gottawonder

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep.

My body feels okay today. Maybe not 100%, but at least a ninety. I've been experiencing this cycle of back pain, moving to being hip/butt pain or tightness which sometimes loosens up as I move, sometimes not. It sucks. I stretch, I walk, I try to do the exercises my physiotherapist long ago prescribed. It seems to do it's own thing and moves on when it's ready, and not tied to my efforts.

Today at least, I felt pretty good.

As I was feeding the household animals and myself, Friend D called to see if I would like to meet at the park down the road (where my husband and I often walk), and I agreed.

I'm glad she did, as I haven't seen her in person for a while, and I ended up not having time yesterday.

So after doing what I needed to do at home, I met her at the park.

She wanted to walk on the "outback" trails, and we both had our dogs with us. It ended up being a pretty long hike, because we got onto a longer trail somewhat by accident (the park's signs were not up, for some reason, that would normally tell you where you were).

After we had been walking for a suspiciously long time in one direction without seeing the normal "turn back" trails, I concluded that we were on the "very long trail" that goes all the way around the perimeter of the park on that side. I knew it was 12 km long, much too long for what I wanted to do that day.

My friend wanted to "just keep going", and I'm not sure why she was committed to that. She felt on some level that it would be the same distance back to our vehicles if we kept going than if we turned back. I disagreed with her. I felt that we had not gone half way yet, but we had been walking for about an hour. I felt that if we turned around we could be back at our cars in an hour instead of however long if we had kept going.

I checked at home on the computer to see if my instincts were correct, and I most certainly was. The point where I stopped and said we had to turn back was only about a third of the way. If we had continued to do the whole trail, we might have been out there for three more hours, at which point it would have been dark, and I also hadn't brought water.

So, I'm glad I insisted on turning back.

At one point I was getting annoyed by her topic of conversation, which was kind of about me nagging my husband to get things done at home. She was insinuating that if I just took control of situations right away, like insisting that I contact a concrete removal company much sooner and so on, that the nagging wouldn't happen, I would just "ACT" instead and force my husband to do something much sooner, thus saving me some grief.

Well, I feel that sometimes my husband does deal with things in a timely manner, and sometimes he does not. I don't know which it will be until we are a month or two along. Often, it's not within my power to ACT without my husband's input. I am not going to for example, feel confident in hiring contractors for many things without his participation. It is also notoriously difficult to get contractors to come and do work in a fast manner. I could wait as long for a contractor as for my husband to get something done.

Also, marriage does mean you have to at least try to do these things together. Yes, often my solution has been to hire someone to do something, and more and more he's coming around to that as a solution to some longer standing issues.

While I know that Friend D was trying to be helpful, there is a part of me that also thought she might mind her own business. Every marriage has it's own "things" that make some problems harder to solve. Sure, life would be super easy if everything that bothered me could be fixed by making a phone call to an outside expert, but my husband CAN do all of this work, and objects pretty strenuously to me doing that without his agreement.

I would love to get out of this negative cycle of something needing to be done, having it sit there for far too long, and me having to get angry to have something happen. Setting deadlines at the beginning just seems to get him angry right away. He gets instantly defensive if I suggest hiring help. I honestly don't see myself as being the problem. I feel like he is wrapping his own value into the situation, and is "wounded" every time he thinks I don't think he's doing a good enough job.

So it's not that simple.

I guess she and her deceased husband must not have had these issues. They did build a house together 20 years ago, and it was done quickly and perfectly and he never made a mess.

Then she went into another somewhat aggressive conversation about not telling other people how to live their lives. Like, her sister always fighting with her husband because he smokes, and she would like him to quit. Friend D went on to seemingly say "you can tell someone to quit smoking, but that doesn't mean that they won't die of lung cancer anyhow", or some other baffling concept.

I was like....Ummm...I guess? I mean, the connection between smoking and lung cancer is pretty strong, maybe he could still get lung cancer, but not smoking would seriously reduce the chances.

In the end, I think the point she was trying to make is that a person can't force someone else to change if they don't want to, and I guess I agree with that. I personally would find it pretty hard to just accept it if my spouse smoked.

Well, after all the inflammatory conversation seemingly designed to ruin a perfectly good walk, we did finally get back to our vehicles.

I brought out my two (one I've had for a while, and the one I got yesterday) steel tongue drums and we played with them for a while. She's enamored with them, and is thinking of getting one for herself.

Some other people at the park came over to look at them too, and one guy was VERY intrigued, so maybe he'll end up getting one for himself.

Then I had to hustle to go home, change, and get to the barn on time for my time with River.

River was dirtier today, but not bad, really.

I showed R the new drum, and she thought it was cool.

I did deworm River today, and I'm so glad that all the work we've done on getting him to accept it has paid off. He still doesn't LIKE it, but he accepts it.

His breathing was still not great, but his energy really wasn't too bad. I worked on the same things we've been working on for some time. Softness in backing and other yields, rhythm/forward, giving him appropriate praise and breaks, and so on.

L came out to work with her horse Amber, but didn't have much time before a lesson began.

I showed her the new drum, and the other one as a comparison (very different tones), and we played with them for a while in the barn.

She seemed to enjoy that.

So, a lot of physical activity today, and the drum fun was nice.

I came home and my Sweetie made supper, and we chatted, and watched an episode of "The Sopranos".

As usual, I think his work life is very stressful. It never seems to let up. Maybe this is why for him, anything I add to his mental load from home is just "too much", though I also feel like that's unfair to me, to just let things at home slide because of a stressful job.

If it's too much, then I guess we should be hiring people more often to do things that he finds overwhelming.

He doesn't work tomorrow, as it is Remembrance Day. He says he has a list of things he's come up with for himself to do at home, so that's nice.

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep. My Sweetie got to have the morning to himself with no additional work, which is nice.

You know, since we GOT RID OF THE DECK AND THE CONCRETE SLAB yesterday. (Still yay for that).

Being able to spend some quiet time together before leaping into the day.

My Sweetie baked his banana bread for his lunches, and I made the dense salad when he was done.

I changed the sheets and washed them.

We did chores and such. We had a lot of wind yesterday, but today was pretty nice.

This time we dropped my Sweetie's car off at the mechanic's, and then he came with me to the barn to see River.

River stayed pretty clean still, considering I took his blanket off since it's been warmer.

Once again, I had to work pretty hard to wake him up and get him moving, but after that he did pretty well with being forward. He seems to just test me every time, to see if I will get him to wake up, or if he can just sleep his way through our session. No more sleeping, he needs to look alive.

His breathing was okay.

There were some fireworks in the area for Dewali, so he was a bit concerned about that. Not as bad as he's been sometimes. He was a bit worried, but stayed connected with me, which is pretty good.

Then we headed home.

My Sweetie cooked, I helped a bit.

He did not want to watch anything, so we chatted a bit before he headed to bed.

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep.

Getting a few things done. Laundry. Dishes. Sweeping. Put some clothes away. Changed the cat litter.

Boring, ordinary, necessary things.

I did not get the estimate today for the cement block, so I called the company and the guy I was working with was busy. He did call back at the end of the day to ONCE AGAIN clarify where we lived. I gave him accurate directions the first time on the phone. Then he requested an email with pictures of the block, to affirm the dimensions, and our location.

So today, since he can't seem to figure out how to get to our place even with very accurate directions, I talked him through it while he was looking at a map. He seemed to be able to figure it out. Dear lord.

So I'm a bit frustrated. Giving us an estimate to remove a single block of concrete like this (which should be a very fast, very simple job for a company that specializes in this) should have taken him only a few minutes. It's literally mileage plus an hourly rate for someone to come out. Minutes.

It makes me wonder if they would be capable of even doing the job, if they can't manage to do the estimate.

Sigh.

After chores I headed to the barn to see River.

I didn't put a blanket on him last time, because it's been fairly warm. I expected to see him coated in mud, but he was pretty clean, which is nice.

He was very sluggish at first, and I could not motivate him on the ground to get going, so I got a bit mad and just got on him, and all of a sudden he found some energy.

We did reasonable work after that. Working on rhythm, being forward, lots of breaks for doing the right thing, yields.

R and L came out for the young woman's lesson. L still seemed tired after their week away. I imagine I would not have enjoyed the stress of the whole thing, even if the showing was fun. Sleep and food deprivation don't appeal to me.

It was nice to be social with everyone. The young woman was in a good mood and had some enthusiasm for her lesson this time, which is nice, and probably makes R's life easier.

I worked with Maverick, a fairly hefty Warmblood, and he has some hind end issues that seemed to be bothering him a bit today. Other than that he did well.

L worked with her pony, Pickles (she dropped the "Mr."). It still amazes me how calm and willing this pony is, after being deemed almost a lost cause by the rescue.

My Sweetie arrived pretty much as we were wrapping things up. He was having some animated conversations with R and L while I helped put horses away.

We headed home, I cooked for myself, and we chatted for a while before he headed to bed. He said he didn't feel like he climbed very well this week, but I guess it's good that he keeps going. For the social aspect if nothing else.

He did say our mechanic contacted him to let him know the car was ready, and that he found a damaged drive belt that he replaced. Not sure why he didn't contact ME about the car being ready, but you know how it is. My husband is a man, after all.

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep.

Doing a few small things like filling the cat water tower and moving laundry around. Minute things.

I did begin the process of finding a company that would remove the giant slab in our drive way. This company specializes in cutting and removing concrete, so think of who would remove a concrete driveway, or a sidewalk or something like that.

I gave them details of the size of the slab (roughly 6x6 feet, and about 8 inches thick) and someone said they would give us an estimate. They DO come out to our neck of the woods.

I have no doubt that it will be expensive, which sucks, but if my husband can't/doesn't want to get it out of the yard any other way, than what choice is there?

The good news is that someone who lives not far from us says they want the wooden deck, since my husband is very invested in having someone else use it instead of throw it away.

They don't live far, but my husband will have to get the deck onto our big trailer with the tractor (this person will help, whatever that means when you have to lift it with a tractor) and then we will have to take it to his place and get it off the trailer. For free.

I suppose this person may do us a good turn somewhere down the road, but whatever. If it makes my husband happy and gets it out of the yard, then good enough.

So I felt a weight lift from that. I've been in fight mode for about the last two days over those stupid decks. My husband was already making the "they might be there now until spring" noises, and I'm not having that if I can help it.

Friend D called, and we talked for awhile. She had a visit with someone from our class, and of course she found out about all the recent drama. We talked about it too (another recent source of being in fight mode).

She's doing okay, but living with a lot of pain. She's just sore all over, and she doesn't know why. She's trying to do things to reduce general inflammation and she's reasonably active, but so far nothing helps and she's having trouble sleeping. All of which sucks big time.

I'm glad she called. It's nice to be remembered.

After doing chores and such I headed to the barn. We have a lesson tonight.

R is home, so we had a lesson with her.

L came into the barn before the lesson started, and we talked about her experience in Kentucky. It sounded very chaotic, stressful, and on and on. I know they had fun too, and of course even if it is incredibly difficult to go somewhere like that and work with horses they don't know (Patrick brought his horses for them to use) and so on, it's a real experience in learning to perform under pressure and to do the best they can with no re-takes (when we do "tests" at the barn, there are retakes).

I think her description of the difficulties of working with Patrick's horses was also a useful experience, since his horses didn't have much show experience and were having issues with being separated from their friends and environmental distractions. R's horses are all pretty seasoned show horses now, and most of the time the students who went to Kentucky either work with their own horses at home, or R's horses at THEIR home, and they don't have the stress of traveling to a venue and all the noise and distractions and so on.

Showing "away" is a whole different ball of wax.

L also gave me another one of her wonderful art works. It's so well done! I very much appreciate it.

River's breathing was not good tonight, and in general he was kind of draggy. That seems odd, given that it is cool (though warmer today than it has been). His shoulder is still subtly off, so we gave all of those things consideration.

We worked on getting him forward (of course we did) in hand before asking for a stationary circle, and in ridden work focused on getting yields with an ever lighter cue.

There was another young rider from our barn there tonight watching our lesson, as she was doing this for "job shadowing" credits.

It was fine, but not a lot of energy.

I did spend more time in the barn after giving River a massage and doing some stretches. I talked with R about her experience in Kentucky.

It's interesting that from what she said, and what L said, that Patrick (who runs our Liberty organization) is not particularly organized and a bit "spontaneous" in a way that made it hard for everyone else to know what they were supposed to be doing.

So LOTS to take in for information from L and R.

I came home, and my Sweetie was making supper. I do appreciate him doing so, and I tell him so every night, as it makes my life better to come home from either town or the barn and there's a hot meal on the way. I do cook sometimes, but maybe only once or twice a week.

He seemed tired too. I know this pain thing is pretty much constant for him, I hope they can get to the bottom of it with the ultrasound. He's also getting really tired of his job. It feels repetitive and unrewarding for him, and he's tired of management making the same mistakes over and over again. He's probably pretty tired of his wife being angry at him too.

Well, I'm tired too. My nervous system is finally coming out of "fight" mode after the last few days of being angry for several reasons.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

I did animal care and made breakfast, and it dawns on me that the house is a little chilly. We already had an appointment with the furnace guy this week because the furnace has been cutting in and out in a weird way, but it seems that it is now not running at all.

So I text my husband, who didn't respond, and the heck with it. I called our furnace guy and said it had stopped working, and he would try to get out to our place tonight, but he's elbows deep in a pretty important job at the moment.

So, at least it was about 5 C outside, and sunny with no wind, so the house wasn't going to get too cold before he could get to us.

I put a small space heater in the room with the turtle and decided to go to town anyhow. The furnace guy said he'd be pretty late getting to our place.

I got to town and went to pottery. Pottery, the place of never ending drama.

I don't even get my boots off before someone from our class comes to ask me about The Email.

Apparently the same "leaders" as always emailed the same woman they've been harassing for weeks now, because apparently "there were complaints made by other potters" about the state we (this one woman in our class) have left it in.

Apparently it was "unusable" and they had to clean the studio before it could be used.

What a pile of horse shit. I was there last week, with the woman they are harassing, and I didn't throw or do anything last week (all I did was put a dry bowl on the cart to be fired). The other person was cleaning up the whole time we were chatting.

Yes, we were the last two people from our class to leave. We often are. Yet, it's also just as possible that some other potter came in, left some kind of mess, and left before the next class came in. We wouldn't know if that happened.

Is it possible that she may have left a streak of clay somewhere? Possible. Might she have forgotten to put something away? Possible. Maybe the sink wasn't perfectly wiped out to a mirror finish? Possible.

Yet, even though I wasn't walking behind her to check her levels of perfect cleanliness, I don't recall seeing anything glaringly dirty. Certainly nothing bad enough that the studio was "unusable".

This woman is of an age where she might be a bit forgetful. She might also just not be a perfect cleaner. YET, I've never seen her leave a big mess. Always something small, like a bit of clay on the floor where she was working, or one of her tools left out on a table.

She's not a rebel rule breaker, and she's not "trying to get away with something". She does her best.

Anyhow, I was just angry again, at the ongoing drama that is being stirred up by this S person and her flying monkey (the president of the craft center).

So our class of mostly the "older potters" (as in, we are all seasoned, and are not the brand new potters S has flooded our studio with who are there to be her little followers). We're the only ones who challenge S, and there are fewer of us all the time as we get disgusted and leave.

So, apparently now they are going to have a meeting with S and the president to try to stop this harassment. We all know how to clean up after ourselves, and we generally do a very good job. Do we sometimes leave a BIT of something behind? Yes, in the way that humans being will do sometimes.

It shouldn't make us feel like we're living in a police state where we're being asked to verify our cleaning with witnesses or pictures or to rat on each other.

It's unhinged.

So I did throw a vase, and showed another potter some of the things I do to make a vase. Then the clean up afterwards was nerve wracking, and I DID walk through and take about 20 pictures to prove that I had cleaned.

AAARRRGHHH!

Then I got groceries, which seemed pleasant after the pottery drama. All I had to do was pay increasingly ridiculous prices for very ordinary food items.

Such as the bag of pita bread that cost $3.99 around Covid, and now costs $7.50. I put back the Lindt chocolate that has also doubled in price, and chose a different brand to see if it's comparable in flavor.

I am grateful to be able to buy groceries, to be physically able to do so, and to have a car.

I once again felt compelled to be even kinder and more patient with everyone around me in the store to even out the petty, bloated blanc mange who says she is a pottery instructor.

I came home and my Sweetie said the guy came to look at our furnace, and replaced a computerized sensor, which costs $600. That doesn't include the service charges, which will probably be "emergency fees" because they came after hours and on the same day.

Sigh.

Well, at least our furnace is working.

We made supper, and watched an episode of "The Sopranos".

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep. A little TOO much, as my Sweetie fed the cats and no one woke me up.

We planned to go to the dump, which we did. That got rid of more of the scrap material from the deck mostly, and I managed to remember to get the recycling in the truck too.

What's frustrating, is that in many instances, not just today, my husband NEVER ACTUALLY KNOWS WHEN SOMETHING CLOSES. He THINKS he knows, and doesn't bother to actually find out. At times we've headed to town, with only the most vague idea of when stores close. Does he plan out the day and find out? No, he just tells me what we're doing, then I go "hey, wait a minute", and I look everything up and find out when things close, and we end up doing that "by the hair of our teeth" thing all day long.

Today was no exception. The dump has had the same schedule for YEARS. I have it written on a sheet of paper on our fridge for F's sake, in big, black letters. Does he check it? No.

So today he does NOTHING all day before I wake up. He then says we need to get to the dump now (I thought he would go before I woke up; apparently not). I thought he was going to go to the dump before I got up so that we would do something fun together in the evening.

Nope. He did nothing all morning, and then in the afternoon when it's nearly closing time for the dump, he says we need to load the truck first. He thinks the dump is closed at 4:30 pm, but right there on the paper on the fridge it says 4 pm. He is surprised by this. It has not occurred to him to CHECK, in fact, he questions whether or not that is correct information. He also does that; thinks that what I have written on the fridge is incorrect or misleading. It is not.

Sigh.

So we load the truck and rush to the dump before it closes. This means we are NOT doing anything fun today. Nope. Just going to the dump today for our "date night".

Less and less he tries to do something for Saturday. Only if I plan something and work really hard to make it happen. He does very little for our date night.

So we went to the dump and got rid of some stuff. Then he talks to the woman at the dump to let her know about our wooden deck, because he is determined to give it to someone to be used, rather than cut it up and haul it away.

He is SORT OF right, I'd hate to just throw it away too....BUT, here we are in October with this giant deck just sitting on our lawn, and threatening to be there in the spring because "it can't be moved this winter". Then in the spring will he just throw it out, or still be determined for someone else to use it?

We also have the concrete slab sitting in front of the garage. The giant chunk he dragged away from the house because it had broken and tilted away from the rest of the concrete, and had to be removed to repair that slab by the house (which is now a uniform, level deck again).

That slab was supposed to go to a neighbor with cattle, as it can be used in front of a waterer or something similar. Yet, it's been two months, and our neighbor has been too busy or something to come get it.

I think my husband has overstated our neighbor's actual interest in getting it. I don't think our neighbor wants it very badly. I think he "kind of" wanted it, until the reality of how hard it's going to be to move it set in.

My husband also has said that Dan was going to get a concrete saw from his work place to come cut it up so we could move it, but that's not happening either.

We have a slab of concrete that likely weighs more than my car just sitting in the yard now. Right in front of the garage.

So that's how I'm feeling today. No fun date night. Still crap all over our yard, and winter is closing in, and my husband just says "yeah, but it's not going to be easy to get those things moved".

Not impossible, and he knows what it's going to take to move them, but hard enough that they can likely sit there until I am angry all the time and I make his life a burning hell.

So we visited our friends again on the way home from the dump, and their kitten still has the shits all the time. I'm like....I don't know...MAYBE TAKE HIM TO SEE THE VET!!!!!

The did get it some shots and so on, so why not find out why it has the shits so bad that they don't even want it in the house? It's living in their garage, and apparently crapping all over the floor in there, which must be very pleasant for everyone.

L says she has a mysterious pain in her abdomen now, and she's made another appointment to see the doctor, but of course that can't happen for a couple of weeks. She's pretty worried because she just finished having a fairly major surgery for diverticulitis that she's still recovering from.

Once again, we tried to have a nice visit with them, which resulted in us sitting around the table with some tea, which was nice, while the husband and wife both talked as loudly as they could over one another, her trying to talk to me and him trying to talk to my husband, instead of taking turns so we could hear them both. It was awful.

I felt like no one cared about what we were up to, they both just talked, and no one asked how I was doing or anything.

I'm not sure why we visit them. I like them as people, but they are horrible conversationalists. At some point, I just look at my husband and make like there was some reason we had to leave, and we go.

So it wasn't the kind of day where I felt like anything fun or nice particularly was on the menu.

When we got home my Sweetie spent some time in the garage. We MUST get the goat pen set up, and he cleared stuff (shuffled things around some more), and I hope we can get the pen set up tomorrow.

I spent some time walking with Roxy in the horse pasture. I was finally able to bring Dandy over to be with Wonder for a while, and gave everyone some time in the bigger pastures, which I know they appreciated.

Then I went over the goat/pony pasture just to sit at the end of it to be with the goats. The goats otherwise don't explore the larger pasture, they would just stay close to the gate to their corral. If I go with them, they will go out to the far end with me and gnaw on saplings.

So that was nice.

I came in, my Sweetie cooked, and we watched "Lesbian Vampire Hunters" and of course it was awful. That was our "Halloween movie". Neither one of us is big into horror or slasher movies (thankfully), but if it's campy and horrible we sometimes watch that sort of thing.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

I didn't do much besides animal care before heading to the "other" town, almost entirely to get the mail.

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

I stuck my head into the vintage clothing store half a block from the post office, and didn't buy anything.

Then I drove to the thrift store that I frequent, and I did buy a few things. A nice sweater that I will pull the sequins off of (since it's already missing some), some books.

Yet, a great deal of the clothing in the larger thrift store especially just felt like crimes against humanity. At least half of what I saw was just so atrociously ugly. UGLY. Not "not my style" but if you had a panel of 100 people, they would likely unanimously agree that it was ugly. Can a clothing company not afford to hire 100 random people off the street before mass marketing an idea?

Of the stuff that was better, a lot of it looked pretty tired, and even some of the "okay" stuff was ruined for me by having stupid sayings or cutesy puppies or something printed on it. I guess not many people enjoy a plain shirt or hoodie? The should just get "Sweet Jesus, this shirt is ugly!" printed across it.

Why do companies make ugly clothing? Why? We've had a lot of experience now making clothes, and they don't have to be super expensive to be at least tasteful and perhaps flattering. I mean, how does no one in that company see that a weird, pukey colored orange polyester isn't going to make anyone happy? Or that an ugly shirt is not less ugly for putting little metal shiny things on it?

Well, there's my rant.

One thing, if people insist on demanding ugly clothes, why not just buy those ugly clothes at the thrift store? Why do we have to have new ugly clothes?

It's not about cost. Plain, attractive clothes don't have to be that expensive. It's like companies are PUNISHING people with these clothes.

So that ended up being most of my day today.

I came home and my Sweetie was just finishing up baking his banana bread. He must have really just gotten right to it when he got home, as I wasn't home particularly late.

We ate more borscht and watched an episode of "The Sopranos".

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

My back is a lot better, still some twinges if I sit for a while, but better.

Well, my hopes that the snow would hold off are over. It's snowing. Heavy, wet snow. We're supposed to get up to 15 cm.

It might melt, but probably not.

This kind of wet snow is hard on the animals, so the ponies got blankets until it stops (the goats are smart enough to stay in the shed).

Wonder already had a blanket on, and hers was wet but dry underneath, so she's okay.

I sorted through the blankets here at home to take some more things to the barn for River, like the neck coverings.

While at home I called the power company to update the information, since they seem to have a VERY wrong number attached to our account (they gave me the number, though they probably shouldn't have, since I was curious. It's not even a local number).

Then, I also contacted the service provider (our power has two tiers, our local power buying collective, and the company that provides the power) because it would be them who sent the guys to work on our pole yesterday.

They guys with all the stuff about the ex-wife/ex-girlfriend crap.

It did bother me yesterday, but it kept bothering me today. It was a stupid thing for them to say, was kind of meant to jab at me (He didn't come across as joking, but you know if I said anything he would fall back on "har har, it's a joke"), and I kept thinking that if he said something like that to a woman who maybe really did have problems with her husband cheating or having trouble with his ex, that comment might really hurt someone.

So I called customer service, and if nothing else I felt genuinely heard by the guy who picked up. I was telling him what happened, and when I got to the part about the service guy saying "it must be the ex-wife" he genuinely shifted to "oh no, that's not funny. It's awful".

So if nothing else, my feelings were validated and I feel like something will definitely be said to this guy, and hopefully he won't use that awful comment on anyone else.

Then I went to get fuel, and the roads were not great. I don't have my winter tires on yet, and it's also wet and slushy, and the gravel roads turn to mud.

Then I went to the barn. The heavy clouds and snow made it feel like it was already dark by the time I got there.

River had a light sheet on, and it was soaked through. He didn't seem overly cold, but it's good that I brought a change for him.

I spent some time attaching the necks to the blankets and organizing a bit while he ate his mash.

He did well with our work. Again, his breathing and energy are much better in the winter. It's such a shame that summer is so hard for him, and he gets so tired and out of breath. No one knows exactly what goes on with that. I've had him checked by vets a few times. He's never been the same after he got a respiratory infection at the other barn, just before I brought him to R's place. It was part of my decision to leave that barn, as I didn't like how the owner handled that situation (no where to isolate the horses that were ill, no support from her in giving medication which would have meant driving there twice a day for weeks, so I brought him home).

We did more work with going over poles, backing around a square, and trying to have good energy with those things.

I rode for a while, working again on staying forward, which was fairly easy for him today.

Again, he was likely pretty happy to warm up, and to loosen up his body with work. He got to go back outside with a heavier, dry blanket.

R is leaving in the morning for Kentucky, and I guess I'll try having a lesson with K tomorrow.

I came home and my Sweetie made supper and we watched an episode of "The Sopranos". It's a little nuts that we're still on Season One.

Today I am grateful for:

Some sleep. Not as much as I would have liked, but some sleep.

Time at home with my Sweetie before leaping into the day.

When we did leap, I did the usual changing/washing sheets, making of dense salads, and animal care.

My Sweetie went outside to try to mow the rest of the pasture, which we do in part to keep down the saplings, which grow back every year.

The grass didn't mow that well. It is still green at the bottom, and a bit wet from the recent snow, so it didn't snap off neatly like it did last year when it was so dry. Really, it's kind of mashed and mulched rather than mown, but it shorter and the saplings are cut.

So that was HIS day.

I did go see River, and it was brisk and cold, and a bit windy, so I chose to work in the indoor arena.

He had good energy and focus, and we did some different things that were kind of...intense backing exercises using a square made of poles.

I repeated the exercises mounted, as well as worked a bit on collection.

Throughout he maintained good focus and attention.

I did see K while he was doing chores. R and L are packing as they will be leaving for Kentucky Horse park with some others very soon.

I came home and my Sweetie had supper ready, and we ate and watched an episode of "Sopranos".

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

Dear lord, there's snow again. Sigh. It will likely still melt in a day or so, but sigh.

I didn't do a lot of anything besides animal care before heading to the barn.

It was windy and only a hair above freezing, and not too pleasant.

I tried talking to my husband about addressing the huge slab of concrete that is supposed to be picked up by a neighbor, who has not done so in the last two months that it has been sitting there. We need to break it up and haul it away ourselves, I think.

We need to haul away the old deck that is too large for anyone to take as one piece. It needs to be cut up and hauled away.

We are running out of time. If we don't do these things NOW, it will snow, and my husband will shrug and say "we can't do it now", and that garbage will sit there until next summer, when I will have to resume yelling at him.

Dammit.

River was pretty cold and unhappy when I brought him into the barn. He was very pleased to warm up, get something to eat, and dry out.

He was actually being EXTRA GOOD in the arena, and affectionate. I think he was super happy to be warm again. Maybe these humans aren't all bad after all.

He had good breathing (as he does when it's cold and wet) and good energy.

Since our blankets finally got back from being cleaned (R took them to this person in MAY, and that person had an injury that somehow got in the way of washing them, I guess. I'm skeptical that that's why it took so long.) I put a light blanket on him, mainly to keep him dry.

R and L came out as I was wrapping things up to set up a Halloween themed obstacle course for the young woman's lesson, and it will be left up for awhile.

It's more or less the same obstacles she's used other years, so we're familiar with them. Still, it's fun, and it's something to do with H, since there's only so much you can do with her lessons.

It was still fun and social, and I chatted with R and L throughout, and we enjoyed H's costume (Woody from Toy Story) very much.

R and L won't be here for Halloween, they will be attending a Liberty event in Kentucky with some others in the barn. No one is taking horses, they are using horses provided by Patrick Sullivan, who created our Liberty organization (ELO).

I came home, and my Sweetie made supper. He was pretty gimped up from a fall at rock climbing.

He did not want to watch a show, and went to bed after we ate and chatted.