NOVEMBER 2020

Ark, I'm laughing at myself for making an incorrect assumption.

I'm here, don't pay the ransom!!!  We got lots and lots of rain and some wicked winds but no damage (cept' to the leaves stripped from the trees).  Chetah is still with the trainer until maybe 2-3 Jan!  I'm so excited to get him home!!!  I'm ready, willing, and able to go trail riding at Lee State Park.  What a wonderful way to start the new year, any thing that is NOT 2020.  Robin and I are going to drive to Georgia to visit Chetah some time in December if her schedule will work.

ARK, so happy to see Annie is at home and better!  ELLEN, thank goodness all is well (if a little slower) with recovery from the surgery.  Be back a little later.  Hugs all around!

Hi Rose.  Welcome back and you're closer now to getting Cheta home.  I can't wait to
see you on him...........He sounds like a wonderful choice you.

The news this evening was revealing gift card scams.......I'm not planning on getting any
of them but it made me think what on earth is happening throughout the country.  One
lady got gypped out of $800 and stood there crying...........My heart really hurt for her.
Then  there was a blurb about a grateful attitude.  I thought the two subjects should have
been separated by more time.............just me I guess.  I'm getting so I just don't understand.

My grindings are going to be delivered next Tuesday so then I will be set for a long time...........
hay (good & fresh) came last week.  I'm always happy when that's all overweigh.

I'm beginning to get ready for turkey day.........we're staying in and just having family
but we will still eat ourselves silly.

Where is CB?  Hope she didn't have to be hospitalized..........and if she was, hope she is feeling much better..

We all need to keep our spirits up during this covid mess..........

Rose, I hope you get to go try out Chetah very soon. It would drive me nuts to have a horse and not be able to ride it right away. But, I understand that you want him right for you.

Today, is clean-the-house day. Neighbor Cheryl doesn't put up a Christmas tree because the puppy and the pig would make a mess of it. So, she is going to come up on Monday to help me put up my tree. I will be most grateful for the help. So, the house needs to be cleaned up before we start on it. And then, it will need to be cleaned again after we get it up. LOL
I like my tree, but I will be glad to have that done.

We're thinking of getting a real tree this year..............we haven't had one over 30 years........
we'll see. ELLEN, yours will come out fine.............

Tired to day............

We may do a real tree this year, too. There is a spruce too close to the ginkgo tree that we'd rather keep. It may end up looking like a Charlie Brown tree, but the cats will be very happy!

For my birthday, I bought a new phone. The old one was getting tired after more than 4 years of being on almost constantly. So now, I am in the process of finding the new features and how to use them.

Oh wow ELLEN, what kind did you choose? What features does it have? Sounds like a great
birthday to me.............

Graymare, my old phone was over 4 years old - antique in tech years. It has significantly slowed down, and the battery gets REALLY hot when it's on for very long. The battery life was much shorter than it used to be. I'd been looking at them for a while and had decided on the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. Internally, it is the same as a much more expensive phone, but it has a sort of plastic back instead of Gorilla glass. It is bigger in physical size than the old Galaxy S7. It is a LOT faster than the old one, and doesn't get hot when I use it for a longer time. Naturally, everything looks different, but doesn't work significantly differently.
I'd looked at them in various places, Samsung, Verizon, Best Buy, Amazon..... and they were all the same price. But on Thursday, I got an email from Amazon's advertising that it was selling for $150 less than the usual price. Happy Birthday to me.
AND, it's RED. I love red.

Seems like a good choice, ELLEN..........I'm not ready for a new phone yet but will
consider that.

Pretty day here........birds talking and kids outside someplace around.

ELLEN:
 Nice birthday present!  I like red, too.  I don't like black phones or  remote controls,   I can never find them.  Of course, all our remote controls are black.  My phone has a shiny purple covering with sparkles that float around inside it, like a snow globe with purple stars in it.    I can find that.  

Areion had a lesson today and did very well.  We are going to haul her and Ivan to Pandapas Pond on Tuesday for a five mile ride in the woods.  Hopefully she will remember having been there before and not be a wild thing.   Hanna wants to move to the Ocala area for the winter, so there won't be many more lessons with her.  

Our kitten, Feather, continues to take over our house.  She is so darn cute...  

"I wonder how long she can hang on? You block the top and I'll block the bottom."

Fortunately for Feather, Kumquat and ThunderPuff never cooperate with one another about anything!!

Wow! It is amazing what good help can do. My neighbor came late morning to help me put up my Christmas tree. With her sorting out the branches, finding the lights that worked, and helping to hook them on the tree, while I strung lights on some of the branches, we were done in about 3 hours! That is fantastic!!!! I still have to put on the ornaments, but that's the part of the job I like to do.
I am soooo grateful for my good neighbors.

That's great ELLEN.........you're on your way to Christmas...........

Where is CB? Hope she's OK.

I think your cats are adorable, ARK. Is that a dulcimer on your wall........it's really nice.

Holy cow...........we finished shopping for Thanksgiving. I couldn't believe the total.
We bought all the trimmings and everything............we're crazy. It's our last feast.

GRAYMARE:
 Thanks, it is a dulcimer.  I made it in a  Making Mountain Instruments class when I was in college....about 43 years ago.  No, I don't play it properly, LOL.  It does work properly, though.  
 What did you mean by "your last feast"?   Next year will surely be a better one!!
  We were going to go into Kroger's and get some last minute things for dinner tomorrow.  Nope.  It was so crowded and I could practically see "Virus Super Spreader" as a headline in a few days.  So we will have chicken for dinner tomorrow, or carve Spam into a turkey...  We didn't go in.  

ELLEN:
 Congrats on your tree!!  Good neighbor, for sure.  Send pix!


I had a nice ride on Ivan yesterday, despite an almost game-changing equipment screw-up.  Somehow, Ivan's bridle did not make it with the rest of the tack.  We thought we had lost it somehow, it was nowhere to be found after we got to Pandapas Pond Park.  Luckily, I had Ivan's hackamore bridle with me, which I had no intention of using.  Ivan can get a bit rambunctious when he wears that and we would go where he would want to go.  Fortunately, he was in a mellow mood and didn't give me the least bit of trouble with it.  I may use it more often now.  It was a good ride, and we found his bridle in the water bucket this morning.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! Hugs to ALL.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

It's going to be a strange one this year, but we will make it thru this latest nightmare physically apart but still together. No kids or grand kids or friends to share the meal with. Bums me out. We still have plenty to be thankful for.

I had to cancel or put on hold as I like to call it our little church Christmas party. Made a few ladies angry but gotta do what the church has to adhere to and our state has many restrictions right now for the church. Pastor says hopefully we can have a Valentine/Christmas party in Feb if the restrictions are lifted. Or if anything worse comes to us, Christmas in July. What a mess this country is in. God help us.

Stay safe and healthy...

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all and hugs all around ((((((all)))))).  Please stay safe!

This is a year to look for other things to be thankful for. I wish everyone a very good day.
I will be having dinner with my neighbors down the road. At least I don't have to travel more than 1 minute down the street on the golf cart.

We had a ton of kindness today..........now I'm stuffed and sleepy. Fancy that...................

We have had a nice Thanksgiving! It was so warm outside, we decided to grill out. So we had steak with grilled onions and mushrooms, baked potato, corn on the cob, and baked beans. Later we had a pumpkin pie. Except for the pie, it was more like a Fourth of July meal. But it was tasty! We may do the turkey meal on Christmas..... unless it is close to 70 degrees and reminds us of summer....

There were probably a lot more stuffed people than turkeys. I'm one of them. We had most of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, including a nice deep fried turkey. Of course, there was way more food than three of us could eat, so we'll all have leftovers for a few days.

LOL. I missed Black Friday.......................

I didn't miss Black Friday because I have never participated in that madness. As it turns out, our family has decided to postpone Christmas as a group until we can all be together to exchange gifts. So, I have more time to do my Christmas buying. I have two little boys and one big boy all taken care of. Now, for the harder ones. I'm very short on ideas.