More Blessings

 I’m doing my best to cultivate that “attitude of gratitude” but it’s challenging when I creak out of bed feeling like The Tin Woman - multiple joints stiff & achy, where’s my WD40?? By the time I pace the aisle of my barn, getting the ponies fed, it’s better but I’m grateful to settle in with my cup o’ coffee.

My FitBit logged me at 3.2 miles Saturday; while it didn’t feel as if I walked 5K at the time, today the ol’ bod is telling me differently! I didn’t have a chance to download my photos from the festival - Monday Monday! - but hopefully I’ll have that opportunity today. More gratitude on the front of having a full complement of staff members; Kristy reported further declines in her mom’s condition as I expect she’ll linger for weeks or months under hospice care** - I make no claims as to my diagnostic abilities with humans.

All systems “Go” as we should have Dr M back on board Wednesday; she also confirmed my ride dates in October, so I sent off my entries for next month’s beautiful Pole Canyon ride (10/4 & 5). But unfortunately my young friend Heather is letting her own anxieties get the better of her: I had offered her a ride to Pole Canyon but she doesn’t think Smidge is ready. I really have no business taking off work myself, making such a long haul for these short intro rides but what the hell, it’s carpe diem time!

** while my dear friend Rhonda lasted merely 6 wks after her lung cancer diagnosis, my “god-sister” Dana (my godparents’ only daughter, about the same age as Rhonda) lingered in a comatose state for over a month under hospice care. And I shake my head bitterly at the lost opportunities with my half-sister Linda: I feel as if I was robbed of my chance to have our relationship “out in the open” since I thought learning of her existence would’ve been too big a shock to my mother. Poor Linda’s been gone almost 20 months now, yet while I wouldn’t say my mom is “still going strong”, she is still alive if unwell. I know that sounds awful of me, but she seems to take no pleasure out of life anymore.

And pleasurable or not, I’ve got to get on with my work duties.

Counting Blessings

 I will never turn down an impromptu invitation from my son - Saturday afternoon he wanted to go downtown to the Viva Dallas festival, a pre-celebration of Mexican Independence Day (which is actually today, Diez y Seis de Septembre). It actually worked out well because I had a 3 PM acupuncture appointment: Zach was working Saturday, so by the time he got home, mowed the front yard & took a shower, it was perfect timing. 

We drove downtown, parked at a lot a couple of blocks away (which was “merely” $11, the festival itself was free!) and hiked over to City Hall Plaza. What’s not to like? We ate tacos & elote, listened to mariachis, watched the dancers and saw some impressive displays of horsemanship. I was especially impressed by the young lady riding astride in the full flowing skirt.

Zach couldn’t stay out too late because he had to get up for work Sunday morning - this was perfectly agreeable to me also… We strolled around admiring our architecture and I tried to fill Z in on some of the controversy - many traditionalists were not in favor of our modernistic City Hall design or the Henry Moore sculpture in the plaza. The modern faction won, I think mostly from a desire to prove that we were not Fort Worth! If you walk a few blocks west, you can see the traditional cattle-drive, western bronze sculptures. Zach had to do his employee orientation inside City Hall by which he was favorably impressed.

 But then Sunday morning, it was back to reality - like it or not, I had to get my mother showered. Let me just say that I can handle animal clean-up much better than the eye-watering combination of stale urine and body odor. I tried to work as quickly &efficiently as I could and I got it done. On the classic movie channel they were doing a Lonesome Dove marathon, which turned out to be far superior to the disappointing Cowboys game.

All Shook Up

 I was fortunate yesterday morning when we went riding & my friend Sam volunteered to ride Silas. Dr M’s husband was released from MD Anderson last Wednesday and they drove immediately to come get their pet baby skunk Lily whom we had been babysitting. All went well with his surgery and hopefully I will have Dr M’s help back as usual in another week and a half - that means I can start laying plans for my fall ride schedule. While this seems ludicrous with my meager stamina, it does give me something to look forward to. The next scheduled event is the Pole Canyon ride the first weekend in October (actually there’s a ride in Oklahoma 9/21 but that could be pushing my luck) - I’ve been on the fence as to whether Silas or Baraq gets the nod?

We did a 10 mile out-and-back trail yesterday, and Baraq nearly beat me to death between pulling & jigging when we turned back towards “home”. I had serious doubts those first couple of miles until he simmered down a bit - but there was literally nothing to be done? It wasn’t as if I could dismount & hike it back to the trailer - I couldn’t play take-backs and ask Sam to ride my lil’ fire-breathing dragon; the man is my friend, after all! So this was a minor accomplishment right there, just making it back to the trailer in one piece. I was exhausted afterwards, so even though I should’ve gone to visit my mom, instead I camped out in my living room and watched the Cowboys’ season opener.

So while Mr Silas may be “slow but sure”, he’s the only logical choice to campaign this fall. In other news, Aphrodite has escaped my attempt to make a safe enclosure for her in the shallow end of my pond and is now “wild n’ free” - this is fine by me and thankfully my husband didn’t freak out. We went able to spotlight her (glowing green gator eyes) Saturday night when we got home from our movie date. We went to see “Reagan” - Dennis Quaid did an excellent job in this cheesy puff piece which had Reagan literally riding off into the sunset. Peran was much more enthusiastic, where to even begin? So I did not.

Happy Anniversary

 (I cannot write this phrase, or utter it aloud, without mentally singing the Flintstones version of their silly little song: Happy Anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, haaaaaappy anniversary!!!)

https://youtu.be/UhMzeGZhxWk?si=RSfL15VwUHHXewZH

Obviously I watched far too many cheesy cartoons as a child - but Zach & Victoria celebrated their unofficial anniversary by taking a mini-weekend trip to Broken Bow, Oklahoma. As much as I joke about sawing through that gnarly ol’ umbilical cord, it’s hard when my phone is pinged by a notification for their AirBnB reservation - my number is still primary on that account! Besides, they needed mommy to feed the dog and cats - Mr. Tyson lost his farm privileges a couple of years ago, when he tried to kill my sweet ol’ Tweedledum over the automatic dog feeder. I know I posted about that fiasco…

https://endurovetssparkjourney.blogspot.com/2022/10/snapshots.html

So lucky for Zach, Labor Day was also a holiday for me - but when I got to the house Monday morning, I found the frog with a dirty half-inch of water and Mila the python with NO water in a filthy cage. There wasn’t any point in lecturing him about it long distance, but I will not tolerate animal abuse/neglect. Reptiles and amphibians tolerate a great deal of this, probably proportionally more so than dogs & cats - there is a great deal of ignorance about proper care despite everyone carrying a mini-computer around on their phones. But in my son’s case it was sheer lack of initiative.

I am the first to admit my own husbandry is often less than optimal. I have felt horrible for Aphrodite and her little oversized goldfish bowl of a water trough, but I finished reinforcements to her ramshackle pen-on-the-pond and we released her into it Monday. Photos will be posted, but I’ll have to admit I was horrified by my own appearance as I had my friend shooting video of her release. (See previous entry about the Venus of Bristol) 😳