Maybe I'll have to go mattress shopping on saturday. Its supposed to still be wet, probably sloppy for riding. If its actually raining I guess I could ask if the mattresses are well wrapped. I really don't want to spend much time on it. But having a touchy back is not so great either. If I could know with certainty -- A better mattress will be helpful it would be useful. Oh well, I have reason to think it would be helpful because the air mattress fills saggy. It seems like it shouldn't be but I think I better trust my impression rather than 'how can an air mattress in a wooden box be sagging'
I had a nice ride saturday. Not very far but some fun canter work. Shade felt so strong, I was wondering if she was a bit uneven but I now think it was me. I rode again today also. Razz had his second lease ride and I think that gal is going to come out weekly, maybe some weekends as well. CJ also has a leasor, I have to get that check deposited. She was really skilled with him so I'm very pleased she wanted to come and ride him regularly. I rode Grey friday while she tried him. Actually I had her on Grey first because I took CJ down the road on the 9th and he was being kind of a jerk. Squealed and kicked (felt like just 1 leg) and tried to turn around and go home a few times -- darned horse couldn't stay broke 16 months with no riding? /sarc off. and I don't know how many years ago or how often he was ever taken out by himself. But just in case I wanted to make sure CJ didn't feel wild in the riding area as well, and also that the gal definitely knew how to ride, not just sit and look purdy before I had her get on him. CJ was pretty good for her and she really does know how to ride a horse, asking for direction changes, backing up, getting their mind in a working groove so I think they'll do well this summer. NOW I just have to get myself riding more.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
mixed weekend
Saturday it was snowing a little bit and the wind was blowing HARD. I read my Atlas Shrugged book by Ayn Rand all day. I'm still not finished with the book, had to tear myself away to ride Shade sunday on a much calmer sunny sky and do just a bit of cleaning on Dukes pen --my back was barely up for that. Sitting and reading all day saturday was not good for it.
I should have rode Shade earlier, the wind was picking up some when I got out. Took Mia for a short spin and got a heavier balaclava back at the house, started out, realized I had not put my helmet back on. Decided I should grab one, left Shade grazing in the ditch tied to the paddock fence for a few minutes while I ran back and grabbed one. We ended up not going very far but had a couple of FUN quarter mile SPRINTS up the hill on road 35 and doing a short loop. It spit some sleet on us and I decided I would cut the ride short in case Shade would get wet and chill rather than cooling out gradually.
I haven't finished the book yet, but it got pretty interesting. The book was written before the Marshall plan and assumes communism having crept over all of Europe, but it makes excellent arguments about how envy of the very successful can lead to the destructive desire not to improve ones own situation but to claim a share of their wealth and even to want laws to prevent them from being able to do better than oneself. Also had a chilling but accurate vision of the destructive spirit of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" I cant believe in denying anyone their needs, but the book shows what happens when 'needs' are defined by how effectively one whines to the wealth distributor rather than as a bare survival standard and when abilities are used to demand more of the talented without giving them the reward for their extra production.
I bought the book because I kept reading so many references to it in blogs about our current situation, and sadly it seems that we are perilously close to the faux philosophers preaching that success must be due to climbing on other's backs rather the hard work + talent that it almost always is, our country is too arrogant, is not sensitive enough to the feelings of others and we must make amends .........
I should have rode Shade earlier, the wind was picking up some when I got out. Took Mia for a short spin and got a heavier balaclava back at the house, started out, realized I had not put my helmet back on. Decided I should grab one, left Shade grazing in the ditch tied to the paddock fence for a few minutes while I ran back and grabbed one. We ended up not going very far but had a couple of FUN quarter mile SPRINTS up the hill on road 35 and doing a short loop. It spit some sleet on us and I decided I would cut the ride short in case Shade would get wet and chill rather than cooling out gradually.
I haven't finished the book yet, but it got pretty interesting. The book was written before the Marshall plan and assumes communism having crept over all of Europe, but it makes excellent arguments about how envy of the very successful can lead to the destructive desire not to improve ones own situation but to claim a share of their wealth and even to want laws to prevent them from being able to do better than oneself. Also had a chilling but accurate vision of the destructive spirit of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" I cant believe in denying anyone their needs, but the book shows what happens when 'needs' are defined by how effectively one whines to the wealth distributor rather than as a bare survival standard and when abilities are used to demand more of the talented without giving them the reward for their extra production.
I bought the book because I kept reading so many references to it in blogs about our current situation, and sadly it seems that we are perilously close to the faux philosophers preaching that success must be due to climbing on other's backs rather the hard work + talent that it almost always is, our country is too arrogant, is not sensitive enough to the feelings of others and we must make amends .........
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
tuesday ride
Only went 3 miles. I need to go out and back just a little ways and put Mia in the yard soon. This is not going to get us ready for the endurance season. But I had fun. Shade was acting like she was going to be crazy for meeting the grader though. Darned mare acts so wild that the drivers get nervous and go out of their way for her. I'm not sure how to work through this. At least she was reasonable when a dump truck passed us from behind.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Springtime in colorado ....
Often means snow showers sprinkled amongst the warm days. But I don't mind when the warm days fall on the weekends.
Saturday we still had quite a bit of snow on the ground at the start of the day but it was melting. I rode Grey Moun and let the pesky dogs come along. I cut the ride a bit short because it was pretty sloppy and we were not to the carcass pile where the dogs like to roll and eat nasty bits. Why do I ever go this way you ask? Well its the way Mia insists on going and I do want to give her some exercise so she doesn't get early arthritis. She had a broken leg or pelvis or something before she was re-homed to us.
After a break I was going to ride CJ or RazzMo, but Sadie was wanting attention so I grabbed her. We played a bit with trailer loading. I'm still indulging her, letting her put just front feet in and grab a bit of oats and then back out. Then I put a length of half inch rope in her mouth to see if it relaxed her for working on her feet. Jury is still out on that. Seemed to do some good for a couple of minutes but she was getting pizzed about it I think and was really dancing around when I tried to pick up the last hind leg. I tied her up shorter, and then short and she got the rope out and was like 'finally' about the same time and gave me the foot without more argument.
The longer days are NICE after winter. I caught CJ and brushed him up and then asked dad to take a couple of pictures of him. I'm putting an ad on craigslist for an almost free lease for some of mom and dads horses that never get messed with unless I do it; with 4 horses of my own that could benefit from more of my time then they get something had to change. Hopefully it will work out for at least one horse to get weekly or 3x/month riding.
Sunday I rode Shade, we only went about 6.5 miles, the ditch road was pretty slushy past the highway, so I turned around, went a out and back the other way. We did have some good footing for some decent canter and trot stretches. I still do not have the fire in my belly to really ride like I should to prep for the ride season. I've decided to skip end of April ride, but I need to get after it if I want to ride the pioneer event at the 4th of july ride in Wyoming that I like. I've only done 1 or 2 of the 50s and a LD every time I've gone there. I 'think' I want to reach for that pioneer, but it wont just happen. But I have so much fun just riding, the endurance is really just the excuse to go out when the weather is not great or I probably should be doing something else.
We were back pretty early, I felt sleepy though and piddled, finally took a sinus tablet and did a few bridge exercises. I'm having some low back pain which I think is mostly from neglecting the P/T exercises I used to to. I cleaned out my pickup cab somewhat, wiped the dirt of the dash and tried to scrub up my steering wheel. I'm going to have to wrap it, I scrubbed and rinsed a lot and it still felt a bit sticky. The fleece cover is too bulky and makes my hands ache so I need to try vet wrap or something. I played around with my cap for my tank. I probably should just get a tank with a threaded cover that can't splash but I think if I add a rubber washer under my cap it will be tight enough that it can't splash. I might not have to with the new cap when I leave it in the correct spot, but it can still tip around some. LOL, talk about a diary entry rather than something that could be understood by blog reader. Today it was snowing when I woke up but was getting sunny by 11 am..
Saturday we still had quite a bit of snow on the ground at the start of the day but it was melting. I rode Grey Moun and let the pesky dogs come along. I cut the ride a bit short because it was pretty sloppy and we were not to the carcass pile where the dogs like to roll and eat nasty bits. Why do I ever go this way you ask? Well its the way Mia insists on going and I do want to give her some exercise so she doesn't get early arthritis. She had a broken leg or pelvis or something before she was re-homed to us.
After a break I was going to ride CJ or RazzMo, but Sadie was wanting attention so I grabbed her. We played a bit with trailer loading. I'm still indulging her, letting her put just front feet in and grab a bit of oats and then back out. Then I put a length of half inch rope in her mouth to see if it relaxed her for working on her feet. Jury is still out on that. Seemed to do some good for a couple of minutes but she was getting pizzed about it I think and was really dancing around when I tried to pick up the last hind leg. I tied her up shorter, and then short and she got the rope out and was like 'finally' about the same time and gave me the foot without more argument.
The longer days are NICE after winter. I caught CJ and brushed him up and then asked dad to take a couple of pictures of him. I'm putting an ad on craigslist for an almost free lease for some of mom and dads horses that never get messed with unless I do it; with 4 horses of my own that could benefit from more of my time then they get something had to change. Hopefully it will work out for at least one horse to get weekly or 3x/month riding.
Sunday I rode Shade, we only went about 6.5 miles, the ditch road was pretty slushy past the highway, so I turned around, went a out and back the other way. We did have some good footing for some decent canter and trot stretches. I still do not have the fire in my belly to really ride like I should to prep for the ride season. I've decided to skip end of April ride, but I need to get after it if I want to ride the pioneer event at the 4th of july ride in Wyoming that I like. I've only done 1 or 2 of the 50s and a LD every time I've gone there. I 'think' I want to reach for that pioneer, but it wont just happen. But I have so much fun just riding, the endurance is really just the excuse to go out when the weather is not great or I probably should be doing something else.
We were back pretty early, I felt sleepy though and piddled, finally took a sinus tablet and did a few bridge exercises. I'm having some low back pain which I think is mostly from neglecting the P/T exercises I used to to. I cleaned out my pickup cab somewhat, wiped the dirt of the dash and tried to scrub up my steering wheel. I'm going to have to wrap it, I scrubbed and rinsed a lot and it still felt a bit sticky. The fleece cover is too bulky and makes my hands ache so I need to try vet wrap or something. I played around with my cap for my tank. I probably should just get a tank with a threaded cover that can't splash but I think if I add a rubber washer under my cap it will be tight enough that it can't splash. I might not have to with the new cap when I leave it in the correct spot, but it can still tip around some. LOL, talk about a diary entry rather than something that could be understood by blog reader. Today it was snowing when I woke up but was getting sunny by 11 am..
Friday, March 27, 2009
friday catch up post
I rode wednesday ahead of our snow storm. thursday I vegged on the couch all day. Horses were fed and I did my basic state tax form and not much else beyond reading for entertainment. and even getting halfway into the tv shows mom had on.
Well the weather forecast is tolerable for the weekend. I wish I knew if my farrier was coming tomorrow or at all. I really liked her work but if she is not returning phone calls maybe she was not wild about my twitchy horses. Except I thought they were pretty good on that visit.
It seems so odd to me that a good number of people are 'politically happy'. I'm used to being kind of the oddball, but I must say, now I know how 'the left' felt when dubya had his malapropisms and tongue slip moments. And its odd to go to lunch with the co-workers and they are happy with the none. (I think-- they didn't talk politics and I didn't introduce the subject since talk of weather and movies was going well) I think maybe they cannot see beyond all the science money being passed out. Its rather odd, since *I* am the only one who doesn't have kids to inherit this debt --assuming we don't hyper inflation that makes a mockery of it while pretty much destroying the economy as well.
When I hear an Obama speech (I can NOT stand to watch one) the pauses that don't fit sentence breaks and other bits that really remind me he is reading off a prompter drive me nuts. The thing that bugs me the worst is when he or Hilary bash dubya policies. For pity's sake, you fooled the majority of the people and you are in charge now, but don't go around hinting to the rest of the world that treaties or slightly less formal agreements may be tossed under the bus. Start making your own policies without the bad mouthing and hey heres a thought -- try projecting that this country will honor its commitments past election dates, even if the new administration is going to do things their way.
Acting like snotty kids that have to tear the other snowman down, instead of just building your own better one is not becoming for leaders of the most powerful nation on the planet. Of course I think your snowman idea is wrong headed because you want the balls to get bigger towards the top; but if you conducted yourselves with some dignity I'd be much more inclined to see if you are strong enough to pull it off instead of having to force myself to leave the scene so I wont yell at other people's kids when they are not in my charge.
Well the weather forecast is tolerable for the weekend. I wish I knew if my farrier was coming tomorrow or at all. I really liked her work but if she is not returning phone calls maybe she was not wild about my twitchy horses. Except I thought they were pretty good on that visit.
It seems so odd to me that a good number of people are 'politically happy'. I'm used to being kind of the oddball, but I must say, now I know how 'the left' felt when dubya had his malapropisms and tongue slip moments. And its odd to go to lunch with the co-workers and they are happy with the none. (I think-- they didn't talk politics and I didn't introduce the subject since talk of weather and movies was going well) I think maybe they cannot see beyond all the science money being passed out. Its rather odd, since *I* am the only one who doesn't have kids to inherit this debt --assuming we don't hyper inflation that makes a mockery of it while pretty much destroying the economy as well.
When I hear an Obama speech (I can NOT stand to watch one) the pauses that don't fit sentence breaks and other bits that really remind me he is reading off a prompter drive me nuts. The thing that bugs me the worst is when he or Hilary bash dubya policies. For pity's sake, you fooled the majority of the people and you are in charge now, but don't go around hinting to the rest of the world that treaties or slightly less formal agreements may be tossed under the bus. Start making your own policies without the bad mouthing and hey heres a thought -- try projecting that this country will honor its commitments past election dates, even if the new administration is going to do things their way.
Acting like snotty kids that have to tear the other snowman down, instead of just building your own better one is not becoming for leaders of the most powerful nation on the planet. Of course I think your snowman idea is wrong headed because you want the balls to get bigger towards the top; but if you conducted yourselves with some dignity I'd be much more inclined to see if you are strong enough to pull it off instead of having to force myself to leave the scene so I wont yell at other people's kids when they are not in my charge.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Lovely rides this weekend
and thank goodness because the weather was nasty monday and tuesday morning. I could have lived with a nice blizzard, but we only got the wind, blowing dirt around because we are so dry. We are supposed to get 4 to 8 inches of snow thursday. Please let it be 8 and be WET snow. I have to check the weather to see if looks like possible to ride tomorrow.
Good news side is no meetings this week, so if its calm enough I CAN ride wed, even I'm running slow.
I also have to call the saddle repair guy in town, I want to get my saddle modified and I think I should leave this to a pro instead of hacking on it myself like I did with the pommel. That worked out, I still have to cover my ugly gap but Shade is happy and I am too. Now I just need to get the cantle fixed, and the velcro removed or covered on the seat. I'm not going back to the bulky saddle flap but I need some adjustments for its absence.
I rode Grey on saturday, we had fun and I need to start riding him more, and pony him when I ride Shade shorter rides. Had a LSD ride on Shade, which was not very long. But she is loving the saddle and I made Ole and Mia stay home because it was warm. I'm going to have to do this regardless of temps. It was so nice not to have to keep looking around, worrying about a dog.
Good news side is no meetings this week, so if its calm enough I CAN ride wed, even I'm running slow.
I also have to call the saddle repair guy in town, I want to get my saddle modified and I think I should leave this to a pro instead of hacking on it myself like I did with the pommel. That worked out, I still have to cover my ugly gap but Shade is happy and I am too. Now I just need to get the cantle fixed, and the velcro removed or covered on the seat. I'm not going back to the bulky saddle flap but I need some adjustments for its absence.
I rode Grey on saturday, we had fun and I need to start riding him more, and pony him when I ride Shade shorter rides. Had a LSD ride on Shade, which was not very long. But she is loving the saddle and I made Ole and Mia stay home because it was warm. I'm going to have to do this regardless of temps. It was so nice not to have to keep looking around, worrying about a dog.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Why do I care so much?
I feel like BHO is taking the country exactly the wrong direction; acting like an African tin pot president in foreign affairs, totally failing what I would think would be common diplomatic courtesy. NO I do NOT give him a -oh the new staff just didn't know - pass; that would fly for just the DVDs gift but the snippy attitude I hear about wouldn't be there unless the top boss condones it, in this case most likely incites it. And we are going to have serious inflation, the value of the dollar will halve in 5 years or less. People will be laid off and generally demoralized, there will be an underground economy, probably one to make up through the Carter years look plum tame ........ and Russia, Iran and North Korea are totally going 'heh, we can so play this arrogant but ignorant dope'
But I cant figure out why *I* care. Unless we start disproving global warming in a heck of a hurry (not very likely) my job in atmospheric science is relatively safe and my wage will probably rise with inflation. We have a generous stock based retirement fund so unless BHO totally wipes out capitalism my retirement should grow with inflation and be ok. I don't have kids who will inherit the massive government debts. I don't think the U.S. will actually be bombed. Russia will expand its reach and influence and well Iran and North Korea are crazy but cant reach here........
I've never been particularly patriotic before. I was always pretty proud of my country but I didn't have to join the military to protect it and I didn't volunteer to do so. So why am I worried that conservatives will not be able to defeat these ideas and win elections in time to preserve this country and the next generation or their kids will end up with a tyranny? I keep trying to console myself with "You don't have any kids to reap this mess" but I just cant. I can only get to -well Germany survived Hitler and is not so bad now, etc so even if the worse happens it wont doom future generations forever. That is a comfort, but not enough to turn off all concern.
But I cant figure out why *I* care. Unless we start disproving global warming in a heck of a hurry (not very likely) my job in atmospheric science is relatively safe and my wage will probably rise with inflation. We have a generous stock based retirement fund so unless BHO totally wipes out capitalism my retirement should grow with inflation and be ok. I don't have kids who will inherit the massive government debts. I don't think the U.S. will actually be bombed. Russia will expand its reach and influence and well Iran and North Korea are crazy but cant reach here........
I've never been particularly patriotic before. I was always pretty proud of my country but I didn't have to join the military to protect it and I didn't volunteer to do so. So why am I worried that conservatives will not be able to defeat these ideas and win elections in time to preserve this country and the next generation or their kids will end up with a tyranny? I keep trying to console myself with "You don't have any kids to reap this mess" but I just cant. I can only get to -well Germany survived Hitler and is not so bad now, etc so even if the worse happens it wont doom future generations forever. That is a comfort, but not enough to turn off all concern.
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