I should disengage from the blog again.

 I never cut it off, just had a period where I was very busy plus would read a few comments and be done as whinging about things was not helpful to me at the time.  I re-engaged and have been drawn in the last few weeks, but I really don't enjoy the cool kids' cliques talking to each other in posts.  They've exchanged ph #s, the only reason for them to ping each other online instead of sending texts is to remind the plebes that they are in a clique.   And a lot of the rest is the same old things certain folks always say.  I know I'm a stuck record on a few subjects myself but its growing stale to me. 

Ortho appointment tomorrow

Not watching news,  only the new tidbits posted at the blog I frequent but it is eerily like 9/11 reading snatches about the disaster unfolding in Khabul.    Those poor folks that Biden and his team of bunglers are leaving hanging for the taliban to pick off.   And all the military folks watching the treachery and having no more power than I do to stop it.    

crap, doc thinks my 3rd metatarsal is broken

 She was very prompt getting the x-ray read.  I had at least halfway convinced myself that I just had some bruising of ligaments or something and was going to need to switch gears from being overly protective trying to avoid jostling broken bone ends to stretching and stuff.  Nope, 4+ weeks of surgical shoe.  I need to see if HMO has the shoe or should I order one off of Amazon,  having the full walking cast is a PITA and should not be needed for injury only of the foot bone.   No riding trip with sis unless we can get one in at the end of September.    The only 'good' thing is it is a handy excuse to skip riding with the judgmental crowd 2nd weekend of September.  Not sure I was really even invited, but they were not avoiding talking about it in my presence so perhaps I was.   

Dang I am depressed about this, and I suppose also the rapid decline of the country.   Normalcy bias I guess.  I keep thinking I've come to grips with the fact that the evil corruptocrats won; then feeling gut punched when some new bad thing happens.  

getting an X-ray on Monday

 Yesterday after end of working hours I saw email from nurse at HMO that she could not look at my foot at Tuesday appt.   I tried chat with a doc and the doc got an order in for me to get an x-ray.  I could have gotten it today or Sunday if I was willing to drive to one of the bigger facilities but I figured it wasn't a big rush.   

I may have to quit the easy peasy HMO for insurance option though.  They sent email that they may stop allowing unvaccinated visitors.  Probably not turning away patients yet, but sheesh if I was in a serious accident I don't want my fandamily shut out from being able to see me, advocate for me if needed because they and I have skipped the jab.   If things are going to go that way I need to get a high deductible plan and find a concierge type doc that is not on the everyone must vaccinate 11! bandwagon instead.   I guess that is the more liberty option always but the HMO system was easy, and very low risk for a big bill and not overly nannying up to now so I had gone with it.  I hope I can still do the high deductible and have more say in my health care.   SMH for the commiecrats and the idiots who let FNM liars guide their decisions. 

Must be the new Friday again

 A few things were posted on slack early this morning but I have gotten zero replies to my question about the spam or my response to a Q.  Well I do write responses in a way to not require a response back, I don't want infinite back and forth emails or app messages; but still it again seems like folks are starting their weekend 32 hours early.   I need to make myself a do list of work tasks.  I focused on one task I received Tuesday afternoon and have not done other things that do need to be addressed eventually.   

I'm just so tired of feeling like its a one way street.  I have a question or need help and its like deep space swallowed my question, but everyone expects I will fix an issue or educate them on something they could have figured out with a bit of research on their own.  

I called the HMO # yesterday trying to schedule to get my foot that Tanza stepped on x-rayed.  Got tired of waiting after 15 minutes on hold and just scheduled a tetanus shot and added the foot in the comments box.   So I won't get the x-ray until Tuesday unless they call me to come in earlier.   Which kind of sucks because the Frankenboot is causing some irritation but such is life.  I feel like I need it for up and down stairs and outside.  If I was not up and down the stairs so much I could just leave the boot by the outside door but I don't want to try to tune out dad's blaring television to work downstairs, nor deal with his smells.  Its not like I would have rode with group this weekend anyway since according to B, Tanza was being dangerous.   I do need to work on his manners for standing in a group, but it is hard to figure out just what the hell the problem was since B exaggerated so much, figuratively kicking me while I was down over the damn stepped on foot.   She can be a royal Beeyotch at times.  Always smiling and asking how she can help but often managing to do fuck all; she does get her way if she wants to ride longer than I did; sweetly polite while tearing me down.  She'd be a good southern belle.  

Scratching my head,. trying to remember Tanza "spinning into another horse" on SD trip

 He had some short bus moments but B was telling me he is dangerous and was spinning into other horses.  I just don't remember him doing that.  *I* may have turned him in a circle at a couple of spots where I needed him to wait until the horse in front was clear instead of rushing right on their butt.   I do need to work on just standing quietly.  Possibly he did move his hind end around and bump someone on a group stop and discuss what way do we go time and it was so minor I just don't even remember it, but it is rude behavior and I need to make him be better about that.   But I think I may have to pull back on riding much with her and this group if I'm going to feel judged instead of just having fun.  If I'm going to be judged I may as well go back to going to a bunch of AERC rides and accumulate lifetime mileage records as well. 

I wanted to try to connect with some other folks and ride with different people anyway to broaden my riding scope.   It's not the best growth setup to always ride with the same few people. 

Also kind of felt like they were only inviting me on a few rides to secure a ride and camper for B for this trip this summer and I sure don't like feeling used and like "oh we want B to be able to join us for sure, if we invite W4Hs as well, B won't have to worry about her p/u not making it or the cost of fuel"  But that surely is the case.  They would not have invited just me if B had plans for that date.  But in fairness I also would probably have declined anyway because I don't enjoy riding with C like I do with just M and J.  C is too intense for me, even on a trip like this where not trying to win a ride the intensity comes out in the ways like the horses should just trot slower but still trot through the rocky sections because rider comfort keeping a steady pace.  I guess I should have had more empathy for riders with hip and back issues but my default is "practicing gait changes is good for you, keep the horses safer by slowing through the nasty rocky bits"  B was supposed to be the buffer to keep things fun even with C's alpha personality but it didn't quite work out this trip. 

YAY, the goats heads are thinner this year.

 Sunday when I rode the local ditch roads the oil field folks had sprayed the goats heads on the road.  Well they are known as puncture vine in the south,  maybe some of their equipment is vulnerable.  But the super cool thing was that the oil folks must have had someone with a wand doing the spraying.   They had left non burr weeds alone and only sprayed the goats heads.  

And the nasty things are thinner at home,  I have to tromp around quite a while to go through a couple gallons of spray.   They are also thinner at the neighbors.  This is only my 3rd year of spraying seriously there, so its awesome to have made such a dent.  It did take 12+ gallons the first year I sprayed while they were in Indiana at her mom's funeral, and quite a few last year.  Now I've sprayed there maybe 3-4 times with spray left after spraying at home.    It is nice to get the payback of much fewer burrs as reward for diligence in spraying them.  

Of course human nature, moving goalposts.   Now that I am not overwhelmed with the goats heads, I notice how raggedy the yard looks when I let it go too long before mowing, and all the dead trees and branches I haven't cut up and burned yet, plus all the little branches that keep coming at the bottom of the russian olives and elm trees and fencing that I have not gotten around to fixing up yet.   

FNM We are in the top 10 worst air quality cities in the world right now 11!

 Meh,  we have some smog going with smoke from some big fire somewhere and I suppose summer air patterns are making ozone linger near the surface.    The local FNM are always in alarm mode about something; so its impossible to take them seriously about anything.   I am not noticing crappy air like when I was in Delhi, India 22 years ago.   To be fair, Delhi air had a sulfur tang that irritated my throat; I wasn't having any breathing difficulties.   I suppose asthma patients may be having some issues here, but it doesn't seem very bad to me.   I suppose it will give them another excuse for the crappy economy.  "People stayed home because of bad air quality and delta variant concerns"    

And they'll imply that the I-70 shutdowns for mudslides is climate change rather than piss poor planning and management by C-DOT.  It is known that we get monsoon rains in July-August and the mountains can get heavy afternoon thunderstorms even w/o the monsoon moisture train, and the fires were certainly out by this spring.  But they didn't procure chippers and turn dead trees into mulch to mitigate, nor have any efforts to plant annuals or shrubs that could have gotten going in a few months and helped soak up rain, or put in berms to direct runoff so it wouldn't all go rushing over the interstate.   Not to mention that forest management was neglected for decades so that those areas were ripe to have huge fires because of how overcrowded the trees were.   The country and especially this state are being run like 3rd world shitholes; infrastructure is only ever addressed in emergency mode after a failure.