AUGUST 2021

August 2021

Welcome to August! Isn't that a cute photo? Trinket looked like that when she was about 4 years old....

Oh boy that's cute..............

Everyone have a great day..............

As usual, the good news is that the troops are gone. The bad news? The troops are gone. We had a very good week, although very busy. The jet ski got an additional 17 hours put on it - not as much as I expected. The other two jet skis got their exercise too, although one of them broke down on the last day. It's fixable.
They are already planning to come for two weeks next year. I think that will be better since there is just too much to do to fit in one week.
The gang leaves everything cleaner than they found it, so I don't have anything to do.
A couple of the days were really hot and humid, but it didn't stop the fun.

Now, I'm watching the cross country portion of the 3-day eventing at the Olympics.

Ark, isn't it nice to have your house back in order? I sometimes invite people to come just so I'll get some cleaning done that doesn't get done often enough. How's the pontooning going?

What channel did you see the olympic cross country on ELLEN? I couldn't find it on the NBC sports channel.
I'll try for the replay later tonight.

Well, you can now look forward to next year and the plans to come.

Hey, ARK, the kids probably think this going to be a REAL long week. After it's over they will think it
was the best time they ever had.

Graymare, it was on USA channel. They did show at least parts of many of the trips. It LOOKED like a sort of reasonable course, but then, I wasn't riding it.

Trudy, so sorry for the loss of ACE. It's always hard to lose our furbabies. You have your memories, and had 12 happy years.

I love to hear everyone's stories of when family comes to visit. From someone who doesn't have a large extended family this stories are a treasure.

Indy, my cousins are very important to me. I'm an only child so, without them, I'd have nobody. They are all good people and mostly get along very well. Since there are siblings, there are occasional disagreements about how to do things, but nothing that keeps them apart. We all love getting together and do that on all the major holidays and sometimes in between.

Graymare! Your hometown girl got the GOLD in floor exercise. I hope your town is all celebrating with her.

YES ELLEN, we're all proud...........she lives on the next neighborhood over. Im sure there
will be some party / or parties for her when she gets home...........maybe a parade through the hoods...........
I don't know her folks so I'm just a fan.

I'm sure there will be a crowd waiting for her plane to arrive...........

Thanks everyone for the kind words of comfort.  It's been a really difficult few days.  I don't remember it being this hard, I guess as we are getting older, loss is harder to accept. 

Ace's barn cat friend Oiley, searched for him for a full day, he tried his best to get into the house to look for him and spent hours sitting on the rain barrel looking into the patio and going from door to door peering in where Ace used to hang out.  Watching him was extremely heartbreaking.  People who are not animal people say animals don't grieve for each other.  So not true.

Chewy sent us a beautiful flower arrangement and note of condolences.  How nice of them.

Thanks again my long distance friends...

TRUDY:
Poor kitty, I am sure he knew his friend was gone. I know animals grieve.


GRAYMARE:
Wow! Congrats to the hood's kid and her gold medal!! I haven't been able to watch any of the Olympics so far, we have just been so busy getting things done, and now having company.

The boat ride got yanked from us at the last minute. They said the boat had mechanical problems and they couldn't get the part on time. They said they'd give us a free day later and return our money now. That's nice, but won't help this week. We were supposed to have it all day yesterday, and it was the perfect weather day. There is a pretty beach at the lake where the cabin is and we went there for the afternoon. Donnie and I bought the very last tire float at WalMart and the kids played with that in the water for a couple of hours. It was a nice day, just not what we planned on.

We are home this morning, the first time we have had a bit of a rest. They are coming over soon and we'll be going to Macados for lunch and a movie later this afternoon.

Busy, busy!

Well, shoot. Jessica Springsteen had the next to last rail down in the individual jumping. She had a beautiful round going. Her horse just dropped a foot an inch and took out the rail. There are too many other clear rounds for her medal now.

I missed the olympic jumping today, we had company. I will live, lol. I'm sorry we didn't do better in the medal department
but........................

TRUDY, your poor cat is grieving for his friend.........that is so sad to see. People always miss the fact that
"they know" and it gets missed by so many. (((((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))to you.

ARK, sure hope you had fun today.........what movie did you see?

OMG, the numbers for Delta virus and Gamma virus are rising like mad.........It's scary. We're vaccinated
but I know some that aren't.............my friend called and said she has Covid, not in the hospital tho.
We headed to the doctor today, masked..............then I had to go pick up a prescription and I didn't observe
anyone in masks.............The store was almost empty but I was amazed.

Then on the local news this PM I heard they're considering having people work from home again.
And kids wearing masks in school, And proof of vaccination to eat inside a restaurant, not that
we still go to restaurants. Oh wow. What is happening?

And to top it off, they found a half million dollars worth of fentynal in Pinal country..............

Oh, And did I forget the wild fires, floods, mortgages, no substitute teachers?

We've never lived in these times..................people are walking around in fear............

I just stay at home and invite friends over.......and pray for our country.............

The trick is "don't listen to the news".

I didn't even know there was a Gamma variant. I also don't know the Greek alphabet.

It's Friday and we all need a chuckle. And i have no problem laughing at myself so I'll share. Wednesday I was the last to leave the office. On my way out I decided I'd run into the restroom real quick so I put my stuff down on the reception desk. On my way out I stopped to pick up my stuff. My phone rang while I was gathering up my purse, and lunch bowls etc. I answered the phone, turned and walked out the door. I heard the door lock behind me and immediately realized I had not picked up my keys. It was a beautiful evening. I sat under a tree and chatted with my Aunt while I waited for Bill to bring my extra car key from home. The call that caused the whole thing? A call from my insurance agent that I had been trying to get ahold of all day.

INDYAPP
Oh, no! At least it wasn't cold, it could have been worse! Any news about your brother?


ELLEN:
My company left this morning. They stayed in the lake cabin, we went back and forth. They seemed to have a good time, they are talking about coming back next year. I was somewhat surprised the kids wanted to come back, I thought they were bored with no internet or tv for a week. My sisters and brother-in-law enjoyed the lack of internet.

GRAYMARE:
We went to see "Jungle Cruise" with Dwayne Johnson. It was the first movie we have been to since all this mess started. There were only a few people in the theatre, thankfully. We thought it was a fun movie, a little frenetic, but fun. All of us like The Rock, .

We went to the beach at the lake, very nice, walked some trails, played a million games of Uno, Dominoes, and a couple of others, Donnie and boys went to play Frisbee golf at a different local park. They liked that. I went with Vicki and Annie to a local downtown and looked at antiques, a pet store, and had a nice lunch at a little antique/tea room. I handled a SNAKE at the pet store! It was actually a sweet little creature, I was surprised. I also got to hold an Eclectic parrot, a pretty green bird who was only 4 months old and very friendly. That was fun. We didn't do anything big, but enjoyed being around one another. The only glitch was not getting the boat ride, but we found a big innertube type float at Walmart and the kids enjoyed that at the beach. The weather was pretty all week. Now we need some rain....

My horses probably wonder why their feeding schedule got changed, but they all survived the week. We took Shadow, the collie, to the cabin one day, but found he had problems going up stairs. He is over 9 years old now and it seems to be affecting his hips or back legs. We'll have to watch that. He still runs around at home a lot.

Sooo, Donnie and I have dedicated today as a Slug Day.

Indy, at least you knew where your keys were and didn't spend frantic time looking for them.

Ark, we had two internet boys here last week, 7 and 8 years old. Neither of them spent much time with their electronic toys since there was so much to do outside. They played in the water, fished, went boat riding, and jet ski riding. Both can't wait to come back. One of them had never been here that he remembers, and he did NOT want to leave.
Since you got gypped out of your boat this year, maybe the rental company will give you a better deal next year.

Graymare, I used to watch the news quite a bit. Now, it doesn't do anything good for me, so I don't watch much at all now. Much better.

No news is good news..................I agree.

INDY, it all turned out OK......But, I'm sure you were sure mad at yourself. We, of course, think it
was funny. I, too, hope your brother has gotten help.

The neighbors are having a new roof put on..............hammer hammer pound pound. So far
it's looking good but glad when they are finished for the day.

It's irrigation week but we aren't irrigating as it brings too many mosquitoes to the area.

Everyone have a good evening................

It is so exhausting to watch the team finals at the Olympics! Riding all those fences (from my couch) just wears me out. But, it was worth it. USA got the Silver in a hard fought battle with Sweden. The difference was about a third of a second after clean rounds.

I fooled around all day...........first in the early morning, the olympic team jumping, then on to
the races at Saratoga...........they kept running an ad that said I should get off the bench and get in the game.
I could easily get in a syndicate and own a race horse.........Ha, how dumb am I?  I seriously wonder how
many people fall for it?  I'm horse addicted but not to the extent of bankruptcies.  I had a good day in
my own little fantasy world.

Meanwhile, my own horses went out early and ate grass...............I think they're beautiful, but I'm
prejudiced. They can't run fast but I consider them champions.

Everyone have a great evening....................

   

I don't have any extra money to risk on race horses. I've seen those ads too. They must be partly successful since the numbers of people in the syndicates is growing.
It was kind of neat to see Steve Asmussen become the winningest trainer of all time. He is likely to set a record that will stand for a long long time. Friend Brandi says he is a really nice guy, nice family.

Thanks for the good wishes for my brother.  This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint to get resolved.  

I watched the Olympic Jumping too.  I found myself holding my breath and counting strides for each ride.  LOL, You're right ELLEN, it is exhausting.

ARK, it sounds as if you and Donnie deserve a slug day.

Our beautiful weather is over.  Friday evening I took the kiddos over to the zoo.  Weather forecast was for pop up showers maybe. I figured it was close enough what the heck.  This time we went through the Zoo backwards because last time we went by the time we got to the second half of the zoo we were rushed for time.  So this time we took our time on the part we rushed through last time.  We got to see the Red Tail hawk and a couple of owls get fed.  The parrots were flirting with us.  All in all a good time.  While we were in the inside exhibit building one of the pop up showers popped up.  Only it was more than a shower.  It stopped and we went to feed the llamas but it started to rain again so we called it a night.  We didn't realize how hard it had rained until we went to the parking lot and found it flooded.  Fortunately we were parked on the edge of the flood zone and had no problem but there were alot of people slogging through mid calf water and a couple of the little low slung cars looked as if they probably had water inside.  One idiot decided to zip out and instead flooded his car.  Karma.  It rained the whole drive home.  By the time we got home the rain had mostly stopped.  So all in all a fun time and we barely got wet. Since then its been HOT, HOT, HOT. and it's going to get hotter. Tuesday it's suppose to be 102. UGH.

Wow, Indy! You need to come a few miles south tomorrow. It's only supposed to be about 86° here tomorrow.
They keep saying that we are going to get some rain, but the radar isn't showing it coming here. We could use a little bit. The water level was high a week ago, but it has dropped about 7 inches this past week.

Today is HOT!  The temperature is over 90° with 88% humidity, 102° heat index.  We have two more days of this.  It's days like this that make fall seem a lot more appealing. Graymare, I know you are more accustomed to having days like this, but it is a little unusual here.