Nope. Not at all. Quite the opposite. I’m a big fan of the “sh** happens” school of thought, as a lifelong existentialist. I guess this sort of goes along with my agnosticism. I do feel a connection to the earth and I grant that there may be something we can’t perceive that ties things together, but chaos makes more sense to me. This allows me to enjoy each day to its fullest and not expect either good or bad times to last forever.
One day this dog showed up. Fate? Luck? Coincidence? Who cares. He’s a great dog.
If you believe everything happens for a reason or there’s a magical being watching you and causing things to happen to you, that’s fine with me. You may be right. Or I may be. But we both get to enjoy the beauty around us if we look.
Bluebonnets after rain.
It was a fine, fine day to be alive. I spent much of the afternoon grooming horses and riding. In shedding season they need the help. Tomorrow I’ll try to get Mabel to let me groom her. That should be fine, but I also want to de-bur her. Not so fine.
This boy sure lived his grooming and head rubbing. This one should be much more comfortable soon. Only the beginning of Apache shedding. Birds love it for nests. Drew tried to eat Dusty’s shedding, so I had to remove it.
Well! The nerve! They are recycling blog prompts and I’d already answered today’s! And it was a cold, rainy day, so there’s not a lot of other exciting to report, so a topic would have been helpful.
I wish you could have seen this in person. It nearly glowed in the soft light. Castilleja indivisa
My lack of drama made me feel like I could be a member of the Dull Women’s Club in Facebook! Look it up, both it and the men’s version can be quite funny until people get snippy.
Dull gray rain clouds
How dull WAS I?
My proudest accomplishment was tallying how many bird species I saw here at the ranch last month. 78. Down from 82 last month.
My second proudest accomplishment was hanging my clean clothing. I won’t tell you how long it had been, but I came across many pumpkin t-shirts.
I put away coffee mugs (I have to take them upstairs, because that’s where we make coffee).
Work happened. I wrote three bulleted lists, much like this one. I also helped a bunch of people and participated in meetings with grace and humor. I hope.
Animals were cared for. I got a lot of horse supplements that were too heavy to lift, so I got help with moving them out of the rain.
I listened to another Master Naturalist webinar to help me reach my continuing education requirement. They are always good, but they conflict with a work meeting, so I must watch recordings.
I texted with my friend Mandy. She does speech to text so she says way more than me.
I knitted a lot while Lee enjoyed the Dune movie that came before the current one. Spicy. I didn’t realize that Timothée guy was just a kid.
Now, wasn’t that fascinating? Must I blog all this? Well, why not? Sometimes I like reading that other people out there have their share of boring days. So, now you know I do, too. I prefer that to drama!
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
The next six months bring a lot of challenges. There’s no way to avoid changes at the macro and micro level. My main one will be to decide whether to retire or keep working. If I retire, my income goes way down, so I’ll have to change a lot. If I keep working, I’ll still be dealing with changes made by the company where I work.
I’ll just fly away
I guess the good thing about being a “senior citizen” is that whatever happens, the consequences won’t last too long, because neither will you. Ha ha. Elder humor. And yes, I do realize I could drag on another 30 or more years. I plan to be ancient.
My fingernails will keep me alive by being so loud.
Today was fine, other than human beings disappointing me (vandalism at the nearby cemetery and getting a weird email from the city saying the Red House on Fannin had been reported for…something).
Apache echoes my opinion
I saw the first bluebonnets on our road, had a nice ride on Apache, and enjoyed the moon for the second evening in a row. Lee and I watched it rise while we sat by the pool discussing our challenges.
Snow moon rising
Tomorrow should be fun, so I’ll just leave it there.
It’s hard to answer this question, because I’ve cleverly chosen my hobbies and interests to ensure that I’ve always got something interesting to do. I can knit, write, identify wildlife, or imagine what’s going on with people in cities, towns and rural areas I go through. At a basic level, I’m easily amused.
Look! Horses! Now I’m not bored.
Some things to tend to bore me, so I escape them. They include:
Meetings held just to have a meeting.
More than 15 minutes of any TV news network where they repeat the same headlines with tiny variations.
Being talked down to, in person, in articles, or in books. My mind travels elsewhere.
Driving through metropolitan areas with the same chain stores repeating over and over. I counted four Rooms to Go stores driving from Denton to Hillsboro on I35 last week. Zzz.
Housing developments where all houses look alike. Yes, I lived in one once.
Being repeatedly subjected to quotes from the Bible to inaccurately argue a point. I’m no longer invested in debating that.
All white kitchens in houses with only black, white or gray furnishings.
Hey, I came up with more things than I thought I would. The good news is that all the things that bore me can be easily avoided or mitigated. I can either begin taking pictures of weeds or start knitting.
Important weed note: avoid picking up wildflowers that are blooming to get a better look without checking whether they might be nettles. Ow.
What bores you?
Mrs Cardinal says she is NOT boring. She’s a good singer.
(What didn’t bore me today was a nice, normal ride on Apache. We did all our homework and had a good time. )
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.
Today’s question is well timed, as I traveled back home to where my favorite shoes were waiting for me. Fair warning: I’m not feeling 100%, so I’m less coherent than usual (scary).
My shoes
These are Ariat slip-on waterproof riding/barn shoes. I wear them for at least part of most days, when I’m out with the horses. I love them because they don’t come untied, they don’t get my socks wet, and they have smooth soles with a notch in them. Once you’re around horses you quickly learn that shoes with tread get hard-to-remove poop and mud stuck in them.
If I’m riding a long time, I need boots to protect my calves, but for most of what I do, these shoes fit the bill.
Now back to travel, for which I wore my Skechers slip-ins that are comfy and practical. I had many technical difficulties that made working in the RV a challenge. My headphones stopped working (again) so calls were hard. They still aren’t playing sound, though people could hear me, so the mic works. I guess I could record if I have any time tomorrow.
I could have recorded this Bewick’s wren. It was really close.
At least I got a little walk in today. The highlight was a bald eagle flying right over me. I carefully checked to be sure crested caracaras don’t live that far north yet, and eagles live near water. And it wasn’t an osprey either. I feel the need to justify my observation! It’s a good one for the Backyard Bird Count. So was the brown creeper that Lee watched from the RV window while Merlin identified its sound. Score.
Here are Carolina wren photos, so you can compare and contrast — I do wish my camera were better.
I was glad to get home with my horses, dogs, chickens, and wild birds. Doing my back exercises by the woods and hearing a weird sound that turned out to be a migrating rufous hummingbird made my stomach and head feel better.
Good news: Lee didn’t mow the tiny bluets. He did mow my bluebonnets. Wah.
I’ll stop here and save stuff for tomorrow, when I hope I feel better and survive some tough meetings. I can DO it.
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
Yes, if there was a biography about me (Zzz) it would be called Still a Weird Happy. That was the name of our club of misfit hippy girls in 7th grade, which we turned into imaginary alien friends. Anita and I wrote stories about the Weird Happys (spelled that way on purpose) when we were young teens.
All of us Weird Happys were odd in one way or another, both the humans and the imaginary ones. But we embraced it. And I’ve always tried to keep that attitude. (I was trying to write something nice, but I’ve been interrupted five times now.)
I interrupt this whine with a hairy buttercup. They are so shiny.
Yeah, I’ve skipped blogging for a couple of days, because I’ve felt pretty boring. It’s been fine, just nothing extraordinary. I had a good lesson on Apache yesterday, and it was great to have him rideable again. Here he is very tired after Tarrin made him do things he didn’t want to do.
Even his new brow band didn’t perk him up.
Drew seems better, too. Today I was able to exercise him and groom him normally. He just had one little expression of annoyance when cantering. I was able to remove his burs and everything. Wow, both horses doing okay! It must be time to leave town for a few days!
I’m in love with Mabel now and let her nip me.
The other mildly interesting events this week so far were bird related. On Monday, I had the chance to hang out in the back yard and listen for birds around sunset. I was entranced at the sound of two great horned owls calling to each other. Mourning doves were also cooing away, which was so soothing!
And yesterday I was out walking when two red-tailed hawks flew right over my head, calling and calling.
Here’s one of them.
They began their love dance, and I watched the whole thing! Next, they flew over to the big electric pole and began making little cooing chortling sounds. I’d never heard hawks speaking their love language before. What a privilege!
That’s them, chatting.
Soon enough, they flew off together. I saw and heard them again today. I wonder if these are the same ones I saw a few weeks ago?
First hawk leaves Second hawk leaves
I never see these guys at the same time I see the red-shouldered hawks or harrier. That’s unlike the woodpeckers, who seem to all hang out at the same time. Today I heard a Downy, a Ladderback, and a Pileated within 5 minutes of each other.
Pretty sunset from a bad angle.
Yes, my life is calm right now. I’m loving my work and enjoying my leisure, which is pretty great. However, if you have a spare moment, please send healing vibes to my Purple Martin-loving friend, Donna, who had back surgery, as well as to family members dealing with challenges.
It’s still all rainy, but I managed to do nothing but stuff I enjoy. There was no horse fun, just slogging through mud and arguing with Apache over his medicine. I had bird and plant fun, though. Whoopee, the bluebonnets are coming in strong.
The Star-shaped leaves are them.
I indulged my boring American self and watched football coverage most of the day. I especially enjoyed the segment on the history of football on CBS. It was interesting to see the women and people of color highlighted. Jayne Kennedy also is a role model of grace and cool hair.
While I watched all the coverage and the very close game, I finished the third row of this year’s temperature blanket. I like seeing a more normal winter range.
January 1 – February 10
Today isn’t shown, but will get 4 rain chains, since it rained another inch. Luckily we just got lots of standing water, and the creek stayed within its banks.
It’s getting greener, but we can still get another freeze.
I needed to get some movement in today, so I wound some pretty yarn into cakes. It’s a soft merino 4-ply in a DK or sport weight. I’m glad it’s not sock yarn or I’d have had to double it. My friend Ray at Knitivity dyed it, and I just love the colors. Here’s what I made:
It’s mitered granny squares. They will look cool when there are more of them. Since the yarn is thin, the fabric will be light, yet warm. I think this will be a rectangular wrap, unless I have enough yarn for a lap blanket. Well wait and see.
The first one.
I’ll still keep working on the two temperature blankets, but the 2023 one for my friend will finish sooner rather than later, and I can then crochet this.
As for the Big Game, I enjoyed it. I’m glad it was close so both teams can be proud of themselves. The commercials were good. As long as a couple make me laugh, I consider it a win, and I certainly laughed enough. The music was all good, and a nice variety. I like that Reba didn’t overdo the National anthem.
And Usher was such an athletic guy, all while singing. The roller skating, too! The guest performance singers were also enjoyable. I’m sure there were famous people I didn’t recognize, but I’m bad with pop music.
I knew eventually I’d stop being able to keep up! I feel like my dad saying all my music sounded alike to him. On the other hand, I’ve never really liked pop music, dance music, or the hip hop as much as folk and rock (and classical), so I’ll cut myself some slack. Maybe one day I’ll immerse myself into the last 20 years and learn what Beyoncé, Taylor, and all those folks sang.
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
I’ll answer this question about the passage of time. The older I’ve gotten, the more I see life as a gift to be savored and enjoyed, not rushed through. I enjoy each day now, rather than waiting impatiently for some future when things will get better or I’ll achieve some goal.
These are the good old days, as Carly Simon said 50 years or so ago.
Horse butts tell you the wind is coming from the west.
Today was windy and cool, but I stood outside and savored the trees and birds anyway. My freshly washed hair did suffer.
I could not have done this on purpose.
By making even the drudgery of the day pleasant, I pleased myself very much. I had a fun discussion about horse personalities with a Tractor Supply worker while we reassured the woman around my age who was being trained on the cash register that she’ll figure it out. Why rush to get out? I met two nice people, and the horse owner told me it was great meeting me.
I then had a perfectly fine time in the local grocery store, too. It’s amazing what treating people nicely can do for your day.
This is the perspective I’ve gained as I’ve entered my “crone” phase of life. I’ve still got lots more wisdom to gain, but I like where I am now.
The long perspective.
Horse report: Apache seems happy with his boots. Drew was fine until I tried to brush his tail and mane. Out came the teeth. Puzzling. Tomorrow is farrier day. We will see what that brings.
My favorite sport to watch is, by far, American football. I’ve watched it my whole life, so it’s part of me, I guess, even with all its myriad of flaws and issues (high school boyfriend’s dad played in that last championship Detroit Lions team, and I now realize his odd behavior later in life may have been affected by blows to the head, for example). But, it was fun to watch football with my dad, and now it’s something Lee and I have in common. Note that I also enjoy baseball, which my dad played and took watching very seriously. And I actually enjoy watching golf. I just can’t believe how well people can get tiny balls into tiny holes. The only sports I’m not fond of watching are basketball and hockey. Just not part of my history, I guess.
What sports do I like to play? Well, as a kid I played football and baseball with the neighbors. If I weren’t so stubby and slow (and female) I would have played longer. I’m not exactly talented. I liked tennis in college. But the sport I do now is our version of working equitation, which is an equestrian sport. I think it’s a sport, I mean, there are competitions and prizes, so sure. So yes, my horses and I do sports.
Speaking of those powerful beasties, I got to enjoy them a lot today. That was a nice change from it mostly being too cold or wet to interact much. I took two work breaks to de-bur Drew and Apache, but I could not get them very clean. They keep rolling.
Tarrin came here for lessons today, which is always a treat. I really needed her to look at Apache and help me with his issues. Sure enough, the first thing she did was find where his abscess was hiding! It was under a flap of sole.
It’s in the white area.
She did a lot of scraping, then we rummaged through all the stuff in the tack room and found Betadyne to disinfect it, an antibacterial spray to treat it, and the mud stuff I bought to protect it. I can repeat when the mud disappears.
Tarrin also measured his feet for boots. Note the feed dish full of burs.
Once he was treated you could tell he felt better, because he lifted his other hoof for the first time in a month. That meant he could stand to lean on the sore one at last. We took him out and lunged him a bit, too. He had a harder time going left than right, but was happy to trot around. He seemed so happy to do stuff again.
And my hair looked fun.
What he wasn’t happy about is that Tarrin figured out a way to get his pills in him with a syringe. I’m so happy to have a large supply from the lady who sold us our horse trailer. Now I just have to keep shoving them in.
As for Drew, he started out acting really odd, like trying to nip when I groomed him. He seemed to have a stomach ache. That scared me. It probably was because the horses ran out of water. I didn’t know the water had been turned off again. My poor fish. Sniff.
I was too busy to photograph Drew, so here are three of the hens. They enjoyed the sunny day.
But he improved as I worked with him on the ground, and we ended up having a really good lesson. He did so well at things that had been frustrating earlier. I’m getting able to relax more when riding, and it’s almost getting to be FUN.
And finally, here’s the sofa as I found it this morning. They are exhausted from barking at coyotes.
So yeah, those horse buddies are my sport. They are also so nice to be with. They are now both patient for bur removal, so it’s our bonding time. Ahh.
The Hermits' Rest 