Hi Babe!
Well, not surprisingly, I had a hard time getting to sleep, then I was awakened by a barking dog, (probably Rosie), then I woke up the whippoorwills about two hours before I had to get up, and barely got any sleep after that. Why does it always happen that on the days when I set my alarm to get up early, I never seem to get a good night sleep? Crazy! I did get up on schedule, had breakfast, finished loading up the trailer, got the horses in right on schedule at 8:30, and was ready to go at 8:45, right on my window of 8:45-9:00. Jeff did pretty well, he managed to get Frost fed and put in the paddock and was climbing into the truck right at 9:00. Happily, the truck started up with no problem, and we made it to Dupuis without incident, yay! Scott was riding Apollo, and because Jeff’s boarder wouldn’t let us bring Frost because of a back problem she thinks he’s having, we brought Flash for him, though Jeff wasn’t too happy about that. Flash is a bit hard to handle, and takes some careful consideration, and Jeff just isn’t too well attuned to Flash’s needs, so he did end up getting kind of beat up by the end of the day (he described it as ‘fighting with a grizzly the whole way’. For the uninitiated, a Poker run is when you stop at stations along a designated trail, and pull playing cards out of a “hat” so to speak, and whatever card you choose is written down on a game card, and whoever had the best poker hand back at camp at the end of the ride wins the pot. They also held a raffle and provided lunch at the end of the trail. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with these club events, it wasn’t terribly well organized. There was no water provided on the trail for horses or humans, and since it has’t rained in a couple of weeks, no natural water on the trail either. The trails was poorly marked and nearly everyone got lost, so it was much longer than anyone expected. I was a dealer at the fourth station with another woman, and we sat out there for nearly 2 ½ hours before the first horse showed up, and she said she had been one of the last to leave camp, so where everyone else went, we have no idea. Several riders missed the third station completely! Just a matter of poor organization and poor communication, not to mention inadequate trail markings, which, as you know, is one of my pet peeves to begin with. Oh, well, I had a lively conversation with my station partner, and we mostly sat in her air-conditioned Lexus so at least we weren’t out in the blazing hot sun all day. When Jeff et al came through, he was not having much fun on Flash, and apparently his stirrup strap gave out when he first got on, so he was afraid to get down because he didn’t think he’d be able to get back up again, and you know how cranky he can get when he doesn’t stop every half hour or so. Of course, he was trying to hold Flash back, and Flash didn’t like that and apparently tried to get Jeff off of him several times, but at least he didn’t get thrown. There was a palomino nearby that Flash didn’t like either, I suspect because it reminded him too much of his boarder Frost, who’s just downright mean to other horses. Anyway, we finally had the last rider (that we knew of) pass through and headed back to camp. We stayed long enough to have lunch and chat a little, but Jeff had a couple of service calls he was still planning on trying to get to, so we packed up and left shortly after that. We had another uneventful drive home, thank goodness, and I put everything away while Jeff got ready for his calls, pre-feeding some of the critters and leaving me food to do the rest, since James went out for the day. Scott came by to pick up his truck a bit later, and that was about it for the day. Oh, and after a few investigative questions, I think we’ve arrived at the conclusion that what’s probably wrong with the truck is that the fuel and air filters haven’t been changed in a long time, (mea culpa) so I’ve ordered both online (at a fraction of what they want at the local auto parts store), with a Prime arrival on Monday, so that will be Tuesday’s job. Phew! What a long day after a poor night sleep!
So I’m heading to shower and bed, hoping I can sleep in late tomorrow! Good night, my love!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a much better PT session today, they actually got me on a stationery bike and after some stretching, I was able to spin all the way around for several minutes, which is really some progress, as bending my knee is the biggest restriction I have at the moment. Jeff borrowed my truck so he could haul his trailer full of junk down to the scrapyard, and he got back in good time, but when I got in my truck and started down the driveway, I only got as far as the paddock when it conked out, just like it did last week after we brought the big trailer home. I didn’t have time to mess with it, so I borrowed the Bronco to get to PT (with no AC at 88 degrees!), and when it was time to leave, I couldn’t get it started. He has this crazy kill switch, but I did everything he told me, but I had zero power. I managed to get him on the phone and he said it had to be a fuse (evidently he’s had the problem many times before), so I found that and changed it, and then had to push a couple of wires together that had come apart, and I was finally able to start it. I managed to just get in parked when it died, so he’s going to have to take a look at it. Meanwhile, I got a text about my appointment for my covid vaccination, but I couldn’t answer it with all that was going on until I got home, and when I followed the link I discovered I was number 17565 in the queue! I watched it for a bit but it wasn’t exactly going down quickly, so I went about the rest of my business. By around 7:30 when I’d finished feeding the animals and packing up the small horse trailer (for the event tomorrow), I went back to the truck to try to start it. It was a bit reluctant, but I pumped the accelerator (something I shouldn’t need to do on a fuel injected diesel), and it apparently helped and it started up. I managed to back up and get it hooked up to the small trailer, which I pulled back out front okay, so fingers crossed it will work okay. Anita’s fiancé Scott had come to help me, and in the end, he let me bring over his big Dodge 3500 just in case I couldn’t get mine going so I could still bring the horses out to Dupuis if necessary. Of course, I’m hoping my truck will work fine so I won’t have to. Anyway, but that time, when I got back on my computer, I was down to about 1200 and dropping fast, and a timer kicked in and I watched it get all the way down to about five minutes and 648 people in front of me, when suddenly the line was “paused.” I was not too happy about that! It was nearly two hours before the line started moving again, and at last, I was transferred over to the registration site. That had all kinds of problems, too, it kept telling me the dates I wanted were all full, and they only were showing one week ahead, and the only choice of location was the fairgrounds, and if I didn’t register in ten minutes I’d have to go back to the end of the line… It was a nightmare! FINALLY, I managed to finesse it so that I got an open date and time and miraculously it was for this Monday morning! Fantastic! So I managed to get assigned, so hopefully that’s the beginning of the end of my stay in Florida. I have to stay long enough for PT and to get my second covid shot, which is 21-28 days after the first, so hopefully by the first or second week of May I’ll be heading north. I certainly hope so, it’s going to be murderously hot here by then! It was nearly 11:00 by the time I got all that accomplished, and I had to shower because it had been so hot today, so it was a late night, which was the exact opposite of what I had hoped would happen, since I have to get up early for the Poker Run out at Dupuis tomorrow. So I’m off, albeit late, to bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
It took a long time to get to sleep again last night, but eventually I got a solid 7+ hours. Fortunately, with all the icing and rest I gave my knee yesterday and again this morning, it felt a lot better, and I was able to get my exercises in without a lot of pain. Spent almost the entire day balancing my credit card, I hadn’t reconciled it manually in a long time, so the numbers were off, and I’m starting to prepare to do my taxes. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and I managed to get it all done by the end of the day. Jeff’s been scrapping up a storm because the prices are higher now than they have been in a while, so he’s got the big trailer all loaded up, but he ran out of time today so he’s going to take it tomorrow. Settled down for the evening, continuing my icing and doing some extra stretching to make up for not doing it all yesterday, now I’m ready for shower and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
It was a tough night last night, I was pain all evening and into the night, ended up having to take a couple of generic Tylenol PM, which put me under pretty quickly. It also made me sleep late, it was after 10 by the time I woke up. My knee was definitely much more swollen yesterday and last night, only a little better this morning, and it still hurt like crazy, so I was barely able to do just a couple of my PT exercises all day. Spent the day icing in the hopes of making it better. I feel like this was a real setback, and likely unnecessary, I’m going to have to make sure I don’t let it get that bad in PT again, even if it takes a little longer in the end. I’m getting tired of being in pain, and I was feeling really good on Monday, but now I feel like I did last week. The good news is the latest covid stimulus package included a COBRA insurance subsidy for six months, starting on April 1, so that means I’ll be able to keep my health insurance at no cost until September. Hopefully by then I’ll be able to get my covid vaccinations and get a contract that will allow me to get the regular insurance back again before it runs out. Perfect timing on that, I must say. Anyway, I’ve been adding ginger tea and ginger snap cookies to my diet, since ginger is supposed to be good for inflammation, and after about the fifth or sixth course of icing, my knee was feeling a bit better, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to sleep without taking any more pills. They just knock me out too hard. Hopefully, I’ll be back on track tomorrow! Meanwhile, it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
A great night sleep, a quiet morning, though the Buick battery was down again, but I’m thinking it’s more likely the battery is just bad rather than I have a draw. Got a call from my friend Donna from NY, we’ve been playing phone tag for a week now, but we finally connected today, albeit only for a short while because I had to head off to my PT session. My PT this afternoon was a hard one, there’s one woman there that really likes to push the envelope and I had her today. I was pretty sore by the time I left. Dropped a return package off at UPS, then went to Walmart for some shopping, using one of those motorized carts, the second time I’ve used one, just because I’m not sure I can make it around the whole store walking yet. Got home around 4:00 and started icing right away. I even put some CBD cream around the edges because it was really painful, and I can’t take any ibuprofen with the new medicine I started taking last week. Got the horses fed, played with Lola, and finally settled down for the evening. Just another mundane day waiting for the time when I’ll be able to go riding again! Not soon enough for me! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, Baby! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Despite the two hour nap yesterday afternoon, I had a full night sleep and woke up a bit more energetic this morning. I did a load of laundry, then spent a little time messing around with the Buick. I couldn’t find a drain on the battery, but the terminals were a bit corroded so I cleaned those up. I was able to start it okay, and I measured the voltage when I finished, so I can check it tomorrow and see how it compares. It’s highly possible it’s just the battery gone bad, after all, I bought a cheap one-year battery when I thought I was going to sell it, and that was a couple of years ago, and the worst thing is to just let it sit around, so if it doesn’t start tomorrow or looks like it’s been drained again, I may just take it to the auto parts store and get a new one. Or I might just wait until next year, since I won’t be here too much longer, and I really need to get someone to look at it and try to find out where this wheezing noise is coming from. It seems to run great, but that noise concerns me. If nothing else, I want to give it a wash and then park it out of the way and cover it up with the new cover I bought this year. I did all of my PT exercises for both my knee and my shoulder, and my knee is feeling quite good these days. I still don’t have full motion, but I don’t have any real pain, just a sense that there is a restriction on my mobility a bit, but it’s getting better every day. I spent the rest of the day mostly reading, watching a little TV, then sitting in on a Zoom meeting with the folks up at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, AK, where we visited when we were up there a few years ago, and where we adopted a Musk Ox, too! A great old gal named Luna, who’s acting as a mentor to the younger mothers these days. I also discovered that ginger is good for inflammation, so I mixed my Sleepytime tea with some ginger tea that I had, along with icing my leg all day, so the swelling is definitely going down. Anyway, progress is made, time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
I didn’t think it was possible, but I had an even lazier day today than the past few days! Put the charger on the Buick battery with the intention, if I was in the mood, to look for a parasitic drain it has, but I never did get in the mood. I did my PT exercises on my yoga mat outside when it warmed up (it was a cool morning), read for a bit, called and had a chat with your sister Jean for a bit, then started dozing in my chair. I felt tired enough that I climbed back into bed and took a good two hour nap! Don’t know why I’m feeling so lazy, but I’m sure that will turn around soon. Ice my leg a few times, then watched a new BBC limited series you would have loved, about a group of retired police detectives brought back to solve cold cases, called New Tricks. Loads of fun! Took my shower early so my hair would dry before going to bed, since it’s supposed to drop down into the fifties overnight. Great sleeping weather, but didn’t want to catch a chill with a wet head. So I’m off to bed now, with plans for a busier and hopefully more energetic day tomorrow! Love you darlin’! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a great night sleep, and another very lazy day today. Did my PT exercises, read and watched TV all day, just not in the mood to do anything else. This was the first day, though, where I felt the pain level in my knee was actually less that before the surgery, which definitely means I’m on the mend! I can envision myself walking without any pain at all in the near future, yay! Nothing else to report really, just a pretty ordinary day. I would say “boring”, but that would just make you mad that I’m living such a dull life at the moment. Don’t worry, I’ll make up for it once my knee is better and I’ve had my covid shots! This last year has been such a strange one with all the quarantining and social distancing, so glad it looks like we’ll soon be over it soon! Meanwhile, I just keep telling myself I’m recovering from surgery, I’m entitled to a little time off. Shower and bed soon! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Babe,
Had quite an uneventful day today, really, had nothing on the agenda, had a fleeting thought that I should start my taxes but decided I wasn’t in the mood. I did finally got a hold of the RV parts folks about returning the items that we didn’t use to fix the slide, got it all packed up, then had them tell me not to bother to ship it back! Granted the most expensive things were the bearings that we used, but the rest of it was worth over $75, but they said to not to return them! Not sure what to do with them, since I don’t want to just carry them around, don’t need any extra weight, that’s for sure! I guess I’ll just tuck them in the barn with some other stuff I’ve stored there, or maybe list it on Marketplace, though it seems like it’s too specific to sell online, but you never know! After that was settled, I pulled out my yoga mat and did all my PT exercises, both knee and shoulder, and felt pretty good after that. My knee is really coming along, the inflammation is coming down nicely, and I’m getting a lot more mobility out of it these days. I iced it off and on the rest of the afternoon while I binged on TV, just not feeling like doing much of anything today. It was a bit cooler, which is great, it was too hot last night, but today was beautiful. I can’t wait until I can swim again! And ride, of course! It won’t be long, though, I can feel it! So after this quiet day, I’m heading off the shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hello my love!
Happy 87th Birthday! Hard to believe this is the second birthday since you’ve journeyed to the undiscovered country, time really does fly. It was a fairly low-key day, as you would expect. I got a call from the physical therapy folks to see if I could move up my appointment to this morning rather than this afternoon, which I gladly did, so I had barely finished breakfast and my morning chores before I drove off (in my truck, which started with no problems this morning!) Ally had me doing some actual weight-bearing exercises today, she thinks I’m coming along very well. I asked her point blank when the earliest I can get back on my horse would be, and she checked her calendar and said, May 4, which is eight weeks from my surgery. I think she actually said it should be ten weeks, I’ll have to confirm that. Anyway, I’ve been working hard, trying to maintain a balance between lots of therapy on my own, and not overdoing it so much that it sets me back. Tough balance, so I’m discovering. Headed over to Walmart after that, picked up a prescription for a better pill for inflammation (I’ve been taking way too many ibuprofen), and I only have to take one a day. I also tried to replace Jeff’s lawnmower battery, which he said was dead, but when they tested it at Walmart they said it had a full charge, so the twenty minutes I was in line at customer service wasn’t very productive. At least I didn’t have to stand, I got one of the electric carts to shop in, I knew it would be too much for me to walk all over that store. Did some grocery shopping and still managed to get back by about 1:30. It was a hot one today, upper 80’s! I just wish I could go swimming, but doctor’s orders are for no submerging for a couple more weeks, and to protect my knee from the sun. At least I can take my usual stand up shower every night now, that’s a relief! I mostly relaxed the rest of the day, just icing down my knee, it had quite the workout today. Fed the critters and settled down for a quiet evening. I got an email from your sister early this morning and tried to call her, but there was no answer. I’ll keep trying this week until I reach her. Anyway, I’m headed to shower and bed again, another slow day of recovery! Good night, darlin’! Love you!