Hiya Sweetheart,
Not surprisingly, I slept like a log last night! I also fell asleep in my chair in the middle of the afternoon for a couple of hours, so needless to say, other than the most basic chores, I didn’t do very much today, being just too darned tired! Not at all sore, though, for which I’m grateful, and neither Flash nor Apollo seem any worse for the wear. I forgot to mention that Apollo did really well yesterday with Jeff, he said he only got stubborn and kicky a couple of times, but eventually settled down. I was glad he had company, though, I would have really worried about him being out there on his own. Anyway, other than doing a little research on some investments I’m looking into, and downloading my GPS maps from yesterday, I had a really nice, quiet day, and am off for an early night! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Spent most of the day just getting ready for the big weekend coming up. All the trails are now supposed to be marked (I did my bit!), but I had to clear out the truck so that we can shuttle passengers from Corbett to Dupuis at the end of the day tomorrow, and also have room for anyone that might have to be rescued during the ride. I volunteered to let them use our truck and trailer as their rescue ambulance, which they appreciated, but also gave me the added benefit of having my truck delivered to me at the end of the ride, saving me at least one trip back to the start! As you can imagine, that took some doing, since so much stuff was piled up in the foot area of the back seat, not to mention Lola’s gigantic bed! I cleaned it all up, though, vacuumed it out and sprayed it with Febreze, making it all look nice. Did what laundry I needed to do, and generally just spent the day preparing before settling down for the night. ‘Night, my love!

Hey Babe,
All the critters were due their annual exam and vaccinations, so I had made an appointment with Dr. Minteer, loaded everybody up and headed over to her place. As usual, she did a great job getting everybody done, and I saved a few bucks on a house call by taking them over there. You remember last year the little horse trailer was full of hay that we brought down from Tennessee, so I couldn’t do it then, but this year, I’m just buying hay locally a few bales at a time, not to mention hauling out to all the places to do trail marking this past few weeks. Got back before noon, gave Jeff a hand with his truck for a few minutes. He pulled the transmission off the motor and ran it for a few minutes to prove it’s the motor and not the tranny that’s making the noise (it’s definitely the motor), but though it may be more information, it didn’t get him any closer to actually solving the problem. Sigh. After that, I had to work on Lola’s GoDogGo machine for a while. She’s been having a blast with it, but yesterday evening it started doing that thing where the motor keeps running even after the ball has departed, and keeps running for 3 or 4 more kicks before stopping, then the only way to start it again is to turn it off and reset it. I was hoping that after drying out overnight that it might be better today, but it had the same problem, so I took it apart and cleaned it up, but that didn’t solve it. Then it gave up the ghost entirely, no power at all, and I noticed a broken piece on the little sensor that sends the message to the kicker, so I pulled down the old one from the attic that I’ve been keeping for parts and swapped them out, but that one didn’t work at all. Fortunately, in the package I got from the seller the other day, they had sent me a new one, and as soon as I put that on, it started working perfectly again! Lola was a happy camper once again! And now it throws the ball even farther, so I had to move it to a new position for her. By then, I was so hot, as I did this out in the sun and it’s another very warm day, I decided to get my bathing suit on and take a swim. The pool has actually warmed up quite a bit, so after my dive in, I climbed onto my raft and floated around for a while, luxuriating in the sun and quiet of the afternoon. It’s been so long since I’ve had that kind of time to myself, and I have to admit, I really enjoyed it. I figure the rest of the week and through this weekend (it’s finally OTL weekend!), I’m going to be pretty busy, and tired, with lots of early mornings, so I figured recharging my batteries is probably a good idea. Finally got out of the pool, did my chores and settled down for the evening, watching some more of the Poldark series. Off to take my shower and head to bed, so I’ll say good night. Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, Lola and I are happy campers today. Yesterday in the mail I got a package from the GoDogGo people. I had emailed them earlier this week about getting a new cord for the ball-throwing machine, and the package arrived yesterday. Not only did they sent me a new cord (gratis, by the way, though I offered to pay), they also sent me just about every moving and electrical part that’s in the thing! Plus three brand new balls! I could do a complete makeover if I want to, but I think I’ll just fix it one thing at a time, which means I should be able to keep it running for a long time to come, fingers crossed! So first thing this morning, I pulled the machine out of the back of the trailer, put the new cord on it, ran an extension cord outside the screen room, pointed the machine in the general direction of the pool, and handed Lola a new ball. She was beside herself! It wasn’t throwing too far, because I think I replaced the spring with one I got from a hardware store rather than an official spring, and it might be a bit too stiff, but it sent the ball flying into the pool, with Lola flying in after it! She was ecstatic, and kept at it for a good long time. I finally pointed it away from the pool so that she would get a little break from swimming, but she kept fetching and fetching until I finally just had to take the ball away, or she would have completely exhausted herself, you know how she gets! Anyway, I spent some time going through the mail package I also got yesterday, and took care of some of that business. I also finally got rid of your prescription drugs. I had taken them to Walmart pharmacy because I figures they would have a way of disposing of them, but all they did was give me small packets of some kind of powder that was supposed to render them harmless to the environment, so I spent some time doing that today, though, frankly, I didn’t see how it would help. Meanwhile, Jeff is still trying to solve the problem with the van, he keeps replacing parts and none of it is getting rid of the knocking, and he’s so frustrated because everything on this Ford is hard to get at, in the wrong place, or just plain dumbly engineered. He may be almost ready just to drive the thing with a knock and wait until it finally craps out, but obviously he’d rather find it than leave it like that. His neighbor Mike has come over for the last two days, and though he’s quite knowledgeable about mechanics, he can’t explain it either. Lola and I played again later in the afternoon, then we settled down to watch some more Poldark for the evening. Another warm day today, so I’m headed off for my shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hiya Sweetie,
My alarm didn’t go off this morning, but I woke up in plenty of time anyway, since I was planning on leaving early to go up the Merritt Island where your mentee LaChrissney lives now with her husband and one year old daughter, as they were having a birthday “Flamingle” today. I left at 10 and arrive right on schedule at noon. They have a nice little house with a pool in the yard, and they’re just a few miles away from Cape Canaveral, where she works now. Originally I decided to go because in addition to the get-together there was also going to be a launch of a SpaceX rocket, and she has passes to be on base during a launch, so I was hoping to finally see one up close and personal, but at the last minute, they postponed it because of weather. I thought I might spend the night and see in tomorrow, but the whole family was there, including her mother and stepfather (our renters), who had driven down from Tennessee, so I didn’t want to intrude on their family weekend, so I came home afterward. I’m not sure the weather will be improved enough to launch tomorrow, but now that I know about it, if it’s clear here, I should be able to see it here, too. Maybe if it’s nice I’ll take Lola over to the beach and see if we can see it from there. We’ll see. Anyway, I got back home, we fed the horses a bit later, and settled in for the evening, watching a few more Poldarks before ending the evening as usual. Good night, my love!

Hey Babe,
Happy Valentine’s Day! Glad we never went into all the silly Hallmark holiday stuff, or I’d probably be really wrecked today, but you know we said ‘I love you’ every single day, and today is no different! The pill I took last night really knocked me out, and I woke up in exactly the same position I went to bed in, and in a LOT less pain. In fact, it was almost gone, just a little twinge if I moved just the wrong way. I decided to take it easy today, so other than doing a little pool cleaning, rinsing the filters and spraying bleach on part of the deck, I relaxed the rest of the day. It’s been so warm here the pool was actually warm enough for me to lay on a little float that I bought a few weeks ago, and I ended up bobbing around in the water for over 90 minutes, so I got a little sun. Lola couldn’t quite figure out how to get her floating frisbee out to me so that I could throw it to her, since I was already in the water, but we had fun trying! I had a delivery from Ranch Feed today, they kind of screwed up my order on Wednesday, giving me the wrong kind of feed for Flash, but they came out and traded out one bag and comped me another, so it’s all good. I was a little worried that such a dramatic change in feed might be hard on Flash, but he seems to be just fine. Spent most of ther rest of the day just watching this PBS seried called Poldark, a classic (and somewhat predictable) 18th century tale that weaves around the aristocracy vs. the laborers, in particular the miners in Cornwall. Beautiful scenery, though, and good production value, as always is in the British period pieces. Anyway, heading to bed now, though I thought I’d be getting up really early to get up to LaChrissney’s place to see the SpaceX launch, but it’s been postponed until Sunday, so I’m just going up to her gathering, cutely called a Flamingle. Not sure what the party’s for, but at least I’ll get to see her and her new family, and get caught up. So, off I go! Love you! Good night!

Hey Darlin’,
Just another regular Wednesday, with euchre and shopping and going to the feed store before coming home and relaxing for the evening. Pretty routine, but it’s kind of nice to be getting caught up on stuff enough to not have a big pile of jobs waiting to be done. Not that I don’t still have jobs, of course, just that I feel like I can do them in my own good time, and they’re not piling up on me so much that it feels hopeless. Anyway, Lola’s already in bed, so I’m heading out to do the same. Good night, my love!

Hey Babe,
Spent the morning making phone calls and doing computer work, then spent some time going through the closets to collect your clothes to take to Goodwill. I let Jeff take his pick first, and there was some stuff he took, then the rest I drove downtown to drop off to them. I have to admit, though I’ve been doing pretty well up to now, when I got back in the truck after dropping off a couple of bags of your clothes and shoes when I suddenly had an unexpected verklempt moment that just came out of the blue. It only lasted a few seconds, but it did catch me by surprise. Of course, I ordered myself to buck up, as I always do, and recovered myself by taking Lola to a nice dog park that I had just discovered on Indiantown Road across from Walmart, where she ran and played for awhile. Then I took her into the Walmart to do some shopping, which always brings out the smiles, on me and on everyone who stopped to say hello to her, and finally got home shortly before feeding time. That was followed by the usual dinner, TV, cleanup, and soon to be shower and bed, so that’s where I’m headed. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Had a good night sleep, and woke up a bit before the alarm, had some breakfast, then headed out to meet Anita and some other OTL volunteers, then out to Dupuis to finish trail marking the section between the southeast end of Dupuis to the edge of Corbett, which we did on ATV’s rather than horses today, just for efficiency, though it still ended up taking most of the day. It was afer 4:00 by the time I got back home, and then I helped Jeff a bit as he was working on trying to get his van fixed before feeding the animals and settling in for the evening. A tiring but productive day. Time for bed in a bit, so I’ll say good night. Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Slept a bit later this morning, after not getting to sleep until very late, and spent most of the day just working on paperwork for the OTL. I managed to send out the press release to a number of places, as well as the PSA, which took me a little while to convert to a usable format, but I managed it in the end. Just one quick trip out today, to Anita’s to pick up some clothespins and survey tape, and I spend a while this afternoon making markers, like you did for me for the Goethe Endurance Ride back in December. A pretty quiet day, which is just what I needed, and now I’m heading to bed, nice and early, since I have to get up early tomorrow, as we’re going out to Dupuis to finish marking the trails out there, only using an ATV rather than horseback. Good night, darlin’!