Catch up - real time!

Today was a nothing day.  I did hardly anything.  John texted to see if I slept ok, and if I had hot water for coffee.  Smiles.  It's nice of him to check up on me. 

Water.  Oh no.  I have no water at all.  In the bathroom, flush, and no telltale sound of the loud pump.  Ooops, they unplugged it again.  I asked Nihta if I need to unplug it at night, because it sounds like it might die at any minute, but she said no.  Maybe Om Deni just usually does it.  No problem.  I go outside, and look at the plugged in pump.  Oh shit.  No water.  No water at all again.  I run inside and turn on a faucet.  Nothing.  Nobody to help.  It's Sunday, and everyone is at church.  I go back out and unplug the pump and hope that it works like a wireless connection or computer and if I just unplug it, it will "restart".  I plug it back in.  Nothing (ok, I did know it was stupid of me to think that would work).  I re-unplug it so it doesn't overheat or something, and burn down my entirely wooden house.  I run back inside, into my room, and jump (after carefully checking that no spiders have taken up residence in these 3 minutes - I have a problem, I know) back into bed.  I'm definitely not ready to start the day.  I still don't let the pink blanket touch me though, eww, ick...it is sandwiched between my sheet and blanket, because it is blissfully chilly here at night.

I restart the day a couple of hours later, and it's wet wipes and bottled water to the rescue.  I'm immensely glad I've brought a bandana.  I have some orange flavored extra sweet sugar water (it's called orange juice here - it's nothing of the kind) from a carton, and break into my stash of granola bars from home.  I don't want to break out the cereal yet, because as I eye the ants crawling on the counter, I realize I have no airtight container to put it in after I open it. 

I putz around on the computer...talk to some students who are still up on Sat night at home, and clean a little more.  I write the 4 page long version of my first day here to add to my blog.  I read a little, write a little, look at the scenery.  

Hey look, it's one of my many neighborhood cows.

One of the volcanoes right by my house.
It looks pretty far, but it isn't.
 Obviously this is NOT the volcano that erupted today.

Hey look, there's a storm cloud...and my absolutely gynormous gazebo.
Mid year conference under the stars, George?

It looked much darker in real life.

The skies were brooding, so Imelda and I agreed to meet tomorrow instead.  She didn't want to get stuck in the rain, with the possibility that no bus would take me back home (yes, I live that far away).  Don't I need to go to school tomorrow?  Yes, but it hasn't started yet (I did know that) so we'll stop by and then have lunch and run errands.  Okie dokie.  I will do another Indonesian tape.    I write more blog (hence 5 posts in one day....complete with pictures).  I skype. 

I plug back in the water pump.  It's making a noise now, but not the same noise.  Still no water.

I go out to look around in my cottage again, and Tanta Yeti comes out of her house onto her porch.  I use my broken Indonesian, and Om Deni comes to fix the pump.  Tank was empty.  That's all.  Yippie.

I make some rice (badly - it overflows while I'm not looking, and starch water burns onto the hot plate.  Ooops.  I use the wok.  It's not well made.  It starts to smoke the second I put it on the burner, and it smells like burnt rubber.  I try to re-wash it, and add oil immediately.  I do this several times until it no longer smells like a tire fire.  I cut up some red pepper, scramble some eggs, and throw back in the rice with some spices and what turns out is not exactly soy sauce.  It's kinda sweet.  I don't like it, but I didn't add a lot, so my dinner still tasted pretty good.

My second attempt at cooking, or first really,
since yesterday was just
"add contents to boiling water and cook for 3 minutes."

I relax outside on the porch until I notice the spider web hanging from the porch roof.  There's a tiny little spider in it.  Aww, my next hairs only stand up a little at the sight of it.  Then I notice the 4 inch spider that's heading my way and about to most likely come eat my tiny new friend and I get the hell out of there.  I run in to get my flashlight.  It's not dark, but dusky, and the crevices of the roof are in shadow.  I come back with light, and see lots of spiders.  Lots of scary National Geographic type spiders.  One in almost every corner of the squares that made up by the rafters of the roof.  I call over Om Deni and show him the spiders, and ask him if they are bad.  Yes.  Poison.  Oh, so that's a word you know in English?  Poison?  Great.  Kiki, his son agrees.  I promptly freak out and scramble off the porch.  They will knock them all down and clean everything out tomorrow.  This kinda scares me though.  I hope they kill them too, because at least now I know where they are and can stay the hell off the porch.  I don't want them crawling around looking for a new place to make a home, say in my bedroom window, with all the cracks in the screen...which is about 3 feet away.

I make some more nature type friends.   Cicaks are all over my kitchen every day.  Geckos.  They are cute, and eat things I hate, so the mores the better.  Later on in the evening, I even saw one near a ceiling corner in my room.  Hello roomie!

There's water everywhere are here.  Those fields were the cow is, are actually rice fields.  Not my usual mental picture, but ok.  Water brings froggies.  Here's a big old toady looking one on the side of my house.

Then of course are my rabbits.  Seems that one of my household rabbits has taken to nibbling on my soap.  I first noticed earlier today, when the sides of the soap felt scratchy.   Hmmm, "ARE THOSE TEETH MARKS?"  Holy crap.  Nah....rabbits don't like soap.  I skyped Michael at this point, and he totally agreed that I have cute bunnies running around my house.  I need to throw away that soap is the consensus.  Too bad I have no garbage can.  I have a box sitting under the kitchen table, but I think the bunny might follow the soap out into my kitchen, and I don't seriously think I could handle that right now.  I chat with Michael and Noreen about all sorts of things.  It is nice to know that with Skype I always have someone around to listen and sympathize.  I find out there's been and eruption on Sumatera, near Medan, where Jonthon is, but I immediately find out that he's OK. Ah Facebook....where would I be without you?  After chatting with Michael for awhile (an hour or 2) I head back to the bathroom, and realize that the soap is on the other side of the sink, and there are fresh teeth marks.  So, my rabbit is a repeat customer.  Lovely.

Here's a cool picture of my bitten soap.  My my...those rabbits sure do have teeny tiny teeth.

I can't really get a great picture of it, because my camera seems to be on the fritz, and it wouldn't focus any closer than that.  This would be very bad.  How can I lose my camera, just when I'm so busy taking pictures of all the lovely creatures that are keeping me company inside my home?

Michael has suggested that I ask Om Deni and Tanta Yeti for some "lem tikus" which is "rat glue" .

Now why on Earth would he want me to get rat glue for a rabbit infestation?  Curious.