gottawonder

Today I am grateful for:

Surviving another fun end of season horse show at the barn.

We didn't clean up for high ribbons, but we did get a first for an equitation class (which mattered more to me anyhow) and a second for our "special talent".

We made an absolute mess out of our first class of the day, which was a complicated obstacle course at liberty, and River tripped fairly dramatically while trying to get around a barrel (I was not mounted).

I'm a little concerned, as he also tripped dramatically a week ish ago. It's concerning, because a horse should be more sure-footed than that.

I ended up with a different person in the "fun human obstacle class", as several people didn't come after all, there's a bug going around. The young woman did go around with R, and that was fine. I also found that I sincerely WOULD have been fine doing that with her, and not worried about placing low in the class. It makes a difference knowing that there was not a "high points" element to the show, not that I would have achieved that this year after all.

Anyhow, it's nice how relaxed River was at the event, and I can remember a time when that would not have been the case. He was happy to stand around with all the commotion, paid attention in the arena and not thinking about his buddies or the strange horses just outside the rail, and he did his best all the way through. That's a pretty big deal to me.

We really do have a great group of people, very supportive of each other, and no snarkiness. That makes it easier to TRY things, when if it doesn't work out you don't feel like everyone's going to be judging you.

Nice to see all the younger people grow in their abilities, and to see the huge improvements in so many horses that came to the barn needing help.

It's still amazing to me to remember how many of those horses were full of fear and anxiety be calm, steady horses now for the kids.

Of course it did feel like it was dragging on though. R loves to have a show, and wants to have ALL THE CLASSES, and inevitably they end up running far, far behind, and there is a point when you'd just like to go home.

It was also fairly hot and dusty, and you're just standing around outside waiting your turn all day.

Anyhow, it's done, and all is well (though River might be sore from tripping).

My Sweetie showed up right at the end, and he did help with some of the clean up, and to chat with people.

He was working with Dan today (no helper Brandon) taking the forms off of the concrete, and he returned a fair amount of unopened concrete bags in town, and brought back bedding shavings for the winter.

We came home, and chatted, and just had a quiet rest of the evening. We were both pretty pooped.

After a while we ate and watched an episode of "The Witcher". We're on Season 2. I never did bother to watch any of the seasons after Henry Cavill left the show.

Today I am grateful for:

Okay sleep. Noise again, but that's expected.

The guys worked on getting a small deck with stairs for the back door.

It will be nice to be able to use that door again, when the stairs are finished.

I did some indoor things. I took some water out of the turtle tank and added some fresh water. I cleaned the cat litter. Laundry. Changed the sheets. I did the dishes.

Then I went outside and talked with the guys for a while.

Chores.

Then I spent some time cleaning and oiling some tack.

Then my Sweetie headed to town for the climbing gym party (I have no idea why a climbing gym would do that, but okay).

Then I went to the barn.

River was pretty tired today, and his breathing wasn't great. We did work on backing up through the "L" shape, and he's always pretty stuck for backing up, but we try.

Then we worked on the barrels at Liberty and he did a GREAT job with that, and jumping over some barrels on their side (which could end up being part of the obstacle class on Sunday).

Then I rode him for a few minutes in the outdoor arena to frantically practice my two point position (something I never need to do; I'm not a jumper, but it's in a riding pattern that will be on the agenda this Sunday).

Then I stayed to work with H (woman with health challenges). I worked with Ferrari, and he was better this time about not frantically over reacting to everything I asked for. That was better than the last time I worked with him.

After a while we all went to the outdoor arena where R had a "fun human relay course" set up. This will be one of the classes on Sunday. We were giving the young woman a chance to practice, though she may not end up being at the show (she might be at a walk for Parkinson's).

It was fun. R had "practical elements" that related to horsey life, like carrying a bucket of water, and picking up "poo" (plastic balls), braiding hair (collected over time into a ponytail) but also inexplicably jumping over low jumps. The funniest one was for one person from the team to hop into the pony cart, and the other person to pull it to the finish line.

I pulled R around to show the young woman it was okay, and she reluctantly got in (it wasn't easy for her to get into it, her co-ordination isn't great).

So it was a little fun and silly.

Then I came home and got tired of waiting to see if my Sweetie was coming home and made supper.

I'm thinking it would be fun to do something together this year, like go for a walk together somewhere beautiful for my birthday (which was a while ago).

I'd like to go for a walk somewhere like this together, any takers?

Today I am grateful for:

Getting a bit of sleep, even though there were interruptions and noise today.

My Sweetie got up early to work on the concrete projects outside with Dan and Brandon again today.

The steps on the front of the house and on the back of the house have been removed as part of the concrete projects, so the only way in and out is a lesser set of stairs from the sun room.

I got a bunch of "household" tasks done, dishes, dog diapers, cleaning the cat litter and sweeping the sun room. I made quinoa for supper tonight, sliced up a watermelon for people working outside, and finished washing the garden carrots and putting them in the Salad Refrigerator.

Festivities for my birthday will have to wait likely until closer to the weekend as the concrete project cannot wait for anyone.

Luckily my Sweetie bought me flowers already, and it's not that he's forgotten.

It's been very loud today. The concrete pad on the North side of the house will be part of the project, and it requires removing some big pieces of concrete that lifted and tilted when we built the basement for this house. The slab predates the house, back to the trailer. It was kind of a deck at that time, and we would like it to be a nice, level slab again.

So my Sweetie was using a bobcat to remove some of the broken pieces, and the guys are leveling the ground where they were removed, and setting up all the frames for pouring tomorrow.

My Sweetie had arranged for the concrete to come on Thursday, but they insisted that they come tomorrow, so everyone had to hustle to be ready for it.

After chores and such, I headed to the barn to see River.

I had a good laugh, as K wrapped a spaghetti squash for me (for his birthday, I wrapped a zucchini, which was hilarious because no one could guess what it was, and created a lot of suspense), and K and L sang "Happy Birthday". L also gave me another one of her lovely artworks.

So all of that felt very special.

I gave R some leather tie strings for a saddle of hers, as she wanted something to tie up the stirrups when not in use.

River was sort of sleepy today, but did okay once we got going. I worked on the "away" around a pylon and today he did better with it. We also did ridden work with the saddle which was nicely done today.

Overall his mood was good, and he put in a good effort.

It was nice weather, sunny and cool. Last night we had a frost again though, so it's making me wonder if we have an early winter coming.

I came home and Dan and Brandon had left for the night.

I guess my Sweetie talked to K from the barn, who has often expressed an interest in helping us with some of our work, so he's coming tomorrow. That's going to be surreal, in that "out of context" kind of way to see him here at our place.

I wanted to give Roxy some time outside, since she had been in the house to keep her safe most of the day except to poop. So I took her out to the horse pasture, and brought Wonder out too so she could run around a bit (I suspect she was a bit tense from all the commotion today).

When I came in the house, we heard Sprite meowing from inside the pantry, and at some point she snuck in there I guess. She found some cat treats in there once, and now is trying to get in there every chance she gets. So she likely wasn't in there too long, but long enough to have found a small dog food sample and tear into that and eat part of a cracker.

I hate that animals don't realize that you are protecting them by making some places off limits. I don't think she got into anything bad for her, but that's the concern.

So now that means she got rewarded again for getting into the pantry.

My Sweetie offered to cook, so that was nice.

So a day where it feels like things are getting done outside, if nothing else.

We watched another episode of "The Witcher", and one thing I find inconsistent and frustrating, are things like the powerful witches in other episodes use portals over and over to get somewhere, and in this episode travel by boat for days to get somewhere. Every time I see a witch in this show trudging to get somewhere, I wonder why would they do that? Why would a witch trudge to the top of a mountain if you could just make a portal? Why would an accomplished wizard even BOTHER with a sword fight?

It's like when you watch Superman, and there's a fight between him and Batman. In reality, there really wouldn't BE a fight, would there? Superman could just fly away at the very worst. He can literally pick up a plane and take off with it, or just stand there and take punch after punch after punch from a mere mortal like Batman and it shouldn't really hurt him. Yet, there was a whole movie not long ago called "Batman vs. Superman" where they had physical fights where they made it seem like Batman had an effect on Superman. Silly.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

Not feeling motivated to do that much today.

We had a pretty bad frost last night, and most of the garden is finished now. I took all the green tomatoes off the plants and brought them in. The don't look like they froze.

Then I pulled the remaining squash and tons of zucchini off of their vines and I had to leave them on the calf sled (basically a large plastic utility sled that we use for all kinds of things) until later.

Then I went to see River.

He was sort of sluggish and dull today even though his breathing was okay. It was hard to keep him engaged.

He did better today with our ridden work, and not rushing the trot and the canter under the saddle. His halt from the canter wasn't great, but worked on that too.

My Sweetie stopped in at the barn on his way back from his weekend bike fundraiser for MS. He said the second day wasn't too bad, even though he felt like he wasn't really in the best shape for it (he says this every year).

R showed up pretty much as we were leaving, and we talked to her for a little while. She was visiting her parents, and her Mom is doing better after her recent hospitalization and surgery for leaking blood vessels related to medication she was taking for pain after hip surgery. She had mentioned several times that her Dad has a lot of heart issues and blood pressure issues, and was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's.

So all of that is quite a lot. I'm sure the stress for their family has been enormous.

Then we came home, we brought in all the produce and put it in the mud room, then I cooked while my Sweetie had a shower.

We watched an episode of "The Witcher", and he headed to bed.

It's funny, yesterday felt like a very long day where I had time and motivation to do all kinds of things, and it was nice to be able to make a bit of noise after 8 pm. It was strange not to expect him home, and it felt kind of empty even though it really wasn't that different. I'm alone most days, and see my husband for an hour or so and then he goes to bed. I just also quit doing things as soon as he's home, because we have to get his supper ready.

It is not his fault, but in some ways my husband's schedule makes me feel like the day is over at about 7 pm, because that's when we eat and then he gets ready to sleep. Given that I also generally get up late, my days can feel like they're very short.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

Remembrance. My now husband and I had been in Wyoming for maybe six months, had bought a little house to fix up, and I had just begun college. I walked through the doors of the school only to see everyone's face shocked and people milling around.

Several television screens were showing footage of the Twin Towers, and at that point only one had fallen, and then the other one went down.

It really didn't seem possible, and I had no idea what it would mean for my husband and I, as we were only there on visas. Would we be allowed to stay? Would there be other attacks?

It was surreal.




My Sweetie was home early (he usually gets off work early on Friday, but goes to the climbing gym) because he was packing, and then leaving to go to his MS Bike race that he has done every September for years.

He's a little sad that his friend Rob doesn't go anymore, and his much younger "bike friend" who did go last year cancelled with no real reason this year (probably didn't work to get sponsors for the race, which is the entire point to raise money for MS research).

So apparently a hotel right near the race location is going to cost a LOT of money this year, because of the fires in nearby areas forcing people to live out of hotels, so everything is nearly full. Nice of the hotels to take advantage of people like that.

Anyhow, he helped me with the outdoor chores and such, and headed out.

I went to see River. Today was quite cool, only about 10 C and overcast. River's breathing was good, and his energy levels.

I used his saddle today for the first time in about a year (I normally use a bareback pad now) because there is a class in the upcoming show that I will need to use a saddle.

River really moved out under the saddle, and I think he was a little weirded out by it. I did walk him around with it first, before mounting, and then took my time walking and trotting in it before cantering, but at the canter he was a little bit funny with it, and I wonder if I should have lunged him with it first at the canter.

He was okay with it after a while, and was less "rushy", so whew.

I rode for a few minutes with the bareback pad and he was fine with that.

A tiny bit of work with the pole bending.

Then I stayed to work with Mr.Pickles with the young woman with health challenges.

R said that L (her daughter, who usually comes and works with a horse too) was "too crusty to come work", and apparently so was her husband K.

I don't know what that means exactly. R said they were literally in just awful moods and didn't want to be outside any more today.

Okay.

So I enjoyed working with Mr.Pickles very much today. He is super sweet and willing, and he's come such a long way in a very short time.

The young woman seemed kind of listless again today. She's been that way for the last few lessons, not really wanting to do anything challenging and I wonder what's up. She didn't even want to work with Mr. Pickles today, and that's usually a big thing for her.

Then I stayed to help R clean up for the night and take the horses that were in the barn back out and so on.

She had to do evening hay for everyone since her husband was "too crusty" to come do it. It's not a huge job, but still.

Then I came home and it was a bit strange that my Sweetie wasn't home. I did talk with him, and he had a good drive and was settling into his room for the night.

I watched "Full Metal Jacket" and it's been a while since the last time I watched it.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

I did the dishes, dog diapers, animal care, and then picked more beans in the garden.

These are the purple beans, and they got pretty big, but still taste good. I picked a full two gallon pail.

I saw a lovely garter snake on the grass by the garden, so I sat down and looked at it for a while. I was maybe three feet away, and it maybe was thinking I didn't see it? It was very shiny, likely had recently shed, and was quite pretty.

Then I went to the barn.

My Sweetie dropped by, which was nice.

Today was lesson day. River was pretty sluggish today again, though it wasn't that hot, and even his breathing didn't seem bad.

We revisited the process of keeping him "off of me" and more balanced and practiced the pole bending again, both at Liberty and mounted.

Then we worked through a riding pattern that R will be using in the upcoming show.

All of it was helpful.

Then I came home, and my Sweetie had made supper for me, but only wanted cereal for himself. He said he had a bit of an upset stomach today, perhaps something going around at work.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep. My Sweetie has been feeding the cats so that I can sleep a little longer this weekend. It's lovely.

Not starting things off well with my Sweetie, and having it make the rest of the day less fun.

He did go to town to return the equipment he used to do the ground work in anticipation of concrete pouring, and we went right back to that town for groceries later.

He did suggest that he pick up groceries when he took the equipment back, but you know, somehow I just didn't think that would be effective. I would have to give him the list of food, but that never allows for all the items that are not necessarily "on my list" to see if they are on sale.

For example, I probably would have told him to get a package of the vegan sausages that I like, but would he have recognized that today they were on a very good sale, so he might as well get several packages?

Anyhow, I sort of prefer to be in charge of groceries. We did go together.

The Lindt chocolate that I like went from $5 to $6 from last week to this week, no explanation necessary. That's a huge jump.

Then we went for a walk along a different part of the trail system that I don't frequent that often on my own, but used to walk on a lot more only a few years ago. Funny how our habits shift.

That part of the park was flooded earlier this year, but the water has receded now.

We ended up talking to a woman (who had a very nice dog, who started the conversation) for quite a while, and we shared very similar views on the issues Alberta is facing, and about our concerns and thoughts on politics in general.

I feel like I missed an opportunity though, to maybe make an effort to extend an offer of friendship. I think she lives not far from us, also on an acreage, and I feel like she may have been hinting about getting to know each other better.

I wonder if I'll see her again? It's possible.

I know this sounds a little terrible of me, but there is a part of me that wonders why I don't seem to attract people my own age for friendship? I don't turn people away because they are older, but so many times I seem to attract women who are 15 to 20 years older, and I wonder why no one closer to my age seems interested in friendship? Perhaps most people my age are just too busy?

Then we came home, I let everyone out for a while, and my Sweetie cooked. He did this thing again of cooking two meals; food that he wanted to eat, and food he thought I would eat, and it somehow makes me feel a little weird that lately he just wants to either eat takeout on his way home from work, or make assumptions about what I would like, it's strange.

We talked a bit more about the things that were bothering me that began when I got up, and I don't know that it made anything better. Long story short, I'm thinking he might need to see a doctor and OF COURSE he doesn't want to see a doctor. WHY DO MEN REFUSE TO GO TO DOCTORS UNTIL YOU YELL AT THEM!!!!???

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep.

My Sweetie got up earlier to go to town and rent a small backhoe for doing the ground work in front of the garage so we can pour concrete soon. He worked on that most of the day when he got home.

I felt good in my body today, which is nice.

After animal care chores I mowed. I really didn't think the grass needed cutting that badly, but once I got going I realized it was actually pretty tall again. I mowed for about an hour and a half, and got quite a lot done.

Then we got cleaned up and went to town to watch "Coyote Vs. Acme". It was fun, and good for the nostalgia, but not AS funny as I thought it could have been. At least we were able to see it on the big screen for a reasonable price.

Then we grabbed a burrito just before they closed for the night, which was actually kind of nice because the table was actually clean. Most of the time when we eat at this particular location, the tables are gross. I don't know why they aren't out there wiping them down after people leave. I know the staff aren't exactly like traditional waiters/tresses, but WIPE THE TABLES!!!

The burritos themselves are generally pretty good though.

I was happy they let us get food so close to closing.

Then we came home.

Today I am grateful for:

That my foot isn't worse than it is. It was a bit swollen when I got up, and I had some body stiffness, but a lot of it loosened up as I got on with my day.

It sucked, but it could have been a lot worse.

I got a call from the glass place, and our window was ready for pick up.

So, after chores and such I headed to the "other town".

I got our mail and paid the one bill that was there.

I stuck my head into the little thrift store by the post office, but didn't buy anything.

Then I picked up the window, and thankfully it was a straightforward process this time.

Then after weaving through some very dense traffic and road construction, I managed to get to the thrift store.

Again I noticed a lot of new Zara brand clothing with tags, and I'm wondering if this is just because people shop and miss the return window? Or people just over consuming and then dumping stuff at the thrift store from time to time?

I found a few nice things, and more that I decided to put back. It was just fun to hunt for the nice things, if nothing else.

Every time I go to the thrift store though, I am struck by how wasteful we are as a society, and how much utter CRAP is made, cheap garbage clothes that can't be recycled (I guess? Or just isn't being recycled). It's awful.

I mean, piles and piles of books can be recycled if no one wants them, or they will break down. Not polyester.

Anyhow, then I headed home. I got there about the same time as my Sweetie.

It did rain today, and it rained a bit last night. A bit of lightening and so on last night. Not a violent storm though.

My Sweetie didn't feel like eating much, so made some toast and eggs. I ate more or less the usual.

We chatted and he headed to bed.

He found "The Witcher" series for me, as I wanted to watch that again (we watched it a few years ago. I only watched it until Henry Cavill left, as I hear it went steeply downhill after that point).

So I watched the first episode, and it really is good stuff.