
Last night it started to rain at around 20h00. We really needed it to rain, everything is so dry and dusty, plus we have not been watering the garden like we used to and it is really dead and ugly. The cost of water and electricity has just sky rocketed. Our gardener also hoses down all the paving, instead of sweeping, which I have stopped him from doing, because of the cost of water, so you can just imagine how dusty everything has been. Our water & electricity with rates and sewerage is between R3500.00 and R3900.00 a month, which is ridiculous considering that statistics show that the average South African earns less than R4000.00 a month, so how do they cope paying water & lights every month. We have now decided to cut down on water and electricity consumption to the detriment of the garden and my sinuses. The garden is really looking shabby, especially the area where Spike and Miss Piggy play every day, there is no grass left. The worst is we do not have lawn, we have grass, yucky veld grass, that I wish we could dig up and lay proper lawn. Over the years we have bought new lawn and planted it in areas that really needed it, but with all the trees, most of it just died. This picture of Spike with his toy indicates just how terrible the garden is looking.
Well the rain got off to a good start, fresh and welcoming, but with the rain came the lightning and thunder and the animals do not enjoy storms. Miss Piggy and Spike don't even notice it, but Garfield, Pluto and Jingles absolutely hate it, especially Jingles, she shivers and shakes and huddles under the blankets, trying to get under me. I think with them it is more of a "learned" habit, that they are so scared of storms, Sheba, our old dog was petrified of storms and she knew when I storm was on the way long before it even looked like rain and I think they just learnt to be scared from her. Our neighbours also used to let off terrible fireworks, so they associate storms with that. The storm subsided around 10pm, but during the night it just got a thousand times worse. It was hectic, not only an electric storm, but the rain came down in torrents. It really bucketed down and that was the end of a good sleep for me, because I had Jingles trying to climb right into me and Pluto huddled up on my side. Strangely, Garfield didn't come running to us crying like she usually does. She was sleeping on the one dining room chair, which is pushed under the table with a long table cloth on it and they seem to find security and comfort when they are under something. This picture I found on the Internet describes exactly what the storm sounded like.


What I am meant to be doing now is fixing my blog and getting it looking like I wanted it to look initially, but instead I am going on about rain storms and coffee. I still need to blog about Clint's birthday as there is a lot on my mind about his birthday and how I felt and the other feelings associated with his birthday and not having him here to celebrate with us. I think that is the problem with me procrastinating and not fixing up this blog. There is still so much that I have to write about and add to Clint's page and transfer from Face Book, but it is all very painful and I really really want to do it, but emotionally I cannot. I can't get to updating the other pages, because I feel guilty about doing them and not Clint's page. It is just a dam vicious circle of pain, guilt, overwhelming emotions of sadness and anger. I am going to try now and see how far I get. If I can update his page or fix up my older posts and other pages. It is really tough. When I got my laptop back on Friday, I changed the background picture. I used to have one of Clint when he was little standing on the bridge at Emmarentia Dam eating an Ice Lolly, it is really cute and I will put it here too, but obviously when they loaded Windows 7 on my laptop, the default Windows picture was my background picture and whilst I was personalising everything, I changed the picture to one of Clint at school in grade 11, which I will add here as well, BUT it is so painful looking at it, that I actually find myself flinching from the pain and heartache I feel when my PC loads. I can't actually look at it and I think I am going to be changing it again, to another one of when he was little or put the one of him at Emmarentia Dam back on. It is really cute and the pain is still there but not as intense as the photos of when he was older. I just thought rotating pictures would be nice and although the same photo is up on the wall in the dining room, the almost shock of seeing him up close on my laptop as something new, so to speak, is just too intense.
Well I hope you had a good Sunday, until next time.

