Enjoying a sunny christmas

Heh when I was in college and younger I thought it should be white for christmas but now nice riding weather is the BESTEST for any holiday or time off I have. Rode Lady yesterday and Shade today and should grab Sadie for a quick bit in the areana--and no sinus episodes since wednesday night. Only off note is mom and dad were carping at each other a bit. Well they squabble a lot, but have stayed married over 45 years. I tell people that I think the 'Leave it to Beaver' family is fairly rare in real life.

please no sinus infection

Hope the episode at 2:30am was brought on by the dental cleaning, I don't want to stay home with disappointed parents and feeling tired/scared to ride in case I get a sudden bout of painful sinus pressure -- talk about a careful what you wish for moment.


Office 12:44. I think the pushy boss who remembers "I asked you to understand every line of the code" where I remember "understand the readme file and how to run the code" with no foreknowledge that I was going to have to convert said code to read new format, let alone the sticky mess I think I have is on vacation this week. How nice would it be *IF* I had I known in advance so I would have known to push through as far as I could get and ask any questions that came up while he was still around.

There are very few cars in the parking lot. Well that is typical. They only give Christmas day (Christmas eve this year since 25th is saturday) as an official holiday but with generous PTO that is generally flexible for everyone to take, even with just short notice, the place is usually pretty dead the 2-3 days before Christmas.

All I want for xmas ...

Is to stay home and enjoy my horses. Well I will get that on christmas day so enough with my whining. Its no use wishing the parents would have traveled w/o me; If wishes were cars beggars would drive (modifying the old saying because beggars certainly couldn't afford to feed horses in this day and age)

I need to buckle down and get some work tasks done. I have some routine ones I can do even while my brain remains stuck in idle. Grey got his second shot of penicillin today. I skipped last night but dad was up this morning so I made him hold the twitch so I could give a rump shot. So tonight I can give Grey a shot in the neck and I should be able to do that solo. I will try to get 2x/daily shots in him for at least 3 days.
Every morning when I feed I am bringing over 2 bales of hay for P to feed while we are gone. We got some hay this summer that is really nice and the bales feel about 10 lbs heavier than what I've been taking off the stack delivery we got from another grower. So I'm bringing that over since I wont have P graining except maybe AJ and I will not be worried about them having enough if its a bit colder. By sunday morning when I feed before we take off I should have 16 bales to cover the feedings while we are gone.

Arrived home to Christmas lights last night

So I guess dad was all depressed about not going to ND, and mom is also getting some bounce out of the thought of going. Merry Christmas parents. Saturday dad went to a gun show and did shopping therapy as well. What a pity mom only wants to go if the alternative is staying home by herself and covering chores and dad wouldn't even think of just going by himself. He is retired and could have spent 2-3 weeks if he went by himself and he was driving a big semi over the road until a couple years ago so its not like he has any concerns about driving long distances - but it does not even occur to him that he could just travel on his own. Men are such big babies, sis and I drive back and forth solo all the time and even mom drove up to by herself to spend time with grandma and visit HS friends a few years ago. Oh well I did decide I would do the trip as a present to him and I need to keep considering it in that light and honestly I'm not going to mind being away from the office for a bit, although I expect I'll be trying to log in and check on and launch jobs almost daily but ~ an hour and not in the stupid office vs all day and going in so I can be more productive with multiple screens and full copy/paste will still be a pretty good break.

Plus this SHOULD keep me focused and productive instead of being just a chair warmer in the office which often happens when I'm not taking PTO the day(s) before the official holiday and everyone else is taking off. The lunar eclipse was cool last night. When the eclipse was full the moon was visible in red.

I still can't decide on giving Grey a round of penicillin. His dumb knee is still draining. Well I think he had a mini abscess that blew out. No heat, swelling or soreness so I have only been making sure it can keep draining, but because I wont be around to see if starts to look bad I am wondering if I should just give a round of antibiotics and its too late for the tucoprim, I wouldn't even be around to give him a week let alone the 10 days I'd want.

Well I'll be up that late --wonder if I'll see the lunar eclipse

I hope its not too cloudy to see it. I might flip the outdoor breakers to see if I can squelch the light pollution from all the yardlights and see it from inside the nice warm house. I could potentially adjust my sleeping hours to get interested in astronomy but I think I'd need access to a nice, heated observatory. I get chilled and am done in nothing flat for big stuff that can be seen with naked eye, but I have to be outside to see it. Also my touchy neck complains about twisting up to try to see things. Yeah excuses. As with nature shows its nicer to just see the best pictures compiled into a presentation than sit there in live time. I only like my nature from the back of my horse :P

I rode my Ayrab mares on sunday

Weather gave me a wonderful gift of warm, sunny and no wind. So I was surprised that Shade was acting like a snorty, spooky thing that only a crazy lady would ride. Oh well she has to have her ayrab days. I stayed on and didn't feel like anything got wrenched.

Was a couch potato for a bit and then rode Sadie and she was in Ayrab mode too. She did her first acting out under saddle. First, while we were still on ground work she was giving some big snorts and she acted like a tumbleweed in the arena was going to eat her, especially when I picked it up and held it for a bit before walking over to the fence and tossing it over. Then she was snorty about the corners near the road and did actually come hopping out of them a couple of times. She pulls up really easily thank god since I'm just in the wintec dressage saddle. Its a deep seat, and grippy suede but no swells to help if a horse gets raunchy. I was annoyed after the second time and made MS Sadie trot under saddle for her first time. Which resulted in another bit of run/hop ing when I tried to keep her going until she got into a rhythm. So one last bit of trotting and I asked her to stop after 1/2 a lap and stopped on that semi-good note.

good grief

I hope I'm just getting plenty of fluids and the office is a bit chilly today. So many trips to the bathroom today its ridiculous.

SO CLOSE --

and yet so far. Black box code is running now but covariance or ??? #'s aren't right.

AND..... Everything I tried made the #'s go REALLY crazy. Sighhh. Oh well, I must maintain the meh attitude on this one. Its not my fault I was given faulty stuff 5 months ago.

Ugh politics/media.

Feels like conservatives are getting rolled in this lame duck congress session. Sigh, I hate the MarxSpewMedia. and I also don't understand how an 'industry' which has been private and for profit became so infested with Marxists. How can people be clever enough to infiltrate, lie low, gradually creep up the Marxism yada yada and still believe in that crap? How many examples of history do they need before they understand how bad it is? I guess its the seductive allure of being a member of the elites, and the big money behind them does benefit if they get a state system which blocks up and comers so they don't face any competition. YUCK.

The Blahs:

Had to look it up while I was waiting on cpu program to work or not . its "The Blah" with no ess.

This was a funny kids book IIRC, I may not be spelling it right though. A pretty good nights sleep last night had my back/SI feeling mostly good after being very tight when I finally left work. Thanks Ole for sleeping with mom or on the couch :P I hate to shut him out when he wants to sleep with me cuz I think he'll be more likely to run off at 1st chance then. He's actually been pretty good lately, knock wood. I have been remembering to put him on his trap pretty good but he has stayed a few times not on it the last few weeks. Rode Shade today, my back felt like it was tightening shortly after I dismounted. Probably created some new tensions with her jumping a bit but I just loff riding her, if I were to be very honest I get a bit of an ego boost being able to ride the 'jumpy arab' -- scare quotes because she and Grey both do the spooks but its almost always just one jump and done, not like having to stay centered on a horse and calm them down as they whirl around or anything.

Stopped at the convenience/gas station and got a breakfast burrito for lunch. I have only cooked one lunch since I realized I was tired of the frozen lunches. Mom had made a big pan of lasagna, there was the staff potluck, and I've gotten breakfast burrito's a couple times on my way to work. I'd probably be horrified to know the # of fat grams in these. Someone local makes them and sells them through that station. I'm not even sure I can say they are tasty as they are so spicy hot I don't taste much else. But I like them and I feel like the spicy helps wake me up :P

Got to work to find a frozen screen so I had to reboot and it is work that is giving me blahs. Perhaps I should consider quitting this summer. I wish I had consulted with siblings about the oil shares last year, if I had included them in correspondence from cousin and they had not opted to go in full shares I might not have felt obligated to divvy up, oh well I could live in WY on the revenue from the shares I retained if it continued at last months level, I'd just hate to be relying on that. I need to try to estimate the costs I would have, maybe look into buying into a Service Master business or something. Or just get over being whiny about work :P

I HATE project X

Urk urk urk. What does one do with a boss who pretends one has had data that didn't exit on a cpu you had had access to? I am not so sure data is around at all anymore. Wait until the deadline is looming and then start asking about stuff he earlier told me to never mind that just skip and do this? WTH, I NOT like being set up to be a fall guy. Not like at all.

**New update** data has been found (sort of ) the format is different and the program I was supposedly expected to have run for this unavailable until tuesday dataset can NOT read the new format. I had to google to even be able get started today as the PI was usual unhelpful self telling me to look where I already had which was missing one of the new variables and then pointing me to one of those doc pages that might as well be in greek for all they good they do. Thankfully google pulled up a program that dumped some basic information including the CHANGED ?! name of the matrix section of the binary file --too bad the old format had a 2*21 dimension and the new file's format is 10*10. That aint working and I don't have clue one about which of those 100 values are needed now or should they all be used and interpolated to 7*7. Why only 21 used before etc etc. I'm not fond of just doing black box processing but have been doing only that with this project as it seems so complicated. I'm going to request not to be a co-author on report and any paper. I am not comfortable with the amount of data massaging, it may well be fine but since I don't understand all the math and statistics of it I dont want to appear to 'sign off ' on it in any way.

mini whine, slight headache

I think the n.s. has pretty well kicked in and it doesn't hurt, just a fuzzy discomfort, but if I cant whine to my blog where can I whine :P

The group potluck and white elephant gift exchange was OK. My gift was last thing taken, OK, just rolling it in a Target shopping bag did not make it very attractive --none of the liberal, save the planet co-workers went for it instead of a traditional wrapped or gift bagged present, well they are libs, they rarely walk their talk :P I almost took it myself to save it from orphanhood but chose to steal an LED flashlight set that someone else had. I hope the group boss is not unhappy with the truffles and chocolate and candy coated blueberries as he ended up taking it off the table. 1st # gift chooser stole the flashlights in turn from me so I wound up with a photo album. Its all right I had had it on my list of possible wants. At least I didn't take a gift off the table that I didn't want and no one else had interest in either, which happened to me at the last WE I had attended a decade ago. I ended up giving the coloring book and magic markers that only write on that paper to my boss at that time after that party. Heh it really was at least a decade ago, now he is dealing with teenagers. I decided then that I would take an opened gift or my own gift at any WE I attend in future.

Christmas list

Probably stupid to do here, but I can copy it to a better printer option.

What I DONT want. Elec. jack for horse trailer. If I use a bottle jack it goes pretty decent. Rather have that several hundred dollars going somewhere else.

What I do want.

Replacement floorboard -oops I think i mean runningboard, the floor is solid or I would fix immediately. on the trailer.

Brakes checked, repaired if needed, bearings packed on the big trailer

My sky hook from little trailer moved to big trailer, needs replacement backing pieces and maybe a bolt or two.

Cupboard installed over the window in my LQ area like Naomi's trailer has.

Step on my pickup box (maybe one on each side)

*for Ed or Naomi ---
I could use the third boxed set of Terry Goodkinds Wizards first rule series.

I could use some CW or classic rock CD's

farrier day today

I made the mistake of catching Grey and Shade first. I was thinking I would let fidgety Sadie and Lady continue eating hay and the day keep warming, but what happened was the wind came up right as Shade was done. Lady was acting like a brat. After a while when the "no you cant have my foot shenanigans were escalating" L noticed Lady's neck was about as rigid as a statue with tension and spent a couple minutes rubbing her neck and making Lady look at L instead of away and Lady relaxed a bit. So then I rubbed on Lady's neck while L was working and Lady stood better and L was able to finish up. As far as I know L has a good customer base so I'm not putting her name out, I don't want her to get too busy and not want to come out anymore, its a hefty commute for her but she has said she has other customers in the area so hopefully she can schedule things to minimize driving. I gave her $20 extra for christmas tip and because of Lady. I gave her extra last time too because Cindy had been hard to get her front feet done. Well L has been charging less than R used to do so giving a little extra is not hard to do.

Sadie was pretty good, moved around a bit before standing and letting L have a foot but she stood pretty good while L had her foot. Although she nipped my hand a bit right at the start, smartass little wench, doing it when I wouldn't go John Lyon's "I'm going to kill you" for 3 seconds because L was working under her. It was not a serious "I'm pissed" bite, but is wasn't just lipping my glove for any flavoring either. I was able to prevent any more nips just by paying close attention and gentle bump of her nose corrections when she was thinking about doing it again.

Nice little ride this morning

I kept daydreaming about possible homes for Lady, but I enjoyed riding Shade this morning. It was so warm I had to remove my windbreaker, thankfully enough breeze I was ok with sweatshirt and Shade was not too hot and sluggish. Then I ate at home. Last night I was in the frozen foods aisle, and realized I have somewhat suddenly hit a wall on eating microwaved frozen quesadilas, or mini pizzas, sandwich pockets etc. I was looking at the breakfast items and went "well I could just make myself some scrambled egg skillet things and bring in, no need to pay this much for stuff that wont taste nearly as good. So while I'm still on pbj on toast for breakfast I guess I'm going to have a bit of a skillet egg kick for lunches, maybe supplemented with some hearty stew/chile/soups once in a while. I am not in a mood for chefs salads.

Grey's knee didn't seem swollen today and the pad was no longer over the scratch/poke so I just put some povidone salve on it. I think this salve is thick enough to stay in place on a 60 degrees day. His cut is ok. I think he's going to have a bit of proud flesh there but the wonder dust/ lime will keep it from getting too ugly.

I bought some no name truffle candy for the white elephant deal at work. I had toyed with the idea of making bath salts or body scrub with feed salt rather than $$ dead sea salt but the candy was right there in the store in a holiday end cap display and I didn't have to spend time trying to decorate a jar, picking out and mixing scents or any of that rot.

Forgot to drive the pickup today

I should drive it some time this week. Going to try to drive it 2-3 times a month this winter and hopefully avoid having clogged fuel injectors again cuz that $$$ repair bill sucked.

The wrap was still in place on Grey's right knee. Knee still looks swollen but I think less than yesterday. Yeah photo progression would be good -but I'm so non-talented at lining up shots that I probably couldn't tell much anyway. The actual scratch/poke did not seem to be draining much. I put the same stuff on it again today anyway. His cut on his LH foot (very technical term :P ) looks like it is healing fairly well.

I didn't move fast enough to think about riding. It did not feel too pleasant until I fetched Ole in before leaving for work at 11 am, but I was only wearing jeans and a jacket so it would have been fine for riding in my winter breeches if I'd had more ambition.

Drivers license renewed -check

Thank goodness that is done. I had actually forgotten about doing it this week, but I dinked around too slowly this morning and then found I had to mess with Grey's knee so I didn't get my hair washed before having to get to the chiro appt and it was driving me nuts. The DL place is in the same old shopping center as the nearest hair place so after I got my hair washed and cut I went and got the DL renewal done. They had a lot of people in line but got me through with arriving at 4:18 and they close at 5 -well the poor picture gal still had some behind me at 5:15 so good on the staff there for being efficient and courteous to everyone.

Photo is just me at my desk, I don't get to see what the DL pic will look like until they mail the completed new license. They punched a hole in my current license and gave me a 4x10 sheet of paper that is my temporary. Hopefully I wont need to show my DL until the new one arrives.

Daily whine: I noticed my throat starting to feel raw while waiting to get my DL picture taken. It doesn't feel like just dehydration although I have only quaffed caffeinated drinks all day so its possible. I don't want to get sick, I hate being sick, especially with a dratted cold.

Arghhh! I think that stupid gelding wants to be lame

When he and CJ were acting tough over the fence Grey managed to give himself a poke right over his knee. I did not think it was too bad and just left it. Well I guess I should have flushed it and made sure it would drain and probably given the jerk ANOTHER round of antibiotics because his knee is swollen today. I was just going to slop some povidone salve on it but I couldn't find that jar and stumbled on the jar of dmso and the jar of furacin while I was searching --so I figured I was being given a sign and put a telfa pad with too much dmso/furacin mix gooped up on it over the poke spot and a couple wraps of vet wrap and elastic tape. I had so much excess greasy mixture I had to cut off 10 inches of elastic tape that came unwound before I had even finished taking my second wrap with the tape at the bottom of the bandage. So I will not be shocked if the bandage is around his fetlock or completely gone by tomorrow morning.

I had my monthly chiro appt this morning and when Dr T asked me how I was I said my back was tight and I was blaming it on my gelding for seeking out injuries in his old age when he is supposed to be old and wise enough to avoid dumb injuries.

Grey Moun's owie update

I think there is a bit of healing progress (the open area is getting shorter) but its slow. A few days ago I thought it was a nice hard scab so I left it, next day it was very raised up and loose so I have been plucking at the scab every day now. Today I made it bleed at the bottom. I've switched to using only the wonder dust, no more alushield spray as main focus is to try to limit amount of proud flesh until the skin can eventually grow over that area. I am forcing myself to be a bit more stingy with hay. Having CJ over there it should be 1 bale for 1 feeding. Didn't start on a new bale though, but I am trying to come out close. I was feeding more generous than the horses needed. Better than stinting them but they don't need to be fed to obesity either.

Ahh, I think I needed a work free weekend

I rode Lady yesterday. I need to get my butt in gear and assemble what paperwork I have for her and get a brand inspection. She is not a rookie mount but would be perfect for an experienced rider with some physical limitations --Like N, the teen that had her until the P/R/O team as I like to call them ruined the economy and they couldn't afford to keep her GRRR. But Lady will test a rider a bit but it takes SOOO little strength to correct her with a leg or rein and she is a pretty smooth ride.

Rode the bay girls today. I really noticed Shade being pokey today. She was having one of her days where it takes her a long time to warm up and be ready to move out and even on the way home was relaxed and grabbing bites. But Shade has a high gear once she gets warmed up and thats FUN. Sadie was pretty good. She was a bit scooty today but immediately checked every time when I reined her up. She is such a good, calm girl, she is giving me confidence to continue playing with the long lining with her. Jo did such a good job, Sadie has no concerns about the lines bumping around her back legs and she stops nicely on the rein pressure and then lets me get directly behind her and ask for a step back. Sadie actually trotted a step or two a couple times when I was asking for a more forward walk when I climbed in the saddle for a few minutes. I checked her up though, I did not feel ready for speed when she was a bit scooty generally and I just have not felt she feels solid enough balancing me to be ready for faster gait. I don't want her to bobble in case she would decide that was a reason to buck. I don't have too much confidence I could ride out very much of a rodeo.

trying to get up some ambition

It was gray this morning and I checked the forecast, not very warm and I rode yesterday so 'maybe I should just go to work today' get some stuff done in case we trek to ND to pile in on the relatives. I am faced with a very big task at work, I should be angry at the supervisor for that project (so much fun having 3 bosses/3 jobs btw) because he led me to think 'oh thats already done' all I need to do is work on plots. NOT. However I am just feeling meh rather than angry.

I put CJ in with Sadie and Lady this morning. He walked out of his pen when I left the gate open to fish ice out of water trough. I was thinking he needs to join a group to simplify farm sitting chores if we go to ND anyway. He and Grey have been squealing over the fence. Grey already got his foot over the electric 'rope' fence one, jerked free I don't think he did much of a rope burn. Danged gelding is so stupid in his old age. He has always been a bit of a pill to push boundaries when put in with strange horses and I swear he is less mindful of dangers and more pushy now than when he had the excuse of being 'young and dumb'.

Perhaps he feels like he is not the main mount and can be stupid now, since Shade is the endurance horse. But dangit while I am fine with Grey being practically retired already I DO want to be able to take him on the hunting trips and be able to hop on him just for grins a few times a year like I used to do with Cindy so I sure wish he would knock it off with the daring injury to happen crap.

I am ready to run away from home Ole wise today. He wanted to go out to see about the horse squealing, thinks he should have a run today and I am inclined to run off to work and not mess with dogs, etc etc. I kind of like dogs but really I would rather not have any that have much attachment to me. Like if I was married and the DH had a dog that was really his dog. Ole is officiallly the parents dog but they are so lazy about exercising dogs etc that he kind of thinks he belongs to all of us --plus its his street dog personality to think he belongs to every human in the universe anyway. *I* would not have chosen that dog personality because we have neighbors and they don't like visiting dogs, but we let dad choose the dog after mom brought home the little japanese breed dog that had some fear of men and nipped dad and had to be returned to the stupid shelter.

Afternoon update. Well dad went shopping or something so I punted on going to work. Mom is dragging around again so I really cannot see us going to ND but I need to get an answer so I can plan on either having to get stuff done ahead of time or not. I would rather go in Feb I think. Of course if its nice here in Feb I won't feel that way but December is so busy for people, I hate to drop in for a visit with relatives we are not all THAT close with and the way dad seems to only be awake 6-8 hours a day, mom is moaning with head pain every other day and I'd be stressed about work I do not thing we would be a positive for sister recuperating from surgery.

TGIF

really is there any reason to elaborate on that? But I don't want to do real work just yet.

I had a fun ride this morning. I guess I'm twisted because the wind was blowing and Shade was a bit jumpy from the tumbling tumbleweeds but when one stays horse side up and the wind is not damp and raw its just exhilarating to ride in it. Ole was a good boy and I did not have to get off and grab his leash at all. I really did not want to since Shade was jumpy I figured I'm safer if I just stay riding instead of trying to lead both her and the dog :P.

I was so late I thought about just grabbing lunch at home then but nothing looked good in fridge or cupboard so I just grabbed a jalopeno burger and root beer float at the drive through. Much richer meal than I needed. Dragged into work and have semi-panic emails from the sys admin because results aren't getting posted until 30 minutes after the hour. So I tell him its because one of the networks is down for data access and get my boss to nudge the agency. Then get some coffee, do some snooping and find the agency had just fixed the data about 20 minutes before I had my boss email them. OOPS. :( So write another email thanking the staff I had emailed yesterday for fixing the data and cc'ing everyone my boss had emailed. I did not mention that the data was available before extra email was sent. Not feeling too badly about nagging the agency because data went down at 5 am yesterday, I notified them a little after noon and they only got it going again around noon today. Usually unless they had some big internet or power outage they can restore data flow much quicker than that.

I am reading "South" Earnest Shackleton's account of his Antarctic adventure. That is a good book for a "geeze don't feel sorry for yourself" message. His ship gets trapped in ice so they can't land and do the planned trek across Anarctica, then the ice destroys the ship so he must turn his energy into getting all the crew to civilization. Well I am not doing the book justice, but there are points where he realizes he should have made a different decision someways back on his journey. But he just notes this and goes on with recounting the steps taken from WHERE THEY ARE to hunt food, maintain morale and be ready to make for land that will be 200-300 miles away in some small boats that they had on board the ship for excursions and safety measure when the ice melts and they have open water. I am only 30% through the book so I guess they run into a lot more 'adventure' before they are done.

WooHoo, One thing is done.

I got the oil shares divided equally. I just received email with attachment of the recorded stipulation. Should be in good time for the Dec royalty check to be even for all of us

Now I just have to figure out how to handle the income taxes. I'm thinking its enough money the IRS will charge some interest and penalty if they don't get quarterly payments starting in 2011. Government is always pretty money grubbing.

My buzz over the oil business being completed was short lived as I went online to check on my drivers license renewal. I have to go in person because I used the online renewal last time and you can only use it every other time, and they have cut back on # of offices so I have to go the one in Boulder, last time I renewed in person I was able to do it in Brighton. -rats, I hate the DMV lines and when I had to get some driving records for insurance a few years ago the line in that Boulder office was horribly long. I'm sure the staff feel more overworked than ever with now having state budget shortfalls so they probably 'move' slower than ever. Human nature if one feels like 'the man' is trying to squeeze every last bit of effort out of you, then you dig in your heels. Not to mention that feeling overwhelmed makes it hard to get things done in general.

I cant decide if I should just file a form and pay estimated taxes quarterly or try to get money taken out at work. It is not a stable amount yet so perhaps I'll be better off just sending in a payment every quarter. Or actually in Jan, Apr, Jun and Sep. I don't know why they shift to Jun and Sep after starting with payments due 1/2 way through the month that follows the end of the quarter. But I guess, the Infernal Revenue System is not supposed to make sense to basic citizens.

So tired

Yuck, it sets a bad tone for the week when I stay up too late on monday and then start dragging. Well coffee mug is empty, think I'll shower before I finish up the horse chores. Must engage muscles and move my body from couch, NOW.

Well I made it to work and have not fallen asleep at my desk yet. I think I will have to try to leave early though and hopefully be more productive on Th and Fri. Good lord, this is boring even by my 'this blog is just a diary that happens to be on the web' standards. Oh well.