Hay Commentary, Or How To Send Back A Meal When You Don’t Have Thumbs

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have a horse.

 

 
Sorry about the poop pic, but it was too good to resist. sorrynotsorry

For breakfast, horses get one flake of yummy, green alfalfa hay and one flake of normal, boring coastal hay. Both horses eat the good stuff first, as one does. Rodney is a member of the clean plate club these days. Milton flings the coastal out of his way with his nose. Sometimes he leaves it for elevenses. Sometimes he ignores it all together.

The rational part of my mind says that Milton pushed the coastal away and then moved about. The hay happened to end up under his nether regions. It is of note that the hay has still square from the bale.

Pffft on rational.

Here is what I think of this hay! I poop in your general direction!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

The Mood On Monday, The Ugly Bits

Thoughts

 
A pingback from The Errant Moon (Waves hi!) led me to Imperfect Patience: Oral History. In the post, the author points out that “Publicity shots … always show pretty faces.” They talk about the need to chronicle the ugly as well as the pretty. “According to Landdeck, We are at least thirty years from the time historians will be seriously writing about what this pandemic is now doing to people. We should leave a record. And the record should not be just about the pretty people … We need to record our fears our unattractive and embarrassing fears about outbursts.”

So here I go. If you are researcher in the future, Hello & good luck with your thesis, project, book, interactive hologram.

My ugly truth is that there are no ugly bits. I get to spend the day with my husband, whose company I enjoy above all others. My horses are in the backyard, so even if I can’t ride [Or Not], I can pet noses anytime I want. Having someone around has made me more productive. I’m a week ahead on blog posts, I’m working on my fiction. I even got my work assignment submitted on time, something I have been having trouble with. Plus, there is a built-in excuse for an off day. Sloth got you down? Feeling unproductive? Well, of course you do, there’s a global pandemic going on.

Oh yeah, that.

I’m horrified. I’m terrified. I worry about those I love. I worry about strangers on the Internet. I continue to click on headlines even when the stories will stress me out. I choke up during the Thank You commercials. Still, these are all happening at a remove. I don’t know anyone who has gotten sick. The closest death has been the in-law of a friend from long ago (virtual hug). I’m still waiting on tenterhooks for that first name. That first person I know IRL.

I have been dealt an excellent hand of cards for ducking the disease. Pick an indicator, I’m on the shiny side: female, no underlying conditions, young, or at least youngish, etc, etc. I will hear that the virus disproportionately affects X segment of society and then think to myself ‘I am not in that group’ and then feel relieved and then feel bad for feeling relieved. I feel like Winston asking them to put the rats on Julia rather than on himself.

I have not wanted to say any of this. I feel reluctant to write it even now. Partly, not to tempt fate. I see how easily it could all go bad, e.g illness, job loss, disruptions to the food supply. Partly, I don’t want to be cruel. Your life has gone to shit? So sorry, we’re good over here. Haven’t seen your horse in over a month? So sad, Imma gonna go feed mine a carrot. So, I post pretty pictures and amusing stories. Or amusing pictures and pretty stories. First do no harm.

That is my ugly truth. I’m having a nice time. Except for the existential screaming.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

We Are All In This Together

Lettering & Graphic Design

 
Update. The Disappearing Post. Short Version. Scheduled two by mistake. Removed one. Saved for later. Long version. Been a while since I’ve had a scheduling error. I guess I was due. Was having trouble with this design, see first attempt, below. Since it was getting late in the week, I scheduled a reserve post to go in this space. Then I came up with this approach. Scheduled this post. Forgot about the other one. Didn’t realize until I saw the email message. I “Follow by Email” so I can see what goes out. Good thing in this case. Took the post down. Put it back in the reserve pile. Will use. At that point, those signed up by email will get notified again. Or maybe not. We’ll all find out together. Sorry for any confusion.
~~~

 
My version of an assignment by calligrapher Carol DuBosch, “I challenged my students to create a square page with the mantra: We are all in this together.” Student work Instagram post.

See also this booklet for an amazing example of creativity with available materials.

DuBosch is the author (painter? creator?) of the previously mentioned The Calligraphic Coronavirus Chronicles [Throw Ink At It].

Process Notes. Computer fonts rather than originally drawn letters. Noticed the “square page” requirement as I scheduled the post. Ooops. My contribution was choice of fonts, colors, & spacing. Wanted to use three complimentary colors. The combination of blue, red, & yellow have their own meaning on this blog [An Attempt To Freeze Time]. So, I went with purple, orange, & green. My first attempt was an exercise in horizontal kerning. I pushed in the letters of the first and last words. The intent was closeness. The result was claustrophobic.

 

 

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Moonrats, Fiction Fragment

Words

Team Leader: Do you know what a Lunar Liaison does?

Disgruntled Team Member: Yeah, she watches the machinery and obsesses about how much I shit.

Team Leader: “The shitting oversight is so that your colon doesn’t shut down the first time it has to process a steak in earth gravity. But that’s not what I meant. Do you understand her position?

Disgruntled Team Member: Yeah. We pay her. I saw the grant budget. Good wages for a chef.

Team Leader: How have you lived on the moon this long without having a clue?

Disgruntled Team Member starts to object. Is interrupted.

Team Leader: Do you do know that the Lunar Liaison has final authority in any project?

Disgruntled Team Member looks doubtfully at the slight woman in black seated across the table. Her expression is hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses. On the table between the three of them them rests a single screw.

Disgruntled Team Member: Her?

Team Leader: Her. If she says this project is unsafe, we are done. It’s over. We pack up and go back to Armstrong Base. No recourse. End of story. Experiments abandoned. Money forfeit. Good luck getting another lab slot after that.

Pauses. Continues.

Team Leader: As far as you are concerned, she is god. She wants us to drop everything to spend the day looking for the source of that screw, we say ‘Yes, Ma’am. Where do you want me to start?’

Disgruntled Team Member pouts: It’s so tiny.

Team Leader: Sure, it’s tiny. Maybe it fell off the back of a video game. Maybe it holds the life support backpack to your spacesuit. Do you want to take that risk?

Woman in black stirs. Starts to speak. Voice is so soft both listeners have to lean forward to hear her.

WiB: I go to bed running maintenance checklists in my head. I wake up in the middle of the night listening for the water cycler. If it was just your miserable ass on the line, I’d let you implode and write it off as death by stupidity. But it’s not. It’s all of our asses on the line. The airlock blows. We all die. The air handler releases carbon monoxide. We all die.

Disgruntled Team Member looks over at Team Leader. Finds Team Leader nodding in agreement.

WiB: We are sitting three feet away from the most hostile environment humanity has ever lived in. We are in a tent surrounded by starving bears. We are in a diving bell at the bottom of the ocean. We are in an asbestos cabin under 10 feet of molten lava. You go out there, you are dead in seconds. Is any of this getting through to you?

Disgruntled Team Member: You trying to scare me?

WiB: I don’t want you scared. I want you terrified.
~~~curtain~~~

Time For A Little Smackerel Of Something

Random Images

The world is vast & weird.

 

 
Bourbon Chocolates
Bourbon Truffles
Old Kentucky Chocolates
Lexington KY, USA

The classics. Doing my part to #shoplocal and #supportsmallbusiness during #thebestweekendallyear. LRK3DE

There is a second box of bourbon truffles at the bottom of the pile. I had planned to be sedate and get one of each. However, the shipping was a large fraction of the price. Might was well toss in another as long as I’m paying to have it flown in on fairy wings. Not like I can order more when this is done, either. They stop shipping once the weather gets hot.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

In defense of the shipping cost, the box contained layers of bubblewrap, thermal wrap, ice packs, and under all that, the chocolate. The box was quite heavy. The contents arrived in delightful shape.

Chocolate is always welcome. Even more so when it arrives to cheer you up on the same day your horse blows a tire. Rodney had neatly removed his left front shoe. Yeah, the other one. [Ride or Not]
 

 
My admiration for OKC is not new. Photo from 2017 of my white truck with the image of me making the shot in the rear window. [2018 The Road Leads to Lexington, 2017 7 Ways To Dodge Nostalgia, in 2014 OKC was not open late and I had to settle for books Logistics]
~~~
❤ x 32

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Strolling Along, Walk Report, La Jolla Shores Virtual 5K 2020

Fit To Ride

 

 
The 2020 La Jolla Half Marathon & Shores 5K
Virtual 5k
Chez Moi
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Time – 1:11:54 minutes
Pace – 23:10 minutes per mile
No placings

 

 
Screenshot from the Map My Walk app. Nine laps around the pasture is exactly 3.1 miles. Convenient. The notch is where I had to go around the downed tree [Memo].

Rough calculations had suggested that I would need to do 10 laps. I was happy to find out that I only needed nine. Why?! The distance was unchanged, 3.1 miles. The number of laps was irrelevant. Yet, it felt “shorter”. The brain is weird.

I had planned to walk on Sunday, the day of the original run [Virtual Bling]. Weather was more conductive to walking on Saturday.

I occupied myself by texting/chatting with friends (waves hi!), although my conversation descended into emojis and grunts after a while. Otherwise, I alternated a lap of listening to an audio book with a lap where I let my mind wander. For listening, I had an interesting, educational, non-fiction book lined up. Instead, I reloaded False Value by Aaronovitch (Daw 2020). I don’t know about yours; my concentration is shot these days.

My time was glacially slow. Almost 18 minutes longer than last time [Walk Report]. In my defense, I had a lot more turns, particularly around the tree, more hills, and off-road, so I couldn’t march along as one does on asphalt. Mostly, there were no crowds to get swept up in. Left to my own devices, I puttered along. I strolled. Enjoyable; not speedy.

No medal yet. All of the packets they had planned on handing out now have to be packed and shipped. Per email, “Your race packet, which will include your race shirt, medal, and souvenir cinch bag, will be mailed out beginning the last week in May. With the volume of packets to be assembled and mailed and while navigating supply chain delays and social distancing guidelines for workers, we ask for your patience as we navigate this process. ” While I’d love to have the bling in my hot little paws, I’m cool with that.

Since this should have been XC Saturday, I represented. LRK3DE
 

 
I had planned to trim my face out of the photo. I decided that you might not hate how I look as much as I do. Those jowls!?! To quote from, So You’re Feeling Too Fat to Be Photographed… “You’re the only one who notices. The rest of us are too caught up in loving you.” Or at least interested in what I look like.

 

 
16 years ago? Yowza.

From the Bookcase
Found two semi-related books, Timescape by Benford & Rainbow’s End, which reputedly have segments set at UCSD in La Jolla. Downloaded samples but never got to them. See above re concentration.

Update. Swag arrives, [Bringing Home The Bling].

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Wither Wednesdays?

Adventures in Saddle Seat

Enjoy the ride.

 
Had a pondering post planned about how to continue Saddle Seat Wednesdays in the absence of saddle seat, including an extended riff on blog approach as metaphor for life, i.e. holding onto the past vs. living in the moment vs. diving into the future, and an analysis of how these positions are not inherently good or bad, but are a matter of perspective, i.e. respecting tradition/hidebound vs. zen/stagnant vs. visionary/delusional.

I can’t even.

Here. Have a photo of a pretty ribbon and trophy. ASHAA High Point from last year. Not mine. I am caretaker until the owner can collect.
 

 
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott