Just another Saturday.

Eduard’s new bike.

Friday evening, 6:30 PM. Eduard brought home a Super Woofer and two good speakers this afternoon and just hooked them up for me to the computer instead of the two little tinny speakers that were there. Then I turned on the Deezer soundtrack to my blog…

WOW!!!

WHAT IS THIS???

What is this beautiful sound coming out of my computer suddenly? I have been listening to this music all this time and I didn’t even know how terrific it was! I am hearing all sorts of sound effects that I didn’t even know were there and the acoustics! My God! Am I a lucky girl, or what?

Of course, Eduard wanted to turn on the 6 o’clock news, but I won’t let him, because I can’t stop listening to this wonderful music that is surrounding me and filling my head. What a shame that I have been so used to listening to music on those two pathetic little speakers all this time and thought that was good enough. I didn’t even know what real music sounded like! Go out and buy a good sound system for your computer, people, you will love yourself for it! I must admit that I have the bass turned up a little bit extra, but I love the sound and feel of that, as if it is an extra heart beat in and outside your body.

Well, goodness, I finally entered the 21st century. Hooray!

We took Jesker to the vet today and the vet could see for himself how well Jesker was doing with his osteoarthritis, so he gave him another 2 month supply of medication since it seems to work so well on him. We are very happy about that. What we are less happy about, is that he has what is hopefully a benign growth on one of the toes on his left front paw. If it doesn’t get better, or if it grows any bigger, he will need surgery on it. The vet gave us some spray that we have to apply to the growth constantly, as this will prevent Jesker from licking it and stimulating the growth. We should see it get less bright red and more pinkish and then hopefully shrink in size. If he has to have surgery, he probably is going to lose that toe.

So, that was not good news. We can’t have Jesker without all of his toes, after all. The poor guy. He was trembling when we were first in the examining room, but I told Eduard to just let him off the leash and that was much better. Jesker is pretty good about letting the vet examine him and the vet is a cool and relaxed guy who explains everything very calmly. Jesker is in good hands and so is our money.

Market Stall Pants.

I went to my first appointment with my physiotherapist this morning and she discovered that besides the bad discs in my lower back, I also have some bad discs halfway up my back, which come to think of later, I had been aware of but ignored. She wondered if I had been in an accident, but I told her as far as my memory allowed, I had not been. She worked my back some and had me do some exercises with her and when I left there, I really did feel better, but I have been feeling the pain in the middle of my back for the rest of the day.

I am not to vacuum or do any of those other kinds of jobs that require bending over and making repetitive movements like that. So, I said, “What, no sex?” No, I really didn’t! I have to take it easy for a while and be careful and do exercises every day and have therapy twice a week.

The not so nice surprise is, that our health insurance no longer has physiotherapy in its package, so we have to pay for it ourselves. It’s a real tragedy. Since we don’t have socialized medicine anymore and all the insurance is privatized, we pay three times the amount of insurance fees for less services. The country is going to the dogs. My sister and brother in law have already offered to pay for half the charges for the therapist, so I thought that was a pretty decent thing of them to do. That was my brother in law’s idea, so I owe him one.

Eduard and I had a wonderful cuddle moment in the afternoon, after which I fell asleep and I probably needed that, because I had been up since the wee hours. I can highly recommend cuddle moments in the afternoon, they are perfect as a prelude to a nap and I have to remember that tomorrow afternoon is Eduard’s afternoon off, so I have to seize the day when I can, strike the iron while it is hot, sort to say.

I will now be a good girl and turn the music down a bit and then turn it off completely so Eduard can watch the eight o’clock news. Talk at you later.

Market Stall Fabrics 2

Some time around midnight. I have been falling asleep on the sofa all evening, so now I am temporarily awake for awhile, although it may all be a trick of my body and before you know it I will be asleep behind the keyboard. I will depart very hastily if I feel that happening.

The physiotherapist taught me a neat trick to make sure I don’t start tipping over. She said just to make sure that I am sitting on both buns and not just on my right one. Easy as pie right? Except that I constantly catch myself just sitting on that one, so I have to push the weight down on the other one too and then I am fine. It’s called equal bun time, it’s like equal opportunity time… No, it’s not!

I am listening to my excellent quality sound music as I write this and I have to make some regular coffee, because I am yawning something awful. Other people would go to bed now, but not me, no sir, the music is too good. ..

Some hours later. Well, I did the smart thing and laid down on the sofa and slept for a few more hours.

And then I subsequently sit here for half an hour and wonder what I am going to write about. It isn’t that all kinds of thoughts aren’t going through my head, I just don’t know how to broach them and if I should.

Like the thought that my husband is going to spend the afternoon away from home and that I am not to talk about it, because that is the deal we made and that is the way it is going to work for us, especially me. That doesn’t mean that I let him go easily and that I am not curious about what he does and that I don’t want to know all the tiny details, even if it is better for me if I don’t and for all I know he is going to make a grand tour of the countryside or hang out with his art buddies in their big studio helping them with their big project.

The thing to keep in mind is that it is his afternoon in which he does what he wants, without having to explain himself to anyone, including, but most importantly, me. That could include seeing the other woman, but doesn’t necessarily have to be so.

He needs this afternoon in order not to feel suffocated by me and all his othe
r responsibilities, because he feels he carries a lot of those , out of proportion, on his back. When you are a rescuing knight in armor on your trusty steed, that will happen to you. It is called burn out. A burn out gets bloody hot when you wear armor all the time.

First and foremost I need to stop being a damsel in distress, I need to stop needing rescuing, because Eduard has a tendency to rescue me at the slightest possibility of danger. He rescues me before I need to be rescued. So, I need to make very clear that I need not be rescued any longer, although the age of chivalry is not dead, but that is something else altogether.

Eduard has a tendency to micro manage our lives, that includes my life, and he needs to stop taking on the responsibility over mine and keeping track of what I am supposed to do in my life. He doesn’t trust me enough to hand over the reigns when it comes to that. Imagine trying to keep track of two lives and the other one is a grown up also. That’s like taking care of a recalcitrant teenager. You won’t get the appreciation you think you deserve and you will get a lot of stress. You can’t micro manage the life of another adult.

You have to picture Eduard going through his whole life as this knight in armor on his trusty steed and rescuing people out of all sorts of situations. How tiresome that must be. How ultimately stressful, and being very responsible on top of that and trustworthy. I would get me a can opener and get me out of that suit of armor very quickly and make my escape on my trusty steed.

The problem is that he will run straight into a new situation where he will be a rescuing knight again, well he already has. People adore rescuing knights. Poetic odes are written to them and people look at them through the eyes of romantic love and the knight is flattered and repeats his performance only to be caught in the same trap again.

The knight needs to stay at home in his own castle and stop going out seeking battles to win with imaginary dragons and other villains and he needs to stop looking for damsels in distress and lesser men who can’t perform the deeds as well as he can. He needs to stop conquering the world like Don Quichotte did. Did you know that that was the first nick name this damsel in distress gave the knight in armor? Don Quichotte?

Anyway, this is not a mud puddle and you may not lie down in it so I may step on your body to cross it. That’s an order, Don Quichotte! And that is not a burning house in which I am trapped out of which you are going to rescue me at the risk of your own life! I will tie the bed sheets together and climb out the second story window. I am not a helpless female and you are not an all powerful male rescuer dragon slayer. Let’s get that bit of crookedness out of the way.

Oh, there you are, my audience! I almost forgot you were here. Ahum…had myself a little rant there. We do get carried away, don’t we? Time for a picture.

The Meusse.

Writer’s block? Never had any problems with it! That’s because no subject is sacred. In the Netherlands we have the saying, “Kicking against sacred houses.” That means there are no holy or social subjects that are taboo to talk about and that everything should be dragged out of the closet for open examination by daylight. There should be no things that can not bear the light of day. That’s probably why other nations see us as such liberals, only the Scandinavians equal or surpass us in this.

It’s actually early in the morning now and proof of that is the fact that I am wide awake and the sound of the birds I hear outside. They sing their bright little cheerful songs, oblivious of the dangerous cats that live here. I think along with a wake up lamp, people should hear the sound of bird song in the morning, because it does cheer you up. Not the sound of a bird as it is being dragged down by a ferocious cat, please!

I am going to end this epistle. In the end I didn’t really have that much to say, except for the Don Quichotte part, that was rather bright, wasn’t it? Inspired, it was.

The weather here is going to be wonderful this weekend. Possibly as warm as 20 degrees Celsius. There will be a lot of motorcycle riders out today. Yes. Well. I did tell you that the other woman rides her own motorcycle, didn’t I?

I wish you a super nice Saturday. I know for those of you who work full time that this is an important day at home, so I hope you can make the best of it. For those of you on the road, drive carefully and get to your destination safely, please.

Ciao…

P.S. I got this award for free from Jules at Just Because…
She was having a party and handing out these awards gratis and, as is obvious, I hand this one out gratis to anyone who wants it too, so go ahead and take it, go on then, you know you want to!