Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. CBS Sports: Nick Saban retires: Seven-time national championship-winning coach, 72, exits Alabama after 17 seasons, Saban is widely considered to be the greatest college football coach of all time, Patterson, 10 January 2024. AL.com: Report: Alabama’s Nick Saban is highest-paid coach in college football, Oct 2023. I include the latter not to be snarky but to give an idea of Saban’s place in the state pantheon. This is huge news for the state where I live.

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Rose is showing more energy during her trips outside. Well, more energy for a geriatric Basset Hound definition of energy.

Used to be, she would trot down the ramp, do her business, and return. I could leave the door open and walk away, knowing she would scoot back in as soon as she could.

Now, she wanders around the front yard, sniffs at this, sniffs at that, and – on one notable occasion – made it as far as the trees.

So, someone has to either watch from the door, or go out with her. I can’t randomly leave the door open for air or because I forgot to close it.

It’s wonderful.

It is a change that requires behavior modification from the people.

She’s lost the excess weight and feels better?

She’d finally decided she lives here?

Dogs are mysterious?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Jasmine continues to monitor the world around her and speak out when she requires action from her minions.

Dog posts [archive]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. BBC: 2023 confirmed as world’s hottest year on record, Poynting & Rivault, 9th January 2024. Previous posted about heat [Homewood Forest Preserve, Photography]

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Choices in horse buying. Older Horse with Experience vs Young Horse with Potential. All of the following are generalizations. There are exceptions to everything.

I have no answers. We heard about an interesting horse who was older than we would like. Caused me to think about this.

Older Horse with Experience

PRO

Whatever your thing is, the horse can do the thing. As soon as the two of you get acquainted, to the show ring you go.

No training surprises, wherein you find the horse can do X and Z but not Y, so that XYZ is out of the question.

No training montages that look short but take years.

CON

More money.

Shorter competitive lifespan.

Shorter lifespan with you.

Maybe badly trained. The show record was a combination of fluke and being strong-armed by an experienced rider. Amateur gets on & the horse says, ‘Who me? Do what?’

Maybe exquisitely trained, in a way that turns out to be incompatible with how you ride.

You are probably not going to go higher than the level the horse is now. At best, a few years at that level and then you start winding down.

Closer to needing maintenance, if not already.

Less time for a career change if you decide you no longer wish to do the thing.

Young Horse with Potential

All of the above, except reversed.

PRO

Less money.

All that untapped potential lies before you.

Make your own mistakes rather than fixing someone else’s problems.

CON

Show ring? Ha.

Can the horse do X or Y or Z? You’ll find out.

Cue training montage.

Thoughts

I could point out that we have one of each in the backyard. When we bought them, Rodney was an 11 year old with hops and Milton was a green six year old. But talking about those two is tailspin territory, so I won’t.

Also, I notice that pros & cons above apply to buying a competition horse. Well, yes. That’s the plan? goal? wish? futile fantasy?

Pull up! Pull up!

I go back to my previous comment. I wonder how anyone buys a horse ever. [Status Of The Horse Hunt, Needle Pegged at Overwhelm]

On the positive side. [Horse Shopping, What I Am Looking For]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I may need to make a permanent link to this. LA Times: How not to say the wrong thing, Silk and Goldman, 2013. Article is old; advice is still good. Comfort goes inward, venting goes outward. Hat tip to F.

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Kicking strap installed. Milton was a star. [What’s Up With The Home Team, Tack Update Milton]

He’s worn britching, so he’s used to straps on his butt. I’m sure we’ve used a kicking strap. My media search is not turning up visual evidence. [Milton Goes For A Walk]

Driver put together a strap that clipped on, which added minimal time to the hitching process. During the drive, Milton was totally blasé about yet another strap on his harness.

In fact, there was a bit of confusion right at the beginning of the drive. Peoples thought it was objection by the horse due to the new (again?) strap. Nope. Driver error. Milton was actually quite tolerate with his peoples.

Go Milton!

In other news. Rodney is fine. Overfed. Happy. Living his best life.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Supreme Court: Calendars and Lists, includes Session Beginning January 08, 2024 (PDF).

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Transformer
Academy Driving
Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show
Sunday 22 October 2023

Terry Young Photographer

When I did the show recap, I realize I did not have a pro photo for driving. The Instant Download option made that disconcertingly easy to address. [Saddlebreds of 2023]

“He finally got with the program during the victory pass. We ended up zipping out of the ring in fine style. We passed through the ring exit and the arena doorway as if we were doing marathon gates.” [The Red Queen Returns, Show Report, Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show 2023]

Pro photo, riding [More Show Media, Alabama Charity, Guest Photos]

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Anthony Butera is 3 January 2024 for Workman’s Art Page-A-Day Gallery Calendar 2024. “The subjects he paints are primarily in architecture and nature … His style is representational and sometimes his work has an impressionistic quality.” AB: About. I chose this calendar because I know diddly squat about art. Could have gone with cats or words but decided to try something new. Look at pretty pictures. Maybe absorb some knowledge. I have already learned that Van Gogh did multiple Sunflower paintings. I had no idea. In other news, I’ve had the calendar since November. Yet it took me three days into the new year to connect A) a year’s worth of images with B) my chronic need for art links on Sunday. Right hand meet left hand.

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Maroon. Continuing to match the color to the letter. Hex #80000, per Internet search. I think it came out closer to crimson, although it varies slightly from one program to another.

“Crimson is a bright, deep red color that has a slightly purplish hue. Maroon, on the other hand, is a dark red color that has a brownish tint to it.” The Content Authority: Crimson vs Maroon: Deciding Between Similar Terms.

Also, How Things Compare: Maroon vs Burgundy vs Crimson – What Are The Differences, Emily, 2022.

Both of these give other hex values for maroon.

Wiki: Web colors agrees with my initial search, scroll down to the color chart under Basic colors.

[Fractal Alphabet]

Onwards!
Katherine

Blog friends are awesome friends. The hat maker who included these in my order sent me an entire bag! Swizzels: Parma Violets. [Cold Weather Clothing]

Not To Recap

I had a whole slate of recap posts set up for the last week in December. Then I read an online discussion that said recaps should come once the year is over. I immediately thought, ‘Well, of course they should!’

Moved the schedule for last week of December over to first week in January. Makes sense, the year was not over. For example, the recap of 2022 does not include Milton’s surgery on December 31. A major event for any year! [The Home Team At Home In 2022], [When Weekends Go Wrong]

I already made this change with my fitness posts. “State of the Fitness moved to the first weekend of the next month. That way, I can record by month instead of by random chunks of the time between posts.” [The Next Step Dec 2021]

Unfortunately, moving the recaps to January mean starting on Monday. In December, Monday was occupied by Christmas, so recaps would have started on Tuesday. If I started on Monday, blog schedule dictated recapping Horsekeeping. Did I really want to look back over 3 months of stall rest? No, I did not.

Did I want recap the horse search? Again, no.

Did I want to compare Home Team dreams vs achievements? Deeply, seriously no.

What is the point of spending a full week looking back? Enjoyment? Personal Growth?

I did cover a few things that lent themselves to list making. [Saddlebreds of 2023, horse shows], [Fitness, 5Ks]

So, making a virtue out of inclination, last week I resumed current events rather than look back.

To Recap

Instead of a whole week, part of a post.

Home Team 2023 in a nutshell. Milton started the year on stall rest. Then we did the Virtual Tevis. Due to stall rest, horses were not up for long sessions. We started short, daily walks to get our mileage. Kept at it once VT over. Milton did some hitching. Rodney did some riding.

Other horses. Tiny nibbles looking for new horses; some activity, no progress. ASB lessons & shows.

Dogs. Fitness. Photography. Fiction. Art. All ticking along. Blog working as incentive for creative endeavors.

Blog. 365 posts. Kept me amused.

Guest Posts of 2023

One category definitely deserves revisiting. To repeat – in case I did not convey to them, or to you, how much I enjoy including other perspectives and other voices – thank you to Jan, Michelle, Kelly, Mathieu, Thomas, Kate, Grace & Laurie.

[Horse Tethering Ring in Portland Oregon]
[Mardi Gras Parade Horses]
[Between The Ears, Camel View]
[Between The Ears, Mystery Mount]
[And on That Farm She Had A Horse, Sand Sculpture]
[Model Horses to Go With Model Trains]
[Gazelle Postcard]
[Rodney’s Grand Reopening]
[Fierce & Fuzzy, Shetland Pony Congress]
[Riding The Camino de Santiago]
[Another Rider on The Camino de Santiago, Guest Post]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “The Twelfth Night is the night before Epiphany, and the twelfth day is Epiphany itself.” Boston Public Library: The Origins and Practice of Holidays: Twelfth Night, Gurpurab Guru Gobindh Singh, Epiphany, Día de los Reyes, Bhagat, 2019.

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Swim supplies from Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Daily Mile

Pasture. Morning walks with horses. No new places to report.

Monthly 5K Long Walk

The plan.

Photo outing. Check. [Homewood Star, Photography]

Follow the parade route. Check.

Walk a 5K. Ch … wait …

I did it again. Got my units confused. I planned the route carefully. I calculated that I would need to go up, back, & then some milling about to get to the correct number. I worked diligently to get 3.18 … kilometers. Oops. [Mostly Walking, previous error]

I may have tried to do too much. I was thinking about photography and where to park so that I could take photos and then leave the camera in the truck. Or maybe I was simply confused. I also managed to lose the recording of the route while saving the screenshot of the stats. Bummer, because it was something other than the usual circles.

Update. Map mysteriously appeared. You can see at the end how I wandered back & forth to get the exact mileage. Sigh.

For those who don’t have the numbers at the tips of their fingers, a 5K is 3.17 miles. No, it’s 3.107 miles. Once again, I realize an error as I am doing the post. Sigh. I know this. I keep having to relearn this. Why is this hard? 007 is a culturally memorable number. [Disc Stroll, in which I realize my mistake], [Another Impromptu 5k, in which I recalculate]

I have no explanation for the speed. (Text moved to coordinate with the various updates.)

(Update. The speed is KPM. In miles, it’s 2.8 mph. A perfectly cromulent pace for me. Wow, I am really not getting this. That’s is the third numerical error for a single event. This one I realized when I read over the published post. Seriously, I looked at that number multiple times. I figured it was GPS error. Shakes head. Moving on.)

For the record. Maybe as my December walk this year. “The parade will begin at 6:30pm from Homewood Public Library and travel east on Oxmoor Road. Then it will turn left onto 18th Street South, travel under the Christmas star and then turn right onto 29th Avenue. It will then turn left onto 19th Street, travel past city hall and turn left onto 28th Avenue.” Homewood Chamber of Commerce: Homewood for the Holidays > Christmas Parade and Lighting of the Star

Mileage added to NYC virtual walk. [Archives]

Other

Got in the pool. Sat on a bike. Climbed aboard a rowing machine.

Let’s give these a check and not inquire too closely how often I did each activity per week or per month. In all honesty, I will never do any of these as regularly as I go for walks. Even if I have walked in the morning, I will sometimes go for a second walk in the evening to settle my head. While I don’t dislike the non-walking activities, there is an element of dragging my butt off of the metaphorical couch to benefit future me.

The above photo is not a repost. You can tell by the different color of the hat. This is a new set of hat & swim googles that I had to buy since the last time I went swimming. Grrr. [Restarting, photo]

Wanted to get back to swimming last month. Spent far too long looking for bathing suit & accoutrements. Found suit. Finally gave up on the rest. Which led to my November walk. “Was having a cranky day. Decided to do the monthly 5K. At least get something done that day … So, I went for a stomp around the pasture.” [Mostly Walking]

I now own three sets of swim cap & goggles. Where the other two sets are I have no idea.

Daily mileage & biking to virtual Mississippi River trip. I don’t swim or row far enough to count. Not yet anyway. [Biking and Walking Virtually, Mississippi River]

5Ks & Fitness Posts of 2023

December walk, Red Mountain park. January post [Picture This, Walk Photos, State of the Fitness]

January walk. IRL so got its own post. [Moseying to the Music, Walk Report, MLK Day 5K Drum Run 2023]

February post. [Stall Rest Chronicles 3 Feb, plus Fitness Photos]

February walk, local park, Mardi Gras medal. March post. [Perfect Attendance Record, State of the Fitness]

March walk, Oak Meadow. April post. [Maps For the Month, State of the Fitness]

April walk, pasture with Rodney for Virtual Tevis. May post. [Sunny Days, State of the Fitness]

May walk, ditto. June post. [One Place, Lots of Pasture, State of the Fitness]

June walk, Run for Women, IRL in Montreal. July post [In Which I Go To A Foreign Country and Walk Around In Circles, State of the Fitness]

July walk, Sulky Sprint, virtual run, August post [Two New Places, State of the Fitness]

August, skipped, “This is the first month in over three years that I haven’t walked a 5K … I am oddly unperturbed by this.” September post. [Restarting, State of the Fitness]

September, no long walk. October post. [Down By The Riverside, State of the Fitness]

October walk, local park, November post. [Step By Step, State of the Fitness]

November walk, pasture. December post. [Mostly Walking, New and Old, State of the Fitness]

December walk, Homewood. January post. Above.

Nine 5Ks, one 3K, skipped two months. Of the 10 walks – two IRL, two virtual, two for Virtual Tevis, four wandering/stomping about on my own.

Onwards!
Katherine