Winston

I forgot to say that he is doing great after surgery. He absolutely hates the cone and since he didn't seem to bother his stitches, I'd leave it off most of the time. He only had to wear it overnight or when I left the house. Although he's supposed to wear it for two weeks, I've opted to leave it off the past two nights and he's doing fine. I even think he's a little less snarly with Bart already.

Satellite TV Aggravation

Please tell me if this is a difficult concept. We have Dish Network with DVR capabilities. The main unit is in the family room. The second (remote) works with the television in the shop. I have a standard, non-DVR receiver in the bedroom.

I want to move the second DVR capabilities from the shop to the bedroom and send the standard unit back to Dish. This is going to require a service call. I supposedly had an appointment for the morning of Oct. 23. When no one showed up by 12:30, I called Dish only to be told there was no record for this on my account. That representative told me all I had to do was contact a local satellite provider to make the change. (Teeth gritting commences)

Yesterday I walked into a local satellite store. They claimed they couldn't do this but to contact a different satellite installer. Okay, no problem. I called that installer this morning only to be told that they can't do any work that is not authorized by Dish. So then I called Dish. After a long discourse with the representative he finally seemed to understand what I wanted to do (I'm sure it would help if I knew the correct terminology for things) Somehow I got signed up for a protection package during all of this but it seemingly will reduce the service charge amount. Anyway, he told me to contact yet a third satellite installer to have a technician come out. Of course I got voice mail. My teeth are ground to stubs.

I resolve that if this person cannot do what I want that I'm going to cancel my subscription and switch to Direct TV.

Aside from that I seem to be getting things accomplished. I've arranged to have my driveway plowed and to sell our snow blower and a chain saw on consignment. These are two items that I can't see myself ever using.

I took down most of the screens yesterday to allow more light through the windows. Now I need to vacuum them and store in the shop.

The horse was slightly off on Tuesday so we limited my riding to a walk. Apparently I've been holding my legs in the wrong position all these years and putting too much weight in my stirrups. The whole lesson was spent on correct positioning, some of it without stirrups. Harder than it sounds.

Hanging in There

It's been a week since my husband died. I'm doing better than expected. The funeral home called yesterday and said his ashes were ready so I was able to pick them up after running some other errands. As I told his mom, I waited to get him until last because he would have been really ticked off if I'd made him wait in the car.

I am not a morning person and even after I (finally) got up, tended to lounge around in my pj's. I'm having to change my ways since now I'm the one who has to answer the door. The FedEx guy caught me in my pajamas at 10 a.m. last week so now I'm dressing almost upon getting out of bed, which tends to be around 5:00 a.m. these days. I have a repairman coming by sometime today, Dish Network scheduled for a morning appointment tomorrow and have to have Winston to the vet by 8:45 Thursday. Last night was the first night I've actually slept except for Bart deciding to bark around 4:00 this morning. Fortunately, I'm used to him doing that when he sees a stray animal so I didn't freak out that someone was trying to break into the house. I keep telling Winston that he has no idea what I've got in store for him. Hopefully he will be less ornery with Bart after he's neutered. Bart will be next but the little instigator gets fixed first.

I've had tremendous support from friends locally and my ear's about ready to fall off from all the telephone conversations with family and friends from out of state.

I don't make a point of professing my faith here but I know my husband is with the Lord. He was a somewhat unhappy soul and I take comfort in knowing that he now has peace that surpasses all understanding.

Changes

Yahoo mail has changed their format and has been giving me fits. I'll adjust eventually but I hate it at the moment.

Today when I went to sign on to my blog I am told that it is now run by Google. Jeez.

The biggest adjustment I am making is that my husband died suddenly on Tuesday. No, I am not making light of this or deeming it less important but I am still in denial. The reality hasn't quite set in so I am acting in my usual light hearted, somewhat snarky, self. Normal programming, such as it was, may or may not return.

Splitting Hairs

Apparently the actor Owen Wilson is going to be a father (again)

While Lindqvist, Wilson's onetime personal trainer, is legally married, "she didn't cheat with Owen," says the source. "Caroline was separated before she got pregnant."

Dude, if she's still legally married, even if separated, it's cheating.

I was also able to locate my earlier postings. I didn't realize that Blogger only recalled 100 per page and that I could access other pages. Duh.

Hey!

I just tried to read some of my earliest entries to see how much riding progress I had made in three years. Apparently Blogger only maintains two years of posts as the oldest I could find was September 2011. Boo, hiss.

We watch Pioneer Woman on Food Network every Saturday. A couple of weeks ago she shared a recipe using Pillsbury peanut butter cookie dough and miniature peanut butter cups. Well, that looked like something I could bake but I've been to two grocery stores and neither one had peanut butter refrigerated dough. Guess who's eaten all the PB cups in frustration? Like I needed the calories.

Riding Progress

I showed up early at the barn yesterday so I would have plenty of time to groom, tack and warm up both me and the horse. As with some best laid plans I forgot to factor in that my trainer and I use the same girth so I had to wait until her session was over before I could lay hands on it. She had remembered to put out a second bridle for me as her horse and mine use the same one. Oh well, I think it pissed off the clinician a little bit as she mentioned how I should have warmed up before my session. I reminded her about the girth mishap (old people don't take no crap from nobody!) Subsequently, I came home and ordered my own girth to keep this from happening again. I had a girth for the Belgian mare I used to ride but it is way too big for the gelding. It was one of those things I had been planning to do and yesterday was just incentive enough to get me to actually do it.

My regular trainer rode two of her horses. First her five year old green gelding. She lunged him before tacking him up and then wanted him to cool down. I started walking around the arena and he followed me like a big puppy - he didn't even have a halter on. He is such a sweet guy. I kind of hope that I can stick to riding long enough for him to be a safe mount for me. My husband suggested he was following me because I had carrots in my pocket but that wasn't the case. Of course he may have smelled them from Tuesday but he wasn't nosing my pocket so I don't think that was his motive. She rode one of her dressage warmbloods for her second session. I refer to him as "the big giant head" as he is stalled next to my horse and is always sticking his head over the divider begging for treats. Scares me to death half the time because I'll turn around and practically walk into him. He's nice but way too much horse for me to consider riding at this point.

Anyway, the clinician remembered me from last time and kept asking questions about the stuff we had done. She had a better memory than I did. We mostly worked on getting the horse to bend around my leg at the corners, getting me to post the correct diagonal and my crappy transition from trot to walk. I just need to remember to post slower and not try to sit in the saddle while the horse is still traveling at a fast clip. Once he slows down it's much easier for me to sit deep in the saddle and convert to a walk. At least I apparently now have my leg in the proper position as I didn't get called on it like the last time.

In non-horse news we have signed up for a 30 day free trial of Netflix. Apparently it eats huge gigs of [Internet memory (I think)] so we are going to have to sign up for more, which of course won't be free. We also didn't have the wireless LAN adapter for the TV in the bedroom so ordered one from Samsung. I am trusting their site that the one I ordered is the right one for our TV model. I should find out in a few days as it's already been shipped.

October Already

Nothing of note happening around here lately. I have most of my fall yard work accomplished except for storing four lawn chairs. I tried to replant a peony that had been put in a too shady location. I read that peonies hate to be transplanted but if you had to do it to try to ensure you didn't disturb the roots too much. So I dug a big area around the peony and when I went to lift it by the base of the plant, it broke off in my hand. Okie doke, I didn't mean for that to happen. I wonder if the plant will come back in its old location next year or if I just killed it.

I harvested the potatoes and got a good amount - more than we need since a 5 pound bag usually sprouts before we eat them all. I took about half of them to my trainer yesterday. I had two plastic shoe boxes full of duck pellets from when the wild ducks used to visit my yard every day. One of my trainers other students has ducks and geese so I took those to the barn for her. Slowly but surely I'm getting rid of stuff I don't need. Now I should list some Christmas items on eBay and get those out of the house.

My riding lessons have been going great. I'm trotting a lot more and becoming more successful at keeping the horse rounded. Yesterday I assumed more of a dressage position than the hunter/jumper stance I'd been using. I'm using my legs more and my stirrups less as I post. On the not so great side, I need someone to push my right leg over the horse as I mount (stupid arthritis) I'm trying to do warm-up exercises to make me stronger and more flexible. Usually dismounting isn't too much of a problem as everything seems to ease up as I ride. Sometimes I still drag my foot across the horse's rear but most of the time I can clear it.

Oh, we worked on visualization yesterday. I am fairly incompetent at going from a trot to a walk and my trainer said to just think "walk" and the horse immediately slowed down. I was impressed. I wish I could afford to ride three times a week. I think I'd make faster progress and it would be good for my overall health. I don't get much physical activity in the winter since gardening's not an option. We have most of the repairs done around the house so maybe I could swing it...

I'm riding with a clinician next Friday and Sue Kolstad is also supposed to be here this month. I'm probably wasting their time since I don't plan to ever compete but I get a lot out of our sessions.