Fun In The Sun, Show Report SSF Summer 2023

Awareness of the outside world. To be in the arena. DFL beats DNF beat DNS. Mail & Guardian: ‘Last-place finishers are not losers’, Collinson, 2004. Dated. Article feels the need to define a “blog”. 🤣 DFL: Celebrating last-place finishes at the Olympics. Because they’re there, and you’re not. Blog ends with 2004. Data still interesting. Similar to the Red Saddlepad. [Two Finish Lines]

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Stepping Stone Farm Summer Fun Show
Chelsea AL
Sunday 13 August 2023

Roy
4. Academy Driving, 1st of 1

Optimus
26. Academy Showmanship Adult WTC – 1st of 3
27. Academy Equitation Adult WTC – 2nd of 3

Thank you to the Rath and Gray families for sharing their marvelous horses.

The photographer declined photo credit. Thank you for the pictures!

Videos by my stellar IT tech.

Dammit Jim, I’m a Saddlebred!

Saddlebreds go from standing in their stalls to trotting in the ring. My horse needs 20 minutes of easy walking to get his head in the game. Don’t cross the streams.

At the show, I didn’t want to do any warm-up. We didn’t need it at a performance level and Optimus had other riders. So, I figured a few minutes of gentle strolling back and forth would give him a chance to loosen up. ‘What is this?! If I am walking anywhere, I am walking back to my stall thank! you! very! much!’

I had to get a person on foot to lead me over the spot of shade in which we had been quietly standing before I forgot myself.

Sorry, dude.

Onwards!
Katherine

No Photo is Good News, Milton’s Foot

Awareness of the outside world. An official Hawaiian history timeline with a wildfire update banner at the top of the page, Go Hawaii: A Brief History of the Hawaiian Islands. More history, Smithsonian: Hawaii – History and Heritage, 2007, American Masters: Learn about the rich history of Hawaii, 2022. Personal essay, Medium: An Ignorant Mainlander’s Primer on Hawaiian History, Corey B, 2022.

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Milton was shod last week.

He’s been sound from his abscess for a while. [Home Team Update for the Beginning of August 2023]

I was expecting a dramatic, post-abscess photo op. [Milton’s Foot Diagnosis Develops 2020]

Nada. No gaping hole. No channels dug through the foot.

Which is good!

In this case, I will take a lack of media.

I wonder if it was because the abscess resolved so much faster. The nastiness didn’t have time to burrow around in his foot. The heel blowout still looks hair-raising, but hasn’t bothered Milton since it opened. Yay.

Onwards!
Katherine

Muse Goes Back To School, Fiction

Writer: Hello Muse.

Muse: Hello. Another holiday movie?

Writer: No. I guess you could call it an Occasion Movie, the occasion being kids going back to school. Probably a made-for-TV movie.

Muse: An After School Special?

Writer: No. So much no. I may be a hack and a shill for corporate advertisers, but even I have my limits.

Muse: Good to know.

Writer: Several of the producers were sending their kids back to school. They got to talking. Gave them an idea. If they are doing it, so is a large segment of their audience. They want to develop something to use around this time of year.

Muse: But you don’t have kids. You don’t interact with kids in your day-to-day existence.

Writer: I know, right?

Muse: Lean into it. How does back to school effect people without children?

Writer: Well, Traffic for one.

Muse: School buses?

Writer: Yes. But also regular traffic. Mom and Dad and assorted caregivers are all getting up to get tots on the 7:20 bus. Then they go to work. Traffic gets compressed into a tighter time frame.

Muse: I’m not seeing a traffic movie.

Writer: Actually …

Muse: Focus!

Wrtier: Let’s see. What happens when one segment of society relocates en masse? Places that were full of kids are suddenly empty. Pools. Parks. The barn aisles are quiet. The summer camp industry shuts down for the year. [Back To School]

Muse: I’m not hearing sparks.

Writer: (ponders) … kids go back to school … adults who have jobs at school got back to work … teachers, chefs, janitors, administrators … kids start a new grade … start high school … start college … Gaaaaaa. It’s all been done.

Muse: What do you mean?

Writer: So many movies. Adults go back to school pretending to be kids, or as adults who need to finish high school for plot reasons.

Muse: What about adults who go back to school for real? As adults?

Writer: (ponders) … finishing a Master’s … ESL … Executive MBA … GED … overcoming the odds … education is important … move over Horatio Alger … it’s an option … let call that plan b.

Muse: You don’t like it?

Writer: It feels too earnest. If we are going to sell people on spending their free time back at school, we have to make it sound fun. Kids have just spent the day there. Adults probably still have exam nightmares. We have to put sparkles on it.

Muse: The anthology approach?

Writer: I like the idea of being able to tell several stories at once. But I used the short story concept last time. Doing it again feels like a retread. They’re gonna want a shiny new idea. [The Summer Movie]

Muse: Turn it sideways.

Writer: (stands up, looks at screen sideways, sits down)

Muse: Very funny. Instead of telling one story after another, tell them consecutively.

Writer: (blank look)

Muse: Not ringing any bells?

Writer: I feel that you are broadcasting but I am not receiving.

Muse: What uses an ensemble cast?

Writer: TV show! Night School! Like Night Court, except with school! Oooh, gotta love it when the elevator speech writes itself.

Muse: (sotto voce) The light dawns.

Writer: We have all kinds of options with casting. Ongoing characters as teachers, and chefs, and janitors, and … wait … do principals work at night? … never mind, I can find out. Guest stars as characters who attend classes. We can have story arcs of different lengths all interacting with each other. An arc could be two shows, or an entire season. Or an arc stops when a person leaves suddenly because that’s what happens when people have to fit school around their lives.

Muse: (smiles)

Writer: We can get advertisers to sponsor scholarships to real night schools. Name recognition! Branding! Actually doing some good.

Muse: (watches writer’s moving fingers fondly)

Writer: (looks up from keyboard) Thank you, Muse.

Muse: You’re welcome. It’s good to see you working.

~~~ curtain ~~~

Afterword

The muse fiction sketches are still me talking about story ideas rather than creating a full-blown piece of fiction. At least I am coming up with story ideas, and at least they are presented in fictional form. Turtle steps.

Free Fiction 4U

Speaking of back to school and good stories. Dartmouth Alumni Magazine: The Devil and Dan Club, Collins 2011. Project Gutenberg of Australia: The Devil and Daniel Webster, Benet, 1936.

Onwards!
Katherine

Creek, Photography

Awareness of the outside world. “Faces and Fabrics Everywhere! For me, making quilts is a creative outlet. Visit a quilt retreat with the Evening Star Quilt Guild, via my collection of photographs from our 2023 ‘Out of This World’ Retreat, held at the Alabama 4-H Conference Center, Columbiana, AL, Aug. 3-6.” Facebook: Meg McKinney 7 Aug 2023. Meg always does a great job with ‘in the moment’ photos. Not sure if you need to log in to see. Sometimes I can see a FB page without doing so. It varies.

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Creek
Old Highway 280
Chelsea AL, US
July 2023

Technical Details

Creek. f/11.0, 1/125 sec., 105.0 mm, ISO 400, manual

The meta picture was hard to get this time. The first attempt of the two above has a lovely shot of the big camera, obeying the rule of thirds no less, with the subject scenically fuzzy in the background. Alas, there is a partial reflection on the display screen superimposed over the thumbnail image. BTW, not the worst example of reflection. I didn’t post the one where the reflection was so strong that you can read what my shirt says, and don’t see green at all. The next one, above, has the creek in focus and no reflection on the display image. I remember checking for that. Alas, the target camera is not in focus.

Things I need to keep in mind when I take the Android photo of the Nikon.

1) Is the Nikon in focus?

2) Is the photo shoot subject in focus? This is easier when the the Nikon is close to the subject. Actually, I have no control over this. Make sure phone knows to focus on the Nikon and let it do what it will with the background.

3) Check for reflection on the Nikon screen. Be aware that this is hard on a sunny day.

Works best if I can rest the Nikon on something and therefore not have to position, focus, and operate the Android with one hand.

Went somewhere. Did something. Check.

Previous [Quarry], with better examples of meta pix.

Onwards!
Katherine

Dog Stares

Awareness of the outside world. “Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ideas at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.” Twitter, the CryptoNaturalist, @CryptoNature, 10:39 PM · Aug 15, 2018. Website, The CryptoNaturalist, list of podcasts. Have not listened. Don’t do podcasts. Like the quote.

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A while back, Jasmine had her left eye removed due to disease.

You don’t notice. She can stare with one eye as well as most dogs stare with two.

She points that enormous Basset beak at you and you know you are being Looked At, no matter how many eyeballs are involved.

Rose prefers the droopy eyes, mournful ears method.

Jasmine & Rose Fan Club [list of posts]

Onwards!
Katherine

Rodney’s Ingenuity Continues

Awareness of the outside world. I got nothing. I’m having a long week. Not long in any absolute sense. Long for me.

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Phase I

Rodney has found yet another way to get time off with minimum inconvenience to himself. It’s his super power.

His left front shoe shifted slightly to the inside.

He was fine.

Shoe was tight.

He could mosey about with no problem.

There was juuust enough lip that if he stepped on it, he would have pulled the shoe – and since it was tight – rip half his foot off.

Was this scenario likely? No.

Was there an outside chance that Rodney could completely trash his foot? Yes.

So, he went for our morning stroll. He hung out in the stall. Ate meals. Hung out in the field.

No lunging. Circling would increase the likelihood of cross-stepping.

No trot or canter. Speed would increase the damage.

Blacksmith notified.

Phase 2

That was insufficient. He decided to opt out of the morning walks as well.

He removed the right front shoe. Yeah, the other one.

Hung out in the stall to preserve his foot for blacksmith the next day.

In theory, Rodney wants to live in a stall.

In reality, not so much.

After overnighting in the stall …

Rodney: Yeah, I’m over this. I wanna go ouuut.
Me: You’re the one who took off your shoe. Gotta wait until the blacksmith gets here.

Onwards!
Katherine