Archives for 2025

Hey Darlin'!
Another fabulous day! Weather was perfect, nice and warm for our kayak adventure! It was a nice start to the day, Nancy has been a big help with feeding the horses, then Rick came by and we had a nice chat with him, then breakfast, then finally loading my inflatable kayak into the truck and heading to Crystal Springs, home of the best manatee viewing anywhere! We parked at Hunter Springs Park and blew up the kayak, then headed out to Three Sisters Springs where the water is clear enough to see the manatees easily. Unfortunately we lost the rudder somewhere along the line, though we didn't realize it until much later, and there was a pretty good wind, so we were sliding sideways a lot. We were going against the wind on the way there, and enjoyed a much less strenuous trip on the way back. Once we got to the Springs, we swam into it and discovered a manatee with a buoy tied to it's tail, and it came right past us! We saw another on the way out of the springs as well, and some more both coming and going in the kayak, including another one with a buoy marker. We had a lovely afternoon, albeit tiring from the workout, but a good tired! We deflated the kayak and let it dry, had some sandwiches for lunch, even though by then it was 4:00 (we kind of got a late start this morning), and headed home after storing the kayak away. Got back to camp and relaxed the rest of the evening, finishing off a bottle of wine. I was disappointed that I forgot to put on the hot tub this morning, but we sat in it for awhile anyway once it hit 99 degrees. I'm leaving it on overnight just in case we decide to take one during the day tomorrow. Got some much appreciated sun, exercise and new experiences, so it was a fantastic day! Great times! It's late now, heading to bed, looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow. Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Babe!
Had a great day today! Nancy helped me with feeding the horses, we had breakfast, then after awhile, we headed up to Cedar Lake Gardens, which is an old, refurbished quarry up in Williston, which was like a botanical gardens. Between my crutches and Nancy's foot boot, along with Lola, we took our sweet time going around the trails, but it was beautiful and we had a fabulous day. Lola, who has been patiently waiting for me for over a week, poor girl, was thrilled to be part of the adventure! It took several hours, but we weren't in any hurry, and we really enjoyed ourselves and continued to get caught up along the way. Afterward, we went to Sister restaurant in Williston, who was one of the sponsors and food providers in the Taste of Goethe event, and had an absolutely fantastic meal, topped off by an entirely decadent dessert with fresh blueberries and a cobbler-like crust, absolutely heavenly! We went from there to the Winn-Dixie to pick up a few things, than back to camp where we chatted, fed the horses, had martinis, chatted some more, ended up in the hot tub, chatted some more, and finally finished the evening at nearly 11:00. A quick shower and I'll soon be off to bed, skipping my usual evening just because this has been a great day! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Darlin',
Slept mostly well but woke up just after 4:00, so I took some ibuprofen, which I hadn't before going to bed, and soon fell asleep only to wake up with the alarm. Feeding took longer than ever, and I didn't get to FITS until after 8:00, but since every camper had already checked in, except the odd day rider, there wasn't much for me to do anyway. I did a little troubleshooting in the morning, then in the afternoon started taking my pink flags up and pulling the signs and putting them back in the storage shed. I ate too much at the bbq dinner, sat through the awards ceremony and a special Thank You to Val and Larry for hosting the event for the past 20 years, before finally getting home. I struggled with feeding the horses, one of the campers complained about Lola coming to visit in the dark, though he was a bit more sympathetic when he learned I was on crutches. It wasn't long before I was in the hot tub, shower and having tea. Bed's not far off! One more day of cleanup, which frankly, won't take long, but then I have to set up Chelle's trailer for Nancy, my high school buddy from NYS, who's flying into Gainesville tomorrow for a three-day vacation. I need to do some laundry and housework, too, so I'm hoping to finish early over there so I can be ready by the time I leave for the airport. Busy day tomorrow, again! And even though I had one and half of these LifeWave treatments, they haven't done anything noticeable that I can feel. I took more ibuprofen this afternoon, and I'm icing my leg before bed, looking forward to when I can rest it and make it feel better! Someday soon, I hope! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Since ice didn't seem to be helping much, I decided to try heat on my knee in bed last night. Not sure if it helped, but it didn't hurt. Walked a little better while I was feeding the horses, but was still struggling when I left to go to FITS. My friend DeDe, a former nurse, showed up with a pair of crutches just after I arrived, and I was so grateful! They helped so much today! It was quite a lot slower today, an intermittent stream of folks, so I spent most of the day settling in the occasional trailer and just generally running around, or at times, just sittng in one place reading. I made it a habit to put my leg up whenever I could. I returned the copper compression wrap because honestly, it seemed to make things worse. Walking was so much easier on crutches! By the end of day, I wasn't in anywhere near the agony I've been in on previous days. I did some research of my symptoms, and it appears to be a tear in my meniscus, but whether it's a big or small tear is unknown, it will take an MRI do determine that. There's a good chance I won't need surgery if that's the case, which is great, but it does indicate 4-6 weeks of rest to make a recovery, which is going to be problematic. Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! Since I had parked everyone by dinnertime, I was able to get home at dusk, happy I wouldn't be struggling in the dark feeding horses. I was getting low on hay so I arranged to buy four bales from Chelle, and Eric brought them over just after I got home, and he helped me feed the horses, which was greatly appreciated. I stayed outside as it grew dark in order to view a rare seven planet alignment, and I could actually spot four of them with my naked eyes. I went to take a hot tub and discovered it was off. I thought I put it on this morning, but sometimes when the electric flicks off, it stops and won't start automatically again, so it was too cold, sad to say. That's been the best part of my day lately! Probably just as well, though, as one of the vendors at FITS fixed me up with a patch for pain based on stem cells (I have no idea how it works), and it probably would have affected it in the hot tub. Not sure if I should take it off for my shower, either. I've been resting and icing my leg since I've been home, so I'm hoping it will feel better. Anyway, time for shower, tea and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Had another early morning, woke up early and spent some time using the massager on my leg. It did seem to feel better for a bit. Of course, it was a little better after the ibuprofen kicked in, too, though by the end of the day, I was in agony again. There wasn't a lot of odds and ends to finish off today, mostly just parking folks and trying to keep them from encroaching on each other. Mostly civilized, though. Of course, the rides started today, so there were pretty horses everywhere, so that's always a plus. Thank goodness I have the quad Mule! I couldn't have survived without it. I could barely walk, even with your stick, and I'm getting sore muscles from being in such an uncomfortable posture. DeDe has offered me her crutches, she's going to bring them by tomorrow, I think they'll be better than the stick. Interestingly, after I finally got back to camp, and taking forever to feed the horses, I finally took off the copper brace thing and took my hot tub, and once again, by the end of the soak, it felt somewhat better. I don't know if it's from the hot tub or from taking off the brace! It does seem to feel a bit too tight, so I'm going to not put it on in the morning to see how that goes. I'm icing it again now as I drink my Sleepytime tea, and I'm going to leave it off tonight as well, just to see what happens. Last night and this morning, I used Salonpas, which I still don't think works very well for me, and used Aspercreme with lidocaine instead, just to see if that makes a difference. Of course, it will be ibuprofen again tonight and tomorrow, we'll see how that goes. Won't be long out of bed tonight, though tomorrow should be easier, since most folks are here, and some have already left, so there are more parking options. Enough for today! Love you, darlin'! Good night!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a mediocre night sleep, despite taking two ibuprofen. I coated my knee with Icy Hot, and once the hot kicked in, it burnt like hell, so it was a fitful night. My knee felt marginally better for about 30 minutes this morning, despite taking three iboprofen, then it was back to agony again. Thank goodness I have a quad Mule to carry me around! I spent most of the day leaning heavily on your beautiful walking stick whenever I had to get out of the mule. I reported for work at 8:00 a.m., finished putting up some signs, helped where I could before trailers started coming in that needed to be situated. Fortunately, they were spaced out quite well, so I never had a line, and never had to wait too long for the next one. Good news, Rick did me a great favor and picked up my tires for me, which is a great weight off my mind. I'm sure part of my bad night sleep was worrying about how I was going to solve that problem. Bad news, at 3:30 this afternoon, several of us got an email from the forest informing us of a 3200 acre aerial burn, located directly where one of our ride loops was. So with just a few hours of daylight left, our ridemaster, Kelsey, had to go out and remove seven miles of trail markings and figure out where to make them up on another loop. I had another talk with Logan about it, and of course, they can't do anything to prevent the burn, but I pressed him about what we need to do to try to avoid these kind of conflicts. He said they don't know which trails we are using, I asked how much lead time they needed to get a map of what we will likely use, and he said a couple of months. So, at there is a possible path to avoiding some of these conflicts in future, though whether it will come to fruition or not remains to be seen. Chelle said the permit did say all areas north of Apex, which is where the burn is taking place, so they should have had warning, but I don't know how long ago the permit was issued, so another angle needs to be explored. Anyway, I finished situating my last camper around 7:45, came back to camp, promptly got in my hot tub, which thankfully was at full temperature, followed by a hot shower, and now, a cup of tea. Everyone has been very helpful and sympathetic with my pain, one man gave me a copper-laced knee brace, telling me to use Salon Pas on my knee after my shower and put the brace on overnight, which I am doing, several people got me food and drink during the welcome meet and greet, and everyone voiced their concern, which was very nice. I hate being an invalid! But I won't have time to see a doctor until next Thursday, at least. Much as I love your walking stick, I'm thinking crutches might be more helpful. Can't wait to find out how to fix this! Anyway, I'm finishing my tea and going directly to bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Spent the day finishing the setup of the grounds for FITS, welcoming folks in and getting them settled. Last one came in at 7:00 tonight, so it was a long day. Three frustrating things happened, unrelated to FITS. First, I somehow twisted my knee in the last week or two, and I can barely walk. It doesn't seem to be getting better, and I'm afraid it might be leading to another surgery. Second, I purchased some tires online and had them sent to Dave's AutoWorld where I've been having work done on my truck, and who pointed out my tires needed replacing, only to get a rather rude phone call from the wife informing me they didn't mount tires that they didn't sell me! She claimed they didn't have room to store them and would just sent them back! Jeez! I told her I would arrange to get them picked up, but I'm so busy this week I don't know when I'll have the time. I'm hoping I can get someone to help me with that, otherwise I'm going to have to take a pre-dawn run down there to pick them up Thursday. All I wanted to do was give them my business, but with her attitude, they've just lost it. Third, one of your pensions stopped coming, they claim because they need my new mailing address (even though the bank information hasn't changed!), but they have literally made it impossible to contact them. This has been going on for months. They send me emails from unmonitored email accounts so I can't reply to them. I contact them through their website and they either don't respond or send me an email telling me I have to register. I keep telling them their system won't LET me register. And today, I finally got an email, but it was ENCRYPTED and I couldn't open it! How ridiculous! This has been going on for six months now! I think they're hoping I'll just die off before they have to reinstate the pension. Grrrr! The last straw today was not being able to take a hot tub AGAIN because sometime during the day the power flicked off or something, and it wasn't hot enough. Second day in a row, and I could really have used it today, it helps my knee. Anyway, other than these isolated incidents, it really was a good day! I expect tomorrow will be even busier, so I'm off to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
It rained most of the night, so earplugs went in, and I took a bouple of ibuprofen, but it still took awhile to get to sleep. Woke up with the alarm at 7:15, only to get a message from Chelle a few minutes later to change our start time from 9:00 to 11:00, in the hopes the rain would be cleared out by then. That suited me fine, I crawled back into bed and worked on my shoulder for a bit. My knee seemed a bit better, but in hindsight, it was probably the ibuprofen. Anyway, finally got up, did my chores, had breakfast, and headed out, first to the Dollar store to look for more stakes, but they didn't have any, then over to Val's where I started in on marking out the various sites and areas we are using. There was an obnoxious drizzle most of the day, so I didn't get the ground paint on like I wanted, but I did get the flags in on all of the FEI sites. That just about killed my sore knee, I was limping really badly by the time I did all that measuring and walking around. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but it didn't make sense to do it in the rain, and my knee hurt so much I just couldn't walk on it anymore. Chelle and I went around and put up as many signs as we had, me driving the quad and her pounding and stapling the signs. Got all that done, so we drove into Williston to pick up some big signs she had made that will also need to go in tomorrow. Finally dropped her off (she directed me in the back way, which was all slippery sand, so now my truck looks like it's had a mud bath!), and got home after 5:00. Just had ramen for dinner and settled down for the evening. I decided since ice didn't seem to do much good on my knee, tonight I used the heating pad, hoping that helps more, though I doubt it. I forgot to turn the hot tub on this morning, so it's just a hot shower tonight, and an early bedtime! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
I had hoped to go to a local obstacle course for a "Sunday Funday," but my left knee has been bothering me a bit lately (I twisted it somewhere along the line), so I decided to give it the overdue RICE treatment today (rest, ice, compression, elevation) to see if that helps. I need to discern if this is a temporary problem or one that will lead to another knee surgery. Don't want to be lame on my Yellowstone Adventure in August! So I spent the day doing laundry and treating my knee, and by the time I got out of the hot tub, where I did a little massaging of it, it was feeling better. Some ibuprofen tonight just to finish it off, and hopefully tomorrow I'll almost as good as new! Not a moment too soon, I have a VERY busy week ahead of me, working with the Fun In The Sun Endurance Ride. Just need a good night sleep and all will be good! Good night, baby! Love you!