All Day
"What do you do all day?" my friends ask.
So, just to illustrate: TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2026
(No, it's not Friday the 13th.)
6:00
I hear Angie's little paws padding around.
Angie is our little female American Cocker Spaniel. She is ill, has kidney problems.
I catch a whiff of excrement, get out of bed and carefully make my way down the hallway into the next room. And there, on the little rug, lie two beautiful little poops. Like saucisson — two neat little sausages.
The day is off to a good start.
And I'm not being ironic. Yesterday Angie still had diarrhea during the night, and today she is doing better. Joy.
Let's just hope this positive mood lasts all day.
8:00 – Breakfast
Angie doesn't want to eat. Ruby, our other Cocker Spaniel, finishes her prescription kibble.
10:00
My husband leaves to sell our Ford in the city Svitavy.
10:15
I load the dogs into my Duster and drive to Svitavy to pick up my husband.
11:00
My husband comes out of Car Dealership A holding the papers he was given for the car. He waves one of them at me.
"Apparently, the signature has to be verified. At the post office."
11:10
We use the MAPY app to find the only post office in Svitavy. We drive there in the heat with the dogs.
11:25
We arrive at the post office. At the entrance we take a number and wait for a counter where signatures are verified.
11:35
The lady in charge of signature verification pulls the curtain across her counter and goes to lunch.
11:45
We are still waiting.
Her colleague serves customers who arrived after us first.
11:50
It's our turn.
The lady tells us that the document Paul wants to have his signature verified on has no legal validity whatsoever. It is merely a statement showing the price of the car.
The man is not to be swayed. He has to sign it. Basta.
12:00
We drive back across Svitavy, zigzagging through one-way streets, with the signed document, all the way to Car Dealership A.
12:02
The garage that repairs my car, Car Dealership B, calls. The Duster was there for repairs after Paul drove into a tree while reversing in the woods last month.
We've had the car back home for a week.
I tell her I don't have time. We're dealing with something else. I'll call back later.
12:10
We arrive at Car Dealership A.
The signed document is useless. They made a mistake. They gave Paul the wrong piece of paper to sign.
From the stack of papers he was given, they now select a POWER OF ATTORNEY.
12:15
We drive back to the post office.
I know the way by now.
12:20 – The post office is quiet. Nobody there, just us. Another signature.
12:25 – We leave with the signed power of attorney and drive back to Car Dealership A.
12:27 – I call Garage B to ask what exactly they wanted from me. The line is busy.
UNI HOBBY Svitavy calls. We have a brand-new water heater there being dealt with under warranty. They tell us they cannot process the claim because they need the signature of the electrician who installed it. The electrician is Paul… I promise them we'll stop by to get the paper signed. We're practically next door anyway.
I'm starting to get tired in this heat, driving through Svitavy's endless one-way streets.
12:30 – We head home. We have a thirty-minute drive ahead of us.
12:31 – The man who was supposed to inspect our gas boiler yesterday calls. He works for ČEZ. We'll call him Mr. ROB (Revision of the Boiler).
Yesterday he had postponed his visit until today at 2:00 p.m. Now he says he has some free time and asks if he can come immediately.
I arrange for him to come at 1:00 p.m. and race home.
13:00 – ROB arrives.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
13:05 – ROB starts inspecting the boiler. I bring him water for flushing the boiler and coffee.
13:45 – The man who is supposed to repair one of the three air-conditioning units in the studio calls. We'll call him Mr. AC (Air-Conditioning Repair).
He apparently has a gap in his schedule and could come over immediately with a friend. We've been waiting for him for two weeks, so of course I say yes.
14:00 – ROB leaves. AC arrives.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
14:05 – AC asks for a tall ladder so he can comfortably reach the air-conditioning unit from outside, three metres up.
14:30 – ROB calls to say he forgot some kind of suction device at our place. I go looking for it. Yes, I have one. Found it.
14:45 – ROB comes back.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
Meanwhile, AC has been stung by wasps that had built a nest inside the air-conditioning unit.
14:46 – My husband asks for some spray for AC's stings. I hand him some sting-relief ointment.
I hand ROB the suction device for the boiler, and ROB leaves.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
Phew. I'M FREE. Nothing is happening. I go and sit in the garden and occasionally watch AC, his friend and my husband chasing wasps around.
15:30 – AC and his friend leave, saying they need to order some parts and will get back to us when they arrive.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
16:00 – DISASTER.
My husband calls loudly: "Come and look!"
The utility room and the room next to it are flooded.
Water is pouring out of the boiler, probably since ROB left the first time.
I take off my shoes and socks, roll my trousers up to my knees and wade over to the boiler. I hold the hose, to stop water gushing out of it, while my husband goes down to the basement to shut off the water supply. And, naturally, he also instructs me to call ROB and have him come back to fix the boiler.
16:15 – ROB arrives.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
ROB repairs the boiler, apologizes and offers to help suck up the water.
I look for another bucket.
16:45 – ROB leaves.
RUBY BARKS FANATICALLY.
17:00 – Angie refuses to eat her prescription kibble. I'm not cooking her chicken today.
17:30 – For the time being, we finish sucking up the water with the wet vacuum cleaner.
18:00 – I cook dinner.
22:00 – I go to the bedroom and smell excrement. Diarrhea.
The doors to the garden had been open all afternoon.
She did it on purpose ! I guess.
She simply didn't like the day.
Notes
saucisson – French for sausage
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