I’m All for Spontaneity BUT…

 … when your friend texts you at 7:20 asking about dinner plans, just as you’ve pulled out of the Mickey D’s drive-through with your happy meal?!? - kinda throws a monkey wrench into one’s own end-of-the-weekend plans!

So I made that sacrifice, ha ha! even though that meant overeating, leading to another poor night’s sleep. P couldn’t be persuaded to join us - he’d already eaten & is adhering to his rigid dietary/exercise schedule (looks like he’s peeled off a few of the pounds he’s regained, good for him!). I’ve been trying to celebrate K & W’s belated 39th anniversary, that’s quite the accomplishment! Poor K is getting over walking pneumonia; W is fighting miserable side effects of his Metformin/statin combination**, and Baby Daddy drama continues over their coming-on-5-yr old granddaughter…

** W was beset w/intractable hiccups right after his big beautiful steak was placed before him; he had to excuse himself & go stroll around a bit to ensure this didn’t cause regurgitation 

I managed a 2-hr ride yesterday morning w/Tony & Sam; my entire stiff spine was crackling this morning when I stretched out in my brief yoga routine. (I had invited K but of course things weren’t going to work for her on a Sunday morning - can’t miss church don’t ya know! - & she worries about parking her rig “in da hood” where we connect w/the AT&T Trail)

Tony picked some winecups for Twoie’s halter - I’ll have to add those photos later 

 I keep dawdling around, distracting myself with busywork when I ought to be organizing my thoughts… I had everything planned out for my next blog entry right down to the title: “Endurovet Rides Again”!!!** I’ll just pull my initial effort straight from the transcription I wrote for my cousin:

Karen was my mentor when Michael & I latched on to endurance riding as “our sport” after picking up a flyer at the feed store in 1990. “Way back when” she was a schoolteacher in Grapevine: I was witness as K worked out her relationship with Mark. He was 10 years older than Karen & had gotten out of a messy 1st marriage himself, fortunately without any children involved…
(This summarizing is quite helpful - what just occurred to me is another disparity in our relationship; while I considered Karen to be one of my closest friends, she didn’t ask me to be a bridesmaid? Hmmm, maybe it was just that pesky religious difference - her family is very evangelical/verging on fundamentalist?)
Anyway, I got the impression early on that Mark was trying to isolate Karen from her family - going to NB, then returning to TX to settle near Amarillo, “just far enough” to make visiting difficult!
But over the years, I got the distinct impression that I was doing the heavy lifting in our relationship - by the time Zach was a teenager, I had withdrawn quite a bit, but I still considered her a close friend - I just didn’t reach out as often. Guess that’s why it felt like such a betrayal when I was unburdening my soul during that final disastrous custody battle - as it turned out, she was sharing this with Mark, who was then passing intel along to Michael!
When this truth came to light, she justified their actions by framing as some sort of intervention, since I was “too permissive” with Zach - needless to say,  our relationship has never recovered. We are now passing acquaintances at the rare rides K attends, which are few & far between (after she married Mark, it was obvious he was trying to isolate her from that too!)
It will be curious to see if she now starts going to more rides as a widow?

** I had planned to shepherd Tony through his first 25-mi event in 7 yrs, & mine in 3 - however Texas weather had other plans! Torrential rains flooded the trails & the Forest Service feared too much potential damage, so our ride was canceled. Endurovet will have to delay “feeling like a genuine endurance rider” until 5/11…

https://www.robertsonfuneral.com/obituaries/mark-schrader/#!/TributeWall

Death & Taxes

 …”the only inevitabilities” as Val continues to flounder around in this maelstrom of my own making!

I started to title this “Best-Laid Plans” - if there’s anything that endurance riding teaches you, it should be adaptability! Off Tony & I went to Priefert Ranch last weekend, with a brief stop at the clinic Friday morning since there had been a scheduling problem & I had to see a couple of clients. But fortunately it all worked out, no major delays, and we were setting up camp around 3 PM…

The next monkey wrench came flying out of left field when we took the ponies over for their check-in exam & Twoie was lame with heat & swelling in his left front tendon sheath?!? So we had to do a swap & trade, with me appropriating dear Silas while Catie’s dad hauled in one of their “sale barn mares” for Catie to ride instead. (Marty bought these mares last summer - good solid quarter horses - but was uncertain of Blue’s ability to hang tough for a long distance event? Spoiler alert - she did great! Catie’s riding skills have greatly improved, as Blue is an ex-playday pony, ready to go-go-go! So Catie had to do a lot of circles)

The Rest of this Story to follow as my next inevitability arises - the necessity of going to work!

************************************************************************

"The Things We Do for Love”

Of course I didn’t have the opportunity to add anything to this, even at the tail end of my workday - as my friend William loves to exclaim: “Everybody wants a piece of me!”

I was going to type earlier this afternoon that my son was in the process taking the GMAT… I trekked up to Irving last night to buy him a good-luck dinner. He has studied so hard for this test, and had his hopes pinned on a high-percentile score which might qualify him for some scholarships. Zach just called me in dejection, because he “merely” scored a 615 which ranks him in about the 75th percentile. When he first began taking practice exams, he was scoring in the 500’s but had high hopes of scoring above 700. I remain amazed that they get their scores immediately as I recall waiting anxiously for weeks for the results of some of my higher level exams! Admittedly, I have not done much research but I would think Zach could gain admittance to the UT-Dallas MBA program with that score? I would think there is some small advantage to the fact that he just graduated from there with his bachelor’s almost a year ago…

At any rate, I would count last weekend’s expedition as “qualified” success: while I’m disappointed that Twoie hurt himself, I got my crew through the ride successfully & even managed to teach Tony a thing or two about pacing, so he was much more comfortable upon completion of the ride. Tony & I continued up to Clarksville Sat afternoon to visit my cousins, where we enjoyed a homemade lasagne dinner with them. (One thing you can say about my family is that you will never leave hungry ;-) It was a very pleasant evening to camp out, and we headed back home Sunday morning.

I’ll have to add some photos mañana, since this iPad is not cooperating in these endeavors.

"The power of advertising" - I bought this glitter stencil kit from a FB ad, so Cowboy got to be Gator Boy! (Twoie didn't earn any bling bcz he was crippled!)

                                          The backroads of the beautiful Priefert Ranch

                                                                  My crew & I setting out

W.Y.H.I.W.Y.G.

 (What You Have Is What You Get)

I am slowly coming into the acceptance that this is the current status of my relationship with my son -   don’t get me wrong, it’s all good & I appreciate every time he calls to ask me a random question, vents to me about this, that, or the other thing, bouncing various ideas off of me** but still I miss him - I miss his physical presence; I know I “spousified” him far too much as far as getting my minor hits of affection. “A son is a son till he takes a wife”; I know Z’s got to invest himself in his relationship with Victoria if there’s any hope of him having a successful marriage. That leaves Mommy out in the cold like the little match girl - pressing my nose to the glass, trying not to say too much nor do too much! As currently Z & V are trying to thrash out their compromises for the wedding… I understand that Victoria wants her day in the spotlight, but I agree with my son that it’s foolish to invest as much as $20 - 30K in such an event. Looks like we could easily drop $10K just by renting a couple of tents to pitch on the hillside & having everything down here on the farm, but at least that would solve the problem of the $10K rental fee just for the venue! That’s a generous wedding gift in my opinion (obviously, that’s not the only wedding gift I would give them)

** Z is currently studying to take the GMAT because he wants to go back and get an MBA. Continued education is never a bad thing, & if he thinks it will help his career I’m all for it! T minus 48 hrs - he’s been burning the midnight oil studying for this and goes to take the exam Friday evening. Fingers crossed, but I’m confident my boy is (still) a good test taker just as I was…

But my cousin has decided Holy Cross is not the retirement community for her - fortunately no one has made an offer on her house so back we go to California over Easter weekend. Keeps my mind off my current troubles which continue to be my mom’s insidious decline, and the loss of most of her clothes when they moved her to long-term care! It’s irritating because I had bought her a pile of new things since she has lost significant weight. So that’s this afternoon‘s project, combined with starting to repack & load for this weekend where Tony and I are going up to Mount Pleasant (the beautiful Priefert Ranch). The bluebonnets are blooming & it should be a beautiful weekend!