What was your day like?

[mystic]

Usual day of work, and then I finally got something almost acceptable with the orchestra. So I decided to upload the recording to youtube. It's neither Brahms nor Strauss, but I still like it. You can check it and have some fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vB-Ghbvn4

[crisipicada]

Yesterday, I went home to see my mother since I am quite worried why she was not able to go to Valencia City proper to have check up. I thought she is just trying to hide something why she will not go to the doctor. I am quite worried then, so I took motorcycle to go home and I am happy i was safely go home and there were only three motorcycle for hire going home. I arrive home very dark and it was raining. I get wet along the highway to the barrio and I need to change clothes then or else I might get sick again. I did not eat my supper last night and go to bed early since I need to go back again to work. I am so sad this morning that the road is so rough road and a lot of water and my clothes got dirty. That is why I need to rent and stay still in the apartment. I was really planning to move back to the barrio as soon as I will be totally healthy but since I found out how hard to go back and fort to the barrio everyday, it wont make me healthy but make me stress. I am quite late this morning because I was waiting for a motorcycle. Usually they wont go to valencia city proper if only one passenger so I need to wait for someone to ride to. That makes me hard to travel to valencia City proper to go to work. But am thankful that GOd is good for the safety everyday

[Edwin]

Crisi, I am sorry about your stress and your worry about your mother. That is a real concern why she did not go to see the doctor. I am sorry you had to wait for a motorcycle, and I am thankful you were safe in your travels. I am sorry you got wet and dirty, and that is a trial for you. I hope and pray that God will keep supplying your needs so that you can stay in your apartment and be healthier and happier!

Today Carol could not breathe well for some reason, and her chest bothered her. She worries about her heart, her breathing, her health generally, and she it tired much of the time, and she has to sleep more than any human should have to. She doesn't know why, but she just does not have a good day unless she sleeps until she feels she has had enough sleep. Sometimes she sleeps all night and then much of the day as well. On rare occasions she will sleep very little during the day, but usually she needs lots of sleep and rest in order to function. She couldn't get her breathing going right, so she didn't get up at all until almost noon. My son-in-law was ready to go to work before I had breakfast, so I didn't get breakfast at all this morning, but I was fine. It was kind of funny because when we ate lunch, Carol wanted me to know that she didn't eat either. She didn't want me to think that she was up in the house eating while I was working without breakfast! I am mixing the mortor, and my son-in-law is laying the blocks. He is working really hard at it, and he has had to make lots of corrections because he really doesn't know what he is doing, but it is turning out okay, and I am happy just to have him help me. He is not able to sling the mud on the blocks like a good block layer can do, and that bothers him, but it is okay anyway. We have 3 layers of blocks all the way around the cellar now! Including the footing/foundation the wall is almost 3 feet now. We have several things going, the cellar wall, my bathroom remodeling, water plumbing through the entire house, insulating in areas under the house, putting in a water resevoir for excess run off water, and I am going to try to put blocks all the way around the house instead of the metal skirting that is there now. I feel almost overwhelmed, but I doesn't all have to be done at once, so I can do one thing at a time, and it will get done!

[crisipicada]

Basic Life Support Training at Valencia City Fire Station.

[crisipicada]

Some photos

[Edwin]

Thank you for the pictures, Crisi! That reminded me of many of those classes that I took, as they were required while I was driving buses. I drove anywhere from 14 to about 60 passenger buses on a very narrow mountain road, where 2 vehicles could not meet and go by each other. We had to constantly watch for cars and wide places in the road where we could pull over. I had some people who were scared on the road, and almost forced me on the shoulder of the road next to the lake. I wasn't afraid because I knew where my wheels were all the time, but I scared some of my passengers to death. One woman told me how scared she was, and told me that she had not been on a bus ride like that since she was in South America! It wasn't funny to her, but we both laughed. Most people have a good sense of humor.

[Edwin]

My son-in-law told me that I should finish my digging of the cellar by the first of August. It was an unbelieveably hard job. You just can't imagine how hard it was unless you were here taking a turn with me digging, and that is what I needed was someone to help me, but the job was so hard that I was not going to ask anyone to do it or help me. My son-in-law has bad, weak shoulders, so I was not going to ask him to help me. I am a lot older than any of them, but I am strong, healthy, and in good physical condition. I am so thankful that the Lord allowed me the strength to do that job and kept me for injuring myself/my body! I actually worked the hardest and did the most, as well as working for the longest period of time this summer. I dedicated myself to the job, except for Sunday's, and I am proud to say that I did not work even one Sunday! Anyway I was finished August 7th with my digging. I made a deal with my son-in-law to have him figure the construction part of it, and I told him that I would be right there to help him with his plans. I think he is a naturally born procrastinator, because he didn't act anxious to get the job done until now it is freezing at night, so he got really excited to try to get it done. But he worked on it too hard a couple of days, and boy has he been paying with sore muscles and joints! We will get it done, and my other son-in-law and daughter are coming tomorrow to help for a couple of days, which will be a really big help! I don't know how much we will get done, but he has worked on construction jobs laying blocks before, so he know how it is done, and my other son-in-law nor I had ever laid a block in our lives. We will survive and we will get it finished though! I have that confidence!

[Edwin]

I am quite confident that I could have done the block laying myself, and it would not have been nearly as hard as the digging that I did! But I agreed to allow my son-in-law to take the lead and I would help him, so I am mixing mortor for him, handing him tools, cleaning tools, and generally supporting him.

For the last few days I have been mixing concrete and pouring the concrete in every third block hole, with rebar in it. That doesn't mean every third concrete block, but every third hole, which forms columns all the way to the bottom, only I am putting rebar in and pouring concrete every third or fourth layer of blocks, and that part is not critical, just how ever it turns out. I also finished a drain field for the cellar/mini basement in case it ever floods, which it shouldn't, and I don't expect we will ever have water on the floor, but you never know, so it is there. I already had this space dug, so my son-in-law thought it would be a good idea, and I agreed with him. I put rocks over that, and cardboard over the rocks, and now I am fill that hole/ditch wih dirt, and it is huge, but the dirt is just above it, so it is easier to fill it in that it was to dig it out! I am also filling dirt in between the block wall and the dirt wall that I dug a little larger than needed by just a few inches, so I am filling that in with dirt. As I cut the dirt off the bank I am collecting rocks a little smaller than my fist to go in the concrete block holes, mixed in with the concrete that I am pouring to make it go further. I had no idea and my son-in-law said that he didn't either, how much concrete those holes would hold! I thought I might have trouble getting my jobs done fast enough, but my son-in-law got too tired and too sore, so we have a slow down, and I am catching up with what I need to do. I am also going to lay blocks all around our house in the place of skirting. I think it will look nice, and it will keep the weather; cold and cold wind out better than the metal roofing skirting that I have on now with lots of cracks and holes that let lots of cold air in, in the winter. Then on my birthday, December 2nd, our kids are coming to help me put my bathroom back together as a birthday present for me. If I have not done it already I will be putting concrete blocks around our house fast and furious by that time!

[mystic]

Passed the day fighting against spammers and read another portion of Caro's Maggid Mesharim.

Yesterday I drove the motorbike back home under a so thick rain that I never saw before. The clothes are still drying It seems that something like a typhoon hit us In the next days temperatures are supposed to drop by 10°, so we will reach around 0° Celsius. So, I hope I won't find ice or snow on Monday, since I have to drive to the other town for work. Ohhhh, and tonight the time changes. We use daylight saving. I have to check, I don't remember whether it will be one hour later or sooner.

What else.... missing somebody.

[Edwin]

Our daylight savings ends November 4th, and we set the clocks back one hour, gaining an hour, getting sleep in one hour later! We like to sleep that extra hour, but it gets dark even earlier in the afternoon because of that! There is nothing much more miserable than getting wet and then getting cold!

Normally not matter what I have going on I walk the doggies, either first thing in the morning so that I will be available to work with my son-in-law in the early evening, or early evening otherwise. Yesterday I didn't walk because it was raining. I worked out in it, but I was right here, so if I got too wet and miserable I could come in the house, but if I am 2 miles away with the doggies, I can get pretty wet before I can get back to the house. I didn't walk today because I wanted to pour concrete and backfill behind the block wall with dirt because the kids are going to help work on that wall for the next couple of days, and I didn't want to slow them up by not having my part completed. I poured concrete the first half of the day, and then I backfilled with dirt the last half, in fact I finished up in the dark! It rained the hardest while I ate my lunch, so that worked out just right!