My daughter got off to pick blackberries

 I am age 61.  I have a horse that I hardly ever see or ride.  He lives in Gainesville with my daughter who takes very good care of him.  She loves horses and is almost a veterinarian. She is half my age with relatively no limitations compared to me.  One of our goals on this last weekend spent together was to ride our horses and I am happy to say that me, my daughter and her good friend, we did it.

It was a beautiful day with a comfortable cloud cover and a nice breeze. We rode and rode and rode because it was so pleasant.  My daughter picked berries and fed us. We did a little gallop and I didn’t fall off.  We rode some more.  We had to cross a big field so we galloped some more. My horse put his head down as he started to run because he was so happy but I didn’t fall off.  We rode for hours before we decided to go home and then it seemed good to go home a little faster.  We galloped across the field again. Once more my horse did his funny little thing with his head, and I almost fell off, but I didn’t.  As he was galloping and I was hanging on some birds flew up out of the grass and made my horse go a lot faster and a bit sideways. I didn’t fall off then either.  My horse likes doing whatever his friend horses do.  We came to a big log (it was a very big log) across the trail in the woods and my daughter’s horse wanted to go fast over the log.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to go fast over the log but my horse did, so we went.  I didn’t fall off but I don’t know why.  My horse knew it was my first jump so he stayed under me.  He’s such a good horse.   We finally got home after our wonder ful ride. We were hot and thirsty.  When I got off my horse my legs were frozen in an upside down U shape.  They really hurt except in the places where they were numb. I had to walk kind of funny but I got my horse in his stall and took off his saddle. All of a sudden I knew if I didn’t sit down I was going to fall off my own feet! Every time I tried to stand up my head felt tingly and it started to get dark so I sat on the floor for quite a long time. My daughter brought me some orange juice and gave my horse a bath for me.  He was happy because we went on a ride. I went to the house and took a long nap. I am 61 and I have a horse.



This is how the ride looked to me when we weren’t galloping



My daughter took this picture and said my horse was posing but he was really peeing.



I do love surprises. Everything I like, I like even better when it’s a surprise. Last Friday, waiting for my passengers to gather for the trip up to Gainesville, I noticed a couple text messages from my brother Gary. He was actually in Tampa inquiring whether we could get together the next day. My weekend away was already keeping me from a couple fun things happening at home and this would have been the third “not to miss” thing that I would be missing.  Fortunately we figured out a way to get together for supper since that was about the time we were planning to go through Tampa. Gary’s friend Gus dropped him off at the restaurant where we were waiting and we had a short visit over a good meal.  We had another vet student along with us, Kevin, and he was kind enough to take this picture of us as we blocked traffic out in the parking lot afterwards.

Is it a rule that a good day at work must be followed by a bad day?

Is it a rule that bad days at work must occur after nights with four or less hours of sleep?

Is it a rule that favorite friends only beg for babysitting on weekends that you plan to be out of town?

I could go on, but there are better pastimes than caring about these things that seem to happen together as if there were a rule, which I’m sure there is not.  I could, for instance, wonder about other people’s lives.  I wonder how fascinating it is to make maps and be called mapmaker. I wonder if there will ever be another “moment of well-being”. I wonder what Cambodia is like in the summer. I wonder how much longer the sick neighbor next door will live. I wonder if my parents feel cared for. I wonder if Wisconsin is going to have a beautiful summer. I wonder if Peruvian Mary is going to make it to work tomorrow. I wonder if the tennis coach is going to rent our condo.

Oh yes, being a landlady is one of my duties, since Dennis doesn’t feel free to follow up on things during the day. And it always gets more interesting, to put it kindly, when a renter is moving out and another has to be found.  We are in that situation now and I have been getting on average three calls a week inquiring about our condo.  Almost two weeks ago, sitting in Saturday night church, I got a text asking for info and giving a short description of a family with one son and a cat needing a home in August.  Most of the time I don’t get texts from strangers who don’t even know if I text or not.  This guy had good written English which impressed me, so I started the dialogue. He wanted to see it right away so on Sunday I showed it.  I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet someone named Attila.  And wouldn’t you know, he was from Hungary. Yes. But he musn’t know what we call him.

He is drop dead handsome, thirtyish, and a tennis pro with a job.  He liked the condo, the best thing going for it being that it is right next to the tennis court – looks out on it, in fact. I spent all last week researching the flooring hurdle.  They feel they need hard flooring instead of carpet because of his wife’s allergies, but on the third floor of a building there are rules (RULES) about what kinds of floors you can have based on how loud they are.  They’ve seen it a second time and I’ve met the wife. She pretty much matches the husband in her female way, and she also seemed to approve.  I’m not 100% sure because they speak Hungarian most of the time.  I’m awaiting their final decision based on getting their son in a good school nearby.  I did a fb search on his name and there he was with a tennis racket doing a splendid backhand.  He has his own tennis academy and a three year work visa.  Hopefully our search for a good tenant will be over.

All for now. I need a nap.

There are lots of things that don’t happen every day. Last weekend the thing that didn’t happen was our trip to Gainesville.  The plan started last Monday when I realized that Julie would be out of school, that I would probably have the weekend off, that Dennis had no plans, and that I had no committments to sing in church at that point. It was a good opportunity to go up and check on things at the little farm – we hadn’t been there for quite a while.  On Friday Julie texted that we might not want to spend the gas money coming up since she was scheduled for her first externship at a town about 50 miles away. We would probably be able to get together during the week. And suddenly it seemed like a relief to have a reason not to go. 

Honestly I think that God planned a mini-vacation for me. I rested, did some very satisfying sorting/cleaning projects, and spent happy hours outside in the oneacrewoods with my plants and the sunshine and fresh air. I didn’t go anywhere the whole weekend, except to show the condo one more time.  My house is such a beautiful place to be. I really should spend more time here. Hey, look at the beans first picking, and my pineapple farm….  I have about a dozen pineapples this year to share with the fruit rats and raccoons. 

So this pretty special weekend was sandwiched in between saying goodby to Irene and Bob on Friday (they are probably back in Kenosha now),  and having dinner with Julie on Sunday night as she made her way over to Zolfo Springs.

I have too many thoughts in my head today and I just can’t sort them out into neat piles on my mental desktop.

Hector was working here at my house when I got home. This is not unusual since we keep adding to the list of things we’d like to have done.  He had taken out the umbrella tree in the back yard.  I didn’t know that was going to happen so I was a bit stunned.  All these years we’ve lived here we’ve just been cutting down the parts that touched the house when they got too big. Evidently Dennis said something about it always growing back and being bothersome – that maybe it should be taken out – and told Hector to cut it down. Well, he did, and dug out the roots too.  It was sort of a beautiful tree, and so vigorous a grower that I always admired it’s ability to rebound. But, no more.  I guess I should begin to appreciate that it will be much easier to take care of that part of the yard now. I’m not horrified, just stunned, and not quite believing that it’s gone.

Today at work, Scottie finally told me what her plans were for going to her mom’s memorial service in Atlanta.  They are having it the weekend of July 14 – 15.  She wants to go up on the 12th stay in Atlanta until the 16th, and then drive to Asheville, NC until the 20th, driving home on the 21st.  And because she has some kind of hotel credits that expire tomorrow at midnight, she wants me to committ to going today.  So much for having time to think it over.  She wants to stay at the Biltmore in Asheville and spend a couple days looking at (and probably buying) art. She says that Cindy will come along to help.  Can I take ten days of it? I don’t know.  Do I dare suggest the trip be altered? Don’t know.

July 16th is when Julie is starting her externship with Sarasota Equine.  She’ll be staying at our house and I’ll be missing at least half of her time here if I go on this trip with Scottie.  How very unfortunate.  The only good thing would be that she might have time to water my plants, pet my cat, and keep Dennis company while I’m not here.

Also in these very same July weeks our condo will go vacant and have to be prepared for a new renter.  We have a good  potential family but they would like hard flooring instead of carpet. My head is swimming with figures for labor and materials, comparing all the variables and wondering whether it’s worth it to go to all that expense or if I should look for another renter. The work would have to get done while I’m away and I’d have to get it approved before I leave.  Hector says “no problem”, he would do it, but he says that about EVERYTHING.

Another major concern is my broken arm.  It’s not the bone that’s broken, but some other part of it sure is.  Working is painful and I’m always trying to adjust my movements to avoid further injury. I can never rest it long enough to fully recover and it is getting worse rather than better.  I’ve mentioned this to Scottie but I’m not constantly updating her and complaining about it so she’s probably not taking it into consideration.  There’s not much she could do about it anyway since I’m once again the only day nurse that she has.  Peruvian Mary gave her two week notice.  Even though she needs the money desperately, she just can’t handle the physical requirements. I was worried that might happen.

One of my readers views the blog on a MacPro and asked me why I had put the pictures overlapping the text. Anyone else see it like that? His view is completely different from mine, in which the pictures don’t cover anything.  I hate putting pictures in because they are very difficult to place in any meaningful way. They don’t drag well, being unresponsive as you move them and suddenly jumping off the screen. Most of the time they refuse to move at all except basic left, right and center placement. And I think there is a person somewhere hired to figure out how the text wraps around the pictures and he is very creative  to say the least.  I put up with his decisions pretty much because I have to.  But who am I to complain but a user.  Maybe instead of insisting the program be user friendly, I should become program smart, eh?



new drive

 


new drive from 10th Lane

 

And last but not least, it’s been so beautiful outside EVERY day this week. TAnisha’s bayou, the beach, and the oneacrewoods where I spend my time are the prettiest places on earth this time of year. I have gardens that are fun to work in – my very own dirt and plants and trees on loan from God. There have been other good things this week too which I have been thinking about as opposed to doing but that’s for an upcoming post (follow up from Focus 1, in case you remember reading that). I’m working on it.

 

my knock out roses





the sun light on fountain grass



hard work

I danced the dance, fought the fight, did the hard thing,
listened to my soul.
And when it was said I presented it to him,
that teacher,
that know-it-all,
that God.
And all he said (though not unkindly) was
“that poem’s not finished. Keep writing.”

There is a particular time of the year in Florida where fruit and vegetables can very nearly overwhelm a person in their abundance. Now is that time. The last of the citrus is falling off the trees all by itself – use it or lose it. The tomato crop came ripe and the farmers are practically giving it away. Strawberries are still around, the pineapples are ripening, food stuff is everywhere. Unfortunately this means fruit flies are everywhere and this means war.

They have striped bodies and large red eyes and appear magically out of nowhere and begin to multiply within minutes, and I mean multiply. If they were our size we’d be done for. Of course you have to get rid of their food source, which is alcohol from fermenting food, or alcohol of any kind, or even dish cloths, sponges, etc… Last week, my move was to juice up all the oranges from our Valencia tree which had been sitting around in a big tub, waiting…  Well, it didn’t work and a day later I was searching the kitchen for the next battleground. Spy work it is.  I found a potato that was mostly maggot fodder and got rid of that – surely, the problem was solved.  But no, yesterday morning I came out into the kitchen and as I approached the sink a cloud of flies swarmed out and I actually had to protect myself. Shut the eyes and don’t breathe kind of protection. Thinking that the garbage disposal may have been harboring some food I ran it and cleaned the opening really good.  Later that day as the swarm continued I got serious and poured boiling water down the drain as I ran the disposal. They stopped coming out there. 

But today they are still in the kitchen sitting on the walls and on the coffee pot and crawling across my computer screen – aaaahhgg. Searching for some bigger guns, I went to the web to find out what to do. I don’t know if any of it will work but I’ve had a good laugh. The plan I like best is “put some rotting food in the oven and when it’s covered with flies shut the door quick and incinerate them”. Satisfying but rather energy intensive.

Long ago people used to think that critters like rats, mice, and fruit flies spontaneously generated from filth, food refuse, piles of dirty underwear, etc… They say that’s been disproved but I’m checking the laundry next just to make sure.

It’s a strange thing how we resist simplifying our lives because it involves giving up something. I have been resisting giving up in several areas of my life and now that it’s coming to my attention, I’m realizing the cost I have been paying (there’s always a cost). This is not my situation, but consider the person who has lots of “stuff”, so much stuff that in order to live in a reasonably ordered world, they have to rent a storage space to put it all in. They no longer have easy access to their stuff, they usually forget what they have, but they pay a monthly cost. Somehow this seems entirely wasteful.

One of my areas of struggle is paper clutter. So much comes through the door in the mail, catalogs, ads, magazines, that I can hardly keep up with it. I can think of things I want to do with some of this paper. There are great recipes to try, info for the garden, ideas for sewing or clothing I might want to order. I even keep some catalogs just for the colorful paper in them which I will someday use for artistic purposes (yeah, right). The cost I pay is frustration trying to make things look clean and beautiful around the piles of magazines, and the stress of trying to find the one thing I know is in one of them but who knows which one… Believe it or not, I also spend quite a lot of time attempting to file things that probably don’t need to be kept at all.  My friend Karyn inspires me to throw stuff like that away because there’s always another magazine or idea on paper out there somewhere when you get time for it. I’m inspired but have not actually sprung into action, yet.

I also need to simplify the demands on my time. I’m tired of never having a full day at home to work and just enjoy being there. I can’t do much about the time I spend at my job, except continue to emphasize to Scottie how much I enjoy and need time off. But the weekend is another story. I often find myself at three different church services, mostly because I love to be involved with the music and enjoy being a helper.  It’s not that this much activity is necessary to my worship life, in fact sometimes it hinders by it’s inherent busyness. I’ve begun to work in this area. Last week I told my Saturday night worship leader that I was going to cut back, and I declined to do the worship service in his absence this week. This is the giving up part, and it is a bit hard when you like the people and enjoy the activity. I will wear this decision for a while and see how it feels. There is a freedom here that I think God will either confirm or correct.

Dennis and I were talking about our committments to organizations and churches last week and he gave an interesting observation about himself. He says whenever he is tempted to join himself to people or activity of some sort he considers how hard it will be to part from it in the future. We are not people who part from things easily, yet life is all about parting and departing. I really should try to get more comfortable with the whole idea. More on this is coming…