Room Mates

Our room mate, my niece, sucks. Actually, all roomies suck. But she's real sucky because she thinks its OK to not pay us rent. She's paid a whopping $1300 these last 10 months. She's living in our home, using a bedroom (2 when her son was here), our electricity, our internet, our heat, our kitchen & dishes. She comes into and out of our gate and takes up a parking spot in our yard.

Last summer while her son was here for 2.5 months & she was working, I babysat if I was home. Even if she was home, I was babysitting because she would be too lazy to care for him. She didn't do shit with him except took him to the zoo twice, one of those times for only 1 hour and she knew it would be closing soon.  Her idea of playing is to put him in his room & her in her other room & they play an online video game together. We live 6 miles from an excellent swimming lake but she never took him, not once. She didn't fill his pool for him & she didn't ride bikes with him even though we had given her a nice mtn bike & I bought him a kids bike.

I've been telling her repeatedly that she needs to move out & I've told her that we're going to need that room when we begin remodeling the bathroom & adding the new one. I was trying to get an idea if there could be damage to the wall that's inside her room when we demo the cabinet & she thinks I was spying on her. There's no reason to spy on her, I know she's not hiding anything.

At least she isn't a drunk, isn't on drugs and isn't having parties when we're not home.

Last month she got turned down for a rental house & I had given a great referral. Two days ago she told me she had given my name again for another house & today the gal called & I told her, "don't rent to her". A house is for someone who will pay their rent, in full, before the due date. She's got NO intention of doing that. A house is for people who have done their time in crappy apartments, saved up money and are ready to move up to the next level, whether it be a nicer apartment, a house or buying their first home.

She's at the bottom of renting & all she's fit to get into is Mariners Glen apartments but when I told her to go there she said she doesn't want to live somewhere horrible. OK then. I'll give that apartment a GLOWING referral for her but no place else.

But she's not staying here, either. Her boyfriend can shit or get off the pot or she can move to Florida to live with him & his sisters. But come February, she's better get her ass out of here. She said she's got $750 saved up towards a house so if she's not moved out I'll tell her to go stay at a hotel.

Its time to have the internet/wifi password changed and the power to her room cut off. I bought her a heated throw blanket & she still has the small heater on all the fucking time, on MY pocketbook.

We had snow this morning.

SIR ELTON JOHN

SIR ELTON JOHN

He's been my one true teen heart throb my entire life 

and last night I was delighted to see him again, my third time, in concert.

Tacoma Dome, 

September 17, 2019

Seats 211 HH 5 & 6

(we were sitting straight across from the stage, a long way but it was perfect)

FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD TOUR

This street sign was outside, pretty cool.

Inside on the way to our seats

This one is pretty cool, Lan took it

Near the end

I absolutely LOVE the man

Bohemian Rhapsody

I think this is one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22oy8dFjqc

Calling In Sick

Today I called in sick to work. I didn't want to but my shoulder has a huge knot in it and its killing me. I was supposed to go in for the Night Watch, midnight to 9am; 4 hours of watching the boats and 5 hours of selling.
These shifts KILL me and I'm ruined for the rest of the day.

Ordering

I need one of these inside the arena to hold the gate closed; currently we're using an old rope tied around the gate & a post.

I was at Coastal & Wilco yesterday & neither had them but we checked online and local Ace stores have them for $12.99. After going through my email I saw Chicks had a sale on manure fork heads & since Wifi broke a tine out of mine last week I decided the $5.99 price was good enough for me. And I ordered 2 gate latches, a few dewormers, a little cowboy stationary set & a small decorative key hook with a horse on it. 

The ponies are stubborn but we're sticking to them. Shadow is about 33" tall and easier to catch and handle but he hates being touched on his off side.

Gus is harder to catch and tough to work with because he is stronger. He is about 37" tall. 

Both the boys are super duper cute and some day should be productive members of society.

We catch & lead them around, touching every part we can get our hands onto then we let them loose in the arena to run and play while I clean stalls. Today its POURING rain so they are stuck in the stalls but at least they are soft stall floors, they have plenty to eat & drink and the stalls are big.

I worked last night midnight till 4am & will do it again tonight. I was lucky this morning to be able to sleep till 2:30pm, something I haven't done in YEARS. 

Yesterday I went with a friend to haul her mare over to a friends place, her friend has a pregnant mare that lost its companion a month ago. Someone else loaned her their 32 year old pony and sadly he got colic and was put down early yesterday morning. When we arrived with our mare he was still lying dead in the barn aisleway. Sad, but they were still waiting for the renderding man.

The mare we took over there is a great mare, its Reign, the mare I had here with Joey for the first summer. Shes a fantastic horse.

Interesting

I wasn't able to make it to the Appy Club meeting the other night, had to work so I could get a check to pay for hay for my hungry horses.

I learned today that there is $1,000

MISSING

from the clubs checking account

and the treasurer is the person who is known here as CRAZY MOM.

No one else besides the president has access to the account or the check book.

The horse, Mac, is settling in. Yesterday he was DEAD LAME and his owner was considering putting him down. She pulled his shoes and left him in the soft stall with lots of bedding overnight. This morning hes doing much better and able to walk on his hooves fine but we were all scared.

Had trainer come check him out, shes doing us some HUGE favors like screen shotting EVERYTHING they post about us. She said its not something shes going to show us unless we NEED to see it because its all so mean.

Sad, A Week Later

R.I.P.

Katie Phillips

If everyone on earth were as happy and funny as Katie, the world would be a better place.

Last week Katie worked the 8pm-4am shift at Southworth dock. After she got off and was on her way home, she came across a car that had run out of gas. Katie drove to the gas station, got gas & was putting it into the car when she was struck & killed by another passing car. That car fled the scene.

A couple days later they found his car with evidence that matched what was left at the scene. He hasn't been back to the dock and he hasn't been back to work. But the cops know who it is and are looking for him.

Turns out he was a regular commuter, always took the 4:25am Fauntleroy to Southworth boat and worked in the shipyard. Its on video, his pulling up to the F dock in his older gold Impala, getting his ticket scanned by the ticket taker & him being on the boat & exiting the boat at SW at about 4:55am.

We were told Katie didn't suffer and for that I am grateful.

Rescuing Mack

This is

Mack,

he use to live at our old farm with us, for 3 years.

Big Appy gelding, so smart, a stinker, awesome to ride.

He was eating so his mouth looks wonky.

His owner is a very good friend of mine, she was with me when Wifi was born, I was with her when her colt, Maverick, was born & even though she built her own barn and moved away, we have kept in touch over the years.

A little back history on Mack...

He is 18 now and she got him as a yearling. He was used for 4-H, local shows and even shown 'A' system for a while. He was a driving horse, English, Western and a little Dressage.

In the barn he was a PLEASURE to have around. This is the first horse I was able to canter on after having been thrown from Joey and I still trust this horse more than Joey and that's saying a LOT.

He had no vices EXCEPT he taught me to feed him on command.

Last year Mack was leased out to a local family for the teen daughter to use for 4-H and WASET. They agreed to take lessons from Delicia for Dressage and wanted to show him A system. But they didn't follow through with that, they were only taking him to the WASET lessons (with a crappy trainer) and local schooling shows, no lessons with Delicia, no dressage.

In fact, they damaged Mack. At a show last month he reared up 5 times in Showmanship (because the girl was using a chain under his chin), supposedly he 'destroys' stalls, he will not load into the trailer, he has no manners and he bites. Hes got ulcers and his feet were RUINED by their shitty farrier and the new one put 3" pads on. WTF? His feet look better but they still look like shit.

His owner has been VERY worried about him & his behavior for a couple months and spoke to them about it, whereupon the mom, we'll just call her CRAZY on here, totally went batshit crazy and abusive to the owner. It was so bad that the owner left the appaloosa club she'd been in for years  because this family is in it now.

Owner decided that for her own sanity, she would sell Mack to the family and offered him to them for $5,000 when his previous value had been 10k. CRAZY went batshit again, said he had all these health problems, his feet are no good, hes a biter, he won't load. 

Um, wait a second, YOU caused this to happen. 

CRAZY was hand feeding him peppermints every day, like a bag a week. They weren't making him behave, they were just bad horsemen and the stable owner wasn't correcting their bad behavior.

This last week owner spoke with me several times, she couldn't decide what to do. I knew what she needed to do and told her that I wasn't going to try to talk her into selling to them and that if she wasn't sure about it then it wasn't the right thing to do at all. She would no longer talk to CRAZY at all and daughter was unresponsive plus being a minor the owner couldn't make any sort of deal with her.

So today I took my truck and trailer over to the boarding stable and got him. They knew it was going to be today but they didn't know when or that it was going to be me, they also didn't know the owner wouldn't be there as I told her to stay down the street in her own car. I took Karen because she won't put up with any BULLSHIT and she has a lot of experience with horses.

We pulled into the stable yard, I saw the daughter, I waved and smiled, then I pulled around the circle so I was heading out of the yard. The daughter came to me and asked if the owner was coming and I told her no, I had asked her to stay away. The daughter then called owner a Coward. I just turned and walked away, got the trailer ready. Stable owner came to ask me something, then she came back and said she couldn't let me take him, she didn't feel good about it so I showed her the copy of the hauling agreement. THANK GOD I thought ahead on that point.

Then the daughter brought Mack over, handed me the lead rope and started bitching at me. Once again I turned away and ignored her, taking Mack to the back of the trailer. Right then stable owner asked if they were bringing the tack over or if we were going to get it and Karen walked away. Mack walked into the trailer and was FINE. But I couldn't get the divider closed and he decided to not be FINE and he was LEAVING, banging his head on the way out. 

When Karen got back she got him in again and I closed the divider but he was leaving again before I could let Karen out so I just opened it and we let him go. Once again we got him into the trailer and this time we hooked the divider and Karen climbed out through the window. 

And then the theatrics started. The daughter was BAWLING big and loud over by the barn, all for attention. Karen and I just laughed.

The whole time we were at the farm was about 15 minutes.  I passed Macks owner as I was leaving, told her we would talk back at my house. When we got here Mack unloaded by jumping over the ramp and he wasn't paying particular attention to his owner but she immediately began to set him straight. Meanwhile I was telling her word for word of what had been said, which wasn't a lot. 

We tried to get him to walk into a stall and he wouldn't go in so he got a little reminder lesson on manners.  Then he walked right into the stall. He only whinnied for my horses once, then he settled down. That's when we noticed he wasn't RIGHT. He was drugged and over the course of the day we saw it wearing off. 

Since Mack had been at our previous farm, he knew Joey well so after an hour or so, we turned him out with Joey and Wifi. Joey was HAPPY to see him, snorting and squealing while Wifi was hesitant to approach him. She surprised me and stayed in the arena for a while just watching the boys. When she did approach, she kept the fence between them. 

By the end of the day they were all hanging out together but still wary of each other. I put Joey and Mack into Comfort Stalls and left Wifi in the arena where the boys could see her. 

Mack is 16.2hh and Joey 16hh but since they are built so differently it seems like Mack is a lot taller. You can see in the photo Mack in the stall and he can easily put his head over the divider. Joey can

too but its more difficult for him and Wifi cant get her head over it at all.

Obviously, Mack is staying here and he will be for about 6 weeks. His girl will come over and work with him but hes just going to be a horse and have some time off to recuperate. Hes going to be getting lessons in manners and to pay attention to the person who is working with him. If he tries to run over me hes going to get a lesson but it shouldn't take more than a couple times and if he bites me hes going to think I'm killing him for about 3 seconds.

Tomorrow I'll put all their hay up in the back pasture, way up on top, very spread out. Then I'll put Wifi into one of the temporary stalls in the arena, put Joey in with her and Mack in next. Lastly, I'll open the gate to the pasture so they can all go eat.

That Was Different

When we decided to not take our bikes to Vegas, it opened up a whole new world for us. 

This trip wasn't about getting up at 4am, loading out backpacks and packing the bikes on the bike rack, it was about sleeping in, sitting around doing nothing, enjoying the sunshine. We went to the hot tub every day & jumped into the lazy river to chill and splash each other.

Went out to Lake Mead on the one day it was 86*, got lost in the desert, enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous sunset at the top of a mountain at the perfect time.

While in town we found other things to do, like meet up with friends from home and have a drink. Erik & Sharon were there for the Rock n Roll half marathon so we went out onto the strip to cheer for him as he ran past. 

We went to the 

I hadn't previously known about this museum so we decided to go and learn a little bit. Instead we learned a lot. We're going to the guided tour at Mercury and testing site next year and going through the museum before hand taught us  some of the things we will be seeing.

I felt kind of weird being there though. These bombs killed so many people.

The weather in Vegas was perfect, mid 70's most days, up to mid 80's. One day we went out to Blue Diamond area and hiked/rock scrambled up into a valley where a lot of rock climbers go. It was 54* at start but in the sunshine & dry 'heat' it felt warmer to me. I didn't take a jacket and within a couple minutes was warmed up perfectly. Once we were climbing the BIG rocks I was thankful I didn't have to carry around a jacket.

When we've previously visited Vegas we've only gone to the strip once, to enjoy the sights, eat at 1 buffet and see a show. This trip we went to the strip more, no shoes but a buffet every other day. Our reasoning was that once we got home, we would be going on a diet.

Now we are home and on that diet. I have lost 6 lbs already and my goal is a LOT more.

No Wonder I Can't Run

I went to the doctor (Nurse) a couple weeks ago, since they wouldn't believe me that I needed to see a FOOT DOCTOR. She prescribed meds for the inflammation and sent me to the foot doctor. Not right away, you know, its got to take another few weeks. I finally get to see the podiatrist and he found a lump in my foot.

Plantar fibroma, a benign nodule that grows on the bottom of the foot. I have a single lump so he is sending me for an 'urgent' MRI, which is scheduled for 3 weeks out. I'm glad its not a regular one, geesh. Then he will probably want to do cortisone shots and when I get those I hope to hell they don't hurt like the dickens.

I just want to run again.

On a good note, Lan is turning 50 in 8 days so I'm taking him to Disneyland. I've purchased the flights, rental car, hotel & Disneyland tickets, now I'm counting down the days till we fly out.

Rumors Of A Death

 

There is a rumor going around this morning that someone might have died over at

The Riding Place yesterday.

 

That would be sad, if might have been someones little girl.

Playing It Smart

I didn't run today in the Iron Horse Half Marathon, feet were much to sore but I did start stretching exercises Lan showed me and they already feel better. I sit with my back up against a wall with my legs straight out in front of me, then I use my shin & foot muscles to pull my toes toward my torso and hold for at least 20 seconds. I can't do it very well, Just having my feet stand at a 90 degree angle is painful but the more I do it the better they will feel and the faster they will let me run on them.

The people who do todays half marathon also do another one at the end of September in Alki Beach and it was suggested to me that I ask if I can switch to that one. We'll see. It is still I n the 90 day time mark for half fanatics.

Getting Ready To Run

I'm getting mentally ready to run the Iron Horse Half Marathon on Sunday. I've had yesterday and today off, I work tomorrow morning & then I have 2 days off.
My feet have been giving me pain and I think its Plantar fasciitis; if so, I'm in for a world of hurt if I'm not really careful. I'll be losing some weight this next month and I sincerely hope this helps.

Long Run Interupted, by Death

Yesterday I lost my cat, Dave.

 

He went out to the road and met disaster.

 

Dave was my snuggler for the last 7 years, he loved to be carried and played with.

 

He also liked to help do chores. Here, he helped seal with skylights in the old barn.

 

When I fed horses he liked to go with me into the pastures.

 

Dave especially LOVED to ride on the hay.

 

Ah, there he is as a kitten.

I miss my boy with so much of my heart.

 

Here he is with his sister, Precious. She also got hit by a car, when she was only about 1 year old.

 

The plight of a farm cat.

We can't keep them indoors.

 

Here is his final resting spot.

Lan dug the hole when he got home, Dave was placed on a flake of hay that he loved so much, inside the grave. His buddies, Hagen and Tank were placed inside with him so they can all play in heaven together again.

 

I love my pets so much and miss these ones enough to make my heart hurt.

 

I loved you, Dave.