unintelligible work rambling.

Well I was pretty chincy in my paper review. Basically just said is was a mish-mash of stuff with bad graphs and didn't give specific examples. I was in a bad mood wrt to it. Dam global warming shills make me cranky, combine that with some problems in the paper and it just was not happening for me.

and DARN. I set up some processing 2 months ago, was trying to fiddle around to add Glonass data to the GPS by using rinex instead of binex data since only the perl /c pgm guru understands his code to translate binex data into the processing softwares format so I had no way I could ever get glonass data w/o twisting his arm to add it to his translation code and he's always got too many balls in the air. So I dropped the glonass part for now anyway but I have comparing my results go the standard and my clock solutions were significantly noisier. TODAY I checked things again, my results still too noisy and realize that where I thought the std results were really just decimating (darned fancy perl scripting) they really are being smoothed.

So tomorrow I will have see whether I can get this smoothing effects using the main processing software smoothing pgm w/o it being too slow to run etc, then wait at least a day after things are going to see if my results are good enough. SIGH, I like long weekends and vacations but it is too often like a monday squared after them.

If someone else read this and is going rinex/binex HUH? Well I did warn in the header that it would be unintelligible. When people ask me where I work what my job is I usually explain the acronym for the outfit and that is the threshold where eyes will start to glaze over, but if not it doesn't take too much more description just of the group I work for.

Decent 3-day weekend.

I should finish reading the awful paper I'm reviewing. I don't feel right just saying REJECT, so have to pick out some specific things to ding on it. But I'll probably not force myself anymore tonight.

I did some corral cleaning with the tractor on saturday and cleaned two cartfuls out of my anchored portable shed. Needs at least 3-4 cartfuls more to be decent. Dad showed me a trick with the tractor loader that works slick. I need to do another 2-3 hour session with the tractor in the bigger corral still though. But I needed to ride too. Took just a short ride on Shade on saturday. Sunday I rode Grey and had a gal come out and ride Lady from a CL ad. I don't think she'll come back. Well I have to email her but she has not gotten back to me; I think she is only going to go for the free month to accompany me on Sadie if she comes back at all. That would be fine but mom is doing a bit more and I would be most comfortable with her. But this gal was doing ok with Lady swirling around while I saddled Grey so I think she would be OK if Sadie would spook and dump me rather than being a passenger on a runaway after the loose horse. Then I had my weekly ride on Sadie. I think she's ready to ride out with a buddy.

Today I rode Shade, took a 4 mile loop with Ole, then a short break, I grabbed a Luna bar and my camelback and put the barefoot hoof boots on her front feet and we went down the gravel road about 2.5 miles Turned around and it was very soon threatening to rain, so instead of adding the 1 mile out and back side road I had planned, we power trotted the whole way back. Beat the small hail storm just BARELY --it was sleeting after I had pulled the saddle and went in the house to get a screwdriver to pop hoof boots off so I ran out to the shed with her. I just held her and we stood for the 4-5 minutes while it was pea + sized hail before I took off her hackamore and I ran back to the house in the rain. I went back out about 40 minutes later and took the hoof boots off after the rain had quit.

Lincoln's Gettysburg address

What a stirring, wonderful address. It makes me mad that I cannot help contrasting with clips of the bamsters visit to Joplin, this day is about the heros that gave ALL in service of liberty for America, I don't like my resentment of the marxist that was foolishly elected CiC intruding.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Just rode Sadie

New little milestone I skipped doing any longing or ground driving and rode her in the bigger paddock. I am pretty happy about it but I'm sitting on the couch and can barely keep my eyes open. Weird. I did a little corral cleaning yesterday but I used the tractor and just did a few partial bucket fills with the manure fork when my loader skills failed and I felt horridly stiff and sore yesterday and had to go to bed early and now I'm tired today. I almost wonder if I have a virus but its probably just residual from the 2 month sinus crap this winter and a bit of tension having someone come out and ride Lady. That went pretty well though, really sweet gal and her friend that was watching her disabled daughter was really nice too and mom seems ok with it.

Various pictures

This is never going to be a photo blog, but today I'm putting up some of my random very ammy pics. Anyone in our house is popular with Ole when they are eating but dad draws the full crowd. Even Mia likes to come in on weekend evenings and see if there is a chance to score some scraps before she goes back out and eats her dog food.

Fairly typical pre-ride. Shade is usually eager and Ole is pushing the pesty line with "I get to go too right, are we leaving yet"

Mom on Lady and me getting an ear shot from Grey Moun last sunday.

Sarah Palin -- movie coming out this summer

This is making heads explode --on the conservative boards. Palin is a complete enigma to me at this point. I have NO idea if she is intending to run for president and has concluded that the way to reach the apathetic voters is to go full on pop culture in an end run around the media gate keepers who have declared her not serious and just another cult personality, the conservative figure to Barry's liberal cult following with him having ZERO experience and now IMO demonstrated incompetence in the job. OR (ok this is my fantasy hope) perhaps Palin knows how this will drive Barry and some of his Hollywood buddies crazy with jealousy, and she thinks that they will reveal themselves with a competing movie, increasing the public's readiness to embrace a GOP candidate who can remember what year it is and talk for a few minutes w/o needing a prompter.

I don't see Sarah getting the GOP nomination if she runs, unless the class of voters that would be swayed by a movie could also be shifted to participating in caucuses and primaries and that seems rather unlikely. *well I guess it depends on the field. I would vote for Sarah over Huntsmen in a heartbeat. I'd vote for her over Newt also; No way Ron Paul lasts that long. I go with Cain first. I've learned a bit more about Palin and she is more populist than conservative. (increased oil taxes, which AK just hands out checks to citizens with excess revenue and some things like that) Then the rest of the field I have to study them and I would have to study Palin farther and I would have to decide whether to factor in that a lot of GOP/conservative women dislike her -- plus there is the prejudice which I somewhat sympathize with but "ok the media smeared her, but she has not been able to PWN them in interviews, we know they'll smear all GOP folks but we need to have someone that is better at turning the tables on the marxist propagandists.

I can see her launching a 3rd party in 2013 or taking over one of the fringe conservative parties as a counter to a Democratic lite GOP; but I think she is too patriotic to hand the marxists election victories in 2012 by jumping onto a reform/libertarian/american constituion/.... party ticket this election season. BUT my interest in politics only started late in 2008; and I can only stand to listen to Rush (1 hour during my commute) and go to one conservative blog --I cant force myself to wade through the chaff to get news from "general" sources that are usually full of columns written by liberals who pretend to be neutral. So I don't have any real information to base this feeling on --its just my rookie hunch and I doubt that I can read politics like I can read a horse that I'm on.

They used to say politics was acting for ugly people --Palin isn't ugly and she has the Fox gig and had the LC gig, so she doesn't need politics to get attention. In Barry's case it seems to me like its acting for someone too dumb to memorize lines or do ANY ad-lib bits without tons of umms and awkward pauses --and yet libs to continue to say he is smart and a good speaker? I keep wondering if I need to read Orwell's 1984 book, I've heard enough about it to feel like we are in an age of newspeak and the like, and then I think perhaps I don't want to read about a depressing dystopia that we seem to be emulating.

wednesday again already?

Well the good news is that I have been riding a bit more although I didn't (b)log it here. Rode Shade saturday and monday. Worked with Sadie on stepping in water saturday, very draining but she did remember in the end that "oh yeah I like to play in water, it is NOT a scary thing" Then sunday I rode Sadie and it was pretty good. Also on sunday my mom actually rode Lady, YAY! I rode Grey Moun just in case of problems but mom and Lady got along pretty well and we actually went a 3 mile loop ride. I was prepared for mom to declare she had to turn around before hitting the mile out point so that was good.

I had put a craigslist ad for people to lease lady about sunday the week before this because I thought mom was never going to do any riding and yesterday I had two emails. Well I'm inviting them both out to try things. Unless the folks live in one of the small towns near me there is a good chance one or both will fizzle out after they figure out their gas costs for a round trip. If that doesn't happen then perhaps one will be advanced enough to handle RazzMo and he would get some more legging up before the ND trail ride trip we hope to take this summer.

I actually took a few pictures last week, maybe I'll get them up here later.

Hump day? More like part-way up the hill day.

Now I have to put something to explain my title. But my work week never feels like its all coasting after wednesday. Only weekends feel like a bit of pleasant coasting --when I don't 'work' too hard on the stuff I do for fun.

I guess I must have knocked my back out of alignment when Shade fell on sunday. I was feeling some soreness after my chiro adjustment so I took ibuprofen. It rained fairly in Boulder for few hours, looked like it was a fairly strong rain by Colorado standards. Now it dry for a bit but sky is still solidly full of low rain clouds. I hope the hay growers near me get some nice rain. I guess after last weeks rain the ground can probably absorb a bit faster rain anyway. With luck I'll stop hearing the weather guessers on TV going on about how outside of the mountains we are still behind normal rainfall. I know its easy filler material for them but it gets so old. The state can barely be said to have a "normal climate" We get warm dry decembers, and warm januarys one year, then we get decembers with 3 feet of snow and cold into march + some additional snow that keeps everything white another year.

I think I will just ride at home (around the local dirt roads) this weekend. There are places I could go and not worry about tearing up trails slopping through mud, and I just had my p/u serviced but now there is a big concern about EHV-1. All kinds of formal events are being canceled and its probably best to avoid trailering out even just for a day's trail ride until its known whether its going to spread beyond the barns/farms that had horses exposed at the cutting event in Utah. I'm so behind on having horses legged up that it barely affects me, but its harsh timing for general horse activities that tend to ramp up in the summer.

Ill-fated shoes and I am old and weak.

I had the horses trimmed and Shade shod on May 5. That sunday when I went to ride Shade she was missing her RF shoe. My fault I had not done anything about the horse mesh fencing that was curled up at the bottom between their pen and AJs. L came out and nailed it back on on friday and dad nailed some 2-6 boards along the bottom there so it wouldn't happen again.

Yesterday I was riding Shade and thinking, well I have shoes on her, I'll do a short loop this direction and then tie Ole up or something and keep going down the softened gravel road over the hill and back and get in a bit of hill work. And then as we were doing a nice pace alongside the ditch Shade hit a soft deepish spot with the same RF foot and because the foot was stuck momentarily she stepped on the shoe with the back foot and tripped herself but good. Launched me and I thought she was coming on top of me but she scrambled to her feet without squishing me, I love that sweet agile mare. I thought of putting a hoof boot on and sticking with the original plan but she had scalped the back of her heel just a bit so I nixed that idea. I was a little freaked out, thought she had done some more damage there but when I got home and trimmed off the flaps its very shallow. I put on a betadine ointment and wrap to 'make myself feel better' anyway. Wrap was worked up to basically being a bell boot in a few hours so good thing it was not needed. Shade has been moving fine too but I think I'll get the chiro out for her.

Think I'll move up my chiro appt from june 3 as well. I didn't feel bad this morning and I even got the other front shoe off with lots of sweat, but no blood or tears at least. But I was stiffening up pretty good sitting at work so I took some ibuprofen. I decided I am not riding full steam yet anyway and I would have to get L to pull the LF shoe, fire up the forge and take a little off the back of both front shoes, not just re-nail the RF this time if I had her come out at all. So I opted to just skip having any extra nail holes and I'll use hoof boots for any day-trip trail rides on rocky footing to remind myself of how much I prefer having a shod horse when I will be trailering and riding rocky trails instead of just the winter-time riding on our sandy dirt roads.

Saturday was a nice boring riding day. I rode Sadie in the paddock. She thought about having a meltdown for a few seconds, crow-hopped very mildly in place a couple of times after I had been up for about 2 minutes. One QUIT IT and pulling her nose to my knee for a few seconds and she went back to her usual sweet self and we practiced going where I wanted to, did some lopsided figure eights around some old torn rubber feed pans in that paddock at a walk and trot and called it good. She didn't buck when I longed her before mounting but she was zooming at the slightest request to move off --it was a chilly day; so I had planned to skip cantering in the bigger area from the start. Then I tossed the LJ pad on Lady and took her down the road just a few miles and let Ole tag along after having tied him to keep him out of the way while I messed with Sadie.

The queen bays

Sunday I rode Shade while it was still hot. The irrigation ditch has water so I didn't have to worry Ole would get heat exhaustion and I dug out my camelback. Darn mare had pulled a shoe off on the horse mesh fence between their paddock and AJs. I put on an easyboot to even things out. L will replace the shoe on friday. Afterwards I let the horses out on the scrubby 'pasture' area to enjoy the spring grass. When it came time to come in they were not interested in leaving the grass just for a bit of grain --Sadie followed me up to the gate, munching on the way, then spun around and went back to the grass. So I had to walk up and get halters and catch Shade and Sadie. Grey Moun and Razz will almost always follow Shade and Lady is crazy attached to Sadie.

Tuesday Dr Mike was out to do all the vaccinations. Grey Moun and Shade were the best behaved, but Sadie was quite good. I was feeding her treats and she was a big wiggly looking for the next treat, but was not at all worried about Dr Mike and the needles, and we even drew blood to run coggins test so I can take her to out of state rides this summer/fall if I get her legged up and ready. I could not find our twitch and Lady was being crazy AAAK NEEDLES, we put her in my gooseneck trailer as a substitute for having a vets stock to restrain her. That worked pretty slick, Dr Mike says in future we'll probably want to give her some sedative by muscle in there then finish sedating by IV and do everything she needs in one go around. I suppose I could see if feeding her ACE orally would be enough.

Sadie is so smooth

Yesterday after I had mounted and was just walking her and letting her look around she stopped in a corner and was looking at the horses across the road or something. Then something startled her and she did a rollback with canter depart. I am LOVING this little bay mare. LOL sounds funny -like I love that she had a spook, but it was so smooth it was easy to sit even in the OF saddle which sits high off the horses back and I pulled her up in 3-4 strides and we had our normal ride, she kept a wary eye on that corner but was not obnoxious about it. WTC each direction and just a bit of trot after the second canter as I don't want her thinking that cantering is the only goal of a ride. Next ride I think I pull Lady out to stand tied and ride in their paddock. I'm a bit bored in the little arena but not quite ready to ride her out.

I rode Lady in the evening. She was pretty good and I am thinking again I might be able to coax mom to ride her a little bit and ride out with me the first few times on Sadie. We will see what happens. If mom is not going to ride her at all then I need to get my butt in gear and try to arrange some kind of 'feed lease' so I can spend more time riding my forever horses.

Rode Shade 3 times this week

Unfortunately the mileage total is really low. I have got to either get over my phone phobia and start calling looking for folks who would like to get together and ride out, or just go solo more often. I'm behind in my usual spring riding and desire to start trailering out so I can just ride instead of doubling back and waiting on the stupid dog. I don't know why I'm such a sucker for the dog eyes, I do think I'll skip having a dog if I'm ever at my own place in WY. Arghh I'll be here till midnight if the stupid data transfer doesn't finish up so I can start the next push. Darn fussy thing that won't just take a password in an input file.

LOL, liberal co-workers disagree that BO is a blowhard

Actually I'm not LOL, more sad sighhh. Oh and they think its great that we supposedly gave the bastard rat terrorist a proper muslim funeral too. OTOH If *I* find out that the US navy rounded up only muzzies to touch his body after the SEALS brought it in and did not do a proper full autopsy I am going to be pissed. But I already hated Barry's guts so he doesn't care. I am starting to wonder about shooting Bin Laden. Seems like that gives him Jihad points. Not sure if its any more j points that death by drone fired missile though --was sending in SEALS just to avoid killing Bin Ladens family? But Barry has ramped up drone attacks on AQ targets. So? did Barry want witnesses left to tell the local jihadists that Bin Laden died in 'battle'? Since we went in anyway and Bin Laden was not participating in the firefight before he was killed I'm beginning to suspect he was bedridden. In which case we should have captured him and showed footage of his sorry-ass self stuck in jail cell or cuffed to a bed in a prison infirmary with his IVs running not given him what I believe most jihadists will probably consider a martyrs death.

Sunday's riding.

Sadie's first requested canter under saddle --she has had a few strides of sort of whee or spook taking off that I pulled her out of. I think she was wondering if I wasn't going to do that today, first attempt was just 3-4 strides and she dropped down, second time she started, got a bit bouncy then we had several nice strides and I slowed her down. Then I did some more walk trot work, don't want her thinking I'm going to ask her to speed up to a canter every time we trot. She really does have a nice mind IMO.

Then in the afternoon took Shade down the road and let Ole tag along, he was feeling so sorry for himself with me trailering Lady off on saturday and working Sadie in the arena sunday morning. Ahhh, I do love my bayrabs, especially having a nice canter on Shade. Although I needed the canter after she was all googly eyed over some guys enjoying their ATVs and motorcycle. I don't know if they were going to take a break anyway or just stopped to be nice because they saw the horse being all looky loo. --this mare has met ATV's and cycles before on National forest trails and was fine but she sure likes to act like a goober greenie that has never seen such a thing when we ride at home, its no wonder some people hate ayrabs but its mainly a little extra spice of life for me.