our black box: today they didn't empty either our black box OR our wheeliebin. Ken's complained: they're supposed to be sending someone to collect the rubbish, though as of tonight both bin and box were still full. Well, when I say full, our bin is only ever full at Yule: we recycle everything we can anyway. Bloody annoying...
And Trading Standards rang re: the fridge-freezer. We can't demand a refund, since we accepted a replacement in the first instance. (We only accepted the replacement because we were told we couldn't demand a refund. Logic? What logic?) We have to contact Hoover-Candy and put our case to them - and see if they're prepared to extend the warranty, given the problems we're having. If not, we could ask for another replacement. Whatever happens, we're stuck with f***ing Hoover-Candy until we can afford a new appliance. You can probably imagine how pissed off I am. More as it transpires.
My computer was hijacked again this evening, so I've started a drawing of Lellai (was Leteetza). The same thing is going to happen tomorrow evening too, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the picture then.
And just to finish the day off nicely... We sprayed Quyn with Frontline flea repellent a few days ago, covering as much of him as we could (not easy because of his fur, but he's allergic to flea bites and it looks as though the cats have managed to catch some). It seems to have worked on his body, but his back legs... [wince] my poor pup. He's nibbled his ankles and thighs raw (literally in a couple of places, the skin's off and the wounds weeping). I've spent a couple of hours this evening bathing the raw patches with salt water, then smothered them with honey - soothing, antiseptic, anti-bacterial and promotes the growth of new skin, all we normally need in the way of skin medication - and have tried to cover it all up as best I can, with bandages and a pair of socks, but as anyone who's ever tried to stop a dog getting at injuries will know, that's only of use if you can keep the animal from pulling them off... Well, so far so good, it seems to have soothed the irritation, but in order to make sure he doesn't make it worse I'll have to stay up with him all night (again).
Ken has said to wake him when I can't stay awake any longer and he'll take over, then wake me again when he takes Kai to school so I can ring the vet and get Quyn round there as soon as possible. If they can loan us one of those cone things that go round a dog's neck to stop them biting themselves I can probably handle the rest. Then it's a matter of getting the Frontline spot-on treatment for the cats, and for Quyn for when the spray has worn off. Frontline used to last three months per treatment, but that obviously wasn't making the manufacturers enough money: the treatments now only last one month. And last time I checked a three month supply for one cat was around £20, and a bit more than that for one dog. We've been very lucky the last few years, and only needed to treat the pets in the summer - I don't believe in a) treating the animals unnecessarily, I'm sure it makes the fleas resistant to the stuff, or b) adding anything more to the manufacturer's coffers than I absolutely have to - but all the same, with three cats that's a huge chunk out of the household budget.
My apologies to anyone who's now itching! If it's any consolation, cat fleas may bite humans - and dogs - but they don't actually live on anything but cats. Or so I've been assured by the vet. And we vacuum thoroughly every couple of days, which keeps the house itself free of the little buggers. (Personally I hate them, and would have no objection whatsoever to 'science' eradicating them completely...)
It's 12.15. Only six and a quarter hours before I can wake Ken. Wonder how much I can get done in that time?