It's been a busy 36 hours en Nuestro Casa that prevented me from writing yesterday. This is not an excuse, but it is a reason; it's been one of those times full of great and not-so-great news.
The great news came an email from my publisher, Bold Strokes Books. While I will refrain from sharing the details, it confirmed that my first book, A Champion for Tinker Creek, was not a one-off novel and did a lot to build my confidence. But that was it as far as good news goes.
The first bit of not as great news came in a cryptic note on The Husband's phone. Sabadell, the Spanish bank, notified us that our current balance with them was not enough to cover an upcoming charge for some of our life in Spain we set up before arriving in November. In setting up the details, I thought (as the one who speaks the best Spanish) we arranged to pay the fee monthly and had deposited money in the Sabadell account to cover the first few months of payments. The Sabadell notice indicated that we were about to be charged yearly rather than monthly and thus would not have the funds.
Not a big problem, and one handled easily in English while in the U.S. with a U.S. bank. It was a bit more challenging to handle from another continent, with a six-hour time difference (Spain is six hours ahead of the U.S. east coast). I have to give kudos to Sabadell for its English language assistants and others who helped me in Spanish.
Just as that was getting sorted, I received a call from the front desk of our condo building. Would I be ok with some of the maintenance staff coming up to look in our unit? Water has appeared in the hallway outside our apartment. I bolted out to look at the hall and, sure enough, there was water just where there had been water about six months before. The dishwasher (pictured above) has begun to leak again. An appliance repair firm had stopped a leak previously by replacing a faulty part, but water had reappeared. I called the appliance repair outfit again, and they are sending out someone on Saturday. Still, when I inquired about the firm's warranty on its previous work, the clerk told me they only warranty part replacements for ninety days.
Finally, our weather has slipped back into its mid-Atlantic January mess, raining through the air just above freezing, so the pavements and sidewalks will be nice and wet when the temperatures drop below freezing as soon as the sun sets dips below the horizon.
Anyway, life goes on. Sorry I missed yesterday. I'll try not to let it happen again.
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