Frustrations and all change

This morning started off with Stuart getting up to let the geese out. He'd offered to do this last night so that I could have a bit more sleep, after I'd spent much of the day yesterday with a headache. I had still been planning to beat him to it, but as the early hours rolled around, my migraine returned and I was only too glad to let him get up and see to the cats and birds - in the rain. I hauled myself out of bed at around 8am, took a tablet and staggered downstairs.

While we were finishing our breakfast, the phone rang - it was the guy from the animal rescue centre HQ letting us know that we have been approved for the adoption of 'Jeremy', the pointer cross! He told Stuart that we would need to send copies of our identity cards by email, and that once we'd done that, we should be able to pick up the dog in six days. Wait, SIX DAYS?! That's this weekend!

So, as it turns out, all being well, we should be adding this face to our menagerie within the week:

'Jeremy'

We're not entirely convinced by the name 'Jeremy' and are thinking we might change it - we're still pondering that one. Of course, if he's already got used to the name, then we may be stuck forever yelling 'Jeremyyyyy' across fields and parks.

Shortly after Stuart had put the phone down, our internet connection cut out. In stark contrast to yesterday's beautiful weather, today it has been nothing but damp, followed by heavy rain, a bit of thunder rolling around, more rain, more damp and ... you get the picture! We were thus not too surprised when the internet cut out - it's usually a case of waiting a little while for it to pick itself up and dust itself down before getting going again.

With rain pounding down outside, and no internet connection available to do any useful jobs, Stuart was at a bit of a loose end. Without being able to log into my work emails I was limited in the amount of work I could get done too - and with my migraine fading, but still not completely gone, sitting in front of a computer wasn't top of the list of things I felt like doing. We therefore decided to do something useful: go doggy shopping. We have HelpX helpers arriving on Wednesday, and with Jeremy potentially arriving as early as Saturday/Sunday, we realised that going to buy some doggy essentials was actually quite an urgent job. So, we hopped in the car heading for Montecatini.

We got as far as the end of the drive, to find another car pulled in on the road side of the gate - we realised it was our guests in their hire car. On winding down the window, we discovered that they had had a flat tyre - caused by driving over a sharp piece of stone at the edge of our drive. They had managed to change the tyre, but were going to have to find a replacement for it and asked for directions to a tyre place in Pescia. We showed them where it was on the map and left them to it, feeling guilt-ridden that it had been our driveway (in fact, a stone laid around one of the newly added drainage channels) that had ruined their day. With such a short stay and lots to get done on their own house, today was to be their only full day here - so to have to add a trip to get a replacement tyre into the mix must have been the last thing they needed. Marissa kindly said that 'these things happen', but still, we were thoroughly disappointed that this had to happen to them on our watch.

We drove through the rain towards Montecatini - our first stop was a large pet store on the back road to Montecatini that we've passed on several occasions, but never been into before. We pulled up, walked in - and felt utterly bewildered. We'd drawn up an 'essentials' shopping list, with the help of our good friend Sarah, and decided first of all to look for a harness, a collar and a lead. Well, even that was a minefield - there were rows and rows of leads, collars, harnesses in all different colours, materials, shapes, sizes... Without having actually met Jeremy yet, we had to guess at how large he might be. We've seen several photos of him, but we're not sure how long ago the photographs were taken, and it's still no substitute for the real thing. We opted for a small-medium sized collar and a small-to-medium sized harness, reasoning that if they're too big, we can use them when he gets a bit bigger. We looked at cages, but I thought I had seen a wider range in the other pet shop near Obi, and since we were feeling all at sea, we decided to buy the collar, lead, harness, a whistle and a clicker from this shop, and then head to the other shop, giving us some time to gather our thoughts on the way.

We reached ArcaPlanet and found a much wider selection of cages. Having chosen one of appropriate size, we then found a mat to go inside it, a couple of toys, some puppy food, some puppy treats, a food bowl and some pooper scooper bags. Wow, this dog lark is WAY more involved than cat ownership! We decided to leave it at that for now - figuring that, as long as we are equipped to bring him home, take him outside safely, feed him and give him somewhere to sleep, then other things can come later.

We made a quick pit stop in Obi for some briquettes for the log burner in the office and a couple of new tarpaulins so that Stuart can construct a new wood storage area, then headed for home. We were shocked to realise that by the time we got home it was lunch time - where had the morning gone? There was still no internet connection, and the weather was still wet, so we ate lunch at the dining table in the kitchen.

After lunch, I headed to the office to do some offline work. That was fairly short-lived though, as something in the log burner (which Stuart had lit to warm the office up a bit) must have caused something nasty in the flue to start leaking out, with black liquid running out all over the floor and unbearable noxious fumes filling the room.

After trying to put up with it for a bit, we decided to get everyone (people and cats) out of the room, open the window, and close the door to give the fumes a chance to dissipate.

So, it was raining - heavily - putting paid to outdoor jobs; the internet connection was down, meaning that we couldn't send emails (in fact we still hadn't managed to email our ID cards to the man at the animal rescue centre yet - having told him, at 9am, that we'd do it within the hour) or do anything that required looking up information on the web, or work on our own website; and the office was out of bounds, meaning that we couldn't even do any offline work. Feeling utterly frustrated with the way his day was turning out, Stuart started moving furniture around while I washed up the dishes from lunch.

Now, Stuart has a thing about rearranging things and organising things. He loves it.

I also have a thing about having things rearranged and re-organised. I hate it. I hate the disruption and messiness that come with major reorganising. I hate the upheaval and, well, really, the change.

I decided to go and check the post, and when I got back, found that the internet had finally sparked back into life, so headed back into the smelly office to do some more work, leaving Stuart banging, drilling, scraping furniture and changing things around to his heart's content.

Thing is, he does, actually, always get it right, and I know that when I leave my desk and wander into the kitchen/living area in a moment, it will look better, things will be better organised and we will have more usable space.

I'm about to find out so, as they say, watch this space...!