Virtual Brush Box

Explanation. A) I need a place to put this so I could link to it & B) Never let perfectly good text go to waste.

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Photo by Ginni Bush [No Stirrup November, In Which I Complicate An Introduction]

Hello! The program asked for, “either a bio or a link to a website with information about you.” Here ya go.

Me

I am a semi-retired freelance writer, currently living in the Southern US. 60 years old, white, cis female, married, no kids. Husband & I live on a farmette with horses, cats, & dogs. Pronouns, she/her/hey you. At this point, mox nix. The incidence of being called Sir or Mr. has gone way up even since I wrote a post about it last October. [Hello Sir]

My paid writing was mainly back in Ye Olde Print Days. Most of it missed the Internet. [My Professional Presence Online]

I have a daily blog. Makes Vanna White gesture. The main topic is horses. Over the years, I have managed to wedge in all manner of other subjects, such as science fiction conventions, see below. I’ve been blogging for 11 years. There is always a post about it. [Blog Milestone]

When we meet, I am likely to be excited. I don’t get out much. On the level of, ‘If a global pandemic doesn’t change your lifestyle, maybe you should get out more.’ Therefore, I might suffer from a super-abundance of interaction and go hide in my hotel room. Or I might bounce off the walls bonding with my new best friends. It could go either way.

I used to have people skills.

Really.

They are around here somewhere.

“Whether I talk a lot or too much depends on how amusing you find me.” [Learning My Lessons, Or Not]

You

Tell me about yourself. Seriously. One of my strengths as a journalist is to be completely fascinated by the topic at hand. I spent seven years calling up people and asking them about their jobs. [Clips: USDF Connection]

Random interest? Weird hobby? I wanna hear it.

Will I do a blog post about the convention? Mostly likely. Will I use your name? No. I will not use your name nor mention anything we discuss without your express permission. I am phobic about other people’s privacy. [The Song of Me]

Us

I came here via the History of Science Fiction class, taught by Jo Walton & Ada Palmer via UChicago Graham School. Intro video, UCGS: The History of Science Fiction, A Conversation with Ada Palmer and Jo Walton. [Winter Protocols, Blanket Adjustment]

I look forward to basking in the ambiance of being with like-minded folks. I live in the polar opposite of an echo chamber. [Life in Alabama, Being a Bad Blue Dot In A Really Red State]

Although I have lived in the Deep South for more years than I care to count, I have never successfully repotted. I always got more work nationally & internationally than I ever did locally. Smart ass Yankee does not play well around these parts.

With luck, my scintillating wit will play better at a science fiction convention.

Them

Convention Posts

Alabama Phoenix Festival
2012
[Foto Friday: Push-button Horse]
[Ghost Who Walks. Horse Who Racks.]
[New Yeller]

2013
[The Horse in Comics I, II, III, IV]
[Balloon Art]
[Spotted Who?]
[My Confidence Has Increased] Title, blame Alabama Phoenix Festival.

2014
[Foto Friday: Rodney Is Awesome!]
[Off Topic: The Upside of Negativity]
[Text Art: LEGO Business Card]

DragonCon
2012 [Monster Alphabet Book] & [A Plea for Hobby Tolerance]
2014 [T-Shirts for the Barn]
2016 [Guest Dragon Art]
2021 [Flying Low, Walk Report, DragonCon Virtual 5K]
2022 [Slow Flight Around The Park, Dragon Con Hustle Virtual 5K 2022]

We

Posts & links that might amuse this crowd

Season 12 scarf [My Doctor Whooves Scarf, The Origin Story, Guest Post]

“Science fiction and fantasy get it in the neck for being shallow. Critics have it the wrong way round. The lack of depth is not a bug, it’s a feature.” [You Say Escapism Like It’s A Bad Thing]

My beta reader (waves hi!) said I should include this. While it is not science fiction, it is the only fiction I’ve had published. Bending Genres: You Had Me At Blue Hair. The rest of my fiction – mainly bit & pieces – has been posted on this blog. [Fiction archives], [Moon Rats]

Oh, and I wrote a book. Sorta. [Writing Life]

Favorite work by Jo Walton, Visiting Friends, Or, What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Green Iguana 2020. Day One on JW Patreon.

Favorite work by Ada Palmer, YouTube: “Recovering a Lost Classic in the Renaissance” – Paideia Institute Public Lectures. Book history with examples.

Most eye-opening work, “Think you know about censorship? You probably don’t. The inquisition wasn’t a single organization, Orwell mostly got it wrong, and the most important change in modern times mostly went unnoticed. YouTube video, stay for the Q&A. Tracing Censorship of Radical Ideas Across Centuries: Historian Ada Palmer, U Chicago, Jun 29, 2021. The more I ponder this & watch the news, the more I think everyone should see this video to better understand how censorship functions in the world.” [Changing the Blanketing Protocol]

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Update.

I read “program”, as in the thing that is handed out. Oh cool, they will have introductions for all the attendees. Hence this post.

No.

“Program” as in the schedule of activities. As in speakers and panelists. For which this introduction makes no sense.

Oh well, at least I got a blog post out of it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Galloping

Through

Clouds

As

Graceful

As

Swimming

Through

Oceans

*

*

*

Yogmantra Bali
April 2023

🦋 Photos by Kelly Mellon. Watermarks & borders added by VBB.

🦋 Kelly’s Newsletter, Substack: Traveling Butterfly

🦋 Previous Kelly post [Between The Ears, Camel View, Guest Photos]

Full disclosure. Family member. I have joined her Substack community.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama News Center: Our Town: The wonders of Wetumpka, Alabama’s River Region respite, Chandler, photos by Meg McKinney, 2017.

~~~

January.

“Lately, whenever I make plans to spend more time at Stepping Stone, shit goes down in my life.” [Other Horses, Whither Saddle Seat Wednesdays, Or How Wednesday Became Thursday]

Ha. Ha. Let’s make dramatically dire statements in pursuit of an amusing blog post. In the post, I recognized that correlation is not causation. A perceived connection is an artifact of pattern seeking.

Then.

April.

I finally set up a lesson. [Lesson Scheduled, and Thoughts Thereon]

We end up back at the vet clinic. [Poop Watch]

I never did get a lesson. (Milton is fine, btw.)

I want to believe we live in a rational universe.

The universe is making not making it easy.

Onwards!
Katherine

Remember a few weeks ago, when I misread an email? [Stall Rest Chronicles 10 April, On Being Bleary]

It worked out. I was just a bit annoyed with myself.

Ha!

I ended up having to cancel the interview with that person. It was scheduled for the afternoon of the day we took Milton to the clinic. Even if we got back in time, I figured my brain would be sludge. [Poop Watch]

Again I say, Ha!

I wasn’t as worried as I would have been if the interview hadn’t been for an equine magazine. I figured a horse person would understand.

Milton came home. We all got some rest.

Over the weekend, I went over the information to date, took the horses for walks, started a rough draft, got some sleep, made notes for the interview on Monday.

On Monday morning, I rereaded everything. My rough draft, my notes for the interview, the emails. I doublechecked the phone number.

Five minutes to go. Recorder plugged in and tested. Paper and pen to hand. Called up a website with a clock. Watched the numbers flick to exactly 1:00:00. Dial.

No answer.

That’s odd. Person has been prompt all along. Left message saying I would try again in 5 minutes. It happens.

Dial. Interview. Went okay. I felt a little stupid here and there. Had a good list of questions. Person was charming and informative. Got information I needed. We said goodbye.

Sigh of relief. Back on track.

Now that’s out of the way, I can make my To Do list for the week. What’s this. Oh, yeah, my reminder note, INTERVIEW 1:30.

1:30?

1:30!?!

You have got to be kidding me.

Remember when I doublechecked the phone number? I always send a confirmation email with day, date, time, secondary time if time zones are involved, & phone number. The phone number was right under where it said 1:30 CST.

Actually it should have been CDT, but that’s a minor issue at this point.

Being half an hour early may seem like a small thing, but I find it screamingly unprofessional. I have no idea what their day is like. I have no idea what they had to arrange to make a specific time.

Screamingly unprofessional. Also, screamingly not me. Or, I would have said not me.

How could I miss so badly? I was deeply, utterly, truly convinced that the interview was at 1.

Strike 3.

Fortunately, it’s not baseball.

Sent email to explain my sorry self. Actually, I said I was sorry and that I had no explanation. Seems like all I do is apologize to this poor soul.

My brain is one of the few things I trust. Now I have have to write up the article while I wonder what other stitches I am dropping.

At least I have the editor to make sure that the final text sounds good.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. No one is talking about Covid much these days. I for one, plan to mask in airports & on airplanes forever. So many people. So close. So many germs. Outside with people at a moderate distance – a common situation – I do not. Everything in between is a question.

~~~

Virtual Tevis
100 Miles in 100 Days
19 April to 30 July 2023

Rodney – 10.04 miles
Milton – 7.45 miles
Wed 19 April to Mon 24 April

All mileage handwalk in halters.

Due to current fitness levels, going on multiple short walks each day.

Rodney went out all six days. Milton sat out the first day. [Poop Watch]

Rodney continued to pull ahead on several walks, doing my daily mile while Milton took breaks.

Counting Every Step

In the past, I have been cavalier about mileage, often rounding down to err on the side of being conservative. This year, hundredths of a mile are going to matter.

If Rodney is wearing halter and we are walking, I count it. This includes leading him in from the pasture. It’s legit. We come in, I pick his feet etc., then we turn around and walk the exact same path back and forth for VT.

I carry my phone and run the GPS each time. For example, we do .57 mile. Instead of ‘this route is approximately half a mile’.

Explanation The Tevis Cup: Virtual Tevis Cup 2023

Previous Post [Team Snail Hits The Trail, Virtual Tevis 2023 Begins]

Virtual Tevis Posts [Archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. The Robot Report: Ingenuity helicopter completes 50th flight on Mars, Wessling, April 18, 2023.

~~~

Milton spent last Wednesday night at the vet clinic. He’s fine. He was probably fine when he stepped off the trailer at the clinic.

Timeline

Tuesday evening. Looked punk. Refused cookie from me. Took cookie from his minion. Vet consult. Banamine shot. Stood quietly while we stripped the stall. After a while, perked up! So, something had been bothering him enough to be affect by the Banamine.

Poop watch. 5pm. Recent pile in run-in area. Given the location, probably Milton.

Into the stall you go, my lad. Every leftover twig of hay had been removed. He was! not! pleased!

Poop watch. Nothing.

Poop watch. Nothing.

Poop watch. 11 pm. Poop!

Poop watch. Overnight. Checked every few hours. Poop on alternate viewings.

Hard to see, as it was ground into the shavings by Milton’s moving hooves. Definitely stomping about looking for food rather than pacing in distress.

Milton was napping several times. Again, looked content rather than thrashing about. Since Rodney was also meatloafing, we weren’t worried.

Poop watch. Morning. Happy to see it. Looked good from a distance. When I went to pick it up, it seemed small, both in total volume and size of bolus.

Per vet orders, gave a small amount of hay & turned everyone out. Contented grazing.

Later, Milton was back in the barn, lying down. Rodney out grazing. This was unusual, but a long night was had by all.

More later. Minion checked as he headed off to work. Milton was laying down again.

Enough of this. Time for an expert opinion.

The fastest way to get him seen was take him to the vet, instead of waiting for the vet to have time to come to him. Then, if we had a problem, there would be lots of resources at hand.

Poop watch. Getting on the trailer. Standard, especially if he hasn’t shipped in a while.

Poop watch. Arrived at clinic. Open door. Second pile. A big, solid poop. The kind you want to see.

Clean exam. Vet found nothing. Possibly had an mass or slowdown in the large intestine. If I followed the anatomy lesson correctly, the large intestine is easier to clear than the small intestine.

Kept overnight for observation.

When we left him at the clinic just over four months ago, we woke up to surgery. So, some tension chez nous overnight. [When The Poop Emoji Is Your Favorite, Patient Report #1]

All fine. Brought him home on Thursday.

Well, the horse was fine. The people, not so much. The vet clinic is nice enough to let folks leave trailers. When we drove off in the truck, the lights were still connected. Thursday morning was spent installing a new plug.

So, does trailering help a colic? The American Association of Equine Practitioners thinks so. “A trailer ride also jiggles the bowel to achieve similar relief for a simple colic.” AAEP: Colic: Updates and Prevention.

Are we obsessed with horse poop? I prefer to think of it as an appropriate attention to the details of equine health.

💩

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. earthday.org: Learning Through Art.

~~~

Keep the holiday spirit after the holidays.

Keep the environmental spirit after Earth Day.

Onwards!
Katherine