Archives for 2019

Didn’t get as good a night sleep as we might have, I didn’t put Lola in the truck tonight, and she grew increasingly restless, scratching at the door to get out, as well as scratching at the bedroom door. When she started having a barking fit and wouldn’t quiet down, I finally got up, put my bathrobe on and put her in the truck. I don’t know what we’re going to do next week when the temps drop down in the teens (fingers crossed the forecast is wrong!), but for last night, she went into the truck. She doesn’t seem to mind, she buries herself deep into her luxury bed, but I don’t know if that will be enough when it’s so much colder. Wait and see! Rain came in around 4:00 a.m. and was steady most of the day, but I did manage to slip in between a few breaks to feed the horses and get them out in the pasture. Even though it was raining, the temps were still fairly warm, so I wasn’t worried. Dialyzed Hubby in the afternoon and watched some old westerns, a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon! When it was time for the horses to come, I had a bit of a scare. When I called Apollo, he answered with his usual whinny and headed my way, but there was no sign of Flash! Usually he’s within a few yards of him, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. Finally, just as Apollo was making his final approach to the gate, Flash popped up over the top of a hill and came running towards us. I had put Flash’s halter down in the barn, so I decided to try something. I put Apollo’s halter on, and just opened the gate, hoping Flash would follow, and he most certainly did! He headed toward the wrong barn, though, but stopped at the door as if to say, “This isn’t right!,” then when Apollo and I got into the right barn, he came trotting over. Apollo went straight into his stall, and as Flash came up the aisle, I just waved him into his stall, though it looked liked he was going in there anyway. Fabulous! They are both such good horses, and I can’t wait until we’re back on the road in a horse camp so we can be riding again! The rain stopped and a cold wind came in, we’re expecting freezing temps by morning. Brrr! Wish we were already in Florida!! Won’t be long now, though, can’t wait! Hubby headed to bed early, not feeling too well, but we have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, hopefully we can get him fixed up. Off to bed for me now!

Got up when Hubby’s heart alarm went off at 7:45, as has been the habit the last week since it started going off, just in time to receive a phone call from his heart doctor’s office saying they’ve moved up his appointment to this Friday, thank goodness. We have such a busy week next week, I was beginning to doubt we would have time to get everything done (and I’m still not sure about it), but at least we have a starting point. We left the house early, went to Bedford Tack to get a new rain sheet for Flash, as he managed to destroy his in the field the other day, and they were having an incredible sale, where I picked one up for just $5.00, woo-hoo! Then we had a nice lunch at the Midway Diner, Hubby was in the mood for liver for some strange reason, though all they had was deep fried chicken liver rather than his usual beef liver and onions, but he was happy. We missed breakfast by two minutes, so I was forced to eat a burger instead of my usual breakfast, which I had hoped for. Then a quick trip to Walmart for some items, then home for an afternoon of relaxation. The temps reached over 70, so Hubby stayed outside in his gravity chair and napped most of the afternoon, while I did more work on my computer. I’ve volunteered to help the folks that put together the OTL (Ocean to Lake) trail riding event, and started to put together a media list for the purpose of getting wider coverage and attract folks from further away, so that was my focus this afternoon. Sat in on a conference call of their meeting this evening, then settled down for the rest of an uneventful night.

I don’t know if it was the busy week or the travel or what, but Hubby and I still feel bushed from the recent activity. I think it might be worse for him since his heart defibrillator alarm has gone off, and evidently he’s back in A-fib, which always wears him out, and I’ve been calling the doctor’s office but still haven’t gotten an answer about what to do. In any event, other than the usual chores, we relaxed most of the day, with only the routine of dialysis to expend our energy on.

Still feeling a bit tired, but decided to try to finally fix the leaky toilet, only to discover that the parts I bought wouldn’t fit, so I ran out and picked up some more, this time taking the connector with me to insure that it would fit. Unfortunately, once I got back and tried to do the job, it became clear that I needed an entire water valve, that the part I bought wasn’t going to make it work, so I ordered the part online. Then we decided that since we had some time, we would take the truck down to Advance Auto and get the two batteries replaced, considering the incident on Saturday and the knowledge that these batteries are over six years old now and slow to start even on a good day. That took some time, and once we got back, we spent the rest of the day resting, still trying to recover from the weekend.

Quiet day, slept fairly late, spent the morning unpacking, doing laundry and giving Hubby dialysis, though we both felt exhausted from the travel. That was enough energy spent to get us through the day!

Didn’t need to get up quite so early, finished packing, had an uneventful trip to the airport and car rental return, got through security no problem, and didn’t have too long to wait before we boarded. Sorry to say we weren’t thrilled with this flight either. Our flight attendant only offered us water or juice before takeoff (and the people behind us could only get water as I took the last juice and he didn’t bother to get any more) then we waited for more than an hour after takeoff to finally get our first real drink. We had a crying baby in the first row for a while before it finally sent to sleep, and lunch came so late I was having to rush to finish it before we landed in DFW. The only positive things was when I finally did get my drink, he brought two extra bottles, since one in the bottom of this glass looked like nothing and wouldn’t have lasted five minutes with the meal. The rest of the trip went well, but it was quite a shock going from the 70’s in SoCal (supposed to be closer to 90 by the afternoon!),to near freezing when we got off the plane in Nashville. Then, not too surprisingly, when we got out to the truck, it wouldn’t start. I had known the batteries were getting a bit old, and I even brought along our little jump starter, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to get it started, but thankfully, Nashville posts an emergency phone number on every shuttle stop, and they sent someone out to help, and we were started dup pretty quickly, at no charge! Of course, I gave the guy something for his troubles anyway, we were just thankful we weren’t stuck for long! An uneventful ride home, where I discovered that Lola was quite comfortable laying on the couch in the wood-stove warmed Tack Room, which is a kind of gathering place in the barn, with one of the other dogs on a chair nearby. I left her out there so that we wouldn’t be disturbed in the morning, and headed straight into the trailer. It wasn’t long before the exhaustion caught up with us, despite the time change from California, plus gaining another hour with the end of Daylight Savings Time overnight tonight.

Another early start, another day with our bright group of students made the day pass quickly. Hubby gave it his all during the morning, but then started not feeling well just before lunch, so I took him to the room so he could rest for the afternoon while I completed the workshop on my own. He slept most of the afternoon, getting up just before I returned after the class, and we sat together and had a few snacks and a glass of wine for me while we got caught up on the day. After awhile I took a trip to Walmart to return the tripod (I already have two, and didn’t need another!), but kept the video camera, as my old Canon is really a still camera, and the video feature isn’t that great, and I’d rather keep one dedicated to the job anyway. Did some preliminary packing, but still ended up going to bed nice and early so we would be well-rested for our long travel day tomorrow.

Discovered that the workbooks that our client usually produces didn’t get produced, so I got up extra early and managed to persuade the hotel to make them up for me in time for the workshop. Nothing fancy, but they’ll do the job. Had another bright group for the day, broke up at about 4:00 so I could get Hubby over to his dialysis center again, managed to arrive in good time, and once again achieved a good stick and an uneventful session for him. Rather than stay for the whole session, I drove back to the hotel, got into my swimsuit and hung out in the hot tub as the sun went down, which was truly lovely, and really helped to relax my muscles and sore feet after standing up for most of the day. Met an interesting couple and had a nice chat for awhile before redressing and going to pick up Hubby. Both of us were tired by then, so early to bed again!

Thank goodness we have a day between our cross country flight and our Workshop, or we’d never make it! We both had an on-and-off night sleep, but ended up sleeping a bit later, which was good, as it let us readjust our time zone better that way. Once we got moving, we headed out, first to Walmart to pick up a new video camera and tripod (I realized I’d forgotten to bring my camera, but we really need one dedicated to business these days, as my other one is getting pretty banged up in my saddle bags on the trail!), and a few other sundry items, then dropped Hubby’s dress shoes at a shoe repair place for new heels, then breakfast at a quaint little diner with a 50’s motif and fabulous food, then back to the hotel for a bit, where Hubby sat out by the pool in the sunshine and Santa Ana winds (there’s several wildfires around, so there’s smoke billowing out of the hills) while I ironed our dress clothes for tomorrow and set up the camera, realizing the memory card I thought I had was non-existent so I would have to pick one up. We retrieve his newly-heeled shoes, stopped at Target for the memory card, then finally set off again to his dialysis clinic for the first of two in-center treatments he’ll need while we’re here. Unfortunately, it’s necessary to go through a whole intake process, so even though his chair time is 4:30, we had to be here at 3:00 to sign paperwork and watch a less-than-thrilling video on what to do in case of emergency. In insisted on doing the cannulating (sticking the needles in him so that he can be hooked up to the machine), because last time we were here, they wouldn’t let me do it, and it ended up with 5 different technicians trying to stick him for 45 minutes. It was torture to watch, not to mention torture for Hubby, but evidently, for some non-sensical reason, California’s policy is not to use buttonholes, which is the standard everywhere else. This time I INSISTED I do it, even bringing my own needles, but they wouldn’t let me use my needles, though they had some for me to use (last time they told me they didn’t have any, so I guess that information wasn’t exactly correct, either). Anyway, when we finally got done with all the paperwork, they took us into the treatment area and I had him stuck and ready to go in five minutes. It was a good stick, too, thank goodness, with a terrifically low arterial, which sometimes gives us problems, but today it was good as gold! Afterward, they said I could sit with him if I wanted, so they pulled up a chair for me and I got my computer out while Hubby watched TV. That always makes the time go faster, so it wasn’t long before we were heading back to the hotel for what was left of the evening, with an early morning to look forward to tomorrow!

Well, every once in a while Hubby and I have to have a hiatus from all our fun and do something to pay for all this excitement, so today we had to fly off to Southern California to conduct a corporate workshop later this week. Got up nice and early, got the horses taken care of and out in the pasture, which may be one of the last days this week as there’s a rainy cold front coming in, and since we’re trying to prevent the horses from getting too much of a winter coat, I left instructions to leave them in the barn if the temperatures get into the 40s, and it’s supposed to get near freezing later in the week. Anyway, we finished packing and headed out to the airport, and were halfway there when Hubby suddenly remembered he’d forgotten to pick up his carry-on bag, which contained all of his medicines and dialysis equipment, so we had no choice but to run back and get it. Fortunately, I tend to overcompensate on time when we’re flying, so instead of getting there two hours ahead of time, we arrived an hour ahead of time, though we skipped picking up breakfast, which had been the plan. It was a bit anxious for awhile until I did the math and realized we’d be fine, and actually ended up sitting at the gate for a half an hour after getting through security and all that nonsense. The first segment of the flight was great, purser Michelle kept us stocked with drinks and snacks, but the second segment had bad service, the attendant Muriel had no personality and every time I ordered a drink, it was only about one or two fingers deep, so I had to keep asking for another one, which got to be really annoying. The dinner was terrible, too. We had pre-ordered the fruit and cheese plate, because last time Hubby had ordered one it was very nice, but this time it was not good. The cheese was dry and looked like it had been cut and left out for a few days, the fruit was a few fresh grapes, but all the rest was dried, like figs and apricots. I was expecting melon, and apple and strawberry, but we got none of that. Mine looked like it had picked at and resealed, as I only had three pieces of cheese to Hubby’s four (I got no BRIE!!!), and only had half the grapes Hubby had. Very disappointing! I watched a movie on my laptop, but other than that, there wasn’t much else to the flight, except we were delayed getting out of DFW, so my plan to arrive in daylight didn’t happen, it was dark by the time I picked up the rental car and got the luggage and Hubby from the baggage claim area and to the hotel. We were both pretty tired, so we weren’t long out of bed. Thank goodness for a comfy mattress!