New Years Eve

Just stepped out for supplies (no, not groceries, Mother Hubbard's cupboard will stay bare until after this holiday crap is over with).  You know, cigarettes and beer.  Don't have to worry about having enough for PT; he doesn't smoke and I finally decided after six years of waiting for him to shit or get off the pot, I gave him the gate.  NEXT!  So, once again it's me and the dogs hangin' together, but we're used to that.  I also purchased a ticket on the lottery (which I only do when the pot is gettin' large) so when I cash my ticket next week Mr. & Mrs. Andy and I can celebrate my birthday at Buck's in New Mexico or Dad's in the real Mexico.  We'll see.
Sorry, the train just totally got derailed and I don't remember where I was going with this.
Oh ya.  When I stepped out, I realized what a good job the kid did of shovelling the walk.  I mentioned in an earlier post that maybe I'd wait 'til the kid showed up.  Well he finally did.  Only several weeks late.  I tell you, if someone had offered me $10 a trip to keep the walks cleared when I was 13, I would have been all over that like a fat kid on a Smartie!  He could have made over $100 so far, but I guess you snooze, you lose and he only made $40 nstead.  It snowed here for the last couple of days and he called last night and came over at around 6 with a friend and they had a lot cleared within and hour (he didn't get the whole deck cleared last time, it's 16' x 40'(?) which is great in the summer but not so much in the winter) and I called them in; it was way too cold for them to stay out much longer than they had been.  I'm not an ogre. 
Anyway, if he keeps at it on a regular basis, he should have it done by March.  Or April.  Or even May, but not any time soon the rate he's going.

to my readers

I was checking my stats earlier and was blown away by how many of you there are.  Just sayin', I've gone from 480 page views for the months June 'til end of November to 280 this month alone.  Where'd y'all come from?  So, without further ado, I'd like to give a shout out to the following: (not in any particular order, tho' it was tempting to go highest to lowest)
Canada
USA (including Alaska)
Mexico
Brazil
Indonesia
Russia
Egypt
S. Korea
Thailand
Netherlands
Germany
My apologies if I missed anyone.
Some of you are repeat offenders and I thank you for stopping by on a regular basis.  Please don't be shy, leave a comment so I know who you are and maybe reciprocate by stopping by to see what you're up to.

To all of you, Welcome Aboard!  I don't always promise to be informative or funny, but crank yer hat down, we're in for a helluva ride.
Deb

NYC sanitation workers destroy a Ford Expediton

I didn't notice the date that this was put up, so I'm not sure if it's from the latest round of blizzards.

Proof that men have not evolved much (heh)

Who'd a thunk it?

Came across this in this morning's paper.  Odd how your own perceptions of your country are often wrong.


Canadians More Patriotic Than Americans



Canadians often think of themselves as less patriotic than people of other nationalities, particularly Americans.

But a four-country poll shows that with the notable exception of francophone Quebecers, Canadians are more deeply attached to their country than people in the United States, Germany or Spain.

Ninety-five per cent of Canadians outside Quebec said they are attached to their country, compared to 92 per cent of Americans, 84 per cent of Germans and 81 per cent of Spaniards, according to the survey for the Association of Canadian Studies.

"I think that Canadians presume that Americans are super patriotic and have a deep sense of attachment because we think they manifest their attachment more openly than Canadians do," said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the association. "We think we are modest about our identification with Canada, but I don't believe that to be the case. Repeatedly, survey after survey shows that outside of Quebec, Canadians have a very deep sense of attachment to their country," Jedwab said

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Canadians+more+patriotic+than+Americans/4040278/story.html#ixzz19bVNgsvc

Skating out of the limelight

For those who haven't heard yet, Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter was asked yesterday to step down from his position.  Ya kinda gotta feel for a guy that's 52 and out of a job, huh?

Calgary Herald December 29, 2010 9:33 AM
As the old year is set to bow out in a few days, so too is Flames general manager Darryl Sutter bowing out along with it.

Sutter's holiday-week departure may have come as a surprise, but it was a well-timed one. Given the Flames' less-than-dazzling performance of late, Sutter would have paid the ultimate price for it eventually, and it's best that it happened sooner, rather than later, while there's still time for the team to turn things around and have a shot at the playoffs.

The coups Sutter scored with the illustrious lineup of Miikka Kiprusoff, Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and Jarome Iginla have crumbled to dust -- he shed Phaneuf for the hugely disappointing Matt Stajan, while paying him $3.5 million US per season, and other pieces of the Phaneuf exit package -- Ian White and Jamal Mayers -- have already flown the Flames coop. (and then brought that joke Jokinen back)

The days of auld lang syne -- the Flames' glorious 2004 run for the Stanley Cup -- will never be forgot, as the song goes, but it didn't look like they were about to be repeated under Sutter's recent management.

Thinking back to that heady playoff season of 2004, we'll take a cup of kindness yet -- but look ahead to the team's new year. Fresh start, different face at the helm, and hope rekindled for the team.

Thank you, Darryl Sutter, for all you achieved for the Flames and their fans. We wish you well

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Skating+limelight/4035475/story.html#ixzz19WhwSXOC

from my email inbox this morning, a Lesson on France

Crow Rate

When I had the appaloosas at the race track I was not only fitting them to show, but I also was brought a couple of thoroughbreds to fit for the track.  This was no easy feat as they had wintered at a place called Cold Lake that really lived up to it's name.  They not only were fairly wooly, but pretty scrawny too.  That's when I learned that it's a whole lot easier to put weight on a horse (or a dog) than it is to take it off.  As I was working full time and fitting horses too, I was always at the barn by 06:00 to get the chores done before work.  I'd get eveybody's breakfast ready, feed them and work a couple before I headed off to work and then then come back to do the rest after work.  Since I wasn't the only one that had horses at the track I always had company while I was there, but not very many started as early as I did.
One of the guys that was there had a horse named Crow Rate (named after a tariff on grain hauled through the Crow's Nest Pass) and one morning he asked me to gallop his horse for him.  No problem, I added him to my list of things to do before work.  He had come off the track in Vancouver and always seemed to gallop a whole lot faster than he was supposed to, but the owner was happy.  We'd go around the track, him 'bout pulling my arms out of the sockets, and when we were coming to where it was time to slow down and head back to the barn, I'd say to him 'Ok old man, that's good'  and he'd slow down and break in to a long trot before we turned around.
One morning the owner asked me to work his horse 1/4 mile.  I said 'Ok, excuse my ignorance, but which one's the 1/4 mile pole and what do I have to do?'  He showed me which one it was and said to gallop him around the track and when I got to the pole to hunker down and the horse would do the rest.  Alrighty then, sounds easy enough.  We galloped around the track and when we hit the middle of the backstretch ol' horse jumped in the air and kicked.  Not serious, just kinda like he was feeling good.  We got the the 1/4 mile pole, I hunkered down, and he did the rest.  When you watch the races on TV it seems like they're going really fast, but when you're in the middle of them it really doesn't feel that way.  When we went under the finish line, I stood up and started talking to him to get him to slow down.  We went around the top turn and just as he broke in to a long trot, whatever he had seen the first time around the back side made like it was going to eat him.  Well hell.  He alamand-right and damned near dropped me right there.  As I was hanging off the side of him I seriously considered kicking free and abandoning ship right there, but when I looked down I realized how fast he was going and knew that was gonna leave a mark.  CRAP!  I had one stirrup on an exercise saddle (not quite as small as a jockey saddle, but near enough!), a hand full of mane and the reins and just started clawing my way back in the middle of him.  When I finally made it back on top of him he was going hell-bent-for-leather back to the barn like he was being chased by demons.  By now I had no stirrups and, being an exercise saddle, no horn to get any leverage to stop him with.  Remember I told you he pulled really hard?  It was all I could do to get him stopped by the time we had come around to the finish line again and when we got to the paddock all the owner could do was give me shit for letting his horse run back to the barn.  When I asked him 'Didn't you see him almost dump me?' he said nope and didn't believe me.  Oh well, we came out of it in one piece.
I went to Vernon to watch him race that summer.  Vernon's race track is what's known as a 'bull ring'.  I may be wrong, but I think it's only 3/8 mile so in longer races you have to make several laps.  He was a distance horse and the first trip round he was leading by a nose.  The second trip, he was leading by a length and the final trip he won by  many. 
I guess having him run off with me every morning worked out well.

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda, Didn't

Thursday on my way home my little voice told me to go get dog food on my way as I didn't have enough to last until next week.  I must have been having a stunned and stupid moment, 'cause I ended up going yesterday, Christmas eve.  Holy crap!  What should have been a 1/2 hour trip ended up taking me an hour.  Traffic was just nuts at the strip mall that the dog fod store is in.  Cars parked willy-nilly, half in and half out of parking stalls, parked crooked across 2 spaces and people having a hell of a time navigating in and out of what spaces were available.  I took me 20 minutes to get back on the highway and then stop at the local beer store.  The lot there was just as crazy as the other lot.  Cars lined up all over the place waiting to get in to the car wash, spread out all over the place.  I don't do well in traffic to begin with and by the time I got home I was in a full blown rant about ijits.  We've become such a 'me first' society that it isn't even close to being funny.  Where ever you're headed is still going to be there when you get there so c'mon people, learn how to drive and be courteous!

Home for the Holidays

So here we are at 05:48 Christmas morning.  Woke up at my usual 03:00 witching hour and couldn't figure out what had roused me this time.  And then it struck me.  I live on a corner on what's a very busy intersection of the TransCanada Highway.  Even though there's a berm between the road and the comunity to help keep the traffic noise down, it was silent.  Normally when a transport rolls through the intersection you can hear a 'boom' (or is it more of a rumble?) as their trailers roll over the bumps in the road, but not a thing this morning.  Talk about a silent night..................
Laid there for an hour and decided to get up, check in with my blogosphere buddies, read the paper on line and came across this story of soldiers coming home for the holidays.  Go ahead, read it.  It brought a tear to the old cougar's eye.
And hot on the heels of that article this song came on the radio
Happy Ho Ho and all that jazz.

to all of my 6 faithful followers

2011 Contract

After serious and cautious consideration... your contract of friendship has been renewed for the New Year 2011


It was a very hard decision to make... So try not to screw it up!!!


My Wish for You in 2011


May peace break into your home and may thieves come to steal your debts.


May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.

May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy

May the problems you had, forget your home address!

In simple words .............


May 2011 be the best year of your life!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

shamelessy stolen from the OP/ED pages of the local paper

It must be Monday

I usually like Mondays.  It's the brand new start of a brand new week and I haven't screwed anything up yet.  But this morning?  Not so much.
Stepped outside to start Blue this morning and noticed the front tire was low.  Went over to grab my regular cuppa joe at the local gas station and tried to inflate it and for some reason it wouldn't fill.  The air hose was puking air all over the place instead of in the tire so I thought I would limp it to work and take it to the tire shop that's near by.  But I noticed when I put the cap back on the valve stem that air was leaking out.  CRAP!  Drove slower than usual (I drive the speed limit, it's easier on the pocketbook in fuel and also fines if you get caught speeding) and made it to the tire shop on a wing and a prayer when she went really low.  Since the shop wasnt't open yet I had to sit and wait and by the time they did open it was pancaked.  OOPS
By the time a coworker showed up to pick me up poor ol' Blue was listing pretty badly and I think that whoever was elected to repair the tire prob'ly had to work on it out in the parking lot.  Poor bugger.

Pat Parelli

I posted a clip the other day that featured some people overseas playing in the snow with their horses.  These people have learned how to 'play' with ther horses following the principles of Pat. I first heard of him through a friend who lent me some videos that I watched, totally enraptured.  I heard on the radio that he was coming to town and instantly purchased tickets.  The seminar ran 4 days and I totally blown away by what I saw.
He rode in to the arena the first day on a mare called Magic, leading a stud horse on a 12' line.  As he rode around the arena telling us what he was going to show us, ol' stud horse trotted alongside, very relaxed and never cocked an ear at the mare.  He stopped in the middle of the arena and started tapping the ground in front of the stud horse with what's called a carrot stick.  The horse bowed his head, bowed down to his knees and then proceed to lie down, flat on his side.  WOW! and he never touched him once or even spoke to him.  If I can do half of what he can do with a horse, I might be able to call myself a hand.
Over the 4 days there were some problem horses that were brought in and some of Parelli's 4-star trainers worked with them and showed each day the progress that was made with them.  His wife, Linda, got on her dressage horse bareback and gave a demonstration doing some dressage moves and jumping over some obstacles without saddle OR bridle.  She also got off her horse at one point and sent him to the other end of the arena where a trailer was parked and he went right in.  (see him on CNN through the above link, pretty cool)

Not long after that I heard that one of his 4-star guys was putting on a clinic in the area and signed Indiana and I up for it.  Because I had started teaching her to get in the trailer from a very early age it was not an issue for us to haul her back and forth every day and we headed out for our first day.  What was an issue, however, is she had never been separated from Mama-Bear Murphy and she hollered in my ear for what seemed to be an eternity.  At these clinics you spend the morning working your horse from the ground.  One of the exercises we did was to take our carrot sticks with a 6' 'horseman's string' on the end of it and whirl it over our heads.  EEK.  She thought that the whole class was coming at her trying to kill her and did everything she could to try to crawl in my pocket.  Glenn, our instructor, could see that I was having trouble and came over and asked if he could borrow my horse for a minute.  Dang straight, you can!  He took over and within a minute he set up boundaries for her and basically let her know that 'this is my space'.  When he handed her back it was the start of a very productive clinic for me.  She had never pushed me around before and I was terribly embarrased to have had her do it to me there. 
Another thing we did was play the 'porcupine game'.  You place your hand or carrot stick on the horse and have him move over, or backwards, where ever you want him to go.  Pretty soon you progress to just looking at the offending part and the horse moves it.  We learned how to back the horse up by shaking the leadshank at him and basically put him wherever we wanted him.  Glenn had us draw a circle in the dirt around us as he was walking around the arena drawing rectangles about 10' from each of us.  Our job was to stay in our circle and put the horse in the rectangle using the techniques that we had learned.  I got Indy lined out the direction I wanted her to go and then shook the shank at her and had her back up in to the rectangle.  Our job then was to smile at them, cock a hip and just relax.  When I smiled at her, her little ears came forward and she smiled back.  Now to just wait for the rest of the class to finish.  While we sere standing there waiting Glenn got out a bull whip and started to wander around the arena, cracking it.  Thinking I was in for a wreck, I started to tense up when he got closer to us.  When he did get closer he cracked the whip pretty much right behind her.  She kept looking at me and totally ignored him.  COOL!  I had one of those 'so proud of you moments' and started to tear up, but managed to hold it together.  We had a few more adventures the rest of the clinic (including her trying to buck me off), but that's for another time.

morning giggles (or laugh out loud guffaws)

There are a couple of blogs that I follow that I log on to faithfully every morning. If not for the content, then the comments that are generated from it.
Rising at 4:30 during the week, 6 or so on the weekend is a major sleep-in for me. This morning I got up, put the tea on and settled in for my morning read. When I went over to Buck's  the comments almost made me choke on my tea. So nice to see that the populace feels the same way about the Great BO as I do!
I then read the paper on line and went over to BR's to find another good giggle.  Not over the linked story, the comments again.
And to think that this all started with BR being a blog of note.  Of course when I read the title of his blog, I had to go there; I have a soft spot for buckskins.
I thank all 6 of you that stop by on a regular basis, it's been a gas so far.

A True Albertan

You know you're a true Albertan when you can smoke a whole cigarette with burning a whole in your mitten.  Or, if you're like me, you go mittenless and learn to suck back a king size in 3 1/2 minutes!  -13*C this morning with a wind chill taking us down to -20, so I think my record will prob'ly end up being down to 2 minutes.
Anyway, enough of that.  Here's a clip of some nuts overseas having some fun in the snow.  Enjoy   D

absenteeism

Sorry I've been 'cheating' a little lately.  Got 3 jobs closing this week and another one next week.  Why they're in such a panic to close jobs the week before Christmas I'll never know.  The dang thing is just going to sit on someone's desk until the 2nd week of January until a decision is made.  The contract then goes out to the general contractor, the general contractor makes a decision on sub-trades and issues contracts and then it'll be "How come the project isn't finished yet?". 
I say 'giddy up, let's get 'er built!'  As you can tell, patience is not my long suit (I got that from my Daddy) although Patience was a virgin once.  I'll just have to put my patience button in the ON position, huh?

from my email inbox this morning

Called another moment of excellence in government, I almost didn't watch this one.  I'm glad I did, it's hilarious!  You can't make this stuff up..........

Willie's last round

This is my last post on this great horse.  Looks like he 'done good' for the Cassidy brothers.

Cody Cassidy is on his way home today after grinding out the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo's 10-night marathon.


He plans to make a pit stop at a Cabela's store in Lehi, Utah. It sells all sorts of hunting paraphernalia from clothes to trail cameras and guns.

Cassidy, a guide and outfitter when he isn't rodeoing, said he'll probably get rid of about $3,000 after already spending $3,000 here on a safe to store his guns.

The 29-year-old Donalda, Alta., steer wrestler can afford it.

He won $79,134 in this desert oasis by tossing 10 steers in a total time of 48.7 seconds.

"If somebody told me before I left home that I'd win $40,000, I'd have been happy," he chuckled. "Shucks, this is about twice as good."

Cassidy went into Saturday night's closing round with an outside chance of winning a world championship, but that didn't happen.

Nebraska's Dean Gorsuch managed to hang in with a time of 4.8 seconds that allowed him to split first in the aggregate for $40,673. That boosted his NFR earnings to $93,774 and his income for the year to $186,477.

Still, Cassidy was all smiles after splitting fifth three ways with a 4.2-second run, worth $2,848 and cashing third in the aggregate for another $28,810.

"They'd only been 4.4 and 4.6 on him and I didn't think I could win the round or even be second on him. But, I knew he was a chance to place if I did my part right," Cassidy said. "He hugged up on me and I had to ride on his back for a couple of jumps until I got my hands on him and that was my main concern.

"He was a bigger steer, I'm kind of a skinny guy and sometimes that doesn't go hand in hand."

Overall, Cassidy put together a career-best $155,567 year to end up fifth in the world standings.

Older brother Curtis won the closing round with a time of 3.7 seconds that returned $17,512 and capped a $56,302 NFR. He ended up No. 2 in the world with $166,775.

"A really good way to end the week," he said after a disappointing turn of events that saw him miss three steers earlier in the week.

"I wasn't expecting to win the round, at best a second and hopefully a third or fourth. But I got a helluva start, rode up there, got that steer's head and I knew he was real good to throw once you get hold of him."

The brothers were aboard the family's legendary horse Willy and Curtis was the second last bulldogger out. It was only fitting that both placed and Curtis won the round because it was the 24-year-old brown gelding's last appearance in a rodeo arena.

"He was amazing and if I'd been on him all week, there's no telling what might have happened," said Curtis, who came into the $5.875 million showdown leading the pack. He started off riding his grey horse Casper and then Lee Graves' world champion black Jesse, before switching to Willy.

"I came within $20,000 of winning the world and if I'd been riding him all week there's a good chance I would have won that much pretty easily. The two steers I missed on my grey horse were good enough to win money on; live and learn."


Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Trip+pays+Alberta+Cassidy+brothers/3964524/story.html#ixzz17uK1hxFf


Not bad pay for a weekend gig!

this morning

So.  I stepped out for a smoke the other morning and this is what met my eyes.  (I know the title says this morning, but my 'pute was arguing with me last night, must be time for a new one.)

from my email inbox this morning

How twins are made...


So this is how they do it...


One of life's great mysteries solved.

(Only twenty years ago, no one would have understood this joke!)



But then the best one that I ever heard was 'double clutchin' '

An update on Willy

Looks like the old horse has been Steady Eddie for Cody Cassidy so far in the NFR.  Read on.


Cody Cassidy did what he needed to do on Thursday night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo to stay in the race for the world steer wrestling championship.

The only thing is, so did California's Luke Branquinho, the guy he's trying to catch.

Both Cassidy, a two-time Canadian champion, and Branquinho, a two-time world champion, tossed their steers in the identical time of 3.7 seconds. It was good for a split of second and just over $12,000 apiece.

Branquinho leads the world standings with $155,182. Cassidy is sixth at $118,377.

This 10-round, $5.875 million marathon is now down to the last two performances and the aggregate, which pays $45,000 for first.

Cassidy is third in the aggregate, Branquinho is fourth and the bulldoggers face another pen of eliminators - steers that don't co-operate - again tonight.

The Canadian caught a black and white steer no more than three jumps out of the chute in the eighth round.

"I knew that steer was going to stop," Cassidy said. "He isn't tricky to catch, but he hardly gets out of a trot. Your catch is pretty subtle and he didn't feel that bad at all.

"I had to pull on Willy's reins the whole way through there so I wouldn't break the barrier."

This is the 28-year-old's first NFR and he's won nearly $42,000 so far.

"It getting to be kind of fun, my heart gets pumping before I go and there's a big bunch of money on the line," he said.

"This summer I'd go to rodeos that paid $1,500 or $2,000 and my heart wouldn't even come remotely close to how it feels now."

Older brother Curtis, who led the world standings coming into the NFR, was first out on the night, drilled a red and white steer in 4.3 seconds to split fifth and sixth, worth $3,672. He's won $23,114 so far and is second in the world at $133,587. But he's 14th in the aggregate after taking a no time on three steers.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Branquinho+stays+step+ahead+steer+wrestling/3955073/story.html#ixzz17ibLVCzm
 
I can't imagine the jitters you'd get going from a $1500.00 payday for a win to the money he's riding for!  12 grand is a lot of money, I don't care who you are!!!!!!!!!!!!
He's really gonna miss old Willy next year.  Let's hope there's another one coming up at the farm.

re. yesterday's post

My apologies, gentle reader, for yesterday's last but that just had to come out.  Now I can get on with the telling of the rest of her story.  And that would prob'ly be why I haven't finished telling the rest of Murphy's story.  Get the tough stuff out of the way first.  Kinda like eating brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Smother 'em with turkey gravey, choke 'em back, wash down with beverage at hand, and enjoy the rest of the meal.

music and it's impact

One of the blogs that I've been logging a whole lot of frequent flyer miles on had a post the other day on a piece of music that generated a whole lot of comments about places music takes you, intentional or not.  One song that really takes me to another place and time is George Strait's You'll Be There.  The subject of today's post is the Buddha, date is April 26, 2005. (no need to watch the vid. just listen)

I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but Rottweillers are the diggenest SOBs that I've ever met.  Good on gopher population, hell on the landscape. Buddha discovered gophers when we moved home to Alberta (well home for me, not for the former-husband-unit; he was BC bred and born); there aren't any gophers in BC.  It was hilarious to watch the first introduction.  A gopher would see her and Harley and chirp (part of their warning system).  Of course this drew the attention of the dogs and off they'd go, chasing gophers only to have said gopher pop down his hole.  The Buddha would stand over the gopher hole waiting for it to come out and, what happened?  Another would pop up in a different location and off she'd go, thinking it was the same one.  Huh?  How'd you get over there? 
Over the next 4 years this was kind of a handy feature to have as she'd turn herself inside-out to get one.  Unfortunately for the gophers that she managed to capture, the outcome for them was never good.  Once she'd grabbed them they were pretty much done, and she'd lay beside their little carcasses like a cat, waiting for them to bolt or play. 
The spring of 2005 she'd discovered a new gopher hole in the yard and was doing some serious excavating on it to try to get to the little bugger when she broke one of her nails.  Doesn't sound very serios I know, but dogs' nails are fairly thick and very strong.  This one bent back right to the quick and was sticking up at a 45* angle.  All I could do was look at it.  I knew how much that had to hurt and wasn't even going to touch it.  She went to work on it (there's nothing more healing than a dog's lick, wonder why?) and finally got it off, leaving the nub of her naked toe.  She had been lame the whole time that the nail was tilted and I expected her to be to be sound right away after that but still wasn't a week after it came off so I took her to the vet.  After telling him what happened, he prescribed some antibiotics for her and off we went.  10 days later and still sore so I took her back again.  The first thing that the vet said to me was "Is that from an old injury?" to which I replied "What?".  "The shoulder, I'd like to x-ray it.".  I allowed as how she hadn't injured her shoulder as far as I could remember and he told me that he'd still like to x-ray it.  I was thinking 'it's her toe, not her shoulder, but I'll humor you.' and we made an appointment for her for first thing the next morning.  After calling in to let my boss know what was going on, I dropped her off first thing in the morning and waited.  The vet called me around noon and told me that she had osteosarcoma which is one of the most painful cancers around and that we could discuss options when I got there.  When I asked him if we would be doing it for her or for me he respnde that we'd be doing it for me.  I told him I'd be there in 15 minutes and I'm sure that he knew my decision by the tone of my voice before I got there.
When I got there he showed me the x-ray and told me that by the time a sarcoma shows up on an x-ray, it's pretty much already metastasized through the rest of the body and we did what we had to do.  I stayed with her through the whole thing and the vet's staff let me stay as long as I wanted to (they're pretty compassionate that way, which is always good).  When I had collected her collar and leash and went out and got in the truck Goerge Strait was on, You'll Be There.

I cried through most of the writing of this one, that's how much I miss her; she'd have done anything for me.
 Go with God Baby.

Grated Coconut, part 2

Another great rodeo horse that I've posted on before.  I just went to the National Finals Rodeo site and found that not only is Garted Coconut (13) there but also his mother, Coconut Roll (17), and another horse from the Calgary Stampede ranch, Fearless Warrior (14).  I guess their Born to Buck program is working.  Another great horse out of Canada is there as well, Kesler's 15 year old mare Cool Alley.

for more detailed info and some great pics:

http://www.prorodeo.com/stock_bios.aspx

In the spirit

Bad news from up North.

In other words, what you post when you got..........................nothin'.

I'm such a genius!

Ya right.  I've been awake since 10:18 last night, laying there thinking `beige, I should paint the ceiling beige`.  Sleep (or lack of it) has been an issue for me for a while now.  While fighting to go back to sleep after waking, I compose all sorts of cool stuff to blog about while telling myself to just concentrate on breathing and not let the thought wagons circle.  By the time I get up, everything's a big ol' jumble and I don't recall exactly what I was going to say.  Must have been what Dad would call caca de toro (which is BS in whatever language you say it).
One of the things that I was thinking about last night was a good friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while.  When I was in High River for my optometrist appointment I poked my head in the door to say hello.  He owns and runs a tack shop there and builds saddles (Eamors).  Felmer Eamor started the company making saddles before I was born and had built up a reputation for a good quality saddle at a reasonable price.  He sold the shop to a bigger company that butchered the whole manufacturing process and started putting out substandard product and the name pretty much went in the crapper.  JD and his former Missus bought the name and JD started making saddles under the Eamor name (he`d been makng them for a while already and stays true to the Eamor design and quality) and they opened a tack and clothing shop in High River.  The economy here isn`t as bad as that of our neighbors to the south but it`s not great and people just aren`t spending money.  When I was talking to JD he told me that as soon as the existing inventory is gone, the shop part will be gone which is pretty sad to hear.  He told me he`ll still be making saddles and doing repairs, but the rest is history.  Dang.

I finally caved in

Ever since I first started seeing my optometrist, he has been pushing me to go to progressive glasses.  I really dislike wearing them as by the end of the day they make my beak so sore that I want to pitch them across the room.  Had to go for my annual visit on Friday and finally gave in.  I've been wearing contact lenses for the last 3 years and have tried everything to get along with them.  See, I need correction to read and he told me that I'd hate bi-focal lenses so we tried what's called mono vision.  One corrected for distance, one corrected for reading.  Really didn't like it.  It messes with your depth perrception so I went to a modified version; one corrected and the other not.  It worked out ok for a couple of years but lately I've found that once it starts to get dark, I can't read a thing and instead of boosting my prescription yet again, I went for the glasses.  By the end of the day with my one lonely lens, I want to claw my eyeball out, it feels like a great big ol' gob of snot in there, or else it's so dry I can't see out of it.  I know,you're thinking "Get some drops to put in there."  Did that.  Got a bottle at home and one on my desk at work.  So here we are. 
My glasses won't be ready for a week and I'm down to my last lense.  This morning, while getting ready for work, I got most of my beauty routine done (the days of bouncing out of bed looking like this are long gone) and went to put my lense in.  It didn't go right the first time and when I went to re-adjust it I dropped it in the basket that contains my skin care and makeup.  CRAP!  Of course I couldn't see it right away but had heard it land in there and I had to take everything out of said basket item by item.  Still nothing.  Ok, carefully examine each item as you put it back in the basket.  YES!  I found it!  But, it had dried out just enough in the meantime that even with a little soak it feels horrid.  Sigh.  Another wonderful day with contact lenses.

Willy, part II

I've posted on Willy before.  Here's the latest.

Willy just might be the oldest horse in the building that is the site of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.


And, the legendary dark brown gelding, who will be honoured in a retirement ceremony at some point this week, has probably lost a step or two in his last year on the trail.

But, Cody Cassidy remains confident that the 24-year-old gelding can still do the job in rodeo's steer wrestling event.

And, who can argue?

Willy once again fired when asked and Cassidy caught and slam-dunked a dark red steer in four seconds flat to get himself on the leaderboard.

When all was said and done, he ended up splitting third in the WNFR's second round to earn $8,897.

Combined with a 4.6-second run on opening night, Cassidy is tied for fifth in the aggregate with a total time of 8.6 seconds.

"I don't think Willy is good as he once was, I mean he's 24 years old, but he is always going to give you a chance to win and I've got so much confidence in him, it's tough to jump on something else.

"I basically grew up with that horse and it's nice to have him here. He's not 100 percent like he once was, but hopefully eight more steers will be the last ones he's ever going to run."

Cassidy drew a steer that he knew wasn't going to run hard and could catch him quick.

"I got a little bit better start than I was anticipating and that was good because they said the steer always wants to hang a leg (in the dirt). He did, but I got by him and it was nice to win that much money."

This is Cassidy's first-ever NFR appearance and marks his debut in the money ranks.

"Hey, this beats the (crap) out of our Canadian Finals," he chuckled of the sizeable reward "and hopefully I can build on this moment.

Cassidy's older brother Curtis, the world standings leader coming into this $5.875 million showdown, overcame a no time on opening night to turn down his steer in 5.5 seconds.

It wasn't fast enough to put him in the money, but it helped him regain some confidence.

Curtis also switched horses in the second round.

He left his grey mount Casper in the barn and jumped on reigning world champion Lee Graves' world champion black pony Jesse.

That was his original plan, but after a disappointing round with the fractious Casper, he agreed he should have stuck with Jesse.


It's more than likely a comfort to Cody Cassidy to have Willy there as a kind of steadying hand at his first NFR considering he grew up with the old guy.  24 is an admirable age for a horse to begin with, but to still be in the shape he is and performing lke he does on a regular basis is pretty much unbelievable!  The rodeo world will miss him while he enjoys his retirement.

Avon and the oil sands

Who's the ding dong now, Avon?

Calgary Herald December 3, 2010 9:36 AM Comments (2)

Looking good is what Avon is all about, so it's not surprising that a cosmetics giant with annual revenues of $10 billion is concerned about its image. That, after all, is the motive behind Avon's boycott of fuel derived from Alberta's oilsands -- looking good. Never mind that oil banned from Alberta -- the most regulated and transparently sourced oil on the planet -- will have to be replaced by oil from some despotic regime but, hey, maybe you can put lipstick on a pig.


"Avon recognizes its responsibility to the environment and the world's forests," said Tod Arbogast, Avon's vice-president of sustainability and corporate responsibility. Gosh, you'd think that Avon CEO Andrea Jung is sitting around in her high heels, jumbo pearls and scarlet lipstick singing Kumbaya as she pulls down her $9 million pay package,


Avon, along with retailer LUSH and Canadian trucking company Concord Transportation, are the latest to join San Francisco-based Forest Ethics' misguided boycott of oilsands derived fuel. "Canada's tarsands are an unethical source of fuel for shipping LUSH products," explained Shama Alexander, LUSH's environmental officer. If Alexander really wants to talk ethics, we recommend the book Ethical Oil -- the Case for Canada's Oilsands, by Ezra Levant.


Big Beauty taking on Big Oil is a delicious thing to watch. Avon, one of several companies accused of "pinkwashing" by Stacy Malkan in her book Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, has more than 5.5 million independent sales representatives driving around ( "Ding, dong. Avon calling!").


We wonder how they feel about the counter-boycott of Avon Products being urged by the Alberta Enterprise Group, just in time for Christmas.


© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald


Ok Avon Asshats (as my cyber-buddy would put it), here's the facts:


Oil sands GHG emissions were 37.2 Mt (1 Mt = 1 million tonnes) in 2008. This equals:


•15 per cent of Albertan emissions

•5 per cent of Canadian emissions

•less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions

Canada's total emissions grew by 155 Mt between 1990 and 2007, with oil sands emissions responsible for 14 per cent (22 Mt) of this increase; transportation was responsible for 36 per cent (55 Mt).

For more information please visit the following link.

http://www.oilsands.alberta.ca/

There was also a pilot flying in to Calgary last summer that stated 'the haze you see over Calgary is from Alberta's tar sands.'  Ok, butt-head.  First thing is that the oil sands happen to be a good 8 hour drive from here. And if you had checked your facts before opening your mouth, you would have known that the haze hanging over Calgary was from a series of very serious forest fires raging in our provincial neighbor BC!

I got ripped off this morning

After rushing to post about how cold it was here, I forgot to update you on the latest weather.  You really have to love a country where the temperature can go from -30*C to -3*C in 24 hours.  After camping out for over a week, the latest Alberta Clipper moved on to terrorize someone else and the meltdown began.  We've had temps right around zero and a little higher for the bulk of this week and the roads have been wet and sloppy, so a goodly supply of smurf-juice for the wipers is in order. 
This morning I decided to get up a little early and wash my truck on the way to work so it wouldn't freeze up solid from washing it on the way home and sitting over night.  Stopped at the neighborhood gas station, grabbed my regular cuppa joe and paid $10.00 for the car wash.  Don't know if you have them where you're at, but this one's fully automated.  You drive up, punch in your access code, the door opens, you drive in, put it in park and the machine does the rest (and a pretty good job too).  This morning I drove up, punched in my access code, the door opened, I drove in and stopped when the lights told me to, and NOTHING.  The back door didn't close and the machine didn't start.  Back up a few feet and try again.  The door still didn't close and the machine refused to start.  I was going to go in and complain, but I'd already screwed around long enough that it was putting me behind schedule so I just left.  RATS! 
Could have been worse though, the back door could have come down, the machine could have refused to start and then I'd have been trapped in there (and that would not have been a good thing)!

The Dinner Date

This was in my email inbox yesterday (not for the faint of heart).....................

These pictures were taken by a fellow from Grande Cache, Alberta, 1.5 hours south of Grande Prairie, by the Berland river on Highway 40  Take a look at the time frame in the bottom right corner of each picture....

It took Mr. Bear ten minutes from the time he picked up Ms. Bear, fed her a terrific meal, got laid, then it was time to go. This guy is good!




To which I say, typical male.  Wine 'er, dine 'er, love 'er, leave 'er!

There's something that's just so wrong about this

This one follows the case of an oriental shopkeeper in Toronto being arrested for tying up a repeat shop lifter until the plice arrived (4 hours later).  The charges were later dropped. 
A rural Alberta man returned home from an evening out with his wife to find a strange vehicle in his yard and someone in his house.  Grabbing a hatchet from the shed, he went in to find the place ransacked. When he returned outside, the perpetrator was trying to manouver his getaway vehicle around the homeowners' vehicle and tried to run over the guy's wife which prompted the homeowner to bust him in the chops with said hatchet.  RCMP officers later arrested the homeowner and charged him with assault.
Another rural Alberta man heard someone in his yard and when he went out to investigate he found that some punk was in his shed stealing his ATV.  The punk took off on the ATV, the homeowner ran and got his shotgun and gave pursuit in his pickup.  When he got close enough he shot at the asshole on the ATV and captured him.  Guess who got charged in this one?
Have we become a society that molly-coddles the bad guys and doesn't respect the rights of the law abiding citizen?


http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Retired+soldier+charged+after+carrying+defend+property/3896047/story.html

From the Op/Ed pages of the Calgary Herald (couldn't resist)

This sounds like one very pissed off lady.


Hey, Mr. Transit person, I want my money back

For The Calgary Herald November 26, 2010 Dear Calgary Transit Authority Person (Your website does not list an actual person to address so there you are),



I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on how this city's fine public transit system is doing in its first week of winter this year.



On your website, it states: "If you wish to make us aware of a concern or suggestion, or leave a commendation for an individual or something you like in general, please click on one of the links below and fill out the form that appears." I'm going to forgo this suggestion as I'm not convinced that the forms you provide will have adequate space for my "concerns."



Before I begin, I'd like to mention that I have had the privilege of participating in Calgary's transit system, on and off for the last 15 years. There have been various low points and disappointments over that time period but after mulling over several of them in my head, I believe I would like to focus on Tuesday's experience. You know . . . while it is still fresh in my memory.



It began at 7:30 a.m. I don't know if you are aware, sir (or ma'am), but Tuesday morning was a particularly chilly one. Approximately -32 C and I don't know what with wind-chill. Actually, according to our own Calgary Herald, we had the unfortunate distinction of being the second coldest place on Earth . . . THE SECOND COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH.



I know this is hard for you to imagine from your plush downtown office with your heated underground parking spot, paid for by all those whiny taxpayers, but it was freezing outside on Tuesday. So freezing, in fact, that if you were holding, say, a scalding hot drink in your hand while waiting on the train platform for an hour for a non-existent train, the drink would actually begin to freeze solid. Much like the limbs holding onto it, and the miserable eyeballs looking down at it. Because that is what happened.



Within 10 minutes of being on that platform, a soft polite announcement came over the intercom to inform us that there would be a 20-minute delay in service and to thank us for our patience. I never quite know how to take these. Twenty minutes from the time that the train should have been there? Or 20 minutes from the time of the announcement?



These are the thoughts you think when you are stuck outside with no hope of shelter in the second coldest place on Earth. Minutes and seconds count a great deal. A few minutes can make the difference between finally calling a cab or calling an ambulance for yourself and the four piled-up frozen bodies around you.



A train pulled up at one point. This new development did no one any good. Do you know what happens, Mr. Transit Authority Person, when there have been NO trains for a longish amount of time during rush hour and then one pulls up? That's right. NOTHING. Between the platform and the train, the size of the angry crowd has reached Asian proportions and the train is already full. Oh sure, maybe two or three people manage to stuff themselves on board, but the rest of us watch it pull away like the last lifeboat from the Titanic and wonder not if we will make it to work that day, but if we will in fact make it to a hospital.



It was at this point that one of your helpful bus drivers yelled from across the street that we were standing on the wrong platform. Yes, all 200 of us. She told us to cross over to the other platform and that a train would pull up shortly. And like so many scenes in Dr. Zhivago, all of us shuffled our deadened limbs over to the other side of the tracks to the soundtrack of another "20-minute delay" announcement only to watch a train pull up at the platform we had just come from. I'm not going to lie. Things got messy at this point. I don't think anyone died, but there was much jumping onto tracks and various manoeuvres to get back to the platform that we had just been told to leave. Only about 20 people made it on time to throw themselves on board but it turns out the joke was on them. Because as the train pulled out, it was hard to not notice that it was going in the wrong direction. The people on board noticed too. You could tell by the look on their faces. I don't know where these people ended up. They are probably still on the train. At least they are warm.



The "20-minute delay" announcement came on yet again. Now I'm no expert, but I think you need to get a new template announcement for the "over 20-minute delay" category. Something along the lines of "Listen up everyone. We hired a new guy and he ran a bus onto the tracks and we can't get it off and apparently tow trucks are hard to come by in this weather. We also, after years and years of this sort of thing happening, have absolutely NO backup system to deal with this kind of emergency so will you all just sod off and go home and we will have Wendy in Human Resources give you a call when it's safe to come back outside?"



I think this would be highly effective. More effective than your current system of jack all.



When someone fails to pay to use the transit system, they are fined for not holding up their end of the bargain. But what happens when you fail to uphold yours? When we pay $2.75 for a service that is worth nothing, who is held accountable? I want my $2.75 back. I also would like a response to this letter. Call me sensitive, but the irritation from all this hasn't quite worn off yet. I'd like to say I will never again use this grotesque excuse for a public service that we pay scads of money for, but the truth is I will probably be on the train again tomorrow and the next day. Or until I get a car.



Until then, I invite someone from your office to research the transit systems of other major cities around the world and write down some tips. I suggest that you specifically look up what other cities do when a bus or train line fails. Then, after you have fired the genius who decided that doing nothing is better than doing something, you can all sit in a circle and discuss ways of lessening the chances of having the townspeople storm city hall the next time this will undoubtedly happen. I will even provide the doughnuts for your meeting. Free of charge.



Tara Remington is a Calgary writer who has just thawed out from Tuesday's Calgary Transit ordeal.



© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald



Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Transit+person+want+money+back/3887239/story.html#ixzz16PO8LxeM

don't know what to call it

 Yesterday I was having an e-chat with a former co-worker that I've kept in touch with for the last 7 years.  Actually, for me that's a record considering that she's a she.  For some reason I have never had many friends that of the female variety and I consider her a steady-eddie.  Doesn't matter how long it's been, we pick up right where we left off and carry on again.  I must have been having a 'moment' because when she asked me how I was doing the following response just kinda tumbled out on to the page.

I've been good.  Working hard (that should read hardly working), same old routine.  Get up in the morning, go to work, go home, rinse, repeat.  You know, the same old thing we all do once we’ve wished away our youth so we can get older and make our own rules and run our own lives.

Her response?

Man, did you just nail it there!  Very apt outlook on youth and aging Deb.  So  true.

on grammar, punctuation and spelling

Is it just me, or are we regressing to a bunch of cave people in our use of the english language?

I'm hearing an ad on the radio that so bothers me that I definitely won't go there to buy whatever it is that they are selling.  See how much it bothers me?  I can't even remember what the product is.  The line goes like this, ".....alls ya gotta do is....".  Great big ol' WTF on that one.  You're supposed to be trying to entice me to come in to your place of business, not repulse me.

As an estimator I read a lot of what could be termed as legal documents (they can, and have been, used in court) and the glaring spelling mistakes included in them irritate me to no end.  You're supposed to be the professional, can you not use spell check because you obviously don't have a clue on how to use a dictionary?  You're also the one getting paid the big buck, so start doing your job and looking at least half-assed professional!
Example:  EC (Electrical Contractor) to supply and install 2 transformer's.  Huh?  Or my favorite:  EC to supply and install 2 transformers'.  Double Huh?
Another: EC to supply and install fixture Type A1 for all dinning rooms.  Another Huh?
My all time favorite of words that get mangled is the word there.  Context people, context!  Is it their car?  They're taking the car to the shop.  Or are they parking the car over there?

Am I perfect?  Far from it.  I have my favorite shortcuts like prob'ly, y'all, and kinda but at least in business dealings I know to watch what I've written, how I've termed it and what the spell check button is for (and don't forget that spell check does not know context, just spelling)!  Do I make typos?  Yup, I'll be the first to admit it.  I have a little medical condition called MS that has taken my fine motor skills and sometimes when I think that I've hit the letter m (for example), I've missed it and 'much' will come out 'uch'.  (course I somehow miss these things before I hit 'Publish' on a consistent basis!)

But that could just be me.

Stupid Cold

Got up this morning, did the shit, shower, shave routine, and then heard on the radio that the current temperature was -29* with a wind chill putting us down to -40*.  I'll remind you that the farenhiet and celsius scales meet at -40*.  Damn, that's cold!  When I heard that, I was headed in to iron a dress shirt for work and said, F#$%** it, I'm not going in today!  I'm not usually a great big ol' wuss when it comes to winter, but that's ridiculous.  The local radio station calls it 'Officially Stupid Cold' and I have to agree with them.  Lately, I've got to the point where as soon as I get cold, my knee caps jump, my butt cheeks shiver and my hips lock up to the point of being barely able to walk.  Not a pleasant sensation.
I haven't tried to start 'Blue' yet and when I do, (have to go get smokes) I'm fairly certain that she'll let a great big groan out of her and ask me if we really have to go out.
Not too concerned about missing the day.  I started with a new company recently that has 30 guys in the field.  Since I'm used to lining up work for 60 guys (by myself), making sure that 30 are kept busy is pretty much a piece of cake.  I've been there since the first of September and I've already got enpugh work lined up to keep the lads busy until next August so I spend a lot of time lately twiddling my thumbs (which makes for extremely long and boring days).

I'm cold

After a summer that wasn't, we finally got a respite from the rain that plagued us from June until September.  We had a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures that were greatly appreciated.  Last Monday I heard on the radio that the temperature was going to go down and that it was going to rain, turning to snow over night.  While I was out the back of the shop having a smoke I felt the wind coming out of the west and thought ya right, it's not going to snow.  I went out a couple of hours later and the wind had shifted out of the east and the temperature had started to drop.  When I went to bed that night it wasn't too bad but when I got up the next morning it was definitely a winter wonder land.  Seems that every driver in Calgary had forgotten how to drive and it turned in to a major 'traffic day' (as I call them).  Good thing that I leave early enough that I beat most of the ijits on to the road!  It took me 45 minutes to get to work that morning.  The next morning a whole lot of people decided that they too, would leave early and it took me an hour for a 30 minute commute.  It's just so much fun to get stuck behind someone that's scared to death and doing the white-knuckle drive at a whopping 30kph in an 80 zone! (and no place to get around them!)  I'm not saying put your foot in it and go nuts, but yeesh, the least you could do is try to keep up with the traffic in front of you!  My favorite is seeing the ijits that think that they can sneak in to an opening in traffic as it's going along, not remembering that the intersections are greasy enough that all they're going to do is sit there and spin, or, god forbid, suddenly catch a solid patch and shoot out into the side of somebody.
It's snowed so much that the City of Calgary can't keep up with the snow removal and quite frankly, neither can I!  Tuesday after work I got the shovel out of the garage and cleared a path from the garage, across the back sidewalk and across the deck and then ran out of gas.  Wednesday when I got home I shovelled the front walk down to the street and ran out of gas again (we've got a good 6" in the last week).  I think I'm going to give up for a couple of days; it's supposed to get back on the plus side of the mercury later on this week. (or the kid that comes to mow the lawn and was supposed to be shovelling for me might show up!)
I have a tendency lately to hibernate when it gets like this, poking my nose out of my burrow only for things that I have to do, like go to work, like get dog food, or the ever-important things like cigarettes and beer, but other than that?  I'm in for the duration.
In the mean time, I think I'll have a hot toddy and dig out my long underwear............

Meet Murphy

I first saw Zarr Bars Missy when I was a volunteer at the horse races in Kamloops, BC.  If I recall correctly, she was entered in a dash of 450 yards and was being led to the paddock by her trainer who was involved in what seemed to be an in-depth conversation with one of his grooms.  Considering the fact that she was entered in a race and on her way to the paddock she ws incredibly calm.  The trainer had her bridle reins draped over his arm and seemed to take very little notice in her at all.  She was calm and quiet in the paddock and so totally not stupid on post parade that I was impressed.  She was very close to getting her Register of Merit, Race and needed a couple more wins to do it and boy, did she ever that day.  Calm, cool, and collected being loaded in the gate, she exploded out of there when they sprung the latch.  She ended up getting her R.O.M. that year and I didn't see her again. 
Fast forward a couple of years and I was with my then boyfriend, Bruce, at his friends' place in Kelowna, the Zarrs.  Their unusual last name struck me and I commented on the fact that I had watched the mare race and the wife asked me if I wanted to see her.  Lo and behold, there she was, the very same horse that I had watched run and figured that would be one to 'go to the hills on' as dad would say.  Somehow or other, Bruce got to negotiating with the Zarrs and bought that horse for me and that was the start of the longest lasting relationship of my life (no, not with Bruce!)
After her foal was weaned we went to pick her up and brought her back to Kamloops.  I ended up putting her over at a friend's place who had an arena and round pen and spent a couple of weeks doing what I called 'lead and feed'.  Go catch her, bring her in and feed her and groom her and then turn her back out.  While I was doing that I ran in to her old trainer and asked him if he had any problems with her.  His response?  Just that she had a thing for bucking off gallop boys.  All righty then. 
We had been getting along pretty well so far and I thought it was time to saddle her and put her in the round pen.  She did so well when I tacked her up and took her to the round pen and sent her around at a trot that I wished that I had worn my boots so I could just step up on her.  Right about that time she dropped her head and bucked.  Hard.  Man, did she crack!  And then as fast as it happened, it stopped.  Ok, now I know what I've got myself in to.
We went that way for about a week and of course, all of my friend's buddies laughed at me and figured I was scared of her, but how could I be scared of a horse that was so sweet to deal with on the ground?  The next thing we did was graduate to the larger round pen and when I took her in there the first time, she did the very same thing that she had been doing all along except this time there was a twist; as soon as she was finished getting what I called her ya-yas out, she perked her ears up and walked right over to me.  The rest, as we say, is history.  Any time I rode her after that the first thing that I did was tie up the bridle reins and turn her loose to do her thing.  As soon as she was done she'd perk her ears up and walk right over to me as if to say "That was fun, now what?". 
All of the 'cowboy' buddies of course had solutions to get ehr to stop that, but why bother?  We got along.  Why Murphy?  I don't know if you're old enough to remember the sit com Murphy Brown with Candace Bergen, but she had a sense of humor just like Murphy Brown.  She'd buck you off when you weren't paying attention and then come back to you and laugh!  On the advice of my dressage coach (yes, I was taking dressage lessons on a Quarter Horse) I tried to ride her without letting her do it a couple of times and did not have any fun at all.  She threw her head up, jigged along and would not relax. 
'Course the dressage lessons only came after a couple of years of walk-trot, stop, back up.  Because the only thing that she had ever known was run, we didn't even lope.  Lots of time, patience and love went in to her.

I must be getting old

Beside the fact that I have a few grey hairs and a 'laugh line' or two, I also seem to have a wonderful crop of eyebrows and nose hairs that seem to keep popping up.  The other thing that I've noticed is that I seem to get weepy for no apparent reason. 
I grew up something like the song that Brooks and Dunn did with Reba, 'Cowgirls Don't Cry', because really, cowgirls don't cry.  Not over a lost love (men are like busses, if you stand on the corner long enough, another one will come along), not over falling off your horse (get up, dust yourself off, and get back on).  But lately? 
I tear up standing in a crowd of people at a sporting event when the national anthem is playing.  To be in the middle of a crowd of 20,000 plus people all singing it with passion brings a huge lump to my throat and tears start to well up.  I was at the Stampede a couple of years ago and there was a presentation on the Born to Buck program that the Calgary Stampede runs and what the hell?  The clips of the mares running on several thousand acres with their babies made me tear up!  How much of a wuss did I look like? 
I was over at Mom's to watch the Kentucky Derby last year and when the anthem came on, I started.  To hear everyone singing the anthem and to see the military men in their uniforms, standing at attention got me going.  As the race was coming to an end, I started as I was watching the final strides of the winning horses, giving everything they had, just doing what they were bred, trained, and loved to do. 
The last part of the movie "Hidalgo" where Viggo Mortenson's little horse is 3/4 lame and cut up and giving his all for his owner makes me downright sob!
And don't, please, come over to watch Extreme Makeover, Home Edition with me.  That's usually a 2-hankie show.
I can see it with the loss of Murphy who lived with me for 18 of her 26 years, Piggy who lived with me all of her 9 years, and Butch and Harley who would have done anything for me, but a movie horse that I know wasn't hurt during the shooting of the movie, or a new house for people I don't even know?  C'mon.............

Appaloosas and an equitation class

Shortly after I graduated from high school, I went to work for a tack and feed store.  When I was there I met the local cast of characters that were in the horse business in the area.  One of our customers asked me if I would fit some yearlings for halter for him if he brought them in to town to the race track that was across the street from the feed store and I said sure (of course I did, I was young and stupid).  I told him that I would fit his horses for him but there was no way that I was going to show them for him.  Ya right.  I got the yearlings fit and then he brought me 2 - 2 year olds and a 3 year old  to fit up for him as well as starting the 2 year olds.  I got the 2 year olds started and everybody was pretty fit and he decided that we should all pile in the truck and take the whole shootin' match to a show in Prince George.  Little did I know that his wife had entered both yearlings at halter and both 2 year olds as well.  Doesn't seem to be a problem right?  All four of them were fillies and his wife had put my name down to show them.  Nice, real nice.  I had been practicing with the yearlings to get them to stand up like I was taught they should but didn't realize that I was being set up too. 
Halter classes are the first on the agenda at horse shows, and you want your horse to sparkle in the ring, so after we had pulled in to Prince George the evening before everybody got a bath and was walked until they were dry.  The next morning when we got to the barn the 3 YO had slept in her poop and had a lovely green-brown smear all across her hip in her white blanket.  So back to the wash bay for her!  Got her all cleaned up and then it was time to rush off and change into show clothes.  The one yearling took the filly class and the other one was an also-ran but that wasn't because she wasn't in shape, she was just out-classed.  It went about the same for the 2 YOs and you guessed it, the ones I got to show were the also-rans.  The owner showed the 3 YO and took the class and if I recall correctly she also went Reserve Grand Champion Mare. 
I wasn't told until we were half way to PG that the 3 YO had been entered in a couple of under saddle classes to give her some ring experience.  The owner told me he didn't feel well and could I show her?  Set up again!   Our first class was western pleasure and I think we were third.  Our next class was western equitation.  In a pleasure class your horse is judged on how much of a pleasure he is to ride.  In an equitation class it's the rider that is judged on how well they ride.  We went in to the ring along with 19 other horses and did the whole walk, trot, lope both ways on the rail and were asked to line up in the center.  Several numbers were read out over the loud speakers and mine was one of them.  I realized that they were cutting the class down to the last few contestants.  Assuming that the numbers that they had called were being excused, I headed for the out-gate when one of the other contestants told me that I was supposed to stay.  Bonus!  Now came the hard part.  Another part of an equitation class is individual tests that you do.  Ours that day was to back up 10 steps (not 9 or 12.  Some people couldn't count), ask for the left lead, and lope your horse through the line in a circle to the right (now a counter-canter) and return to your starting position, stopping where you had started..  Back up, not a problem.  Ask for the left lead?  Rika (short for Paprika, which suited her) rarely picked up the lead that I asked for.  Go through the line?  Remember her name?  She was rather cranky around other horses to begin with.  Well, we'd give it a shot.  I watched several other contestants go and most of them really had a problem with the left lead, counter-canter thing.  When it came to my turn, I backed up 10 steps, asked for a left lead and off we went.  I could have fallen off my horse right about then.  Rika picked up the correct lead the first time out.  When we rode through the lineup she never even cocked an ear and when we were headed around the circle, she held the left lead (wasn't hard for her, she'd been practicing that one at home!) and stopped precisely where we had started.  WOW!  Who taught her that?  Or was she just having a 'moment'?  After everybody had completed the pattern they started to announce the results of the class, starting with 6th place.  There were alot of happy smiling faces and when they finally got to the winner of the class I was gawking around, looking to see who the winner was.  The girl beside me finally got my attention and said 'Hey!  That's you!'  I knew that I had had a good ride, but that was totally unexpected.
I gained a whole new respect for Appaloosas in the time that I worked with them.  Man are they tough (and more than a little hard-headed).  Would I own one?  Maybe, but not to be totally descarded.