I should be excited ...

I just bought a shiny new pickup (well its a 2003 with 108,xxx miles) but its new to me and is in lovely condition. And anyone who reads this will have to wait till I take possession wednesday for a picture of the dark blue crew cab F350 pickup. I grabbed my camera this morning but forgot to take pics when I wrote the check at the dealer. I'll never be a photo journalist.

Plus I'm pretty sure that Shade is just one ride away from her 1000 miles at AERC. I am so blessed to own my little steel magolia. The latest toughness was competing after getting bee stung right near her left eye. She looked like someone punched her poor thing. -btw a cold beer is pretty good for cooling, I started with the cooling gel wraps I use on her legs in the roll and then used the beer can for a while after she'd decided the cool felt pretty good and was not tossing her head --I didn't want to give her a real knock on the eye.

I think I'm still in that state of shock one has after writing that size of check. I don't really feel like I have a dread of what if this thing sucks at towing or is a constant visitor to the mechanics, the Ford superduty has a pretty good reputation and I had it inspected, but I just feel tired. I should be recovered from my endurance ride. I slept pretty good saturday after riding and it was only a 2.5 hour drive home and I mostly vegged out yesterday. But I just feel tired. I have to go get the paperwork and play with the insurance SOON.

My saddle that I put on ebay sold. I had put a bid on it because Shade got back sore saturday. I think I can fix that, the ride photos (and from the last 2 rides also) show my feet way out in front --or my butt way behind my stirrups so I expect I was bumping around on the back of the saddle a bit -damm I'm unhappy with myself for not figuring that out UNTIL Shade's back was tender to the touch, but at least she seemed pretty much all better by this morning so I'm not beating myself up too much.

I ordered a seat cover and will put some extra foam in front of the cantle so I cant slide back as much. I am also thinking of asking someone to make me a stirrup hanger with velcro hooks on the bottom so I could put some velcro loops on the top of my saddle and have adjustable stirrups. I sure hope that is all it takes to fix things. I bid on my own saddle yesterday, figured I'd donate to the rescue I was donating proceeds to myself rather than give the saddle away super cheap when I'm suddenly worried about the new saddle working for the endurance rides. But I still have my OF, I'm leery of it because Grey used to get sore from it but Shade wore it and never had any problems before so I can at least rotate it with the Barefoot so she isn't stuck with either long panels or me bouncing for the whole day.

Well I'm not at the dealers

The truck I looked at did not get inspected yesterday. Place was closed at 6:15 when they went to do it. I'd had the mis-impression that Paul worked a much earlier shift than that, or I could have pressed dad to please call around for a shop to do it. Oh well, perhaps I'm meant to get another dodge ram instead. Trying to live this but I'm having trouble letting go of the frustration. There are plenty of trucks for sale, I do not need to replace mine this week, breath in, breath out. MUST try to find hay on sunday. I'm pretty sure sickly mom hasn't done diddly squat about it and we are almost out of alfalfa mix that AJ gets. I get so so so tired of feeling like the scrubbing bubble.

I did ride today. Just a quickie, Shade felt ok.

is it bad that

Is it bad that I could hardly care less that Ted Kennedy died yesterday? I don't want to read about his career or his checkered history, I don't want to speculate on whether Massachusetts will overturn the special election law they passed just 4 years ago so the now democrat governor can appoint a warm body D vote more quickly, I just don't care. He was old, he died, its too soon to have any idea how this will affect things in Washington.

Horse related: I should try to get up really early and take a quick systems check ride on Shade tomorrow morning. Unless inspection shows something bad on the truck I test drove this morning I'll be dickering with the dealer for a good while and we are supposed to have a long boring work meeting.

I should clean out my desk, since I'll be busy tomorrow. No I'm not laid off or fired (at least not yet) The group is doing an office shuffle for reasons I don't fully know. Some new personnel but other folks changing offices for unknown reasons. But I decided it would seem too lazy and unsocial to turn down an offer for a south side office (I may not need a desk sweater anymore or at least not until the sun sets) next to core people in my group. The desk movers are coming on Friday and I'll be out for my ride adventure. I'm getting some butterflies with possible truck purchase, horses needing wound care still and not a lot of training but I really like this ride and I feel due for some fun after all the snafu stuff. (just hope I'm not still under any jinx)

Was gunshy of trailering anywhere so rode at home today

It was too hot yesterday and I thought I'd try to get started in the morning but failed. But the heavens smiled on me. After starting out letting Ole come but insisting Mia stay inside. It was too hot for Ole too, I noticed he was not following, went to the irrigation ditch in case he just had not made the corner. No Ole so I headed home hoping he wasn't pestering on Tate, He was in the place between Tate and road 35, must have been a rabbit in a dense patch of bushes. Went home, gave Shade a little hay and went in for a drink and to grab my camelback that I had not grabbed earlier. In this time we got some cloud cover and a bit of nice breeze. Had a nice 10 mile ride then. Its so nice when I can just make a loop and not have to wait or double back for the pokey dog. With the 2.5 miles aborted bit with Ole along that is not too bad, Shade felt strong so I hope we complete in good shape saturday.

Shade wore the reactor panel saddle today. Thursday I made her model the OF but I have decided I will sell the R/P instead. I want the buyer to be happy and I think thats more likely with the R/P. If the batteries would have cooperated I could have taken pics but I had 2 sets of batteries that apparently wont take a charge anymore. Waiting for two others to charge. Trying to decide if I'll just put the saddle on ebay. I should email endurance list first and offer to take it to the Happy Jack ride saturday. I WILL borrow the parents pickup (unless I get a replacement truck bought first) to go to that ride, I've been looking forward to it. Will skip the ride in Nebraska over labor day weekend, and just go to the colorado springs ride two weeks after HJ.

I rode Razz a little bit yesterday in my OF. I think I got it working good for me which is another factor in keeping it and selling the R/P. I will sell my cloud nine stirrups though. I have had it with those clunky things bonking me on the head when I'm saddling and on the shins when I'm carrying the saddle.

musing on the day

I wonder if people who were uneasy with the National Socialist Democratic Parties early moves were called fear mongers and people claimed the unsettling facts they pointed out were myths and fabrications? I understand people don't want to think about unpleasant possibilities, heck I get tired of it and avoid news sources that seem too overwhelming, but its frustrating to realize people I thought were thinkers are doing the lemming bit along with the folks I expected to be in that group.

If I wanted HS dramatics I could have gone into teaching

Well I could drop some drama llama carp if I dropped some of the web forums, seems like when I think I have found an okay balance by avoiding some subtopics and posters something comes up and I'm groaning yet again. I guess its just my substitute for soap operas to keep going there at all LOL.

Then at WORK apart from the computer outage that could not be helped and all the extra activity from that I heard from a university contact that the other processing group wasn't getting our data. Perhaps he was asking them for product but it came across to me like they were unwilling to deal directly with me to solve the problem. Sheesh its not like they get charged for my time! Then monday I get email from our sys admin, he had checked something on their website that verified they were not getting our data and was wondering how we could solve it. *I* have still NOT heard boo from processing center B. But I decided somebody had to cut to the chase so I checked the relevant logs, they were connecting fine but their data request used a specific feedtype --and I believed that our older software didn't work with it so I emailed the people at processing center B telling them "a little bird told me you are not getting data" and suggesting they use "ANY" instead of the specific feedtype. And cc'd my group at work. At least I did get a note from their person equivalent to me today that the fix worked.

RIP Blue Beast --guardian angel was working hard

So I fetched the Blue beast home today. Went about 300 ft and the tranny was DONE. How lucky I was to get it moved off the approach to the interstate overpass last night. Now I have to go truck shopping. Yuck. I think I'll go either Ford or private party. The dodges have been good trucks but I want a straight 1 ton not a dually and while I would not mind supporting a dodge dealer buying a new vehicle from Government Motors is not happening. I also think it would be a good idea to get a 450 instead of just barely a one ton. OK I admit it, I even looked at some semi's but really do think that would be total overkill.

OK how does one lift the chinese curse ...

You know the one "may you live in interesting times" Things have been too interesting lately. CPU/RAID failures at work, get that solved (sys admin mainly but I had to restore scripts with new paths) Grey Moun gave himself a nasty hock wound wed night. I called the vet cuz he was so lame but hadn't heard back on when he could come in 2 hours and was still battling to get processing going again and after hosing the wound it didn't look so awful and certainly nothing to be stitched so I flushed it with some saline + bit of iodine, wrapped the leg, gave Grey tucoprim and called the vets office to push appt back to friday.

I probably should not have done that --Turns out the cut went down to the bone and Dr Mike even felt some movement indicating a chip which he thought might actually be the tibia. Dr M is concerned about possible infection. Grey is on 25 cc of penicillin 2x/day after lots of extras on friday. We will switch to at least 2 weeks of tucoprim after 5 days of the penicillin.

Well I worked a bunch from home yesterday getting some processing that was not as time critical restored but met an endurance buddy today to trail ride this afternoon --after having had to fix the hourly processing which got hosed because a disk filled up. I had to fix some files even after making some disk space because they got zeroed out when the disk filled.

THANK GOODNESS I unhitched the BAT and just had the bumper pull. My pickup's transmission went kaput about 1/2 way home. My wonderful dad came with their pickup and towed the trailer home. I found I had 4th gear so I pulled off the turn lane to the interstate to a safer area and will fetch it in the morning with dad and pickup for backup to tow me home if the tranny quits altogether. I have ONLY 4th gear, seemed like I had reverse for a short time but I was on a hill so might have just been gravity and having clutch at least somewhat engaged. I certainly do not have reverse any more. I don't really feel my pickup is worth ME fixing the transmission. Have to study whether I could possibly get cash for clunkers for the pickup and still get something big enough to tow the BAT; if that could happen that MIGHT tip me into doing that. Otherwise I think I will look for a used 1 ton pickup.

All caffeinated and not much to do yet

Well I could work on the routine stuff for the other group and I am pecking at it. But I was all set for a big push to transfer jobs to a new cpu from the one that is on the fritz -only things must be getting stuck for the sys admin. He'll get it worked out, he's a whiz at this stuff but dang I could have taken a good long ride this morning instead of coming in early intending to minimize the outage time. If only I were psychic or had a crystal ball. Oh well such is life.

Razz was good yesterday -but CJ got cut and I missed it

C took it pretty easy on him, but he gave her a pretty good ride. I grabbed Cindy and she was kind of showing her age. Used to be she was still energizer bunny riding in a ring but she was not into it. But Razz was not sucked down so it was cool. When I walked out to catch her I noticed wire in the pasture. Spent about 10 minutes gathering it up and tracking to where it was down from the unjuiced electric wire that had been running around the top of the pasture. I checked legs when I caught Cindy but didn't look hard at CJ. Had a lovely ride on Shade saturday evening. Mia came along, I tied her up after about 1.2 miles so I could have some canter time.

Today I only rode the John Deere. Got the goatsheads around the edge of the little paddock where the woven wire fence was installed. Then dad put the post hole digger on and we moved the mailbox about 6 feet east so there is more clearance to turn left with the BAT. As usual things were over engineered. When dad does a project he does it to last forever not to get it done quickly. I was going to grab Grey Moun and take the dogs for a run about 7pm but when I went out to catch him I noticed CJ's left hind leg was all swollen and had a cut on the inside of the leg at hock height. So instead of riding I got mom to help so I could hose his leg, then put some bag balm on it with a telfa pad and elastikon and fed him some tucoprim powder antibiotics and a gram of bute. Put the tractor away since dad was just finishing the mailbox project and then I took the dogs for a quick walk, drove out about 0.7 miles and then walked with them about 0.6 miles and drove home as it was getting dark with some help with storm clouds. Only got a few sprinkles though. I'll have to pull CJ out to feed him for a week now to finish up the tucoprim course.

ugh my brain is fried

I could not think of a way to automate it so I just hand edited an 1900 line file down to the 88 lines of information I needed to try to process some old data. Doing tons of greps and lists on site names to get down to the 22 sites with 4 lines of information each that I needed the information for.

I will wait until tomorrow to add the 88 lines to the existing information file and try to re-run in spots where things were failing.

My hand that got bitten is swollen. I will slather with sore-no-more tonight. It doesn't really seem like infection I think its just bruising from the pressure of a dogs jaws but I will evaluate in the morning if I need to run to the clinic. Geez I really don't want to explain to 5 or so different HMO people how I was so stupid so I hope it looks on the mend in the morning. I want to get Shade back into some riding but I'll have to see how hot it seems in the morning. I just am not in the mood to push myself physically.

WooHoo --mom and dad put up woven wire fence

AND RazzMo's leasor is going to come on saturday. She worked some overtime and has more gas money. I rode him today and he was pretty good. He was reasonably energetic too, so perhaps the remission product is increasing his energy.

I guess getting my hand bit when dad had unexpected free time worked out pretty well. Its not a bad wound but the bruising or something is mucking with the tendon and I cant use my finger normally. At least I can type but I'm having to ride with just the first 2 fingers on that hand. Otherwise they do some sympathetic thing when the ring finger hurts and I cant get any curling pressure at all. And my riding glove got shredded on the top. Funny the bite puncture is on my palm and I don't see any hole there. Back of the hand on the glove got torn but the skin just has little scrapes.

I'm glad most of my tuesdays aren't like yesterday

Having some fun typing today. I have vet wrap around my right hand. Darned dogs. Sigh *I* used to find routes to ride that never took me past any problem places where dogs ran out and harassed and followed me. I don't know why the whiny neighbor couldn't do that. Sure wish she had controlled her big dog better last night when I met her. And honestly stewpid Chi's just shouldn't be taken out in public. Although Ole does not get a pass. Her big dog made an agressive move towards Mia whom I had hopped of of Shade and grabbed her leash to make sure she didn't start any ruckus. I guess Ole thought the dog was making an agressive move towards me because Ole took out after the dammed dog. Neighbor cant be any help with her hands full of TWO stewpid chi's --I am not a little dog person sue me if you are, they can be ok but really its a 10 lb dog, don't tell me it cant get sufficient exercise at home and they don't tend to play well with other people or critters. I was having trouble getting Ole to quit and was scared he might actually hurt her big dog so at one point I tried to grab Ole's ear --and got my hand bit by her stupid big dog for being so foolish. I was also upset because I hadn't worried about Ole, he is Mr friendly puss, just wants to play --except he must have felt I needed protecting. He did something like that once before.

Good thing I had riding gloves on! I still got skin broke in a couple spots and some bruising right under my ring finger. Oh the kicker --this neighbor is berating me all this time because Mia has been slipping out of our fence sometimes when she goes by and harrassing her and her dogs. Did she ever leave a note to let us know? Oh hell no. Did it occur to her to just change routes? oh hell hell NO. But goes off on me -for AGES -while I break up the fight while she stands there holding the stewpid chi's and then when I finally get Ole away from her dog and am dragging 2 dogs home, where Shade had run to when the dog fight started. I so wished I could just say the hell with everything and just leave for WY right then.

But alas, no, I feel obligated to continue renting and helping while mom is so sick and it makes me soooo mad, she will not go outside the western medical box to try and get better, or better quicker or just able to function better until they can kick the infection -sometimes I get negative and wonder is she likes being sick in some subconscious weird way. And I would never want to just leave work hanging although last night I was about ready to. Well the sys admin was working on the problem remotely on his day off and the rich group was not refusing to share their unused resources --course sys admin stated flat out he was using them in an email. But I still felt like no one else cared much that we were down and researchers were out in the cold until we got going again.

But today is much better -- our sys admin rocks. The fsck he started and restarted remotely on his day off finished up and the missing raid was able to be remounted. Instead of having to edit many scripts to put or fetch data from a new place + recreate entire campaign directories to allow processing to resume the hourly processing came back on its own before I even got to work and I was able to get the missed daily files replaced and start that processing job with minimal effort.

Monday Monday

I feel cheated on my weekend. Saturday when it was cooler and I was working Shade come up to say hi twice but sunday she blew me off. I ended up riding Cindy in the morning, hiding from the heat in the house and then I grabbed CJ in the evening when the heat was breaking a little bit. My back does not like riding CJ. I think I didn't relax like normal last night. He felt like he was moving well, I think the chiro work is sticking and did serious good for him. But I took him down the road and he was being very much a green horse (who is big and powerful.) Or it might have just been the last round of weed pulling that upset my back.

I am bummed because none of the 3 riders is coming out anymore. Maybe AJ's gal just went on vacation or something. Razz's girl gave me an excuse of gas money not fitting her budget but I think he is scaring her a bit. CJ only had about 3 rides before that gal dropped out. Sigh the parents are not going to suddenly start riding more but at least for now I feel like I should quit while we are ahead rather than trying to get new 'leasors' The last thing we need is someone getting hurt out here on one of our horses. Mom is so sick --she thinks she has a cold but I'm worried its the bone infection getting worse. I'm edgy that the hyperbaric (actually I think only the CONSULT) doesn't start for another 3 weeks. But she encouraged the drs/surgeons to say she should wait on removing implants until after trying the O2 therapy so now everyone is just in waiting mode. Its not like mom not to press for dr attn if she thinks she needs it but as dragged down as she is now I'm not sure she is making good assessments of her status anymore. Sigh, if only I knew exactly what should be done, but my track record isn't good, I encouraged her to go for the implants --I should have researched them but she just asked me in terms of $$ and I told her the cost per day was not that much to spend on herself. Sigh again.