Yes, folks. I am yet again 29! It was a lovely, lowkey type of day. Randy got off work early, picked me up from work and we went to Detroit. First we drove around Belle Isle and got some pics, then took another 1/2 hour to find parking (we totally forgot Aretha Franklin's funeral was happening) and then had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.
It was a nice day.
Amaretto Sour & Bahama Mama
Spirit of Detroit & the Renaissance Center
I think it's calmed down a wee bit around here so I'm able to maybe concentrate a bit on a post!
For a moment anyway.
Let's start with a random sunset pic from the other night. So beautiful!
Yes, there are trees changing colors around here. This was actually a baby tree, so I wouldn't believe what it has to say yet.
The 11th, Miss Angela wanted to go to the Armada Fair and instead of really trying to find friends to go with,she asked me to go! The problem is, I had an event early Sunday morning with the SAR group and had planned on going to Laurie's to help bathe the horses & load up, etc. So we asked Laurie to go, too!
We went thru thru the exhibition barns & checked out all the animals & enjoyed ourselves some good ol' country tractor & truck pulls!
I've been to see monster trucks 100 times, so this was a pleasant change.
We enjoyed ourselves a lot. I wish I'd splurged on the deep fried Snickers instead of the deep fired cookie dough, tho. It just tasted like a cookie.
Laurie & I were up before dawn to load the horses & get into Lapeer for the "Run Drugs Out of Town" 5K run.
There ended up being 6 of us doing traffic control over 3 streets - stopping cars so the runners didn't have to worry about them.
I was at a corner with Lt. and 3 sheriff's department Explorers, aka high school kids. I gather it's like ROTC but for law enforcement instead of military.
We had to cross this wooden bridge across a lake. All the horses did well going over it.
The first runner to go by - I could only imagine what Kisses was thinking!
Once she settled down, she was good. We stood in the traffic lane until a car came our way. I'd circle her around, and the Explorer right there would actually do the traffic directing. Then we'd go back in the road & stand.
Also on our corner was a steel stamping plant and Lt & I both noticed that there was a truck scale in the their parking lot. He commented that we were going to take the horses over the scale after the race was done. Heehee! And we did! I secretly felt really good that him & his little horse & lightweight sheriff's dept saddle weighed pretty close to the same as me with my big horse & heavy western saddle!
As we rode back toward the finish line afterward, we got a shout out from the DJ and a round of applause from all the runners still in the area.
I look like a hot mess, but Kisses looks pretty!
I got a haircut. Randy's not a fan - he likes longer hair.
I'm still getting used to it. I'm used to being able to pull it back in a clippy & call it a day. Now it's not long enough for anything other than a headband.
So I'm going to keep this short - time to call it a day! We did lots of walking today - and since Randy had picked me up from work, I was in a skirt & flat dress shoes, so my feets are feeling it!
I sure haven't been keeping up with my first word of the year - "consistent". Maybe I should have gone with something more along the lines of "scatterbrain". I'll sit at the desk with every intention of blogging & end up binge watching police department lip sync challenge videos or something like that.
So. Let's be random!
I went to my VFW meeting last week and they had delivered our M60 tank that very morning!
Since I was Navy, I don't know crap about tanks, but you have to admit this is pretty freakin' cool. The only thing that would be better is maybe an F14.....
I found a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble in my purse so I jumped on this bandwagon.
I haven't started to read them yet, but I will!
I didn't know we even had turkey vultures in SE Michigan, but this one swooped down and circled the neighbor's yard next door, before settling in on her shed to eat a snack of what looked like flattened squirrel. It stayed over there for a good half hour before taking off. This thing was enormous!
Krogers has ceramic pumpkins out!
I also found a Michael's gift card in my purse, so I grabbed the witch & skeleton nutcrackers.
I didn't know I needed a skeletal flamingo for my Halloween display - but I did!
This year's new headstone is well underway. It's now assembled & the body color painted. I just need to attach the license plates & add the name -"Fortiac" in memory of the Ford (Lorenzo) and the Pontiac (Gertrude) that Angel wrecked.
The gas company has been working in our neighborhood and graciously left all this in our front yard. Luckily, it was just some plywood & cones the first day. This was the second & the third day was a fresh patch of dirt & tire tracks all over the yard. Looks like I'll have a fresh grave outside the cemetery this year!
At least this customer at work makes the effort of changing the date on their stamper....
I'm quite sure they didn't receive their freight on July 33.
I love that we're learning to much with the Search & Rescue group!
Last week we did a lot of cavalry formations with the horses and the farm we were at (OMG - that place is amazing!) belongs to the Metamora Carriage & Driving Association so they have obstacle courses that they use for driving events (totally on my bucket list to go see!) that we got to go thru, too. It's pretty great to expose the horses to road signs & flags & wood bridges, etc. We also did a "hasty" search - where we spread out in a line as if we were looking for someone in the tall grass and had to keep pace with each other.
Only 1 small bit of excitement this time. Spoiler - I didn't fall off this time! After we were done with the chatting as seen above - Lt decided to gallop his horse back to the trailers (I'll keep my thoughts about *that* to myself) and Kisses took off after him. After some tight circles, bucking, jumping a ditch & overall fighting, I managed to stop her & settle her down. I took her to the back of the group, which happily was next to Remmie and we slowly went back to the trailer. Actually, other than that little hiccup, she did really well! Mares tend to come into heat (imagine PMSing) when they're in a group, so she was dealing with that along with some crazy humidity. She was just done and that's how she told me.
Fun fact - raspberry leaves help keep a mare's cycle toned down.
Speaking of excitement - here's what my arm looked like a week after the episode at the fairgrounds.
(Kisses spooked as I went to get on & this is from the saddle as I hung on - clinging to her side, almost upside down...until I fell off, thankfully right as she went onto the lawn)
Fabulous!
I still have a knot (2 1/2 weeks later) where that red blotch is, but the bruising is entirely gone now.
Sunday we had a "mock search". We had no idea where it was going to be, other than that we'd get the activation page at 0730. We went to a campground and the scenario was a missing camper. We divided into teams & each had a quadrant to search. We ended up finding a throwing knife, which was not related to the drill at all!
Once we were done with the mock search, some of the team had their K9s with them so some of us volunteered to go out in the woods to lay a trail for them to follow. Of course I volunteered. I went down the trail & left a trail of little flags so the handler would know they were going the right way (the dogs don't pay attention to them). Then I stood behind a tree. Once the dog found me, a big deal was made & treats were given.
Waiting to be found!
Dog's noses are amazing tools. The fact that a quick whiff of my ballcap was all they needed to be able to track me down thru the woods filled with a zillion other interesting scents.
I also have a new respect for those obnoxious retina-burning orange shirts! They're fairly heavy so when I was stomping thru the woods and blackberry bushes, 10 feet off the road - my arms were protected. And it was easy to keep track of each other thru the brush, too.
Laurie & I opted to not go to lunch with the rest of the group since it was in the opposite direction of her house. So we stopped along the way (heehee, dressed in our equally bright orange t-shirts, baggy tactical pants, hiking boots & ballcaps) and then had every intention of going for a ride around her area. After some dozing on the couch during a rainstorm, we did get the horses out.
I wasn't really in the mood for a ride and I don't think Kisses was, either. I'd never seen her move that slow! Laurie had to keep stopping Remmie to wait for us. But Laurie needed horse therapy. Ya see, Saturday, she had to have her dog Barney put down. Just earlier in the week, she noticed blood on his paws from his mouth, so she took him to the vet. He had a mass on his gums, so they put him on antibiotics. When I was at her house Thursday, I noticed his entire snout was swollen & he kept licking. We looked in his mouth using a flashlight & saw that the mass was bleeding slightly & that several of his teeth were loose. She wasn't able to get him back in to see the vet until first thing Saturday morning and the plan was to pull those loose teeth & look closer at that mass. It ended up being a very aggressive tumor that had spread across the roof of his mouth & into his nasal passages. He wasn't going to get better, so the most humane thing to do was to not even wake him up from the anesthesia.
RIP Barney
Of course I'd been out working in the yard at my house and didn't have my phone near me, so Angel & I couldn't make it out to her house quick enough to be with her for the end, but we were with her to go get him from the vet and also when the neighbor came with his backhoe. I had Angel take Laurie into the house and I made sure he had one of her tops, his favorite toy and his blanket to cover the box. And then I learned a whole lot more than I ever cared to know about burying farm animals from the very chatty neighbor!
I had to leave & take Angel home, but I went back since I had planned on spending the night before the mock search. She was still OK with me bringing my Jack with me, but it was so sad since he kept looking for Barney, too! She was looking for a certain bag in the closet and I was sitting on the bed. Jack sat there between us and kept looking between her & me & the door.
She's really taking it hard, and I'm a lousy sympathy person!
So that's about it for what's been going on.
We have stuff going on every weekend for a while. This Sunday we're taking the horses & working at a "Run Drugs Out of Town" 5K. The 25th, I'm finally having Angel's dance pictures taken. I'm having the same photographer who did her senior pics. First stop will be the studio get get pics of every trophy that Girl Power won - especially that 6 foot tall National Champion trophy! Then I'd like to go to Belle Isle & downtown Detroit. The 29th is mine & Laurie's birthday! Then there's Labor Day. I still have a shack to build for the H'ween display. It's going to be around 6 feet tall & 4 feet wide. At least I don't start setting up until the day after Angel's birthday 9/28 - GASP - she's going to be 21!! It's a Friday so I'll take her out for her first legal drink at midnight Thursday night.
Whew! Where's that hamster wheel meme when I need it?
I think there is finally a lull in the action. The last couple weeks have been insane, on-the-go, stuff to do, places to be craziness.
There was the 4th of July in the middle of a short work week right after our trip to Florida. Then that weekend, the 7th we all went up north to clean up my parent's property (120 acres). Dad loved it up there and spent a lot of his off time 'putzing around' there. Since he passed away, Mom doesn't want to have to deal with the taxes & upkeep, etc. and anyway it just doesn't feel like the same place since he's gone. So we had a 22 foot dumpster delivered & 6 of us worked for a good 10 hours and filled that dumpster of just *stuff* that has just accumulated over the last 45 years or so.
On the plus side - I finally got my art! Mom asked us if we wanted anything from the house and that we were free to take it. This was the first thing that popped in my mind - I'd spent a lot of hours as a kid daydreaming about what was down that path and making up stories in my head.
On the downside - it's a lot bigger than I remember!
Moving onto the next weekend 7/14 - we (most of us females) rented a van and carpooled to Chicago for my nephew & his bride's baby shower. Newest great-nephew is due to arrive right around their first anniversary!
We went to the Bean and did an architecture boat tour, which was pretty cool. We didn't make it down to Navy Pier, tho.
We all laughed at this! My nephew 98% of the time is in khakis & polo shirts, so this is the outfit the baby is going to come home from the hospital in!
I clearly didn't get the "flower dress" memo!
Moving on. Wednesday the 18th was Randy's birthday. I took him out to dinner, then we went to sister Laurie's to help get ready for Thursday. I also bribed him with going to get ice cream from this cool little place near her house. She got a great deal on a really nice horse trailer, so we're able to go do stuff now! So we got all the necessities staged to load up & go. Thursday the 19th was training with the search & rescue team & the horses. We learned crowd control maneuvers & also some search techniques. And we got to play with radios - calling in "evidence" aka playing cards, scattered thru a field.
The sunset was gorgeous that night!
Photo op at Hobby Lobby! Angel & I had stopped in Saturday the 21st to kill some time before going to the studio to pick up our recital DVD, so on our way out of the store, I stopped and took this real quick selfie - then forgot about it! I found it a couple days later & was impressed with how well it turned out.
Last week was crazy busy. I'd worked late on Monday. Tuesday was really the only slow day I had, so I skipped my WW meeting and just did stuff around the house that has been sorely lacking. Wednesday was my VFW meeting (speaking of that - we're getting a tank at our post! Being Navy, I have zero knowledge of tanks, but this is gonna be freaking awesome!!) and again - I went out to Laurie's to help stage stuff to load in the trailer & to also install the new reflective signs I bought for it. It now says "CAUTION HORSES" across the back (as if it being a horse trailer isn't obvious enough!) and some other reflective strips in various places.
Thursday I'd told Randy I wanted to go to a baseball game at the field where Angel is on the Dance Crew - it was...
Woohoo!
People thought her bruises were real!
She's pretty talented with a makeup brush & some glue & TP.
Thriller - of course!
Randy opted to not get his face painted, but I did!
Our tickets included face painting, a t-shirt & an 'undead' beverage of our choice.
Friday was our first real event with the search & rescue team! It was a PR thing that we did with the Sheriff's Department, patrolling the parking lot at the Eastern Michigan State Fair. We'd already heard of the happenings from the first 2 nights of the fair and were expecting more, since it was now the weekend. But other than me acting like an incompetent idiot - there was no action!
We tried to hide in the far corner of the lot for a bit to rest the horses.
It didn't happen with those orange shirts! Lt called us out on it - LOL!
The pic above shows the actual color - the one below is kinda washed out.
This was all new to both horses, so we let them stop & look at new things if they needed & also avoided places like the race track here the demolition derby was going on. Kisses really didn't like the sound of *those* cars. And they both stopped to take a good look at the rides on the midway. But overall, they both did really well with all the people & cars & diesel trucks moving around in the lot.
Watching the moon rise over the barns & midway.
We were there with Lt & a deputy both on horseback - but they stayed mostly by the main gate. There was another deputy on an ATV and yet another on a golf cart. Plus there was a group of guys there on horseback called the Posse, who were directing traffic & finding parking spots (and looked a LOT like mounted police, so I guess that helped make people behave a bit)
OMG - look at this little girl's expression!!
Made everything worthwhile.
So. Sigh. The story behind me being an incompetent idiot. There's nothing like being dumped ungracefully off a horse while in front of 4 uniformed people who expect you to use said horse to HELP other people!
We got to the staging area & unloaded & tacked up the horses. Laurie was already up on Remington & I was standing on the mounting block. I had my foot in the stirrup & next thing I knew I was upside down, clinging to Kisses' side as she took off across the (large, cement) parking lot! My guardian angel was working overtime to keep me hanging on until Kisses took her first full stride onto the grass - that's when I fell off! I managed to twist around & landed on my butt, but I had to have hit heels first since my butt hasn't been tender at all. Luckily Kisses stopped almost immediately and I hopped up to make sure she was OK. She was. And we tried again and I successfully got on this time and we traveled in a little convoy over to the fairgrounds.
Then later, after we'd been in the saddle for a good 2 hours (we were there from 6pm until after 11) we saw some $ on the ground, so Laurie hopped down to grab it. Then she commented about how good it felt to walk. So I got down, too. We made our way up to the gate & hung out by the Lt & deputy up there. When we decided to head back out to the parking lot, I used the bumper of someone's truck as a mounting block. Of course Kisses kept moving away, so Lt used his horse to push her closer to me. As I stepped into the stirrup, my ankle twisted and I almost fell off the damn truck this time!
So yeah. My pride & ego took a battering that evening!
This is the worst of my injuries (not the scratch - that's from the cat...last April!!). It's still (Sunday night) swollen a bit & warm to the touch. Pretty sure this is from the front of the saddle. I also have some nice color developing on the inside of my right thigh, which I'm not quite sure how that happened. Stirrup maybe? Oh, and my ankle is occasionally tender. All of the other aches & pains are mostly gone unless I sit for too long, then I stiffen up.
So the rest of this weekend has been pretty chill. It was well after midnight when we got back to Laurie's house & unloaded the horses. I stayed the night & helped her with a few chores Saturday. Then came home and napped. I skipped a graduation party I was supposed to go to, but they understood. Today, Randy & I went out to brunch, went to Lowe's & did some planning for Halloween (don't judge! There's less than 100 days and you can't wait until the last minute to build things!), napped, then dinked around on the patio / in the garage. Then did up some BBQ chicken on the grill for dinner.
So that, in a nutshell - has been July!
What has you been up to?
EDIT - found another big bruise this morning in the shower - on the back of my calf. Probably also from the saddle as I did my 'trick riding'. It's now mid-way thru Monday afternoon & I'm more sore today than I was all weekend. Guess shuffling paper makes you use your left arm more than you'd expect!
