Rain Storms and Lazy Days

So yesterday I spent the day in my PJ's, the whole day. I wanted to go to the Joburg Pride, something different to do. The two Idols contestants in the Top 2, Dave and Mark were performing there and I thought it would be nice for Chad to go, but he didn't want to, because for one, Mark was working and he wanted his dad to go with us and I think the main reason is because he is into his Play Station again and he just wanted to play games all day.  The weather was also quite bad, very windy and it clouded over and was quite miserable.  I ended up downloading stuff back onto my laptop, blogged a bit and then it was just too late to shower and get dressed, so I just carried on fiddling with my laptop. Fortunately, touch wood, it has not crashed again, yet. Well we better not talk too loud, in case it hears us and does what I am expecting it to do.

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.

When I woke up this morning, everything looked clean and fresh, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, no more dust and dryness, just refreshed and clean, brightly washed. Well the sun did not last and by 8am it had clouded over and the sky was filled with unshed tears about to burst out at the slightest provocation.  It has been like that the whole day, no rain, just cold dark and grey, nothing like the fresh, washed morning that I woke up to. The animals woke us up very early as usual and I could not get back to sleep, so just went and sat in the lounge and smoked my lungs to a standstill and drank copious amounts of strong coffee. Talking about coffee, Mark went to Makro to buy some stuff for the pool and he bought me my favourite Nescafe Cappuccino sachets, which was a pleasant surprise, except he bought the unsweetened one and that is not as good as the sweetened one, so I had to put two sweeteners in it. A bit contradictory, having sweeteners in Cappuccinos, its just that I have gotten so used to sweeteners that I don't like sugar in my coffee anymore. Just like I drink Tab, whilst eating chocolate.  I am one of those double cheese burger and fries with a diet coke, kinda person. The reason why I drink tab is because I like the taste not because I am trying to kid myself that I am losing weight, which is why when people come up with that little joke, I get quite annoyed, because people eat and drink things, because of their tastes. He also bought a new Necafe product, Strong Nescafe, with milk powder and sugar.  I have just had a cup to try it out, but it tastes a bit watery and very sweet.  I added a sweetnerRicoffy, three heaped spoons and no amount of filter coffee or Nescafe can match the way I make Ricoffy for myself. Truth be told these coffees are not good for my cholesterol and I should not even have them, but they are so good.



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.