Hooray!

I am just all excited! I finally got an email from my tattoo artist. I had just about given up and resigned myself to going all over town to look at people's portfolios when I got an email on my facebook account. I had searched on myspace and facebook, found her on both and left emails there. It's been a while back. She emailed and told me that she had been in a rather bad car wreck, and had been in the hospital for ten days! Sheesh, it must have been bad. Usually they kick you out the door ASAP.

She also told me that she is working at a shop in one of the big malls. She is so funny... she said she knew how I felt about malls! It made me laugh. I can't even recall the last time I was at that mall. It has been at least say, 10 years. When you get everyone to give you clothes for Christmas, it solves ever having to go shopping. I just can't stand being in a mall. Sheesh...there are untrained people there. They are everywhere and they use up all the oxygen! It is going to be awful to have to go there, but I guess I will just have to suck it up and go. She is still going to open her own shop, and I would really rather wait until she does, so she doesn't have to split the dough, but we will see. I am just glad she wasn't hurt any worse, and is back to work. I was not happy at the prospect of finding another artist. Experimenting with permanent markings on my skin is not something I am looking forward to!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

Contemplating my navel

I was sitting here this week, having my own private pity party. This year has been very difficult for me. My mother passed away just over a year ago, and I miss her a lot. Add to that, she made me the executor of her will. I know why she did it, because I am mean assed. She knew that I would be fair or die trying. I don't think she had any idea what her state of affairs was during the last few years. She was barely making ends meet, but until the last couple of months she was alive, I didn't know. I don't think she did either. As long as there was enough money to pay the bills, she was totally unconcerned about it. I am glad actually that she didn't live her life stressed out about stuff like that. It was a blessing for her. It is a mess for me. I have not had a very easy time trying to get her estate settled for a lot of reasons. If you haven't ever done this, you have no idea what it takes, and how depressing it is. To have to go through all her things and decide what to keep, what to sell, and what to trash was horrible. It just goes on and on, and when you have fixed one problem, another one comes along. Trying to pay bills on two houses, and make sure the yardwork is done, nobody trashes her house, and keep the realtor working, court appearances, attorneys, blah blah blah, is hard. I absolutely hate going over to her house. It is so empty without her there. I just want it sold and gone so that I can close this book.

So, while I am sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I get an email from one of the horse groups I belong to. It is from my friend Kristi. She is a great one. She is probably the toughest, bravest, most patient woman I know. She recently got bucked off her dead quiet mare when she spooked at a bunch of trash on a trail. It was totally unexpected, and Kristi was hurt pretty badly. She unfortunately fractured her back, and it scared her. Well I say, of course you'd be scared. It isn't like you bounced up, spit out some dirt, and walked away. This was a serious injury. She also had some other bad times this year, she lost her beautiful cat, and was very sad. But here she is, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and hoping that next year will be better for all of us. Sheesh, that girl. She is my hero actually. She has an autistic son that needs a lot of her time, and she gives it. Her kids are so great, and you can tell that she dotes on them, and loves them. Her husband is often out of town for his work, so she is alone with them a lot of the time, but you know, she *never* complains. Kristi does endurance rides with her beautiful Arabian mare named Shaqerriae. She is a lovely mare. Shaqerriae hurt herself badly last year, and almost died. Even though Kristi has gone through all this "stuff", she is still able to be cheerful, even when she is hurting. She has given me such a lift. I am grateful to have her as my friend. She doesn't know it, but she (along with a couple of other special friends) had made it possible for me to get through this year. Just when I think it's too much, I get an email from her, and it makes it easier to go on. I think she has no idea what her kindness meant to me this year, it's just who she is, and what she does.

So now it's my turn to say, hang in there girl. You will heal, and decide what you want to do, or not do. Let Di help you. She loves you, and will take care of you. Take the time you need, and don't sweat the small stuff. You are strong, and you will be fine. You are a such special person, and I am proud that you are my friend :)

The question is...

To cut or not to cut...that is the question. I am contemplating cutting my hair. This is no small decision for me. It took me a lot of years to grow it out, and now it is down to my butt. The bad thing about long hair is the limitations. You can put it in a pony tail...or a braid...or pigtails/braids (and endure the Pocahontas remarks), or a bun, or one of those celebrity mussy updoos. The bad thing is when you do the kind of work I do, it can be a serious liability. When you are up on the back of a concrete mixer looking down into the drum to see the mud, you worry that it will get caught on something and get you killed. Also, it is long enough that it falls over my shoulder and gets in the concrete. Oh, and it is fricking hot in the summer too. If I wet it down to cool off it stays wet for hours, which contrary to what you'd think does not make you cooler, it just makes you hot and wet.

I have had short hair before. I have had it so short that it was really a longish buzz cut. I liked it that way. It's super easy to care for, but then you have to get it cut every 5 or 6 weeks or it is a mess. I love me some curls too, and when your hair is three feet long, there is no such thing. I had a Stevie Nicks perm a while back and while I loved it, it was a pain in the ass to care for. Long and layered with a big curl perm. I couldn't run a brush through it or I looked like Broom Hilda. My hair will hold a perm forever, so that is a consideration. I have also considered dying it a couple of shades lighter, and with long hair, that is a pain. I really need to go to a salon and have it done, but that would cost a small fortune as it is. Here is a pic of me with Big E. It's a few years old, notice no tattoo? My hair is a about or so inches longer now.

So here I am... and I am leaning towards cutting it off. There is plenty for locks of love, and at least it would be put to use that way. I dunno... we'll see. Bill didn't fall down and scrub his face on the concrete when I asked what he thought. He actually said he kind of liked it short and curly, so...

The mail came

And in it was a check. The check is from the people we are subbing the big BA performing arts center job from. We invoiced them a month ago, because we should have been half done by now. Due to delays (for which we are not responsible), we have barely done any work there. I guess they decided they could trust us, because we have basically been paid half of the contract in advance, and there is still not a weeks worth of work for us to do there. YAY! Now we can pay the mortgage. WooHoo!

Frozen Farriers

I stopped at the QT yesterday and picked up some drinks for the guys. I always bring them something to drink, so we can gossip when they're done trimming. Yesterday I got both hot chocolate and sodas. They came early, which they almost never do, so I was still sitting in the truck contemplating just how damn cold it was, and procrastinating catching the prisoners. I hopped out and got some hay to throw out. The greedy guts never learn that being lured with some tasty alfalfa means they are gonna get caught...thank whomever.

While they were scarfing down the hay, the guys were swilling down their hot chocolate. They really looked cold. Their faces were all red, and their fingers too. Craig's gloves had holes in them. The wind was terrible, so I can imagine how cold his hands were. Brrrr. I got their presents out of the truck, and they just lit up. I have not seen such excitement in a long time. Craig declared that now he would be able to make it through the day with his sister in law present. I kind of got the impression that he doesn't like her much ;) John was pretty excited too. Now if you want to see indignation, all bright and shiny, just ask a 21 year old young man if that kind of gift is gonna piss his momma off. Dear lord, you'd have thought I asked him if his diaper needed changing! Whew! He quickly informed me that he did NOT live with his momma, and even if he did, he was old enough! Well alrighty then :-) I told him that I just didn't want to cause any trouble, and he got untwisted. I think he thought I was making fun of him. I wouldn't do that...who would trim Prisoner X then?

Everyone got trimmed, and I shooed the guys off. It was too cold to stand around and gossip like we usually do. I fed the prisoners their dinner, soaked with hot water, and they were happy. Next trim is scheduled for Feb 3rd. Hopefully it won't be snowing/raining/or blowing 100 mph.

The best farriers on earth

I have the best farriers on earth. My guy Craig, and his apprentice John come every six weeks. To say that I am obsessed with feet is putting it mildly. In the past, I have had horses that had foot problems. Of course those problems were not caused by neglect, but that does not matter. They had to have shoes on a regular schedule, or they got sore/lame.

I get pretty antsy if my prisoners don't get their feet done on a regular schedule. Logically, I know they won't die, or become lame overnight if they chip a foot, but I can't stand it. It makes me crazy. I know everyone has their "thing" - horses too skinny/fat/unmannerly/whatever, but tidy feet are mine. This year has been wet, and warm (up till this month), so their feet have grown fast. In 4 weeks they are ready for a trim, so I spend the next two weeks lamenting the fact that it will be two more weeks before Craig and John come to do their thing, and carefully averting my eyes from the agonizing chips! Yes, I am crazy. It makes Joleen laugh. I am serious though. I can't stand even looking at feet that are all chipped up, or obviously too long. It makes me want to grab a belt sander and fix 'em up.

So back to Craig and John. They come faithfully every six weeks. Craig trims Prisoner Y, and John does Prisoner X. They both do a great job. Craig is so good with Baxter. Baxman had the scratches/photosensitivity so bad this year that we could barely pick up his hind feet, but Craig got him done, and nobody died. YAY! John is so careful with my old girl Susie. She is arthritic, and has trouble with her hind legs. He is gentle, and gives her all the time she needs to be comfortable. She actually dozes while he trims her. I love these guys. I just hope when Craig is famous and has all the H/J barns calling him that he will be willing to keep coming out for my meager two trims. I am not above bribing and paying bonuses to insure he will keep coming out.

This year, John is over 21, so he will get the usual farrier Christmas present - a nice bottle of Crown Royal. Craig said that I am his only customer who ever gives him a Christmas present. Can that be true??? Surely not. Well, I guess in a way that is a good thing. If it were me, I would dump the stingy people and stay with the one who gave me good booze, but I am a bit mercenary :) I was at the liquor store buying the booze and had pulled the boxes off the shelf and put them on the counter by the register. The guy at the register asked me didn't I want the gift boxes? I was like Huh? He said there were gift boxes with crystal glasses for the same price. I said Hell Yeah! I am all about free, and the nice crystal glasses make me look like a little less of a cheap skate :-) See the glasses? They're even etched. It was nice of the guy to point them out.

Soon I will take off to meet them. I usually take them a soda, but I think today I will take some hot chocolate. It is way warmer today than it was earlier this week (highs in the high teens with 30-40 mph wind!), but it is wet, windy, and about 35. I think I will take some hot water with me and make a mash for the prisoners. They like that. Stay warm everyone!

Ho ho...no!

We came to the office today, same as every other day. It has been pretty fricking cold here for December. Yesterday it was freezing in my office all day, despite the electric space heater stashed under my desk. I need it because the little bulldog gets cold without it. Oh yeah, I like it too. Anyhow, today we came and the MIL told us that the heater on her side of the offices was not working. Perhaps this is why my office has felt so cold eh? Right now, we have a fan pushing air from our section of the office over to hers. Fortunately we have 3 heating units for the office area, + another for the shop area. But dammit! We were supposed to leave work at 2 today. Now we will have to wait on the heater people to come see if they can fix whatever is wrong. It could be a few dollars, or a few thousand. Not what we needed to hear right now. Cross your fingers that it's a blown fuse or some other equally fixable-for-cheap thing. Merry Christmas... uh yeah....

I am not Imelda Marcos

Bill keeps calling me Imelda. Honestly! A girl needs some shoes, yes? This girl happens to only be able to wear a few kinds, so when she finds them, she buys them. So there. Here we have the latest finds. Worth their weight in gold I say. If you only knew how long I have been waiting for a purple pair... *sigh*

I *love* the ebay saved search thingy. It sends me new shoes in just the style/size I want every time someone lists them. If they have a reasonable buy-it-now price, I can snag them before all the other goons even see them! YAY! Life is good. Anyhow, here they are...purple, turquoise, and black. Awesome! ;)

Sleet, I still hates it...

Well, now the main roads are fairly clear, and you can mostly go the speed limit. YAY! The back streets however are even worse than they were the first day. The temp's have been so low that even the ice is not doing a good job of melting stuff. The roads by the barn are abysmal and very dangerous. What little stuff melted has now frozen again and is a solid sheet of ice. If I had a pair of ice skates I would be having some fun, but in my pickup it is pretty scary. Here in Oklahoma, we do have some winter weather, but usually it doesn't last long, so we don't have a lot of experience driving in it. People don't slow down and it is downright scary sometimes. I really hate going out in it, but so far I have done pretty well. The only trouble I've had is turning into the barn drive. It is right at the top of a hill and it's polished to a very nice shine - in other words, it is slick as greased owl shit. You have to creep up and roll in. If you try to brake or accellerate, you are in trouble. Now that I have that figured out, everything is peachy!

The prisoners love this weather. They are pigs, and live for anything that gets them extra food. Because the temps have been so low, and the fact that Prisoner X is old, and Prisoner Y has almost no hair, I have been giving them some extra alfalfa. They are going to be upset when it warms back up to normal temps and the extra slop stops flowing. They have been very busy shitting up the barn. I bedded it down with some nice bermuda hay so they would have a good dry place to sleep, with the added benefit of being able to eat the bedding. Besides, it was *waaay* cheaper to use hay than shavings. I will have to pick out the poop tonight. It has just been too cold for my weenie butt to stay out there and pick. The wind has finally died down today, so they ate outside this morning. YAY!

I actually saw the BM throwing hay to the old man and his gelding friend today. I have been breaking the ice on their tank and I took them some warm water yesterday. They seem to be doing fine. It is supposed to warm up to the 60's Friday. I will have to fill my water tanks then. The watering system at the barn is primitive - a bazillion hoses strung all over god's green earth, and when the weather is freezing there is no water to the paddocks. It sucks, but it's what it is and you learn to work around it. Last year it was cold so long that I had to haul in water twice a day. Hopefully this year that won't happen, but if it does, oh well :-) As my DH says, "Isn't horse ownership *wonderful*?" And I say, yes, indeed it is!

Animal rights?

What is up with animal rights? Animals are. They are animals. They do not have rights. They they live in the moment. They are our devoted companions, and provide us with happiness, but I don't believe they have any rights. Rather, I believe that we humans who own animals have responsibilities. We have the responsibility to treat our animals humanely. We are responsible for their well being, making sure their needs are met. Part of our responsibility is to treat them well, never being cruel or neglectful.

I am tired of all the people who insist that animals are children. These people believe that animals *are* equal to people. These are the same people who won't put a suffering animal down because they don't have the guts. Man up people. If you love widdle Pookie so much, make the tough decision. Do the right thing even though it hurts. Making your baby suffer when you have the ability to end that suffering is cruel and wrong. I don't get this at all. I have worked at barns and vets, and I have seen first hand what animals go through when their owners don't have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing. If this is love, I would hate to see cruelty. There are things worse than death. I know because I've seen them.

The end goal for a lot of animal rights people is that no animal should be "exploited" by humans. This means that no animal be under the control (or responsibility) of humans. No pets. No livestock. Nothing. No breeding, or ownership period. If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is. Anyone who has ever owned an animal of any kind knows that domesticated animals are dependent on humans for everything. If you have ever lived in the country, you know what a dumped dog looks like. How it gets thinner and thinner until it disappears either because it starved to death, was run over by a car, or eaten by something bigger. Anyone who thinks that horses can live just fine running free, take a gander at what the mustangs are going through. Starvation is an ugly thing.

People who are responsible animal owners must keep on top of what our government is doing. We have to write letters to our representatives and let them know that we are here, and we don't want them telling us what we can or cannot do with our animals. If we don't, we will not have anyone to blame when it becomes illegal to own a pet or breed our horses or cattle. I for one do not want to live long enough to see that day, and it is happening slowly in bits and pieces now. How sad for us all.

I know I am rambling, but I am so annoyed by all the bleeding hearts that I just can't help it. I am tired of their bleating and bawling. The ignorance is amazing and unbelievable. I am appalled on a daily basis. Sheesh....

Hot water, no NCA

Our friday pour for the bank was super. It is going to look better than the original we did years ago. The funniest part was the crew from the company we subbed this job from. They were there doing a pour on the street. They were waiting on their mud when ours came. We poured out and I started floating the edges. They stood there with their mouths hanging open, staring like a bunch of new calves at a fence. I guess they have never seen a woman finish concrete... It was funny. Made me laugh. Of course, they are also our competition. They only do brick strips because that it the only set of tools they have. The extent of their pours is a strip 16" wide, by however long... they couldn't do a driveway or a patio without some major problems. Bill and I have been doing it long enough that we can do a 1000 foot pour and not have it kick our asses. It would be very amusing to get some chairs and watch them try to stamp a driveway. HA! Anyone want to bring popcorn??

Sleet, I hates it

It sleeted here last night. Some places got barely anything, and some got lots. Unfortunately, Broken Arrow, where the horses live, got a lot. I am not overly fond of driving my truck on anything but dry pavement, so I waited till 9 to go feed. I hoped that most of the idiots would be at work, or in a ditch, so as not to make me insane (I know, it's too late...kiss my butt). I went the back way, because nobody goes that way. The back way leads to the turnpike which is usually clear by the time I get on it. Well, not today. You could tell they had sanded it a bit, but it was still covered with what is now ice. You couldn't even see the lane markings. Frankly, this scares me to death. Not because I am a terrible driver, but because other people drive like there is nothing on the road. Geebus people. Where are you going? If it is on fire you can't help, and if it isn't it'll be there when you get there. Slow down for heaven's sake. One woman passed me and waved. She was going about 50. I was not surprised to see Michigan tags on her car. I will be happy going 40 and living another day.

When I got to the barn, my feed shed was iced in. I had to shovel about 2 or 3 inches of ice away from the door. The prisoners were not amused. Nor were they in the mood to hear any excuses. It is cold dammit! Where is our slop? Prisoner X was doing a fair imitation of a lippizzan, with her exuberant airs above the ground. I didn't know a 23 year old horse could do that ;) Prisoner Y was less enthusiastic because Prisoner X was busy running him around in circles. He was too concerned with preserving his hide to do any tricks. I fed them in the barn so their alfalfa wouldn't all blow away in the wind. Oh just so you know, the wind chill was -2 according to the weather guessers. It felt at least that cold.

I checked on the orphan horses in the two paddocks across from my prisoners. Someone strung a tank heater to the first paddock. The second one didn't have one so I broke the ice for them. I just don't get these people. Apparently nobody ever comes out to feed or check on any of these horses. I have been filling the water tanks for the last three weeks because I can't just walk away from horses that have no water. The amazing thing is that two of the three horses in paddock #1 have been blanketed for a week, and the other one had a blanket and hood on today. Who does that crap? Why blankets but no water? Don't people realize that horses colic without water? Horses die without water? But we don't want the little darlings to get cold!!! Bah! A pox on all their houses. Some people should only own stuffed animals. Idiots.

Fowl doings

I went to my friend's house to deliver her Christmas present. I was just there last week to deliver it, but me being me had walked out of the house without it... typical :) I was also going to take pictures of her beautiful horses, but the wind was blowing about 50 mph, so that was a bust. Anyway, she and her DH were out of town judging a horse show, so I just dropped it off in her office and was going to leave when I saw a little parade shaping up between the two barns. My friend has all sorts of animals, and they are all pets. If someone goes missing she is out searching for them, and they all love her and come for petting. Here are some of her friends.

Now I love birds, and these turkeys are beautiful, but they are strange too. I think they are, in fact, proof that there are aliens on our planet. I mean what other animal looks like this?? The white ones let me scratch and pet them. The hen loved it and followed me around after that. Bill calls birds dino birds. If you look closely at any bird, they do look very prehistoric, and the bigger the bird, the more evident it is. Their feet look scaley, and their eyes... scary enough. Big birds like emus and ostriches look at you as if you might possibly be food. I think they are speculating on how much of a fight you'd put up. Most horses are horrified by turkeys. The toms like to scrape their wing feathers on the ground, and the rattling noise they make will send a lot of horses right into orbit. (fortunately Baby Huey is deaf!) The white tom is a patriotic guy!

I am in love with this boy. He has one blue eye and one brown eye, just like Monkey. He is really beautiful and the pictures don't do him justice. His feathers are irridescent and so shiny.

Hot water and 1% NCA

If you know what this means, you must be a concrete monkey! Hot water and NCA is what you put in concrete to make it get hard faster. NCA is Non Calcium Accelerator. Concrete gets hard because of heat. It's called hydration. When concrete is made with hot water, it makes it set up faster. When you add in some NCA, it gets hard even faster. Since it was cold today, we decided we'd just help the mud along a bit. We really hate it when the concrete just sits there. It's like a great gray mass that jiggles with laughghter every time we check to see if it's getting hard. A smug little mud pie sitting there doing nothing while we dither. Well, not today.

We have been in the office mostly for the last couple of weeks, waiting on the big job to start. As a consequence of sitting on our ever widening asses for a few weeks, we are not in finishing shape...or much of any shape but round ;) We opted to do half of what was set up for a couple of reasons. First, we have been sitting around eating like it was our last meal for weeks. Second, because the mix design that was already approved came from a different concrete company, we were unsure of how the mud would be. We didn't want to get an ass kicking on our first pour. Aren't we the clever ones? Yes, we are. Cutting this pour back was the smartest thing we have done in a long time. The hot water and NCA did their job. We had poured out, and just finished edging all the pours when we decided that it wasn't just drying out on top, this shit was getting hard. When Bill says "this is getting hard", that is code for "I am gonna work your ass off", or alternately, "we are gonna get our asses kicked". Personally, neither of those options is very appealing to me. I am allergic to hard work, and my butt doesn't appreciate being kicked.

This being our first pour on the job, and our first time working for this particular company, we were determined to make a good first impression, so we kicked it into high gear. Well, Bill and I did. The rest of our crew pretty much wandered around aimlessly, or pretended to work, far away from where the actual work was going on. This is normal for us actually, so it wasn't a huge deal, but I digress. Just so you know, today's pour was actually four pours. They were three foot wide three sided tree rings. We had to run back and forth between the pours, doing all the things we had to do to make it ready to stamp. We managed to keep enough ahead of it to get it all stamped. It actually ended up being a very good first day, and the stampwork looks great.

Tomorrow we have a very similar pour on another job. We are replacing some work we did a few years ago. This job is for a bank. We had put stamped work around three sides of their building, and the city tore out all the stuff on two sides when they widened the street. The bank insisted that the replacement concrete match what was there before. We found this very amusing because the company we are working for is our competition, but they don't have the tools needed to match our work. Nobody does. Hee hee! Sucks to be them. Needless to say, we decided to take the NCA out of the pour tomorrow. We both feel like someone ran over us and then backed up so they could do it again. We don't want to have to work at warp 9 two days in a row... Damn it sucks to get old. My brain is stuck on about 19, but my body tells me in no uncertain terms that it is not amused, and is old. I'm off to get a couple of tennis elbow straps and a new wrist brace. At least tomorrow is Friday. Oh and next week, they are predicting "winter precipitation" all week. Hot damn! Another week to eat! Woot!

Elf Yourself!

Hey Kristi, I know you aren't feeling well, so this should make you laugh. I hope it doesn't make your back hurt... Be careful or you'll wet yourself!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/bdDYNNdiztlbZY7KLRKy

I hate developers

We have a big job under contract. There have been a multitude of delays, and we are still waiting to start. In the mean time, we have been hustling smaller jobs, and got two in the last two weeks. One of them was an on again off again thing that as of last week was supposedly on. All that was left to do was for the owner to pick a color. Well, I just got a call from the guy we were going to sub the job from. Seems that the developer wants a different company's tool system. The architect and the owner both approved our tools and picked a color, but apparently the developer had an entire litter of kittens and insisted on the other tools. This is suspicious on several levels, but is not all that unusual. The real corker is when the guy we were supposed to do the work for asked me if there was a contractor around with the other tool system. Now I am a real nice gal, but I do not believe it is my obligation to sell work for our competition. As far as I know there is not a contractor with the other system anywhere in Oklahoma. Even if he were next door, I sure wouldn't help someone find him and do work that we were supposed to do. Call me bitchy that way.

The other highly annoying thing about this job is that we had a verbal commitment to do the new GIANT wally world there. They told us to book the time and get ready. Well, we didn't hear from them, and drove over there, and lo and behold someone else had done this huge assed job. It looks like crap, and I am sure they got what they paid for. There are barely any joints on a lot of it, and it is definitely not up to the standards that wally world set during the 2 years we worked with them to specify these stores. The developer who is insisting on the other tool system undoubtedly approved that stuff, and is wanting the same thing in front of this bank we were supposed to do. I feel sorry for the guy we were going to work for. He admitted that the developer is a pain in the ass and does not pay well. Ain't that an incentive for us to work for them now... not on your best day. Hey, at least we found out before we invested a lot of time and money in the job. Thank whomever....

Shoe report

Bagged another pair. They are turquoise sorta... Total $25 shipping included. Such a buy!

Optimism abounds...cautiously

I went to my friend's house Saturday, to drop off her Christmas present. I started out by going to the feed store. It is *always* a hair raising experience on a Saturday. Everyone who can't make it during the week comes then. People butt in line and hog the dock, so if you're a polite sort, you get to wait and wait. The kid who was loading grain had an attitude going on. I guess he was pissed because all the other hands were unloading a truck, so he had to load all the customers. Whatever the reason, he was slinging grain around managed to break open three of my bags :( Little turd. Went back and got my alfalfa and headed to my friend's place.

This woman raises thoroughbred hunters. She has some of the prettiest horses I have seen in a long time. I am a little jealous maybe. Of course she actually rides and shows them, so I am not too jealous. My less than stellar show career was over years ago, thank goodness! Anyway, once I pulled into her drive, I realized that I had left her present at home. *sigh* Anyone who knows me knows that this is not surprising. It's ok though. She is close enough that I can go back next weekend. I will take pictures of her horses when I go back. They are just gorgeous.

So we come to the reason for the cautious optimism. The waiting period for creditors has either passed, or is about to pass, and the biggest creditor for my mother's estate, a credit card, has not responded. If they don't respond, we are not obligated to pay them. YAY! That would be such a relief. Now if we could only get the house sold... It'll happen.

Little Monsters

I don't have any children. I made the decision a long time ago that I would not be a good parent, and therefore should not have children. I wish that a *lot* of other people had been as conscientious. There are apparently a lot of people in this world who indiscriminately reproduce for fun, and without any thought of the consequences.

Today I stopped at the local convenience store to get something to drink. It is always crowded, usually with a herd of day workers waiting for someone to come pick them up. Today there was a smaller herd of teenagers. They were hanging out at the fountain drinks. This is at the back of the store, and is next to the coffee bar. It is always the busiest place in the store, and often so crowded that you have to wait in line. The teens were hogging the fountain bar, standing and swilling energy drinks, blocking everyone else. I finally got my tea and went to the counter to put a lid on it. One of the little princesses came over and slung her cup into the trash. It was half full and of course I got an energy drink shower. Grrrr. She just looked at me. I wanted to slap her face. They do this every morning. They go in and drink as much as they can and then throw the cups away. I guess their "parents" haven't taught them that stealing is wrong. I used to report it to the clerks, but they just said it's an "expected loss", and they are "too busy" to keep an eye on things like that. Fine with me, except that when people steal stuff the rest of us pay for it, one way or another.

I am not an "old lady", but I am old enough to be most of these kids' mother, and it really pisses me off when kids act like thugs. They are disrespectful, rude, and thoughtless. Their parents have little or no control over them, and cater to their every whim. They are producing a generation of entitled, selfish assholes. These kids are not cute. They are little monsters. They are overindulged, whiney, self-absorbed spoiled brats, with never a consequence their actions. Their parents ought to be ashamed, but of course they are like barn blind horse owners. Not *my* kid. My child is perfect... he/she/it would *never* do something like that. Well guess what Mommy, your little yuppie spawn does indeed do crappy stuff. Someday you will see it. Probably when they move back in with you after college because working doesn't fit in with their entitled lifestyle. You will be spending your meager retirement supporting the slobs that you raised and conditioned to believe that everything they want magically appears, without any effort on their part. Enjoy Mommy and Daddy, the fruits of your labor. Perhaps you should have had a better plan, eh?

I know that there are good kids out there. I even know a few personally that are polite, helpful, and respectful. They are always a pleasure to be around, and their parents are to be commended. It's just unfortunate that the good kids are greatly outnumbered by the spoiled bratty ones. It used to be the other way around. *SIGH* I guess I am an old lady...

I just saw this... http://tinyurl.com/6s96jj Sadly, I am not surprised one tiny bit. Disgusting. And Daddy is defending her. Yeah....

Shoe report

I snagged another pair of black shoes on ebay! Such a deal...$26. *If* you can find them in the stores they are at least $55 a pair. I also won a pair of red ones, but she emailed me and said she couldn't find them... WTF? Oh well.

I am a little obsessed about these shoes. Because of my right foot, I can only wear a few styles of shoe, so I buy all of them I can get my hands on at a "reasonable" price. I hate paying $50 for a pair of shoes I will wear out in 3 or 4 months...Call me crazy. I will answer.

Muppet Wave

Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!

Bill called me outside yesterday to see what he was doing. I got out there and lo and behold, in our parking lot stood a round pen! He has been making feet for it out of the left over composite decking material we had. Now the dirt won't get all stuck in the legs and rot them off. It looked huge! but we didn't measure it. I swear, this is the best horsey buy I have made in a long time. I got a pretty darn nice round pen for $225! Woot!

Now to find time to haul it out to the barn and assemble it in my paddock. It is going to be too cold today, but maybe Friday. Pretty exciting stuff in my dull life. Prisoner X has a rude rude awakening coming...heh heh heh.