Thoughts by Kat

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

I did feel anxious in a general sense today, though there was no solid reason for it. Just this sense of "lots to do".

We have gotten a small amount of rain. A literal drop in the bucket to make up for the months of dry weather, but enough to knock the dust out of the air.

It's cold and blustery, lots of wind, and grey, so feeling very much like the beginning of winter.

I did get to pottery, though it was later than I would have liked. I didn't have much time, but I was able to trim the rest of the mug forms and get handles on them. I don't feel like with the new "classes" that limit our studio time (only two years ago, I could come in at any time and stay as long as I wanted. Now I have to leave by about 5:30 because there is an evening class).

I did see D, and though she had to leave, she expressed that I should give her a call when I had time, which is nice. I haven't seen her in person in the form of a visit for weeks now. We've both been busy.

I did go to Winner's, mostly for socks, and found underwear as well. I hate that cotton socks and underwear seem to be becoming a thing of the past.

I went grocery shopping, and I am very grateful to be able to do so.

I came home and my Sweetie was out in the pottery studio working a bit more on the electrical, so that's nice.

I brought in the groceries, and by then he came in and we put them away together.

I made supper and he warmed up with a bath.

I called our friend from Wyoming who is in Canada with his wife on vacation. We were good friends with him and his family when we lived there, and we haven't seen him for almost 20 years now. We haven't met his wife.

We talked about what they want to do in the city tomorrow, and...it sounds like mostly they want to do things where we can walk their dogs. They have been traveling through Oregon and B.C. and were in Banff and Jasper over the last couple of weeks, and it sounds like they've been mostly hiking. So, not concerned so much with seeing museums or other points of interest. Walking their dogs.

Okay.

So I guess we're meeting them in an off-leash dog park tomorrow, whatever the weather may be, and we're...walking their dogs.

Then we might go to the historic downtown area in the city, where they can walk their dogs while we..take turns looking in stores while someone stays outside with their dogs?

Then they are willing to leave the dogs in their vehicle to have supper.

Well, I guess I will be wearing my hiking shoes and wearing layers.

Today I am grateful for:

Decent sleep.

My Sweetie made breakfast.

We went outside, my Sweetie worked on electrical stuff in the pottery shed, and I pulled weeds.

We worked with Dandy today. He was a bit fidgety with being harnessed, so I paused and worked with him at Liberty for a while, and he was really connected with that. He went back to being a bit fidgety with being harnessed anyhow.

I long-lined him around the pasture once each way, and he seemed very comfortable with that.

He was once again upset with being in the shafts of the cart, though as far as I know he hasn't had anything bad happen there. I spent some time with that, so that if he was upset in the shafts, he got to come out but he got to work on the lunge line for a while until he could regulate and have a calm, steady trot. When he relaxed, he got to stop, but went directly back to the shafts of the cart.

A few tried with that and he was more relaxed. We then only "loose" connected him, and that meant my husband had to half pull the cart. Dandy seemed uptight for a lot of that work, in spite of him seeming so comfortable with it only a week or so ago.

This regression is a bit mystifying.

He did relax a bit after some time, and that's where we stopped.

So, I guess it's going back over this again and again until we get more comfortable again.

Then we went to the barn to see River.

River was good, in terms of his energy. We worked on our homework, which focused on getting some bend in his ribs.

Then we went upstairs to visit the kittens. They are now at the stage where they are very playful, and starting to run around more. It was a lot of fun watching them play fight and chase little paper balls we made for them (a favorite with our cats at home).

Then we came home, ate, and my Sweetie needed to get to bed.

I'm glad we bought him some pants, as the jeans he wears to work are pretty much finished. He prefers to only have maybe two or three pair and wear them ragged before he buys new ones, but he might have cut this a little close. They are very thin on the fronts of the legs.

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep.

My Sweetie had a very early appointment to see the physiotherapist, though I felt like I wasted his time.

The therapist didn't think his back pain was related to any specific muscle issues, and also looked at his shoulder that has been bugging him, and said the same thing. He said that if anything, my husband's flexibility is the issue, because he's probably over loading his limbs at the edge of their range when he's doing things like rock climbing or working on things at home.

So to celebrate, my Sweetie went to the climbing gym in the evening, where he proceeded to "over-do it a bit", and figures he'll be pretty sore tomorrow.

In the afternoon, he more or less set up some tools to work on the pottery studio worked for about half an hour, looked at the time, and decided to stop so that he could go to the gym.

No, the hired carpenter isn't coming this weekend, but my husband was able to find the right electrical panel today (another work friend had one) and he is going to try to install that this weekend.

We did manage to take a giant pile of weeds from the horse pasture to the bush, out of the way. The weeds were pulled from Wonder's corral ages ago, and what is nice, is that they had time to dry out so they weighed a lot less. I wanted the pile gone before it snowed, and it became an obstacle to navigate when I went out to feed (which it already was).

Then I took him to pick up his car, that got the sunroof repaired, from the mechanic's. He headed onward to the climbing gym, I headed to the barn.

As a result, I got to the barn about an hour earlier than I usually do, but since it's Friday, I would still be staying for the woman with health challenges' lesson at 7 pm, so it made for a longer barn day than usual.

River's breathing wasn't great today, but with rests he did okay.

Halloween is coming, but this year for whatever reason, I don't feel motivated at all to do a freestyle or a costume for us. Not sure why. I think I'm getting a bit burned out, since I put a huge amount of effort into the costume last October (Beetlejuice) and then another big effort for the "Singin' in the Rain" freestyle.

I did spend some time with the adorable kittens upstairs before the other woman's lesson.

R's daughter L came out to work with a horse too, during the lesson, so it was very fun and social. I worked with Maverick, a horse of R's who needed just some gentle movement to assess him. He did something out in the pasture, and is pretty sore in his hind end.

Then I came home, and got there about the same time as my Sweetie.

We ate, and watched "The Mountain Between Us", which was a movie about two people who survive a plane crash and being stranded for several weeks in the mountains, and fall in love. I was absolutely baffled at the top notch cast of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, and even some of the supporting actors were surprisingly big names for a movie that was visually wonderful, but no more compelling than the average Hallmark film.

It was literally "just fine", and that's it.