Unfinished Business

 (I just checked my pO2 to see if this forgetfulness* of mine, which seems to be worsening here recently is related - I don’t think it is because my pO2 is 96 right now, oftentimes when I check in in the evenings after hard day’s work, it’s 93 or 94 but I can raise it to 95–96 with a little deep breathing)

* I sat down with my coffee after a brief scan of ye olde social media & then forgot my title, which to me is the most important part of getting my writing juices flowing

At any rate I guess I’m just fatigued - while I’m glad I went ahead & hauled home last night, again it was a lot of work & effort when, in the end we came in overtime. Ugh! At some point it will reach a point of diminishing returns, especially with diesel hovering close to $5/gallon - ouch!!! This translated into roughly $200 in fuel costs for our 500-mi haul. When I add up the fuel, the food, the horse motel stop we did Thursday night**, & our entry fees, this little weekend jaunt cost me just under $600 - that’s presuming the relief vet that I hired to hold down the fort for me Friday paid for herself (I’ll have to look at those figures mañana). At any rate, it’s only money ain’t it?!?

** it was “only” a 6-hr haul, so I decided to break up the trip Thursday by hauling roughly halfway, stopping at an RV park in East Texas which had a nice little rustic barn. I contemplated doing the same thing last night, but I’m glad Catie pressed me to come on home - she’s sleeping in this morning, but I’ve already got the trailer unhitched & the first load of laundry going

& now “the rest of the story” - we have not had a endurance ride in Louisiana for 20 years. At that prior event, I rode good ol’ Quigley, while Christina rode Zach’s awesome little red mule Midge. Midge powered on through, finishing just under the time limit but Quig & I got pulled for lameness. I also had Zack that weekend - at 7 yrs old, he was not quite ready to do a 55-miler so I just took he & his friend Willy so they could play & explore those piney woods… The trails are sandy loam with a lot of zigzagging in & out of creek beds, interspersed w/old railroad berms. These trails are shared with a dirt bike club, if that tells you anything about their technical nature - in other words, fairly tough!

So I’m proud of Twoie & Baraq for powering through yesterday - even more so of Catie, who was worried about doing 25 miles when she hasn’t ridden much recently! (She did great, fueling up on milk & cookies during our break) I’m going to finish my coffee & go generate some breakfast for us; we’ll meet her mama at the clinic this afternoon to do the handover so she can take her bunnies home - I spayed & neutered a pair for her. Photos to follow!

In the meantime, let me see if I can post a video link of my friend Kathy’s -

https://fb.watch/FSyrU0ZOy-/?fs=e