Virtual Brush Box

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Winter Olympics, Beijing 2022. Athletics should be about international cooperation outside of politics. Yes. There are things in life more important watching a handful of folks slide around on ice and snow. Also yes. I don’t know where that leaves us.
~~~

I’ve done the pasture loop many (many, many ….) times.

Part of walking is the chance to let my mind wander. [My Two Horses]

Given those two items, it is very (very, very …) easy for me to lose track of my lap count, even for as few as three laps.

Therefore, my method for keeping track, with or without horse.

First lap. Silence.

Second lap. Audio book.

Third lap. Silence.

Wait? What? Which lap am I on? Okay, the previous lap had noise, so this must be lap three.

Second horse, reset at lap one.

Note. Usually Rodney goes first. One day last week, he was standing in the barn. So, I put him up & took Milton first, in reverse of the usual order. It was a cold, blustery day. Milton was on his toes. Rodney was mellow. Is Rodney learning about walks? Does the order of go matter? Sample size too small. Will investigate.

Places

Pasture. Daily walks, sometimes with horse, sometimes not. One 5K, Tromsø Virtual Polar Night, which I did by moonlight, will post about once medal arrives. Daily mileage [Walking Virtually, Angkor Wat, finished!] & [Biking and Walking Virtually, Mississippi River, Part One, Minnesota, gonna be a long time before I finish this one]

Star Lake. Checking out places in case night walk didn’t work out. Night? Star? I crack myself up.

unnamed corporate lake. Mud, running errands, change of scene.

Downtown Birmingham, [Traipsing With A Tempo, Walk Report, MLK Day 5K Drum Run]

Local park, once, brought dog along for outing.

Can’t wait to travel again & to look for parks elsewhere. Find out if the Birmingham area is specially endowed with parks or if I never noticed in other places.

Activities

WALK. 31 walks in 31 days. Walked every day. OTOH, I only rode a handful of times. Not a trade-off I want to make on a regular basis.

TAI CHI. 2 classes. [It Is Live Or Is It Memorex, Thoughts About Exercising Online]

STRETCH. Tiny bits, while the dog looked for the perfect blade of grass to anoint. Also practiced balancing on one foot in spare moments.

RIDING LESSON. One, SSF. Sore in the saddle-seat specific parts, but doesn’t lay me out the way a Hunter Barn lesson does. Walked both horses later that day. [Back In The Saddle, Saddle Seat Style]

DANCE. none of 4 or 8. Signed up for Intermediate, canceled due to low enrollment. Signed up for Beginner, did not go. I’m vacced and boosted. The dance studio is as as compliant as any place in my area. And yet.

“This made last Friday (Jan 21) the 10th deadliest day of the whole pandemic and the deadliest since vaccines were widely available to Americans.” [YLE: State of Affairs: Jan 24]

I hermited for much of January. Exercise was outside or online. Probably an extreme reaction. Even experts were saying mask up rather than stay home. But. I didn’t want to be a link in the chain that put someone else in the hospital. It’s hard to resist when safety and inertia are pulling in the same direction.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ars Technica: New York Times spends “low seven figures” to buy Wordle, Cunningham, 1/31/2022. Sometimes the good guys win.
~~~

“”We can have a sane Rodney or a fat Rodney, but not clearly both. So far this winter, we’ve chosen a fat Rodney.” Husband, email to a third party.

Continuing the theory of keeping up with the home team, even when they aren’t doing much. [The Difficulty of Writing the Mundane]

And what is our hero up to?

General

Rodney is living his best life, as always.

Putting on weight.

Cantering around the field.

And yet.

He is starting to think that being on the shelf is not quite as much fun as he thought it would be.

Maybe, just maybe, a little bit of a job might be okay.

Specific

Lunged over the weekend. Hopped. Got all four off the ground. But only for a quarter of the circle, with vertical loft measured in inches rather than feet. I couldn’t have videoed it if I had tried. It was over so fast.

It was as if part of him wanted to have a hissy fit but the rest of him couldn’t be bothered. I’m taking this as a sign that his body is feeling better and that’s putting him in a better mood.

Tea leaves. Reading tea leaves.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama, part 11. AL.com: Woolly mammoths, sabertooth cats and more roamed Alabama in the last Ice Age, Pillion 14 Dec 2021.
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I was easing into a second week of zero saddle time, so I scheduled a lesson at Stepping Stone Farm. Would I like to ride Dottie? Why yes, I would be delighted to partner La Prima. [Nationals 2017]

Dottie was a star. As always.

Questions one asks one’s self upon returning to saddle seat after two years.

Why do I have so many jodphur tie-downs? They are one of those twiddly bits that you don’t want to be caught without, so buy extra. Or I’m a pack rat. Or both. For those who ride with their pants inside their boots, saddle seat pants are on the outside of the short boots. Jod tie-downs clip the edges of the pants under one’s boots to keep one’s pant legs from riding up. [Getting Dressed, Harder Than You Would Think]

How did my show boots end up there? I don’t know about you, but when the pandemic hit, I did not carefully and methodically put my life into storage. I simply stopped. Things stayed where they had been in the middle of March.

Will the jods zip? Yes. Mostly. Cold day so my sweatshirt covered the lack of top buttonage. Not too much shrinkage.

Pinkies go where? Inside the reins. Really? Yes. But it feels wrong. It’s different, not wrong. Now shut up and ride. Note, this was all in my head. Coach Courtney was staying quiet and letting me sort myself out.

And finally …

How do I post the trot without my lower legs as support? I don’t know how real saddle seat riders manage. I just kinda do. Eventually. Much like spinning plates, I get my momentum up and just keep going.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “In the county itself, a local Episcopal church in Athens announced it would be conducting a discussion of the book Feb. 3. The event will include discussion about the complicity of many churches in the systematic murder of Jews during the Holocaust, as well as modern-day antisemitism.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency: The great ‘Maus’ giveaway is on as bookstores, professors and churches counter Tennessee school board’s ban, Lapin, January 28, 2022.
~~~

Pause.

~~~

On the theory of keeping up with the home team, even when they aren’t doing much. [The Difficulty of Writing the Mundane]

Husband has been riding Milton as weather and work schedule allow.

Milton finds me to be a distraction/uses me as an excuse if I’m in the ring. [When Milton Adores Me]

So, I sit by the barn and watch from a distance. Looks good from what I can see and he’s coming back with good reports.

I’ve taken to walking a second mile with Milton after Rodney and I go. [Pottering Around The Pasture]

Milton doesn’t need the mental work the way Rodney does. I figure the fitness work can’t hurt, either him or me. He toodles along behind, much the way Mathilda used to. [My Two Horses]

As I have said before, Milton is super chill, right up until he’s not.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. A lot of Instagram advice says one should live! in! the! now! True but it all comes off sounding very grasshopper over ant. Planning for the future is part of today. Preparing for the future is part of today. You have to ride today to be ready for tomorrow’s show. Which isn’t particularly related to today’s post, but is my self-improvement thought for the day.
~~~

I set up an appointment, “To talk to someone about my ability to spin myself into a swivet before getting on a lesson horse.” [Mindset Monday, The Mental Side Of Sport]

Turns out, in a few weeks, the person will be giving a free workshop to a group of which I am a member.

I like free.

So, I gonna put off my one-on-one appointment until after the workshop. See how I feel about the idea then. I had been going back and forth, for reasons listed and not listed. [ibid]

One thing I realized. I was hoping for someone else to fix my the parts of myself that I see as problems. That’s not possible. People can help you look, but no one can give you answers. You have to find them yourself.

~~~

Post #3600

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. Is there a word for the joy of travel when some one else has done all the work? YouTube: Mississippi By Canoe, subtitled, 950,00 Stokes, A Journey Down the Mississippi River. Meincke.
~~~

Vorfreude is the enjoyment of things to come, pre-joy.

“Vorfreude combines the prefix vor (similar to the English prefix “pre”) and Freude (joy, pleasure). The term denotes a form of anticipation that imagines future pleasures ahead of time.” KrautBlog

Interesting that schadenfreude is well known but not this happy counterpart.

~~~

Process notes. No grids! All free hand. Free mouse? Inkscape. GIMP to finish.

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

Trainee Diplomat: I’m here to pick up supplies for a meeting with the Crystal Cubes.

Resource Manager: You know that you will have to use their official name in the meeting?

Trainee Diplomat: Yes. I’ve been practicing. (emits screeching nose.)

Resource Manager: Not bad. Needs more accent on the first syllable, but they’ll understand you.

Trainee Diplomat: (rubs neck) That hurts my throat.

Resource Manager: Which brings us to item one, throat lozenges. (places package of same on desk.) Specially compounded for the diplomatic corp. There is a slight numbing agent and a stronger formulation than what you find in a store. To be used before or after the meeting, not during. There is never any food consumption during a diplomatic meeting between humans and aliens.

(both pause for shudder.)

Resource Manager: Is this your first time talking to (emits slightly more modulated screeching noise)?

Trainee Diplomat: Yes.

Resource Manager: Here are some of the things for you to wear. (lays out shallow tray holding several rings and pins, all bearing translucent gems of varying colors.)

Trainee Diplomat: So many?

Resource Manager: It’s our main trade item. (brings out small, velvet bag. pulls out necklace with large stone similar to the others.)

Trainee Diplomat: Wow. I’ve never seen one that big. And so clear. It’s like a big, round diamond. (picks up stone. body heat from hands warms the stone. lights bounce around inside the stone. the word coruscating comes to mind. stares raptly.)

Resource Manager: (clears throat.)

Trainee Diplomat: Oh yes, here you go. Wouldn’t want it to get dirty.

Resource Manager: Dirty? (laughs softly to self. holds out velvet bag for stone to be dropped in. is careful not to touch stone.) Do you know how these are made?

Trainee Diplomat: It’s not exactly a secret. They are a by-product from the (nods toward jewelry instead of attempting name). Kind of like oyster and pearls.

Resource Manager: Oysters and pearls? Hold that thought. You’re right it’s not a secret. It’s more that people don’t want to know how the sausage is made.

Trainee Diplomat: I read the briefing. The stones are waste products. How is that bad?

Resource Manager: Silicon beings. Waste products of silicon beings.

Trainee Diplomat: You mean?

Resource Manager: Yup. That stone you were fondling is 100% alien feces.

Trainee Diplomat (looks down at hands. brushes hands together): That’s unsettling.

Resource Manager: Wait, it gets better. They are fascinated with us as carbon-based beings. What is the most organic thing a can human produce?

Trainee Diplomat: You mean?

Resource Manager: Yup. Soft. Squishy. The stronger the smell the better. They smear it on the way we would perfume. They will undoubtedly wear it at the meeting.

Trainee Diplomat: What you’re telling me is that representatives of two sentient races will be sitting across the metaphoric conference table while literally covered in each others shit.

Resource Manager: Welcome to galactic diplomacy. (places a pair of nasal filters on desk.)

~~~ curtain ~~~

More aliens, ambassadors, & alimentary tracts.

“Dirk Moeller didn’t know if he could really fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out.” Whatever: The Android’s Dream: Chapter One. First chapter of a novel but works as a self-contained episode.

Story whose name I can’t remember, again, about a society where the essence of a being was seen to be in that being’s last bowel movement and a hardy band of adventures take said bowel movement to a place of honor. Ring bells for anyone?

Onwards!
Katherine