Sunday, December 20, 2020

I'm (kinda) on vacation!

OK, so I'm ~supposed~ to have been on vacation anyway!  

(I clearly don't decorate outside for Christmas as much as I do for Halloween!)
But I like it.   After Christmas, the Santa blowmolds will be put away and the snowmen will stay out until February sometime.  January is so dark & gloomy that it's nice to see some light!

I put in for the last 2 weeks of the year way back in February, before all the 'Rona stuff started with the thought that we'd be going to Arkansas like we always do.  

Welp.  The MIL is considered high-risk since it's only been a couple years since she went thru chemo so we opted not to all pile in the car (including the Spawn & BabyBoy) and expose her to whatever we might pick up along the way.  So the Spouse had a covid test done last week when he went in for his annual physical and if it comes back negative (which it likely will) he's going to drive down the day after Christmas and stay with his Mom all thru January.   

He's been working from home since his furlough ended in July and all of his volunteer events & radio stuff that he does every year have been cancelled, so he really needed something to look forward to, even if it means sitting in his Mom's kitchen to work, instead of his own!  And he thinks that he's doing me a favor because I won't be woken up at all hours by support calls coming in.  

It's gonna be a   L - O - N - G   January!

Anyhoooo.  Since I knew I wasn't going to Arkansas (sniff - no trip to the bath house this year!) I almost forgot about having those 2 weeks off and didn't get myself all caught up & ahead of the game at work.  So I figured I'll just go in to work on Monday & Tuesday each week, and I still get nice long weekends.
Our partially-decorated tree with its stylish baby protection. 
Speaking of....  He'll be a year old in less than 2 weeks!  
Rusty is seriously the best cat ever!  Other than putting himself in reach of little baby grabby hands, he's usually pretty chill about being man-handled.  But once he's done, he's done!  BabyBoy has sported the occasional tiny scratch on his face from being told NO in feline-ese.
Mmmmmm - pasghetti. 
Last week I went to Bronner's with Mom & the sisters. 
This is an annual trip for us.  It's a lot of fun, even if I end up spending WAY too much $$.
I wish Mom would have taken her mask OFF!  
Yes - Chuck went along with us.  I made a post on my other blog about his shenanigans!
Oh - I almost forgot!  
4 generations at Thanksgiving!
I have (no exaggeration) over 100 nutcrackers and ROBERT! is the only one who made it into the house this year.   The Halloween nutcrackers are still hanging out in the living room!
OMG - how funny is this??  It's the front page of the podunk newspaper in the town I grew up in from dated December 1, 1990 - how can it be 30 years?????  A couple of us from my senior art class got to paint the window in the local post office.  That's me on the right, with my fabulous grown out perm & highlights (ala mullet), tight rolled acid washed jeans and Def Leppard t-shirt.  Doesn't that scream 1990 to you??

So in my last post, I wrote about Sis1 having to help one of her horses cross the Rainbow Bridge.  Well - I don't think she planned on getting a new horse so soon, but fate brought her Ghost! 
Poor Kisses (right) lost her buddy, then was uprooted to a boarding stable - a whole lotta change!  She did fine at first, with plenty of company, etc.  Then they moved her to a different place within the stable and she was pulled away from her newly-made pals.  That, along with different food & water - she was sad & depressed.  My poor baby!  

Meanwhile - Sis got word of an "ottb" - an off the track thoroughbred, aka former race horse, who was at a rescue.  She went to check him out and really liked him.  So right now, he's spending a 30 day trial at her house, but I doubt he'll be going anywhere. 

It's hard to tell from these pics, but both horses are super tall!  I'm 5'8" and can just barely see over Kisses' back and Ghost is taller!  Sis was joking around about how far down to the ground it is from his back.  
Their first ride at her house last weekend.
 
He needs work with manners and standing still, but he did fine under saddle.  Even out on the trail when we were behind a factory and a semi's air brakes released - all the horses jumped (a friend was with us) but he didn't try to take off or anything.  
Kisses is so much happier being back at home! 

I'll be going back out tomorrow (OK, I guess today since it's after midnight) for another ride.  
37* is cold for us, but the horses don't mind much.  A nice leisurely ride on a rail trail does us all good! 


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