Virtual Brush Box

Fiction of the outside world. A meme that has stuck in my head. Are you just trying to order a milkshake from a Home Depot? “I feel like some people need to relearn Genre Expectations… “Man, this tragedy sucks!!! Why didn’t they just do XYZ, then everything could have ended happily!!” well, then it wouldn’t be a tragedy, would it. “Man, this lighthearted teen romcom is terrible, it’s so sappy and unrealistic!!” Well, yeah. If it had been gritty and dark, it wouldn’t have been a lighthearted romcom, would it. Is the writing actually bad or are you just trying to order a milkshake from a Home Depot” tumblr: bumblebeebats, Sep 29, 2023.

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🔨🏬🔨

Alice watched the couple drive away with pvc pipes lashed to the side of the truck and the ditch digger tagging along behind on its dedicated trailer. She wondered, as she always did, how the job was going to go. The couple seemed pleasant enough. Would they continue to be nice to each other as the day worn on and the job took longer than they had expected? House repair always took longer than people thought it was going to. Or would that pleasant couple be shouting and kicking dirt at each other by lunchtime?

Bob wandered the rental section of the hardware, amazed at what was available to a person who could produce a driver’s license and credit card. The amount of whirring, spinning, heavy cutting blades on the various equipment could do fearsome damage to a person. Either to one’s self or to another. Either unintentionally or deliberately. Okay, maybe his friends were right. Maybe he had been watching too many horror movies lately.

Chris knew she stood out in her pink coveralls while waiting for service at the pro counter of the hardware store. It annoyed her to be confirming gender stereotypes, but the pink was useful marketing. She had always been good with her hands. While growing up, she moved from rebricking the garden wall to fixing the washing machine to refinishing a new bathroom. During her teen years, neighbors began to pay her for small jobs. As an adult, she turned this ability into a profitable home repair business. When she started, she knew she would be getting grief for being a woman in a man’s world. Might as well lean into it. She dressed butch enough to be trusted with manly tasks, but femme enough to be relatable to the women who hired her. Turns out a lot of female householders were tired of being condescended to by repair personnel.

Daddyda pushed the cart carrying his shopping and his granddaughter. There was plenty of room for the two cans of paint and a toddler. In a few years, she would be too big for the cart. T-ball and soccer will replace cart rides. Or maybe tiaras and tap dance. Or maybe both. Whatever. He was up for it. When she was grown would she remember going on errands with her grandfather?

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Afterword
Imagination exercise courtesy of The Errant Moon, [Faces In The Crowd, Procedure]

Some of these are IRL people with made-up stories. Some are fabrications from up soup to nuts. I do remember riding in grocery store carts pushed by my grandmother.

Archives [Fiction, Faces In The Crowd]

Onwards!
Katherine

Photography of the outside world. I recently noticed that NBA courts have boxes painted on the floor of the end zones for photographers. Was not able to find a specific link to describe this.

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Last week, winter dropped in for a moment. Sunday was high of 77o, Monday had snow and a low of 32o. Back to 70s later in the week, and 80s on the weekend. Per timeanddate.com.

Snow on grass in our front lawn.

Snow on plants in our front lawn.

Snow on trees and bushes at the top of Double Oak Mountain, the high point of a local highway. Through my truck window at a stop light. The roads were clear.

Process Notes

Phone camera.

Onwards!
Katherine

Equines of the outside world. Horse Network: Random Mule Facts, Berry 2023. Bells, but not the kind you are thinking of. Hat tip to Elise Mulerider.

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Logistics

I have not had a saddle seat lesson since early November. [A Lovely Lesson That Will Have To Last A While]

First, my wrist. I wasn’t taking any lessons. [Doctor’s Appointment, Wrist Update]

Then, getting ready for show. Lesson effort was going toward hunter/jumper. Partly time & expense, partly I didn’t want to cross the streams. [The Plan, AHJA Kick Off Show 2026]

The week after my show, the Saddlebreds were away.

The week after that, I was under the weather. [The Twiddling of the Thumbs]

Which brings us to the end of March, over four months since I last sat on an ASB.

Quandry

Do I go back to saddle seat lessons?

I want to. I love the horses. It has been nice to have a barn home. The riding is fun. I think it would be a hoot to do both. [Show Report, Other Horses]

However.

The transition back to hunter/jumper was harder than I expected.

It’s comes down to the canter. The ASB canter is contained, and upward, and – ideally – slow. The h/j canter is none of those things. It is open and forward and fast.

(Neither is better or worse, just different. But I digress.)

Also, saddle seat steering is all about making straight lines during your pass, optimizing your turns, and avoiding other horses. Traffic management is a massive skill requirement. I have had to learn to place myself in relation to other moving objects. You don’t, as far as I can tell, have to place yourself in relation to a fixed spot, other than for the occasional equitation pattern.

The jumping canter relies on more precise steering. You want to be straight at the jump. You want to aim for the center of the jump. Taking a slightly wider line around a turn might mess up the striding. You want to have a feeling for exactly where the horse’s feet are so you can coordinate the feet & the fence into a compatible space. All at a big, fast canter.

This is all in hindsight. I figured a canter is a canter, right?

My saddle seat canter is excellent. I could get my leads (mostly), sit the canter, and ask for as slow and as pretty a canter as the horse was capable of. I thought I was slick. It didn’t help me at the shows, because saddle seat is all about the trot, but it was nice to be good at some part of it.

So, color me surprised when I struggled with the h/j canter. Now that I’ve gotten a better grip on the h/j canter, should I go back to the ASBs? Can my brain encompass both canters? Will saddle seat mess me up for jumping?

I have no idea.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Some days I can’t tell if the headline is news or satire. Is it better or worse that the horrors come as farce?

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No lessons last week. I was couchbound.

Once again, I went out amongst people. Once again, I did not handle it well.

February 2024. “I undertook an outing among the general public. Since I have the exposure level of a toddler at the beginning of day care, I spend the rest of the month under the weather.” That was at an afternoon performance in a theater packed with kids. [Leaping Around The Swamp]

March 2026. This was a bunch of adults around a conference table. Smaller group. Less time. Sat farther away. Didn’t help. Well, helped a bit. Was off for a week instead of a month.

As I walked into the room, I was uneasy. I thought, ‘Hmmm. this is a lot of people – less than 10 – for me in close space.’ Next time, I will listen to myself. Probably wear a mask. I’ll feel like a dork, but it beats being sick.

My health is fine. It’s a matter of contact, or lack thereof.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Insight from watching the new mix channel. One indicator that a story is not going well for Republicans is that Fox will find something totally else to cover. Not a new thing, but it seemed more obvious that usual yesterday. Iran & Airports for everyone else vs Fox perseverating over hotel stays in Cuba.

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As I said last week, the horses are doing the morning walks at liberty. [Predicting Mission Success]

This gives them the ability to stop for a bite of grass, if they chose. They are particularly prone to this maneuver when the peoples have slept in of a Saturday or Sunday and we are all are taking a make-up walk in the warm afternoon sun.

Rodney more often than not, but Milton has been known to pause for sustenance.

People: C’mon, keep going.
Horse: (chomp) Okay.

In the mornings, they generally stay on task. It is the routine & there are cookies to be had.

Previous Posts

Apparently I am moved to comment on the news mix channel every few years.
[Two New Places, State of the Fitness] 2023
[Blankets Are Back] & [Bridge Bling] 2021

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. On one hand, airplane tickets for an upcoming trip. On the other hand, the issues of oil & TSA & ICE. Time will tell which one will prevail.

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Last week, we had to break out the blankets for two nights.

Perhaps for the last time this season? (Crosses fingers.)

The day between was cool, so I switched them to daywear with a plan to remove if too hot.

Whenever I checked, they were out in the pasture. In other words, not overheated and hiding in the shade.

I finally marched out to double-check. Milton was closest. He was toasty but not hot. The way you might feel wearing a warm sweater on a brisk day.

Hmm.

As he has gotten older, Milton has gotten more blanket loving. He still hates having it put on, but he’s happy to be warm and doesn’t seem to overheat.

Mathilda was the same way. Scoffed at the idea of blankets. Then as she got older, she decided that maybe blankets were not the worst thing. Perhaps even double blankets, please.

I said something similar last year, “Milton is the second horse to warm up, so to speak, to blankets as the years go by. Mathilda turned her nose us at blankets for years, only to become a blanket hog in her old age.” [What’s Been Happening With The Home Team]

Rodney, on the other hoof, is keeping himself warmer these days. I used to say that he was part lizard. [More Heat Therapy 2017]

“Rodney is easy. As long as it is under 70o or dark, he’s good.” [Dressing Decisions 2025]

These days, Rodney warms up almost before Milton does. On some sunny days, Rodney has come close to maybe thinking about possibly sweating. As best we can tell, it correlates with switching him to grain. [Feeding The Same Breed]

More blanketing as one gets older seems reasonable. Less blanketing as one gets older proves that it’s an individual thing.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Monument Lettering Center: The Lettering of Lady Liberty.

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Colors: raspberry, smalt (seems similar to sapphire), titian.

Color Comment: Raspberry freehanded from the color wheel. Anyone else have trouble getting colors to look the way you imagine them? I feel that I am the chromatic equivalent of tone deaf. Smalt & titian sampled from article, Merriam Webster: 10 Words for Uncommon Colors.

Project Description [Colorwork Alphabet Introduction]

Project Archive [Colorwork Alphabet]

Onwards!
Katherine