Boarding Blues

Hello, here I am again. I think this may be the first time I have posted the same day. I wanted to let you in on a little secret. Horse people suck! There, I said it. I have boarded my horse for over 5 years and it seems that every year I have to find a new place for them. My aunt always convinced me that boarding with people that just let me in to "use their facilities" is the best thing, rather than going to an established facility that runs horses as a business. I really believe that she is wrong. I have been having issues with the lady keeping my horses. There are a lot of perks to her place. It is close and she will ride with me once in a while. She has a few acres on which I thought they would be let out. Come to think of it, the only perk is that it is close and cheap.

Recently, she bought 2 more horses which puts us at a total of 8 horses on 3 acres. To add to that, she never uses her horses or brushed them or anything. I have never seen her ride any horse except mine. Anyway, my boys are now stalled together (which I don't like). They are never turned out because she has to "walk out and brig them in for dinner". Now she tells me she doesn't want to fill their water. Excuse me? Not fill their water? What the he!!? Anyway, she has the nerve to tell me that I have to clean twice a week because the stall they are both in is too dirty. And telling me my feed is getting low is too much for her as well. To make matters worse, they do not keep up their facility so the stall has been dug out and, of course, the boys pee in the hole. Her husband (who works in DC) began to fix the stall and left it undone so I cannot put chips in it and can hardly clean it at all. He has not fixed the stall door nor have they hauled the maure for over a year. Not to mention Logan somehow got tangled in the fence that they had down and got all cut up. They didn't even notice...

That is just a brief rundown. I feel so sorry for her because she has all these horses and 4 kids and practically no husband to help her. I couldn't keep up with it either. But, the fact of the matter is that she is responsible for the care of my horses. Which she is not doing, right? I talked with Jay and even though a real boarding place is much more expensive, I wouldn't have to worry about them having water and a clean place to stay. I have never had the opportuntity to keep them in a nice place and I think Jay might be willing to rework the bills a bit. Who needs cable anyway, right? Meanwhile, let me tell you about the new place I have in mind. Heated 3 stall barn, 12 acres to be shared daily with ONLY three horses. Access to riding trails (and I mean REAL riding trails) and full care. This means I would not have to clean or feed or water! I would no longer have to buy my hay and haul and stack it. She said she has a garden and gives the horses snaks if it is okay to do so. She really cares and everything! I feel like a little kid explaining their list so santa...

So, I am really excited about that. I am hoping to be able to meet with her next week if I can. I am also thinking about working a little more to afford the new place. It would be a bottom line of $250 extra a month. Anyawy, I think I am finally typed out now. Thanks for reading and take care.

"Just Here"

So, I am sitting here on a wonderful Sunday wondering what I should be doing. It is a tad too hot to to ride and I am waiting for my parents to return from their two week trip from Kaui.

I have been in this rut lately. I was blaming it on the heat, but upon further examination, I think it is just ME. I have been so down and my family has been telling me that I am "depressed". That just pisses me off. I have always been one to peg "depression" as a mental state that one has the ability to change. Of course, I do believe in the severe depression of chemical imbalances and such. But, could something like that happen to me? Never. Or so I thought. I hate and love this season. I love the weather and possibilties of sunshine and swimming pools. But this season also has a deadly undertow. It is now that my husband seems to fade away. I usually spend a lot of time with my friends (whom are single) and pretty soon I start thinking I am too. Out of the summer months I usually get 5PM until bedtime on Mondays with Jay and that is it. No weekends, no mornings and no nightimes. It is hard. And, the past two years have been tougher than normal. I am always ready to go ride, shop, and there has never been a time I would turn down a good meal out. Now, all I want to do is veg out. I have lost about 10 lbs in 2 weeks (which is not intentional) and I don't even want to eat even if I am hungry. The weight loss is probably the best thing although it is not necessarily healthy. I don't want to talk to anybody and at work all I want to do is drone out life by working. It is not even the working I enjoy, it is the crappy repetitive stuff, like researching phone numbers. Granted, my job is nothing special, but I can usally take pride in negotions of an angry sponsor. I have no desire to do anything. Lately I have been feeling like I am "just here". Almost like I was thrown onto a boardgame just so people could watch me squirm. Since I have been housesitting I have done nothing else but just be here. Usually I will take advantage of their hot tub nightly along with a party or two to utilize their pool table, foosball table, and theater room. (It is like a mansion here!) The past two weeks I have utilized their couch and a few boxes of tissues.

So, here I sit pouring out my feelings to cyberspace to those I do not even know. I hope you all have had some humor about something here today. Usually I try to post things of entertainment, but there was no hope for one of those today. At what point do you force yourself to go out? And force yourself to eat? It is a mystery to me. All I know is that right now I am enjoying being alone and typing away on this giganto monitor that is as big as a TV sceen. The joys of money, huh?

Since I have some more time to kill I think I am going to do another post to get some stuff off my head. Thanks for being here. If you like me enough to worry about me, please don't. I will be okay. I always am...

Another Rain Post!

Yesterday, after deciding that the luminous storm clouds were too scary to take a new horse out in, I hunkered down to finish my book. I have been engrossed in this book ("The Whitney Chronicles") and if I had a few hours I would be able to finish it. I do not get a chance to read very often and I think my husband has been surprised to come home to me with my nose in the pages. Since it was not raining yet I took my book, a half-eaten bag of Twizzlers, a can of Light Minute-Maid juice, and the dog and trucked downstairs where I had hung up my sky chair last week. Hopping into the chair I was guzzled into the story once again.

The clouds got darker and the sky rumbled. I read on. The rain came and since I was hanging under the deck I decided to stake it out as long as it didn't pour and falls through the slats in the deck. The rain came in shifts and there was a nice break when the sun peeked out and warmed my feet. Then it started to hail and I still did not budge. The hail stopped and the rain slowed. I checked my watch and noticed I had been reading for almost two hours. I had left the door unlocked so my friends could come in and find me when they arrived. Then my attention drifted to my dog that was sitting intently watching something in the yard. I don't think it was anything more than a bird, but the sight was great. I found myself wishing I had a camera. The sun was out and the rain looked like bits of diamonds falling to the ground. The sun was shining towards Cheyanne and she had a golden brim of light around her body. It was amazing! I then remembered that Whitney had just found out the doctor was no longer with his fiance and returned to finish my book.

Even though I have complained about the rain it gave me some much needed rest and made me content with what I usually would have considered "wasting my day." Have a great holiday weekend everyone!