Hiya Darlin',
Slept well again, worked a bit on my shoulder again, and after chores and breakfast went out to meet Yvette, who has a 16' flatbed trailer and needs a tractor, and has plenty of storage on her new property for all my stuff, so we reached a deal, but it still needs a few logistical adjustments. After I left there, I stopped at the Forest HQ to pick up the odds and ends that were put in a couple of boxes after the Taste of Goethe, only to discover those boxes still haven't made it into the volunteer closet, nor were they in any of the trucks in the compound, so I'm going to have to track all that stuff down next week. Headed down to the Rural King down in Crystal River because when I called them earlier this week they told me they had six bags of Balance, only to discover they only had one! Very disappointing! I had a bunch of stuff I could have bought there, but decided not to, just because I was a bit miffed at them at that point. Then I went to the Walmart in, I think, Inverness, and got what was supposed to be a few groceries but ended up costing a lot more (price of everything is up these days!) and finally back to camp. Still working on trying to find a way to make a single trip to get my stuff, hoping Jo's husband's friend might have a solution. Finally settled down to a beautiful evening, and since it was still relatively early, decided to watch the two Road House movies back to back. Not surprisingly, the original was better, with deeper characters and numerous subplots, where the new one just had more violence, blood, guts, gore and special effects, shallow characters and without much of a plot or underlying romance like the original. Oh, well. Enjoyed a couple of weekend bourbons, won't be long out of bed and beyond! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had another good night sleep, worked on my shoulder for a short time, and now I'm convinced that the shift yesterday will be one of (if not THE) last, as I'm not feeling any violin string-like sensations like I've been for the last few weeks. Really think I might have it fixed now! Just need to let it settle for a few days and see what happens. I got out in plenty of time to take the horses over to the Ocala Equine Hospital where they did a fantastic job of taking care of the horses. I was surprised when they asked me if I needed my Coggins by later today, apparently they have a lab right on the premises! I said I wasn't in that much of a hurry, so they said Monday, which still seemed like a rush job to me, but I'll take it! Their prices were also extremely reasonable, so now we're all set with inoculations and Coggins for another year, and a health certificate for six months. Stopped at the hay place on the way back, my usual guy was out of town so I had his wife and two young grandkids there to help. I stocked up enough to fill my trailer and have enough to last until I leave. Just managed to get some of it stored under the gooseneck when Jo texted me to meet her for lunch, so I met her at Willards and enjoyed a nice meal with her. She came back to camp, helped me put the rest of my hay away in the trailer, I piled all of the ribbons I've collected in her truck, and we visited for awhile before she went off to do errands in Williston. I fed the horses and settled down for the evening, satisfied with another productive day! Be in bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Well, despite all the napping during the day, I still managed to get a full night's sleep, and woke up feeling pretty refreshed, thank goodness. Spent some time working on my shoulder, and I swear I had a major shift, so I'm curious how that works out in the next few days. Did my chores, soaked Lola's foot, got all the little extra stuff done, then made some headway on trying to find a trailer so I can move my stuff up here, worked on a survey for the Taste of Goethe Facebook group, and generally did some computer work that will benefit me later, like appointments to have the truck inspected and to get the horses' Coggins and annuals. Had a few campers come in, so I'm not on my own tonight. Finished the day by hooking up the small horse trailer for our trip to the Equine hospital tomorrow, then settled down to a movie, and soon, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
I went to be achy last night, and woke up achy this morning. It took awhile to muster the energy to get up to feed the horses and have breakfast, then I promptly crawled back into bed where I spent almost the entire day reading and napping. I didn't want to take any pain killers, so this was the best way to recover. By the end of the day, I did feel a lot better. We had a Taste of Goethe recap meeting to figure out what we can do better next year, as well as what went better this year. It was a productive meeting. It rained all day, had a short break just about feeding time in the evening, and by the end of the meeting, had started up again, so I'm looking forward to more rain overnight. Nothing like a rainy day to make you feel lazy, which is exactly the kind of day I needed today! Even with all the rest today, I'm looking forward to a good night sleep, and by tomorrow, should be "right as rain," as they say. Love you, sweetheart! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Took my time packing up this morning, but still managed to get out of camp by 10:30, arriving at Goethe just before noon. It took me about an hour to get hooked up and get the horses back on their highline, and just a few minutes more before I got out the patio rug and chairs. I'm not going to bother with the screen room, I was way too tired for that! I kept on moving for awhile (a body in motion, staying in motion), because I knew the minute I sat down, I wouldn't have the energy to move much after that. I swept the floor and shook out the rugs, because it's going so bad I couldn't stand it (and that's saying something!), and even re-stapled the rug in front of the recliner, which had worked itself loose. Once I got settled, I spent some time going through all the ribbons and getting them all straightened out, which took awhile, but I managed to get that all done. As my adrenaline started to fade, my eyes were getting that gritty feeling, and my face started to feel numb from the exhaustion, so made a few essential phone calls, had dinner a bit early, watched a movie and a couple of Northern Exposures, got the horses fed, soaked Lola's foot, and am most definitely heading to bed early. It's a warm night, but there's rain moving in overnight, so I'm looking forward to day of doing absolutely nothing tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up too early, read for a bit before I got moving, but was out on the trail by 10:15. First trail I did was red, and I carefully looked at every marker to see where some folks got confused, and honestly, every ribbon was exactly where it was supposed to be. Yes, a couple of the paper arrows came down, but to my mind, those are secondary confidence marker, it's the ribbons, that tell the story. Nearest I can figure, despite the intersections clearly not indicating turns (i.e. they should carry on straight across the power line), it seems some folks didn't stay straight, they just turned willy nilly. The markers were right, they just didn't follow them correctly. Oh, well, no accounting for that. Anyway, we did the 10 miles of red, stopped at camp for a minute, then went out and did another 10 miles of blue. Once again, the one person that got "lost" on blue was clearly just not paying attention, as there were two signs and five ribbons at the intersection she missed. Sigh... Anyway, we were back in camp by 4:00, made very reasonable time. It was nearly an hour before Linda K. came along, she had volunteered to help so I sent her out to do the white trail, which she had no problem following, and had a good day with her horse Sonny, who is still learning to behave on his own, and did very well today! Very grateful for her help! I spent some time sorting the ribbons, though I didn't get through it by any means, but the pace is thankfully slowing down a little, and I'm feeling a bit more relaxed. All I have left tomorrow is the 15 mile pink, which is a very pretty ride, so I should have plenty of time to run into town for a few errands and to fuel up my tank so I can head straight out Tuesday morning. Enjoyed another pasta dinner with a side salad, a Northern Exposure, and a British geriatric romance, though I'm tired of this genre always ending with someone dying. Why can't geriatrics live "happily ever after," too? May be a short "ever after, but at least it's not a depressing death at the end. Oh, well. Anyway, time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, the day finally arrived, and what a day it was. My first call of the day, before 8:00 am, was from Jo, who said there was a guy out there removing markers again. I called owner Christine, I don't know if she ever got out there, but Jo tried to explained to the guy that the markers would be down in the next day or two, so I guess he quit. Big "it's my property and I don't have to leave these here" crap, but I know for a fact that most of the markers were on WMD property, so that was no argument. Not long after, I got a call from someone who was lost on the white trail, which, to my mind, was the easiest trail to follow. Turns out she missed a marker, but I drove all the way out there to make sure the markers were still in place. With all the rain, there were a few of the signs down, but all the ribbons were still in place. I won't go into what her excuse was, but then I actually watched her pass a turn, and she wasn't even aware of it (despite that there were no markers where she was going), and only turned around when I beeped my horn at her. She continued to get lost throughout the day. I ended up on the phone and putting out fires all morning, mostly on the red trail, which was complicated, but so many people were rushing through it and not reading the markers, it got ridiculous after awhile. Suffice to say it was a very frustrating day for me. I had planned to go out and take down one of trails after they were done with it, but with so many fires to put out, I decided I couldn't afford to do that, which was just as well, because I spent time going out and picking up water troughs instead, as they became available. Fortunately, my friend Linda from Pete's Place is coming back out to help tomorrow, so she's going to pick up the markers from one of the 15's while I get the two 10's, then I'll only have one 15 on Monday to do. I'm booked here until Tuesday morning, so hopefully I'll be able to get packed up and back to Goethe before it gets too late. My trailer and my truck are a mess from all the rushing around, we had terrible rain yesterday which luckily was mostly gone today, so weather-wise it was a good day with just a few sprinkles. I managed to get the local vet from Dunnellon to look at Lola, and she was kind enough to call in a prescription of antibiotics for her and to let me schedule a follow-up session before I leave the area. This is the vet everyone recommends but wasn't taking new patients until June, so I was very fortunate to get her to look at Lola. Hopefully, I'll have more time to soak her foot and let the pills work and she'll get better. Probably a foreign object, remotely possible it's a fungus. We'll know soon, I hope. Anyway, once we got all the troughs in, I ran into town to get the prescription, and I grabbed a salad as well at Publix, and I couldn't help it, stopped at the liquor store for some bourbon, which I've had a craving for, and frankly, really appreciated after all the angst from the day. Fed the horses a treat of some peanut hay, and finally settled down for a slightly more normal evening of salad for dinner and a Northern Exposure. Won't be long out of bed, that's for sure! Tough day!