A "Typical" Day

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was going to switch things up.  I’m going to write about the things I want to write about - 30-day challenge be damned!  And first thing I thought of today when I sat down to write was a question I get asked over and over again:  "What do you DO all day?"  Everyone wants to know how I fill my time now that I’m living in paradise and not "working."  So, I thought I'd give you an idea of my day today, which is fairly typical.

Kitti loves hunting!

I wake up early, because it gets too warm to sleep once the sun comes up.  First I hit the deck to smoke a couple cigs and drink some iced coffee.  Let the dogs out.  I check Facebook first, then emails and news sites.  By then, the dogs are telling me they are DYING of starvation.  I mix up three bowls of kibble and veggies, and feed the “pack.”  I don’t like to leave Kitti & Bunni (our tiny mini-doxies) outside unattended, but today is nice.  And the fence is secure, so I let them stay out to hunt geckos a while longer with Foxxi, our rescued potlicker.

It’s already past 8 a.m., and the hubby has left for work.  I go inside to get busy.  I volunteer for Placencia’s Humane Society, and sit on the board, and I have work to do.  I send out the schedule for the upcoming PHS vet clinic.  I set up some lunch options for the volunteers.  Then I spend a half hour doing my online Spanish lessons.  Time's flying, so I start to pick up the dirty dishes & empty beer bottles the hubby left last night, before he fell asleep on the couch watching his Colts play football.  I make the bed and put away clean laundry.  Get another cup of coffee.  Typical boring "housewife" stuff, right?  Yep........

Shoot! I remember that I need to put toner on my hair.  After coloring it myself the other day, it looks pretty brassy.  While mixing the toner, I notice the crockpot of beans that I forgot yesterday.  So I start some hamburger cooking to add to the beans for cabbage stew, and hurriedly go to massage the toner onto my yellow hair, intending to let it "process" while I finish cooking.  As I wind saran wrap around my head to help it “work,” I notice my scraggly eyebrows.  I start to pluck.  I only realize I’ve been away too long when I smell the hamburger scorching in the pan.  Rescuing what’s not burnt, I throw it in the pot.  I hurriedly cut up some cabbage and veggies and toss them in too, along with a bunch of spices and herbs.

Killer bee?

It’s mid-morning already, so I go out to take a break on the deck.  That’s when I see and especially HEAR what appears (to me) to be a giant killer bee frantically buzzing around! He seems confused by all the screens enclosing our deck.  And, he is determined to fly into the saran wrap on my head!  I run inside to grab the bug spray—OMG-where is the RAID???  I can’t find it.  Finally, I locate a can of flea spray and go back to drown that frightening dinosaur--IN FLEA SPRAY!  Finally he’s dead.  Thank god.  Then I remember that Bunni could have died if she had been stung by whatever that huge, furry creature was.  She is highly allergic to anything that stings or bites her.  And there are no emergency vets, or even a full time vet, in Placencia! I make a mental note: buy more children’s Benadryl & look up killer bees on the internet.

OMG!!  I now realize I haven’t seen Kitti or Bunni for a very long time, and also remember there was a six-foot croc sighted in the canal behind us yesterday!  Quickly I run downstairs, screaming at the top of my lungs,  “CHEESE? KITTI - BUNNI – want CHEESE?!!"   I silently hope they have not become a “croc snack.”  Whew-I am able to relax as they come running out of the bushes, and I hustle them upstairs and inside for treats.

No hope for my hair now :( 

Yes, we cut our own hair!

As I wearily sit down at my computer once more, intending to start writing again, I wonder, “what is that burning sensation on my scalp?”  Oh crap!! That toner was only supposed process for 30 minutes! It’s been over an HOUR!  Quickly I jump in the shower and wash it out.  I realize after I towel off that at least an inch of my hair, barely two inches long to start with, is now fried beyond repair.  I make yet another mental note to ask the hubby to get out the hair clippers tonight.  I am close to tears.  I have been growing it out for months.  I seek out the basket of scarves and hats left over from my “brain surgery recovery period” and search for cute ones to wear for the next six weeks or so.  It’s only noon and I’m already thinking of taking a nap.  When dear hubby comes homes for lunch, which is not ready yet, he asks “What have you been doing all morning?”

I sweetly reply, “Oh, nothing much….”

Check in tomorrow for more stories from my life in Placencia, Belize, and beyond!