I’ve realized that I don’t write about my personal life as much as I used to.  In part that’s because I’m relatively stable (read boring) right now.  But here’s a rundown of what has happened recently:

1.  I judged a trail ride in Florida last week.  I’ve judged that this location in the past and it is hard.  I judge on changes in the horses’ condition.  This ride is flat and slow and cool.  The horses are literally out there strolling through the park.  It is really hard to judge this ride.

Last weekend though, it was different.  The temperature went to 75 and the horses all had heavy winter coats.  When it was all over 1/4 of the ride had to drop out for reasons ranging from being out of shape to not being fully recovered from previous illness to sore backs to sore feet to rider injury to family emergencies.  The riders are really good at stopping the horses at the first sign of trouble.  At one checkpoint I had three riders decide to have their horses trailered out. All the horses were fine with a break and a good meal in their stalls. I don’t have any pictures because every time I got the camera out I had to go check on someone.

On Sunday, we lost half of the experienced rider division in the first half mile.  They went on the wrong trail.  Then the park service decided that conditions were lovely for an impromptu burn of the forest that the riders were in.  When we got the call that the trail was on fire, I burst out laughing.  It was just that sort of weekend.  Of course the trail was on fire.

They were seen starting the fire so they were able to put it out quickly when told that there was a competition going on in the area they were planning to burn.  I believe an email was going to be sent requesting that they check what scheduled events are going on before they go randomly setting things on fire.

2.  I got a new computer.  My Mac Mini was 9 years old and tired.  Now I have a brand new one but it required three trips to a store to get the right cable to connect it to ancient monitor.  Why can nothing ever work the first time?  The scroll button on the mouse works in the opposite direction when connected to this computer.  That is confusing.

3.  We have Z this weekend and she is sick.  Now the husband is sick.  I am not a doctor of humans.  They forget this and think I am being unreasonable when I don’t magically fix them.  Last night had Z had an earache.  She communicated this by standing and screaming for hours.  Lest anyone forget – this is not a toddler.  This is an 11 year old.  Her screaming would have been appropriate if a bear had chewed off her leg and then beat her over the head with it.  It was unnecessary for an earache.  I was the bad guy because I wouldn’t fix it.  I considered offering her some of Freckles’ ear meds.  Hatred of screaming children is one of the reasons I chose not to breed.  Why did I end up with it anyway?

The husband was angry that his ex was sending a sick kid to him instead of keeping her home to rest.  I swear his sickness is most likely psychosomatic but I’m smart enough not to say that.  I’m missing my family Christmas party because I have to take the kid back to her parent now.

Z vomited today and wanted me to examine it in the toilet.  I don’t do vomit.  I’m a gagger.  I refused to look at her vomit.  Guess who is a bad person again?  You can’t learn anything I didn’t already know from vomit.  For the record, I take this stance with most people who want me to look at pictures of their dog’s vomit too.

4.  I slept in the living room last night to avoid germs.  I got up in the middle of the night and panicked my poor bird.  I had to talk her down to get her to realize it was me and not a predator before I could move again and turn on the light.  She was annoyed with me too.

5.  I think I’m cool with the dog and the cats but you never know about these things.