Val vs The Universe

 …or the Multi-verse, the Mirror Universe (insert lame pop-culture reference here) or a Galaxy Far Far Away!?! I am feeling very small & insignificant as I struggle on, but I realize I never finished last weekend’s minor drama -

Tony was discouraged with our failure to secure a completion at our 5/10 ride, which really wasn’t a failure at all - remember our motto “To Finish is to Win”! I am all too familiar with the disillusionment of being pulled at the finish, but he requested we come home, so we did after allowing the ponies to rest up for a couple of hours. (The ponies looked great so that’s always a win in my book) I called Peran to tell him we were coming on back but he sounded terrible -

“Honey, what’s wrong??” - “The tortoise is missing!” At first, I thought that meant he just couldn’t find her in the upstairs bedroom where I’ve been letting her wander (most of the winter I had her pinned up like a veal calf in an aquarium tank which was too small), but no, P had taken her outside to the small wooden tortoise corral which she has also outgrown. She had busted out the side like the Kool-Aid man & he could not find her…

So when I got home, got Twoie safely put away in the pasture & the trailer parked, I dusted off my hands & settled in to “think like a tortoise”… Thankfully Peran had mowed the front yard so it was easy to scan those premises - I figured she would head for the shade/shelter of the flowerbeds.

I started by the garage to work my way around the house - thankfully I found her tucked under the rosebush by the front steps. Whoops, there’s some poison ivy! but it was a small price to pay to recover Athena. So whenever I start to be too down on myself, sinking into a morass of dog hair, dust & clutter, I remind myself that I do have a few skills.