Archives for May 2011

Spent the day preparing my outline for an Audio Conference I’m facilitating tomorrow.

Time to get in all Hubby’s checkups. Bloodwork in the morning before breakfast back at the hotel (free at Hampton), late morning carotid artery scan that showed little difference between now and three years ago when we had it last done (a very good sign!), lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant in Nashville (okay, so we splurged this once, back to oatmeal, protein shakes and soup tomorrow as we continue on our merry diet way), then another doctor’s appointment where they checked his defibrillator implant and actually decided to speed his heart up a bit from 60 to 70 beats per minute, to strengthen it’s regularity, then a side trip to the TN Agriculture Dept. to pick up our horses’ new passports which our buddy Thomas had all ready and waiting for us, then the long drive home, with another quick stop at the convenience store for milk. A movie then bed, exhausted after the early morning and long day.

An early start today, with the alarm going off at 6:30. Put enough hay in the horses’ paddock and left enough food for the dogs to fend for themselves until tomorrow, as a trip to Nashville is in store for today. Left the house by 8:30, made one stop to pick up a pair of sunglasses at a convenience store. I had left mine at home, and knew I would need them later (though it was a cloudy day the glare was still annoying), so a quick stop fixed that problem. Headed to Nashville and met with a client for the afternoon doing some personal coaching. It’s a new company for us, but one that could open many doors internationally, both with their own partners and with many of the major Fortune companies they do business with. Went very well, everybody happy by the time we left. Headed out to the Hampton Inn on West End for the night, a newly-renovated hotel at a very reasonable price and excellent location for all our errands tomorrow. Settled down the second half of the lunch our client had provided, and we were both sound asleep by 8:30!

Spent the day watching the mandatory Sunday talk shows, followed by movies, relaxing for most of the day, except for the packing we had to do for our trip to Nashville tomorrow and Tuesday.

Ran into town again to pick up the lab results on the Coggins Tests and our Health Certificate so we can complete the paperwork on our horse passports. Bought a bunch of plastic drawers in Walmart, as we had decided to turn the back of the van into a second closet. Previously, it had been filled with the set for Hubby’s theatrical performances, but having finally decided to retire permanently (?) from theatre, or at least let our horse camping take precedence, we didn’t want to keep carrying the heavy set pieces around, so we emptied the van and stored them in the garage. Since we have firmly established that we want to stay on the road full-time now, we decided to take more clothes and other sundries with us, and with proper organization, the back of the van will make a perfect storage space. Did some basic shopping, then returned home and settled in for the evening.

Finished mowing the pasture with the riding mower, as well as running around the horse paddock just to get rid of the overgrown stuff. Been catching up on laundry in preparation for stocking the new drawers in the back of the van, lots more to do before we can get started there! Can’t wait to get back on the road again, all this work is exhausting!

Took a drive into town to do some grocery shopping, and to take the horses to the vet to have their Coggins Tests done so we can get another Equine Passport for the next six months. The horses were so thrilled to see the van hooked up to the trailer, my horse whinnied as if there was a mare in heat nearby! They’ve become a couple of traveling fools! They seemed quite happy at every stop, their heads were out the windows the whole way to see where we were going. Also had a chiropractic appointment to try to solve my shoulder problem, which still bothers me, and made some headway with that. Several stops later, we headed back up the mountain to cooler temps. Summer comes here in a hurry, last week we were in the thirties at night and fifties during the day, and now it’s near 90 already, wishing we were heading north sooner to get out of the heat! Some rain coming in later this week, though, so hopefully it will cool things down, though I’m sure the folks along the Mississippi River won’t welcome it, they’ve been having near record-breaking flooding this week. Hoping we can keep pacing ourselves this week so we don’t exhaust ourselves quite as much as we did last week. Busy, busy, busy, but at least things are getting done!

Monotonous, we did more yard cleanup, had another fire, Hubby repaired some shingles on the garage roof that had apparently come off recently, probably with the big storms they had the week before we got home. I bush-hogged the 3 acres of pasture that have overgrown, just to make it look a bit better. Work, work, work!

Not much to add except we’re still plugging along. Spent a lot of the day outside cleaning sticks in the yard and piling them onto an old stump in the front of the yard, then having a bonfire to clean up the residue. Hubby still concentrating on numerous yard jobs, including making the paddock escape proof. The horses escaped over the weekend and wandered all the way down the road to a neighbor’s yard, Hubby didn’t see them but I found them after walking half a mile to where they were. I used the lead rope as a makeshift rein and rode my horse back home, with his Mama trailing untethered behind (she never lets him out of her sight). Met Hubby coming down the road in the van, he was relieved to find the horses were safe. Unfortunately, a stray dog that had been hanging around that neighbor’s house decided he had better pickings with us and followed us home, now I can’t get rid of him. My dogs usually run off other dogs, but I got the impression they thought I’d brought this dog home with me and were instead polite to him. Trying to find someplace we can turn him into to find a home, but shelters are “iffy” around here, and animal controls seems to be quick with the needle, so I’m not sure what to do. We’ll figure out something. Anyway, my pyromania had a field day with the fire today, so I’m a happy (though still sore) camper.

Slept late, then did virtually nothing but crash in front of the TV for the day, bones and muscles aching from all the activity of the week. Sleeping well in our fresh water bed, and the house is definitely losing it’s infested quality, actually getting back to (boring) normal.