tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59809925360014493292024-02-19T00:44:58.887-07:00Life In the DesertBrendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.comBlogger264125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-75443982904230327232019-04-12T19:37:00.001-07:002019-04-12T21:46:48.123-07:00Will I ever ride again...?*warning* this post is going to be pretty much a whiny, woe is me, rant-y kind of thing. Feel free to back out now. Lol.<br />
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A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday and as I drove home tonight from picking up dinner for myself and my mom and brother it occurred to me that I am less than a year away from a major milestone birthday. The number is scary, but I have never felt my age anyway so I know it's just a number and not how I feel. But it also hit me that it's been 20 years since I was last on a horse. Next Sunday, to be exact<br />
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A friend had gotten me (and herself) a 4 hour lunch ride in the Superstition Mountains. It was the longest either of us had ever been in the saddle at one time but we were both excited. It was a fun ride. There was 6 of us, i think, all women, plus our male trail guide. My horse was a lovely large thoroughbred named Larry. I got the biggest horse because i was the biggest person, both in height and weight. Literally, i was the tallest in our group, even taller than our guide, whose name was either Bud or Buddy, and while my friend had a few extra pounds, I was the heaviest. I keep mentioning that because that is the theme of this post. Me, my weight, and horses.<br />
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That was the last time I sat on a horse. 20 years ago.<br />
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I used to ride all the time. Just about every weekend when I could. I had a good friend, not the same one who gifted me the birthday ride, whom loved horses and riding as much as I did so we went whenever we could. She had an aunt with horses and in high school I got to help her with them. "S" had grown out of them by then, preferring to go out with boys instead of the barn. Plus, I babysat her cousins so I often had the opportunity to go to the barn with them. Her aunt even encouraged me to visit the horses when she wasn't able to visit and feed them. She (the aunt) helped me get a job babysitting the barn owner's grandson in which I was paid both in money and the ability to tale a horse out for a ride. Unfortunately, the job didn't last long due to marital problems between his son and daughter-in-law.<br />
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So, it's been 20 years since I've ridden a horse.<br />
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During that time, my weight increased because food became more important than riding. As much as I hate it and want to change it, nothing changes. I have the tools to lose weight. I have done it before and I love it when my clothes fit better and I get good looks instead of looks of contempt. I can't even go to horse shows anymore because my weight has caused mobility problems. I can still go look for and photograph the wild horses because I don't have to get out of my car most of the time, but I can't go places where I could potentially touch them. I have no cartilege in my left knee and my back is super messed up...a condition, ironically, caused by horseback riding and Equine Assisted Random Gravity Checks<br />
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Realistically, it is likely the back issues that will forever keep me out of the saddle since it's not recommended that you ride if you have a back injury. You know what I have to say about that, though? Phooey!<br />
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It's been 20 years since I've ridden a horse.<br />
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I won't give up. I can't give up. Somehow, I need to re-wire my brain to want horses and riding to be more important than food. I want it. I just don't know where to find it. The weekend of my birthday I saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. I've always been a fan of Queen. Not to a point where I would seek out listening to them, but I would enjoy hearing them when they came on the radio or at a hockey game. But since seeing Bohemian Rhapsody, I have been making a point of listening to them. Bohemian Rhapsody is my favorite song but Radio GaGa is the one that has been stuck in my head, especially one part:<br />
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You had the time<br />
You had the power<br />
You've yet to have, your finest hour<br />
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I think those words are sticking with me for a reason. And then there's the Climb by Miley Cyrus. Well, pretty much the entire song. But the opening verse:<br />
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I can almost see it<br />
That dream I'm dreaming<br />
But there's a voice inside my head says<br />
You'll never reach it<br />
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I watch horse videos of people being surprised on Christmas with a new horse. I look tack catalogs. I follow horse trailers when out driving. I read books (fiction and often written for a much younger audience) centered around horses. I often think about them. I've had dreams where I sat on a horse or have ridden and it made me so happy. But then I'd wake up to the realization that it was...Just a dream.<br />
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Also from The Climb:<br />
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Just got to keep going<br />
And I, I gotta be strong<br />
Just keep pushing on<br />
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It's been 20 years since I last rode a horse...I can't let it be another 20...Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-24795142214386840672019-01-25T17:54:00.002-07:002019-01-26T19:31:48.984-07:00You might find interesting things when...you follow a hay delivery.<br />
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I found myself with an unexpected afternoon off today so I went for a drive. First out to look for wild horses...I found several but not in areas good for photography...then just random driving. While I was just driving around, I saw a small truck loaded with hay. I don’t know how much hay he was carrying, but it was a small flatbed truck that looked like it was have to be off-loaded by hand. I followed behind him for awhile since I knew he would be going where there was a ranch of some sort, but then I ended up ahead of him. At one point, I was so far ahead that I only saw the truck when there was a dip in the road. But then I encountered construction, which gave him a chance to catch up and eventually there were two cars between us. At some point, I saw him turn so I turned at the next road and went back. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the road he had turned down, he had disappeared already and I lost sight of him. It hadn’t been all that much time so their delivery must have been shortly after they turned down the road.<br />
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Since I didn’t know where the truck had turned, I kept going down that road, knowing I’d more than likely spot some horse ranches and boy, did I. There’s several training centers and an equine reproduction clinic in addition to privately owned ranches. I saw quite a few horses but didn’t stop to take pictures. Not real sure why.<br />
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When I got home, I looked up the area on Google Maps so I could learn some more about the places I had seen and came across a riding stable so I looked them up on Google and found a photo that, quite frankly, had me a bit shocked.<br />
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What is wrong with this photo? I know Scottsdale is a tourist city, and a rather warm one at that, so a lot of people wear shorts and flip-flops, but did they actually let her ride dressed like this? Where this riding stable is located is literally in the middle of the desert...lots of cactus and scrub brush. Not exactly the safest for shorts and flip-flops. Now, you might be thinking they possibly staged this photo for the website. That thought had crossed my mind as well, but if someone sees this on their website they are going to think it’s okay to show up for a trail ride in the desert dressed inappropriately. Oddly enough, their website states this:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(26 , 26 , 26 , 0.701961); font-size: 16px;">We suggest wearing long pants, closed toed shoes & hats (hats must be tight).</span></div>
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They they only ‘suggest’ long pants and closed toed shoes, but they’re not a requirement.</div>
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Okay. So I checked several other riding stables in the Phoenix metro area and not one of them requires long pants and closed toed shoes. That surprises me. That sounds dangerous and a huge liability if someone gets injured as a result of how they are dressed. Yes, the stables all require riders to sign a liability waiver, but I work for an insurance company and those waivers don’t stop people from suing the stable. The type of insurance company I work for actually writes policies for riding stables and other horse-related facilities/activities and my job within the company enables me to see the lawsuits. I tell you what...if I owned a riding stable I *might* allow someone to ride wearing shorts, but the flip-flops would be a no-brainer. Flip-flops = no ride. Maybe that’s just me, though.</div>
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This is the first time I have followed a hay delivery. Usually I follow horse trailers and even then not all that often since they are bigger and tend to move slower. I don’t know. Lol. I’m a nosy person, I know. If I see a horse trailer, I look to see if there’s any horses in it and if there aren’t, I wonder why not. If there’s horses in the trailer, I wonder where they’re going...to a show? A trail ride? The vet? Did they just buy it and are taking it home? Who knows. But it’s fun to guess.</div>
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It’s going to be warm this weekend. In the 70s. Great riding weather. Too bad I don’t have access to a horse. Lol.</div>
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-11820808591252327492019-01-11T09:37:00.000-07:002019-01-11T09:37:17.870-07:00Breyerfest 2019Hello again. I am glad to see from the view counter that a few people still read this thing. hahaha. I don't know how often I'll post, but I will try to do it more often.<br />
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Breyerfest 2019 is starting to ramp up, which is common for January. The 3 day tickets went on sale, what, last week? I haven't boughten one yet. Not entirely sure I will. I want the celebration model because it's a police horse and I like the color<br />
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Problem is, I'm not going to Breyerfest and it's often a hassle trying to find someone to do pick-ups for me that won't end up costing a bunch of extra money. Don't get me wrong. I think people who do pick-ups for other people do deserve some sort of compensation for spending so much time standing in line, but some of the prices I've seen charged are ridiculous. In the past, I've bought a ticket for the possibility of getting left-overs on the Breyer website, but there wasn't anything I was interested in last year's line-up so I didn't bother. They haven't started showing, yet, what this year's SRs will look like, but unless there's a couple that I want, I'm not going to pay for however much amount for a child's ticket to get the celebration model plus have to pay someone a pick-up fee. That would almost double the cost of the model. In that situation I would probably just buy the celebration model on the secondary market. There's usually a bunch of them out there. I was lucky enough to be chosen off the wait list for the Scottsdale Stampede that was held in November and the person I gave my +1 ticket to, I helped get her the SR model she wanted most because I ended up being 4th in line (I still need to blog about that experience) and she was so happy she swore up one side and down the other that she would "pay me back" (she paid for the model...at cost) and mentioned Breyerfest, but she's been in and out of the hobby so much the past 6 months that I don't know what is going on. <br />
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Anyway...today the Early Bird Raffle model was released<br />
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Even if I liked him, you need to be present to win and since I'm not going...hahaha...I don't collect this mold anyway so I'm not too bummed. I know a lot of people like him.<br />
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This year is the 30th anniversary of Breyerfest. Wow. Seems like just last year they were celebrating 25 years. I've wanted to go almost since day one. I don't remember how long they'd been doing it before I first heard about it, but it wasn't very long because I've been in the hobby for a long time. When I was younger, I didn't have any money to go and my parents wouldn't take me. It's an expensive trip from Arizona to Kentucky and they just had no interest in doing something like that. They support(ed) my interest, but only if it didn't cause them any inconvenience or too much money. hahaha. When I got older and had a job, it was still money that got in my way of going. Then I got a GOOD job that paid decent money and provided time off. But I still haven't gone. Why? Money. hahaha. A roundtrip ticket to Louisville, unless I happen to catch a really good sale, is a minimum of $404 (that's what it is right now). I actually had bought a plane ticket to go last year. My mom loaned me the money. I had hotel booked. Car reserved. Told people I was going to be there. Everything was working out for me to be able to attend, but I had to cancel. Why? Medical problems. There always seems to be something. This year I didn't bother planning to go because I wanted to go to a planner conference in Las Vegas in May, but I had to cancel that.<br />
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Sorry. I don't mean to rattle on about my problems. One of these years I'd like to make it to Breyerfest. I should start saving now and maybe go next year? But if there's going to be a collector event in the fall, I might like to try for that instead. I don't know. When I did Scottsdale Stampede I said I probably wouldn't do it again, but I think if I did things a bit differently, it would be okay. I don't even know that there will be a collector event in 2019, let alone where it is. The planner event is every year and maybe 2020 will be a fun location and I'll decide to do that, I don't know. What DO I know? Nothing. hahahaha.<br />
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Okay, guys, that's it for now. Until next time.<br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-58709081400941825172018-12-20T09:25:00.001-07:002018-12-20T09:25:27.873-07:00Hello...? Is anyone still here? hahaha. I know I've been woefully silent for a super long time, but I may pick it up again. I wish I'd made that decision last month, though, when I went to the Scottsdale Stampede so I could've blogged that with pictures, but I can still write about my thoughts on it, right? hahaha. <br />
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To be continued...Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-67585895335852348182016-12-03T18:45:00.001-07:002016-12-03T18:45:33.323-07:00The Judge's Card: The Original Emojis | The Chronicle of the HorseYes, folks, believe it or not, I am still here. There just hasn't been a whole lot to blog about lately. Thanksgiving came and went and now we're about three weeks out from Christmas. I've been keeping busy with work, some days more than others but I've been consistently busy every day regardless. Job security, I guess you can call it. We recently switched from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook, but until yesterday we had to use both Outlook and Lotus Notes because not everything had migrated over. We each have a personal email and then there's group email and that inbox is where we'd still have to use Lotus Notes. But now that's made the conversion so it's just Outlook now. It's taking some used to especially since we lost some of our convenient features. Oh well.<br />
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There's been a presidential election. Yay. We will soon have a new sheriff. I'm bummed. I'm going to miss Sheriff Joe. I wish he was leaving office because he thinks it's time rather than because he wasn't re-elected. The new guy, Paul Penzone, is going to examine all of Sheriff Joe's programs and see what to keep and what to get rid of. I don't care if he gets rid of tent city or the striped uniforms, I just hope he doesn't get rid of the Animal Cruelty Unit or the MASH Unit. And he'll never be 'Sheriff Paul'. He'd have to earn that endearment, but I still won't call him that. Either way, I'm glad we live where it's the city police who patrol and not the county. He won't do the immigration sweeps Sheriff Joe did, which is a mistake. If there are no sweeps, what's to keep even more people from stealing IDs so they can stay and work illegally? I won't say who I voted for to be president. I may have lost a longtime friend over it, though. Oh well. If that's how she's going to be then that's how she's going to be.<br />
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So, I was looking around Facebook and came across this hysterically funny cartoo/comic thing. I'm not real sure what it is, other than super funny. I wonder how accurate it is? Probably not very because I can't imagine too many judges taking the time to draw pictures/symbols rather than writing something down. Hopefully you will find it as funny as I did.<br />
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The weather has gotten nicer. Cooler. That makes me quite happy. We haven't turned the heater on yet, though, so it's been fairly cold in the house. I was going to go out this morning, but instead crawled back under the covers and slept another couple of hours. Hahahaha. I don't often get that luxury.<div>
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Took a couple of days off from work. One was planned and one was a Mental Health Day. I was supposed to participate in our annual holiday craft fair, but realized I'd end up losing money. Don't worry. I told them ahead of time I wasn't going to do it. I did what I often do when I have a day off: went looking for wild horses. Unfortunately I didn't find any. They don't come down to the river as much as they do during the summer. It's odd, though. When I first started following them I always saw them during the colder months. But when I started seeing them more and more during the warmer weather, I stopped seeing them in the winter. I also drove around looking for horse neighborhoods in hopes of being able to shoot domestic horses. I found some nice houses and glimpses of horses, but most of them were in back of the houses.</div>
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-14793869037605614812016-10-15T13:56:00.002-07:002016-10-15T14:08:35.571-07:00Breyer Collecting on the West Coast...** note ** Let me apologize in advance for any typos. I tried to go back and fix them, but it only resulted in this being posted four times. I typed this on my iPad mini, which is a bit touchy when it comes to editing. I promise, my spelling and grammar are not as bad as my blog posts might sometimes portray. :)<br />
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It can really suck sometimes. It seems like Breyer doesn't care as much about the collectors in the western half of the country as it does the eastern half. Why do I say that? Here's a hint...<br />
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Right now, as we speak, a Collector Event is going on in Maryland. An event full of daily activities and giveaways and special run models<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Kristina on Blab</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Breyer</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Kristina on Blab</td></tr>
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The first photo shows the models that will be available for purchase. The 2nd and 3rd are of the free models attendees will get just for showing up. So, some of you may be wondering, what's the big deal? It's just one event, right? Wrong. Now, let me paint you a mini picture...due to lack of room and not having a reliable job or car, I took a hiatus from collecting. During this time, there were a couple of events in Texas and Florida. But those were before I began collecting again. The first event I became aware of was in 2012, about 6 months after I began collecting again. It was called Passage to the Pacific and was held in San Diego, CA. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about it soon enough to be able to attend. Bummer. I can't remember if an event was held in 2013, but I want to say there wasn't. In 2014, however, Breyer held Big Easy Bash...in New Jersey. I believe that was done on a lottery system so you couldn't actually plan for it until you knew you were selected. Like the events prior to BEB, there were Special Run models for purchase, a traditional and a Stablemate for gifts to all who attended. In 2015 there was Sweet Home Chicago. I don't need to tell you where that was held because it should seem self-explanatory. Tickets for this event were sold first come, first served and each attendee received a traditional model and a Stablemate, although I don't think there was special runs for purchase. In 2016, the event is Chasing the Chesapeake in Maryland. Free traditional and Stablemate models for attendees and special runs for purchase. So, have you noticed a pattern here? 2014, 2015, 2016...all of them are on the East Coast. Well, Chicago technically isn't, but it's still in that half of the country and would cost a lot of money to reach. Plus, the east coast collectors get Breyerfest every July.<br />
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When CTC was first announced and its location revealed, obviously there was some grumbling by people in the western half of the US. Someone pointed out that we were 'getting BreyerWest back'. True. March 2016 saw the return of this event and it will be held again in 2017, but it's hardly comparable to the other events mentioned above. Why? It's held in conjunction with a real horse show and is basically live model shows and customizing workshops. I don't do either. Plus, there is no special models to buy and there's none that are given just for attending. Even the prize models for the live shows are recycled from other events. Nothing is new or unique. I pointed this out on the message board and someone said that we could choose to support the event and 'maybe' (her word, not mine) it will eventually become like the others. Huh? BEB, SHC and CTC didn't need to be supported for several years in order to be like they are...thats how they were planned. What surprised me about her statement, though, is that she is a 'West Coast Collector' so she should understand why it's such a frustration for those of us on this side of the country to watch event after event planned for the eastern half. There aren't even special days at a breeding farm or race track or cross country field. Just the Northwest Horse Fair & Expo and the live model show. How am I supposed to support that? Come on, Breyer, throw us a bone! Please! Of course, there's nothing to prevent me from attending any of these events...well, nothing much. I do have rent to pay, bills to pay and a car payment so it's not like I have a bunch of the green stuff. That's not my only issue, though. I don't like to fly and I really don't want to fly somewhere that would require three plane transfers because the host location is a small state up in the northeast part of the country. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little bit. I can fly non-stop on Southwest and the flight would be cheaper than a round trip to Louisville, but that's besides the point. Hahaha. But the point is, people in the western half shouldn't have to keep flying to the eastern half if they want to attend an event. I don't know what Seattle has in terms of horse events, but there's Northern California, Nevada, Arizona...we even have a Paso Fino breeding farm here...I bet people would love to visit that. Turf Paradise started live racing today...another great option. There's also Texas and Colorado, Wyoming. You get the idea. Have another event over on this side. You've had 3 in a row on that side. Make us feel like we matter.<br />
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On second thought, maybe Seattle wouldn't be a very good option. There is a cat rescue there that seems to corner the market on kitties with unusual markings...<br />
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I don't remember how I stumbled upon this particular rescue...well, actually, I do. I was on Petfinder and decided to look up Seattle and that's where I found Lacey, the tortie point Siamese with the gorgeous blue eyes. From there, I just kept looking. This place is amazing. They hold adoption events at their facility on weekends and average about 30 adoptions at each event. Now, they mostly adopt in pairs, but that's still a lot of cats and they have people climbing over each other to get them. They must be doing something right. But if Breyer were to host an event in Seattle I'd like want to visit the rescue and come home with two kittens.<br />
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I've been wanting to post this for awhile now...I'm a BBC...A Bad Breyer Collector...awhile ago I accidentally knocked into some of my shelves and most of my Stablemates fell over...I have yet to set them back up...<br />
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And then I have ones I've bought recently AND not so recently that are still in their boxes...including my Cortes C I waited several months to get...<br />
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My last of 2016 Vintage Club model also remains boxed plus the foal has been promised to a friend in Tennessee, but I haven't shipped him yet...<br />
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Last but not least...this mess here? There's at least two horses in there, maybe more...<br />
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Actually, that isn't last, but it is the last photo...I had someone pick me up a couple of Stablemates from Breyerfest back in July...the ones you get with a single day ticket? Currently...I have no idea where the box is that they were shipped in. Hahahahaha. Oh boy. I need to do something soon.<br />
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This morning when I went out to buy lotto tickets for tonight's drawing, I saw lots of 'yard sale' signs. The weather is improving. People have sales year round here, but you always know when the weather is starting to improve because the number of yard sales increases. It's still supposed to be 95 today, but that's an improvement over 115. We got our power bill yesterday for the month of September and it was low. Like, November low. It's never been this low for a September before. That makes me very happy!<br />
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Why do I always close with the weather? Gee, Mr Spiccoli, I don't know... (fast times at ridgemont high reference in case you didn't catch it haha).<br />
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Have a great one.Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-88855090952224139712016-10-13T14:42:00.000-07:002016-10-13T14:42:08.816-07:00Convenience vs Efficience... and other stuff...When my parents still lived up north, before my dad died, my mom would go grocery shopping mostly at Super Walmart. Partly because they were more convenient since they had more than just groceries, but also because their town only had Safeway and Bashas' as alternatives for grocery shopping. At one time they had an IGA, but that closed not long after Walmart became Super Walmart. Anyway, when my mom moved in with us, it was her intention to continue shopping at Walmart. It's what she was used to and I didn't really care one way or another so I went along with it. Unfortunately, that often meant going to TWO grocery stores every week. My brother is very Anti-Walmart so certain things we would have to buy at the grocery store such as steaks and roasts. Walmart doesn't have very good choices for those anyway, but any other meat was fine and since they now carry bone in chicken breasts, we no longer had to make a trip to the grocery store if that was all we needed from the shopping list. Before she moved in, we just ate whatever, whenever. A couple of roommates had tried to get the house on a menu thing with a "pot" for grocery money, but it never happened. I wouldn't have minded so much when John lived with us because he was a good cook, but eventually he get a girlfriend and moved in with her and eventually they got married. Scott didn't eat much dinner at home and Doug...well, Doug was just gross and I didn't want to eat anything he cooked because ne never washed his hands after using the bathroom. My mom was used to cooking dinner every night for her and my dad and we wanted the transition to go as smoothly as possible so we started planning out a menu on Saturday and go shopping on Sunday. We did that for nearly 5 years. Walmart first and then either Frys or Albertsons. We used to sometimes go to Bashas because my mom liked them in Payson, but our closest store is 3 or 4 miles away and they stopped putting sales circulars into newspapers that delivered to our neighborhood and she got tired of looking at the sales on my tablet so we just stopped going.<br />
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On occasion, we wouldn't need to go to either Walmart or a regular store, just one or the other and gradually, that became more and more frequent. In fact, I think it's been almost a month since we've been to Walmart. Each week we decide if we need to go to Walmart and if we do, then we determine if we can get away with going JUST to Walmart. If we don't need to go, I push for going to just one regular grocery store. So far it's worked, but if it happens that both stores have super awesome sales, we can go to both. Fortunately, though, one store will have better sales over another or their sales will be for more "useable" items. In other words, stuff we actually need rather than just because it's a good sale. A drawback to not going to Walmart as often, though, is not having access to a better selection of lesser-expensive dog treats. Our dogs get a variety of treats and the grocery stores don't really have much of a selection and what they do have is on the more expensive side. But my mom doesn't want to go to Walmart just to get dog treats. Well, enter the new grocery pick-up service and the purpose of this blog post. All you need to do is go on Walmart.com and basically shop the virtual aisles for what you want. You can also put an item name in the search box and it'll come up with the exact item or what it considers to be close enough. Once you have everything selected that you want, you choose a pick-up time. They call you 15 minutes before your hour-long window to let you know your order is ready and you go to the designated area at the store, call the number to let them know you're there, then they bring the stuff out to you and load it into your car. How great can that be? I despise going to a grocery store in the middle of the week, but if I don't have to actually go IN the store, I could handle that. So, there we have the 'convenience' part. So, on Tuesday I did my shopping and selected my time frame for pick-up. They called me at 2.45pm to let me know it was ready and I said I'd be there about 3.15pm to pick it up. Great. I get to the store at just about exactly 3.15pm and park in the designated spot. There's a sign on the poles with the phone number telling you to call to let them know you've arrived so I called the number. And got an answering machine telling me what the pick-up hours are. Huh? I'm supposed to be here now. Why aren't they answering the phones? I left a message letting them know I was there for my grocery order then sat there for about 10 minutes before anyone came out and asked me if I needed anything. Hmmm. I'm sitting in the grocery pick-up parking spot...maybe I have an order to pick up? I told her I was there for my order and she said she'd be back in a few minutes. I then waited almost another 10 minutes before a different gal came out with my stuff. She explained to me how the program worked then opened my hatchback to load the groceries. <br />
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She actually asked if she should leave everything in their bags. That question was a bit odd. Would she actually just put them in there loose? Maybe she thought I had my own bags to use, I don't know. But I said yes, please. I also got a goody bag for my first order<br />
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and she said I would receive a bottle of water with each pick-up. So, would I consider this whole experience to be convenient? I suppose. I didn't have to go into the store, which I liked. I'm all for convenience, as is many people in America. Why go to a grocery store for a jug of milk when you can stop at a Circle K? Or eggs. Or laundry detergent. Nowadays so many things are available at convenience stores and drug stores like Walgreens and CVS. Is the grocery pick-up at Walmart efficient? I'm still on the fence about that. They didn't seem to know what was going on and I had to wait longer than what I probably should have needed to because they didn't answer the phone when I called. I'm all for convenience, as I stated above and will usually pick that over something else, but sometimes the convenient way isn't necessarily the best way. Sometimes you need to go with the more efficient option and maybe spend a little more money or step outside your comfort zone just a bit. I think I need to use this service another time or two to decide if it's worth using on a regular basis for the dog treats or for things I can't get at a regular grocery store such as pre-cooked sausage patties and scrambled egg patties to make my own breakfast sandwiches.<br />
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Well, last week I had a couple of days off so I went in search of wild horses, which I often do when I'm off from work. I saw two singletons in different areas, but none of the larger bands I'm used to. The weather is getting nicer and the horses aren't needing to come to the watering holes as much as they need in the summer, which is a bummer, but I know they're safer when they're deeper in the desert, as evidenced by the loss of a young colt last week to a car. The SRWHMG tried to save him, but were unable to. Initially they held back and monitored him for signs of serious injury and they said he seemed to be improving, but then he took a turn and, well, he died. I'm always worried when I'm out there that I'm going to witness something like that and I'll not want to ever go back. I witnessed an incident at Sea World one time involving the Budwieser wagon and team that had me almost running to the exit and those horses survived with no serious injuries, but I almost left. When I reached the exit plaza I decided to get a snack and settle down and decide what to do. I had a feeling that if I left, I'd never come back so I stayed for about an hour then went back to the Hospitality Center and discovered the team had been successfully untangled and put back in the barn. Anyway, after not having any success with the Wild Ones, I decided to just drive around and before long, I found myself behind a horse trailer so what did I do? I followed the trailer. Horse trailers usually lead you to horses. Unfortunately, I lost the trailer because he turned down a side road and I didn't want him to think I was following him so I was going to try to go around the block, but I never did find him. Oh well. What I did find, though, was a little equestrian community I never knew existed so I just drove around the neighborhood looking for horses and taking pictures.<br />
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I also saw a cow or two and a couple of goats. One dead-end led to a rather...dilapidated looking property, but they had horses...<br />
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You can't really see them in the picture, but they're there. They also had a series of riding trails, but they were kind of mish-mash and didn't really seem to lead anywhere.<br />
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I saw some neat houses. I like houses. Not so much the architecture as just...I don't know how to explain it. I like large houses. I've always lived in "average-sized" houses that were nothing special so maybe that's why I'm drawn to the big, fancy ones<br />
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They're not even the biggest or fanciest I've seen around here, but I still liked them. This one had a neat foot bridge leading to the front door that I really liked<br />
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This last one made me scratch my head just a bit. The neighborhood I was in was located in Maricopa County, but this police cruiser was from Pinal County, which is a good 45 minutes away. I don't know if maybe the deputy lives there or what, but it certainly confused me<br />
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Sometimes it can be difficult taking pictures of houses without the residents freaking out, but so far nobody has asked what I'm doing there or chased me off and so far nobody has called the police to report me for suspicious activity. hahaha.<br />
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Okay, that's it for now. I was going to write more, but I will stop for now. hahaha. Have a great one!<br />
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-57230536043251657202016-09-29T12:50:00.000-07:002016-09-29T12:50:08.150-07:00Longines Master of Los AngelesWell, last month I said I was going to attend the Longines Masters of Los Angeles...and I had every intention of doing that. Even bought my ticket and splurged on "VIP" Seating (the cheap VIP seats lol). Had my plane ticket, too. And a car rented for a couple of days. The only thing I didn't have was a hotel reserved. But then I got to thinking. My car's registration is due in October and while I could still afford to go after paying that, I decided it wasn't in my bank account's best interests to go. Oh well. Since I fly Southwest, I was able to cancel my flight and can use the ticket another time. Getting a refund for the show was a bit more difficult. It said to contact the show host for a refund and when I did that, I received an email back stating the tickets were non-refundable. Okay. But then why is there an option to request a refund on the website? Their response was to give me a refund. I guess I had them with that. hahaha. When I bought the ticket early last month, I was certain that by doing that I would be less likely to cancel the trip because I didn't want to "eat" the cost of the ticket. Fortunately I didn't have to. I am a bit bummed about not being able to go and I kind of wish I had decided to just go and deal with the consequences (low bank balance) later, but when you're trying to rebuild your credit, that's not always the smartest attitude to have. Maybe I'll go next year. Another reason I didn't really want to go anymore is because my favorite rider Beezie Madden wasn't going to be participating. And while there's plenty of other world-class riders who are, she's the one I want to see in person the most. I don't know why she isn't, I just know she isn't. Maybe she's taking some time off post-Olympics. As far as I know, Cortes C is still out of action, but she has other horses who could compete. Oh well.<br />
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Anyway, last week Longines had a live feed of the arrival of the international horses at LAX, I believe it was. It started at 5am and I had every intention of being up to watch it, but I just couldn't get motivated in time and I missed it. Thank goodness for the Chronicle of the Horse and Facebook. FB posted the video of the event and COTH posted pictures and that's where we are now. Pictures of the horses arriving. I tried watching the video, but I got bored. hahaha. Especially since the videographer started out filming between the shipping container and the closest trailer. At 5am, all you can do is hear their hooves as they unload from the container and walk onto the trailer. He eventually moved, though, and things got a bit more interesting. They had several trailers lined up, side-by-side and they would unload a horse and walk him down the line, using boards between the trailers, until they got to the one on the end. Pretty cool, I think. And efficient. That way they didn't have to walk down off the shipping container then back up a ramp onto the trailer and with them being mostly inside like that, they were less likely to get freaked out over the sights and sounds of a major international airport. <br />
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So, without further ado, here's some pictures of the arrival of the international horses. <em>All photos by Bernstein Associates for EEM</em><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I imagine this plane is bigger than it actually looks<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiVJLKNQBDQKUUdPXEj-EM1UhMBR-03Wqj2gqxwvmAmB_gGFFWnIZ1WLUG_45vNCj_zZ8yKB2lgApg3trZdU07FwtM0CDofNmpJYdHxYBJ-UeMi5PNYNmKEC-f6jBvbzXzr2_1jMFnvZu/s1600/34.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiVJLKNQBDQKUUdPXEj-EM1UhMBR-03Wqj2gqxwvmAmB_gGFFWnIZ1WLUG_45vNCj_zZ8yKB2lgApg3trZdU07FwtM0CDofNmpJYdHxYBJ-UeMi5PNYNmKEC-f6jBvbzXzr2_1jMFnvZu/s320/34.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmUsOIWAMNIqWiGh0vLA3liZLCr6jCbgw_VQc3jdbfZNpsgGNxMGmlevT7vgaecJqS8R11ic-q1fXoXcK6lND0Pdm_2pTwxpUjP3Sn77fF9049qyMJWL_g8gRXy0RDye8b0SsUqk38zwI/s1600/35.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmUsOIWAMNIqWiGh0vLA3liZLCr6jCbgw_VQc3jdbfZNpsgGNxMGmlevT7vgaecJqS8R11ic-q1fXoXcK6lND0Pdm_2pTwxpUjP3Sn77fF9049qyMJWL_g8gRXy0RDye8b0SsUqk38zwI/s320/35.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking from one trailer to another</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhGmchFghUEU0rETen8s1sfDeX3r4xROL515krHIag1pX0Zu2Ilrk0Kxq8zhcHuvESEHcBs2yQeVJ7bs88glN-T47hz4-XjkY_6TBTeHqMZYh368r6re1UJkZcpHlWMkTTyD2Bz0yL1sHU/s1600/36.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhGmchFghUEU0rETen8s1sfDeX3r4xROL515krHIag1pX0Zu2Ilrk0Kxq8zhcHuvESEHcBs2yQeVJ7bs88glN-T47hz4-XjkY_6TBTeHqMZYh368r6re1UJkZcpHlWMkTTyD2Bz0yL1sHU/s320/36.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's a LOT of carrots. I wonder how many deep those bags go...<br />
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Well, I guess that's about it for now. This morning they posted a video on Facebook of Lucy Davis and Scott Brash going out for a ride on the beach, but the horses had other ideas. They didn't seem to like the waves that kept coming on the beach and kept spooking. You can watch the video here <a href="https://www.facebook.com/longinesmasters/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED">https://www.facebook.com/longinesmasters/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED</a> I don't know how to link it better or include it in my blog post, but it's about 5 minutes long so I won't force it upon you. hahaha. I think it was some kind of publicity thing because there were a lot of photographers there. I don't kow.<br />
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Our weather is starting to "cool down". I think we're done with triple degree temperatures for the season. Thank goodness. We've had some minor storms the past couple of nights. Nothing major and it's drying up by morning.<br />
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I hope you all have a good weekend.Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-36031855116273009462016-09-19T17:48:00.001-07:002016-09-19T17:48:36.942-07:00Hugs and hugging...Yes, I know that's an unusual title and this is going to be an unusual post about hugging. Specifically, hugging among friends. I'm going to start at the end to explain why I'm writing about this and then go back to the beginning. There's a girl I know at work. She's in a different unit than me and currently works in a different location because our parent company has been unable to get everyone back to the same location. I've known her for probably 7 or 8 years, but we aren't what you'd really call good friends. We don't associate outside of work and we rarely communicate by email. When we worked in the same location we were always seeing each other in the hallway so we chatted often. I can remember two times when she has hugged me...when I went to say goodbye on my unit's last day in that building...and Friday. I was on my way home from work and stopped to get gas. There was a car at the pump in front of mine that looked very familiar, including the 'H' on the license plate to signify the driver is either deaf or hard-of-heari. Leslie is deaf and I knew she had a plate like that. The girl pumping gas looked like it 'might' be her, but her hair was so much longer than I'd ever seen it plus it was pulled back in a ponytail. Eventually she came over and I realized that it was her and she immediately engulfed me in a hug. A rather long one, too. The length surprised me, but I went along with it.<br />
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So, why do some people hug and others don't?<br />
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While in grade school, friends didn't hug hello or goodbye. It wasn't uncommon to see little girls holding hands or hugging 'just because', but that's about it. Hugging was usually reserved for family members. It's possibly because that's when you learn about bad people and the Boogeyman. <br />
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In junior high, my group of friends increased, but there still wasn't hugging. A friend I'd had since I was 8, we started to hug goodbye when I'd go with her family to drop her off at the bus station to go back home to Flagstaff.<br />
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So, why do some friends hug and others don't? <br />
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I don't think familiarity or closeness have anything to do with it. In high school I gained even more friends than ever before (thank you, Duran Duran!) and while we were all very close, even calling some of the other parents 'mom' and 'dad' (not all of them), we didn't hug unless someone was really down. We were always at each other's houses and spending the night, but we didn't all hug each other. The first time my friend Sherry's mom hugged me she said 'Boy, she's a hugger!' Because it was a firm one. The only kind I knew how to give since in my family we didn't do those fake, air hugs. When you hugged someone, there was a reason.<br />
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At my 10 year high school reunion, I reconnected with a couple of close friends and we started hanging out. One of them, we didn't hug at all. The other, she and both her parents hugged hello and goodbye. It was nice because my family had 'split up' by then...my brother living on his own, me with my own place and my parents having moved 90 miles away. They became a second family to me and I looked forward to the hugs. When I started getting into hockey and going to player appearances and practic, a married couple I hung out with were hungers, but another group I hung out with, did not. In fact, we were at a player appearance and I was playing street hockey with one friend and the other two were doing something else. The girl I was with, Amber, noticed the other two hug each other or hug someone else and Amber said 'I guess we're huggers now' so we started making a joke out of it. It was fine. It was the kind of relationship we had.<br />
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So, why do some friends hug and others don't?<br />
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As a general rule, I don't tend to hug people I don't know very well, so I was a bit surprised when one of the Shamu trainers at Sea World California hugged me for the first time. It was my birthday and I was doing a program called Dine With Shamu. She knew it was my birthday and had come over to say hi and wish me a Happy Birthday. When she hugged me, it took me by surprise, but I just went along with it. But then she started to hug me every time she saw me, when she was close enough to do so. One time, she even climbed up the stadium stairs to come see me and give me a hug. I liked it because I didn't have hugging friends anymore. A friend I ended up making because of Sea World turned out to be a hugger and a couple of others weren't.<br />
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Would you believe the last time I hugged my mom was when I took her to have one of her dogs put down...three years ago? We just don't. It's not a decision that was made, but we see each other daily so I imagine that has something to do with it.<br />
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But family aside...why do some friends hug and others don't?Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-47705500203426999062016-08-03T12:03:00.002-07:002016-08-03T12:03:15.882-07:00I'm gonna do it...I'm going to Longines Grand Slam of Show Jumping...First off, I've got to say how much I love and appreciate Southwest Airlines. Without their policy of not charging re-booking fees, I would still be going to Dallas in October. hahaha. I think this trip has changed 6 times now, including the most current. Originally, the trip was for San Diego. I had the plane ticket and the car reserved, but then I decided to change it to Dallas. I've never been there before and I was going to see some of the zoos they have there. I had managed to get in on that super awesome airfare sale last month and a round-trip ticket from Phoenix to Dallas-Love Field only cost me about $150. Then, I decided I wanted to see zoos AND lighthouses because I haven't visited a lighthouse in quite a few years now, which is horrible for a lighthouse nut like me. So I changed the trip to San Francisco. I already had the days off from work so changing the destination was the easy part. hahahaha. Somewhere along the lines, though, I decided not to go to San Francisco and started considering Los Angeles for the big show jumping competition the last week of September. So I changed my flight and car reservations again. But then I got to thinking of San Diego and how it's been about 4 years, I think, maybe only 3, since I've been there and I really wanted to see the new Tiger exhibit and Lemur exhibit. So I changed it again and had to pay the difference of $57 because San Diego is super expensive right now. Oh, and the new trip was shortened to overnight so I could afford to stay in my favorite bay-front hotel. Now, don't ask me what got me changing my mind again, but I did. Back to Los Angeles. I can visit 2 zoos I've never been to before plus return to LA Zoo, maybe. I may just make that day a goof-off day where I go visit the old Griffith Park Zoo ruins and some of the filming spots of the show Emergency! I'll have to decide that later. Sunday, however, Sunday will be spent in Long Beach...<br />
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I've already changed my plane ticket and car rental and then I did something daring. Something that will lessen the likelihood of me changing my mind again...I bought a ticket to the show. The Grand Prix is Sunday afternoon and if my favorite competitors attend, that will be the day I get to see them. Since it's on the heels of the Olympics in Rio, my favorite riders...okay, just one: Beezie Madden...may choose not to compete. That would suck, for sure, but come on. If you had the opportunity to see your favorite rider compete in person, wouldn't you? I missed getting to see them in Las Vegas last year so this is my 2nd chance, although it's only show jumping so no dressage riders. I've posted on the official Facebook page asking if there'll be a list of riders intending to compete and I've also asked on the official John Madden Sales page if they knew if she would be going. Now I just need to wait for one of them to answer. JMS is pretty good at answering questions so I imagine I'll hear from them before the Longines people. I could've bought a less expensive ticket and wouldn't have minded quite as much if I decided not to go because then I could just "eat" the cost, but I decided to go for the *slightly* (by $80) more expensive one because it comes with a free parking pass, a program, a small gift and the seats are right by the jumping ring (it's indoors so no specific arena like an outdoor competition). Plus, I'll have access to the Prestige Village where the riders will warm up before their classes and "hang out" so there might be a teeny, tiny chance of actually getting to meet Beezie. That would be so cool. But I'm not hanging my hat on that happening so I won't be disappointed if it doesn't. I think it's just going to be a fun experience overall, though. I haven't booked my hotel yet, that's next and takes a little more research than car or plane tickets.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo from JMS Facebook</td></tr>
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Well, darn. I went out to Jack In the Box at lunchtime and just took everything out and they got it wrong. I ordered French Fries and I got some kind of sandwich instead. I'm not sure what's on it. I'm scared. hahaha.<br />
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Last night we had a pretty good storm. My neighborhood got mostly thunder and lightning, but other areas got tons of flooding because it rained solidly for a good hour or so. I think they said there was 3 inches in some spots. But they had to close a major interstate due to flooding when 3 cars got stuck under the over-pass. Yikes! Usually when there's a big storm, the Scottsdale Greenbelt gets most of the press time because of flooding, but I-17 flooding like that had all the reporters out there.<br />
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Well, I'd better get back to work. Have a good one!<br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-78805811182742047882016-07-22T11:33:00.000-07:002016-07-22T11:34:02.494-07:00Breyerfest has officially started... also known as...The Friday In July Where Brenda Gets Very Little Work Done.<br />
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Breyerfest started a bit early this year since it's a NAN year in Kentucky (even numbered years) so a lot of people arrived on Monday in preparation, either because they're showing or to take advantage of the extra people for room sales, I don't know. Most people show up on Wednesday or Thursday because Friday is the day the 3 Day Weekend starts and nobody wants to miss any of the fun. Except me. Well, it's not that I *want* to miss it, I just have a problem with the 4 hour flights and the social anxiety that goes along with traveling from Arizona to Kentucky and then be squished with 7,000 of my closest new best friends. hahahaha. Anyway, so every year Breyerfest has a surprise horse. A mold nobody knows what is until the very first Special Run line goes through at 10am and someone buys it and reveals what it is. Then, there's the additional wait to see what colors it comes in and if it's only available in matte or glossy or both. The past couple of years they've done both and have switched it up which is more hard to come by. Three years ago, the glossy was the hardest to get, then it was the matte and then it was glossy again. Well, it looks like they've done it a little different this year in that only one of the 4 colors is difficult to come by and it's in matte, which is fine because I want to glossy version anyway. I'm not a huge fan of glossy horses, but this one looks much better as a glossy.<br />
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Every year there's always speculation as to what mold will be used. They try to figure out the odds based on what has been used before, what hasn't been used before and how it could possibly tie in to the theme of the current year...Carnival/Rio is the 2016 theme. Well, a few people guessed the Esprit mold and that's what it ended up being. One in a funky, clear-ish decorator color and the other 3 in more realistic ones.<br />
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The one I want is the Tobiano that is 2nd from the right. The photo shows him in Glossy and that's what I want. The palomino on the left has dapples and the black Overo is very flashy-looking, but I want to Tobiano. I prefer minimal white on my paints. I have a pick-up person who will be hopefully obtain me that model and another one I have asked for. Hopefully she'll be able to get it for me. I don't know how many customers she has this year, but she has 2 people helping her so hopefully between the 3 of them I'll get the Tobiano. If I'd bought 2 of the 3 Day tickets, I could've gotten the Overo as well, but I had forgotten you could only get one Surprise model per ticket and I wasn't depending on the Surprise being something I collected. And I don't collect the Esprit model, but the color is something I can't pass up.</div>
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I wish model in the photo was horizontal rather than vertical, but oh well. And then the deco is funky but I don't like decos unless it's a realistic pattern but in a fun color, like a silver dapple they did a couple of years ago<br />
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But the reason why I don't get much work done on opening day of Breyerfest is because I'm too excited to see what the surprise model is and then I get caught up in all the hub-bub on Blab and I don't get my work done. Well, not much of it anyway. Right now I'm on lunch break so I'm safe for another 40 minutes. Hurray for getting an hour on payday! I wasn't going to take lunch until 11.30am, but decided I couldn't wait the extra 30 minutes. hahaha. <br />
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Tune back in on Monday and I'll share some neat photos of NAN that an attendee gave me permission to use. I'd like to do it today, but I do need to actually work and blogging with a bunch of pictures from my iPad is no fun so I'll do it on Monday when I can use my work computer again.<br />
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We may already know the theme for 2017. Someone apparently took a picture of a digital sign outside the Kentucky Horse Park that shows the theme and dates, but the picture I saw was of the display on the back of the camera and was posted to Instagram so I'm not entirely 100% sure it's correct, but apparently it's going to be Gateway to India and the dates are July 14-16. If it IS Gateway to India, and I should know for sure come Sunday when it's usually made public by Breyer, then I'm going to try very hard to go since there's a very good chance there'll be at least one Marwari, which would be ironic since I posted on a Facebook group yesterday that I'd love the opportunity to be "turned loose" with a Marwari and my camera and now I may actually get a chance. I guess it depends on how easily Breyer or KHP will be able to get one to have on-site for a few days<br />
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Look at those ears! Don't ask me when or how I became enamored of this breed, but I can't resist those ears. hahaha. I'm torn, though. I know quite a few people on Blab that would like to meet me in person finally and Breyerfest would be the best place to do it. Every year they keep hoping I'll make the trek out and every year I have to disappoint us because of the flight. So what do I do...? Do I let them know that I'll be doing my best to make it next year or do I not say anything and then surprise them? If I don't say anything, then they won't know if I chicken out again, but if I don't tell them, I'd hate to lose out on an opportunity to meet them because they didn't have "time for me"... this will take some thought.<br />
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An update on my awesome water bottle. In my last post I "complained" about the plastic ring that keeps the lid on the bottle because it doesn't lay flat when you take the lid off, but rather sticks out straight. So, I cut the connecting piece off. But then I didn't have any convenient way of carrying it. Oh wait! I know! Maybe the lid on the Hydro Flask is the same as the lid on the Klear Bottle and it'll fit. So I brought it in to work and...hurray! It fits!<br />
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Now I just need to figure out a way to get the plastic ring off the neck of the bottle because it bugs me being there. hahaha.<br />
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Okay, I guess that's it for now. I hope everyone has a good weekend.<br />
<br />Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-40793556908503478392016-07-19T09:29:00.001-07:002016-07-19T09:29:10.314-07:00Just some randomness and a small ventLet me get the vent out of the way first. On Sunday, July 17th, I reached my 15th anniversary with the company I work for. To me, it was a big deal, but apparently I'm the only one who cares. My supervisor came by my desk on Wednesday to give me my certificate, but he thought my anniversary was Wednesday so I guess it should come as no surprise that my anniversary came and went with no acknowledgement other than the certificate. None of my co-workers knew. Nobody knew. In the past, our supervisor would bake a cake and have a special unit meeting so the person could be properly acknowledged for their milestone. I believe Wilma got a cake and special meeting for her 15th back in May. Our supervisor's 15th was in June, but he doesn't go for the attention. Normally I don't, either, but this time I wouldn't have minded. I was going to casually bring it up in a meeting with our lead today, but she is out of the office and postponed it until next week and by then it would be silly to bring it up. I don't really care about the meeting or the cake, I just want my milestone to be recognized, you know? Twice I have written an email to my supervisor asking about it, but twice I deleted it and never sent it. I'm torn between bringing it up and just letting it go, but I can't figure out a way to word an email where it won't sound whiney and greedy or whatever. I don't know. <br />
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Breyerfest is this week. Friday is when it starts. I wish I was there, but I chose not to go. I can't really afford it anyway since I'm still paying the hospital for my 8 hour stay. I've got a long way to go because I can only afford so much per month and still be able to get my other bills paid. I have too many credit cards. hahaha. I did pay one off the other day, though, and will pay another next month. That will help. A little. The fact of the matter is, even though I have a good paying job on paper, once Uncle Sam and the state are done with it, my take home pay is disgusting. Plus, I have rent and car payments. blah blah blah. Maybe next year I can go to Breyerfest. I had a trip planned for the fall to San Francisco, but I'm probably going to have to cancel it because I remembered my car registration is due the same month. Ouch. I haven't gone anywhere since Las Vegas in 2014. I used to travel quite a bit and now I don't at all. No, there's nothing stopping me from driving somewhere. That would sure cut down on costs, but I'd be limited in where I could drive to by myself so I don't bother. Oh well. Anyway, Breyer's Special Run models aren't very exciting this year. I have a pick-up person who's going to get me a couple of models, including the Surprise horse, which we won't know what it is until Friday morning. Hopefully it's a mold I like. Anyway, because it's also a NAN year for Kentucky, there's people at Breyerfest already. People write mini blogs about the trip so it's almost like being there and I watch the "Breyerfest Adventure" videos on YouTube and then there's the Haul videos. Those can be fun.<br />
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Now, I want to talk about this awesome water bottle I got off of Amazon last week. Recently I had gone to Whole Foods and ended up buying a Hydro Flask. It's made of 18/8 stainless steel and is vacuum insulated. The first time I used it at work, it wasn't a pretty sight. I had chosen to get the 40oz over the 32oz because, well, it holds more water. But it was too tall to fit under the ice dispenser at work, so I went to Amazon to find a 32oz one since Whole Foods isn't convenient enough to go back and get another. But anyway, I hadn't finished my water so I took it home and ended up leaving it in my room. When I went back a few hours later, it was still half full of ice!!! So, like I said I went to get another one on Amazon and this time I got a Klear Bottle brand because it was a little less expensive, but it had the same features as the Hydro Flask. Yesterday I tested it out, filling it with ice about 7am.<br />
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Approximately 6 hours later, it still had plenty of ice...<br />
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I then forgot about it and accidentally left it on my desk overnight. As of 7am this morning, it still had some ice and was still very cold<br />
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The only thing I really don't like about it is the doo-hickey that keeps the cap attached to the bottle. I doesn't bend back very far so it kind of gets in the way, but I guess I can live with that.<br />
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Our monsoon season has finally decided to show up. It used to be, the season started when the dew point hit a certain point, but now they decided on a specific date in June. As per usual during the summer, you get a build up of clouds nearly every evening, but usually it doesn't produce any storms, but last night, boy did it. While watching the news, a wall of dust came creeping in and the news even had live video of a microburst. Not up close, of course, but from a distance, which was pretty cool. For awhile we weren't sure we were going to get anything, but then about 6:30pm or so, the winds really picked up and there was thunder and finally some rain. It only lasted 10 minutes, but it's better than nothing, right? I think so.<br />
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Well, I'd better get back to work. I hope everyone is doing well and if you're going to Breyerfest, have fun!Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-25096147030419332292016-06-22T12:34:00.001-07:002016-06-22T12:34:56.877-07:00Boy, am I in trouble! (not really, but sort of)I don't know how it started, but once it did it has all kind of snowballed and it's still going.<br /><br />I like cats. Period. I like them a lot. <br />
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I like domestic cats<br />
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I love wild cats, both big...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENm8GvR4EQ7M4Pzo61h4QYViSdCNVHWzC6BjTmK7YB9B83jvneR4v-XD_bLad4Zzv811vQ0MwApFC6PpDWlFxZnFVkCX8Hk3Vpdl4r_NRzYW4xCnytJw7akAT3Mjl08YV9skVX8ywDaj_/s1600/king-cheetah-and-siblings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENm8GvR4EQ7M4Pzo61h4QYViSdCNVHWzC6BjTmK7YB9B83jvneR4v-XD_bLad4Zzv811vQ0MwApFC6PpDWlFxZnFVkCX8Hk3Vpdl4r_NRzYW4xCnytJw7akAT3Mjl08YV9skVX8ywDaj_/s320/king-cheetah-and-siblings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And small...<br />
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I like Siamese cats...<br />
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Bengals...<br />
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And cats with Tortoiseshell markings...although this one may be considered a calico...without seeing more of her body, it's difficult to tell with utmost certainty...<br />
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And cats with unusual markings are just awesome!<br />
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I care very much about cats and their welfare. I'm sure some of you will remember a few weeks back when I blogged about a lady who had two cats she was sure were purebred Siamese and she allowed them to breed. Well, it's happened again. On purpose, again. This time they had 5 kittens and things quickly fell apart after that on the message board.<br />
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But that's not what THIS post is about. THIS post is about me and my problem. I have a co-worker that I'm friends with. She is in another department and they're still at the other building so we communicate at work through emails and after work through Facebook and emails. She has cats. I have cats, but she HAS CATS. Like, 9, I think? She lives in a house and they're well-cared for and she's not a hoarder or anything. She just really likes cats. Anyway, in the past few months, she has lost two of her cats very unexpectedly and in recent weeks she has started looking at shelters online for potential new cats to add to her existing Glaring (a group of cats is a Glaring or a Clowder) and she started sending me names to look on the websites of ones she's interested in. Part of the problem, though, is the distance with which she's willing to travel to get them. She doesn't like to drive so she's missed out on ones that are further away than she wants to drive. So I told her I would drive her to whatever shelter the cat is at. I don't think she took me seriously at first. After all, why would I do something like that? Well, that's just the type of person I am. I think she's finally realizing I'm serious, though, but that's not the point here. The point is, when she gives me a name to check out, I have to look at the other cats. You know, to see what is available. I have 2 cats of my own, as stated earlier. I am very happy with my two cats. But...I still look. And look. And look. Whenever my co-worker gives me a name, I look at what shelter location it's at then look to see if one of the ones I'm interested at is at the same one or I will look for one at the same location. I can't help myself. Even when I'm petting Temecula, I tell myself I don't need another cat and that I should focus on making the lives of my 2 existing ones the best that I can. But then I look at the picture of Del Torro. He's the Bengal shown above. I've never seen a Bengal at a shelter and his adoption fee is low. A couple of shelters have Siamese cats, which are my "heart cat breed". That's kind of like a Heart Horse, but with a breed rather than a specific animal. And they all have tortoiseshells. When I lose a kitty, I don't tend to replicate the color with my next one. I've had 3 Domestic Shorthair cats with grey tabby markings, but none of them have been the same. CC had more of a brown tint. Chevy was grey and black. Abbie is grey and black, but has a lot of white, too. TW was all white and Temecula is white with black splotches. Royal was a ginger tabby so unless I find one someday that is orange and white or "red" and white, it's unlikely I would get another one like that. The only exception to my rule is tortoiseshell cats. I could have a whole clowder of them and they'd all look different. I had a tortie when I was younger. She was with us for close to 21 years. There's one shelter that has one and her name is the same as mine! She's named Brenda, too. And my work friend likes a couple of cats at that shelter. My brother has fond memories of our tortoiseshell so I doubt I'd have a hard time bringing her home and springing her on him. Besides, he's usually in his room and it'd likely be awhile before he even noticed her. My mom likes Siamese, too, and would "understand" when if I brought one home.<br />
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I guess if I took my work friend to a shelter, I could stay out in the waiting area so I wouldn't be tempted to adopt anything, but I think that would be difficult to do so I'm not sure what I'll do. I just wanted "voice" my situation. It helps getting it out there. Just like it helped to gripe to my work friend about the lady who has let her cats breed again. <sigh> <br />
<br />I think it's the heat. Yeah. It must be the heat.<br />
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-56119630857443365582016-05-11T17:44:00.001-07:002016-05-11T17:44:18.592-07:00A HUGE victory for the Wild Ones...<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
We heard that our presence is requested at the State Capitol Please see the following Media Advisory:</div>
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Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and supporters will Celebrate with Horses & Flags at State Capitol celebrating the bill to protect the Salt River Wild Horses</div>
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Phoenix, AZ (May 10, 2016) …. Dozens of Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) members and supporters, including riders on horseback waving flags , will be on 17th avenue in front of the State Capitol in <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">celebration of HB 2340, the bill to protect the Salt River wild horses. The street will be closed to regular traffic.</span></div>
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The advocates will gather in anticipation of a 10:30 am press conference with Rep. Kelly Townsend, the sponsor of the bill, and Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, as well as other very important officials. The bill cleared its final hurdle in the legislature with a 53-3 passage in the House last week. </div>
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What: Celebration for Salt River Wild Horses proceeding press conference. </div>
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When: Wednesday, May 11, 2016, 10 a.m. to Noon</div>
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Where: 17th Avenue, which will be closed off to all other traffic.<br />AZ State Capitol, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ </div>
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HB 2340 criminalizes the harassment or killing of a Salt River wild horse, clarifies that they are not stray livestock, and establishes a process for implementing a humane management program in cooperation with federal, state and local agencies and a private entity.</div>
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The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, with 100 active volunteers on the river, has confidence that all parties will work together to implement an effective and humane management protocol to permanently protect the horses that mean so much to the people of Arizona. </div>
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We did NOT let them become History!</div>
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<br /># # # # # # # </div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today I was proud to sign </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/hb2340?source=feed_text&story_id=902571806531392" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl" style="color: #4267b2;">#</span><span class="_58cm">HB2340</span></a><span style="background-color: white;">, which will protect Arizona's majestic Salt River horses and their ability to roam free. Thanks to Rep. Kelly Townsend and the </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=608134125936016" href="https://www.facebook.com/saltriverwildhorsemanagementgroup/" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Salt River Wild Horse Management Group</a><span style="background-color: white;"> for championing this effort -- and for the beautiful painting!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The fight isn't completely over, though. They still need to come to a management process with the forestry service, who also needs to sign off on the bill, but at least the horses are no longer considered 'stray livestock' and it's illegal to harass them. I hope the bozos I've seen get too close to them see that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is such a great day for the Salt River Wild Horses and if I could, I would hug Governor Ducey. I didn't vote for him, but right now he's my hero. Thank you, Representative Townsend for sponsoring the bill and Governor Ducey for signing the bill into law. And a great big thank you to Simone Netherlands and the dozens of SRWHMG volunteers who worked tirelessly to protect our horses. If I had known this was going to happen today I would have gone down to the Capitol Building to show my support. I think it's great they shut down the road in front of it for the celebration.</span></div>
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-40877160540243134932016-05-06T14:34:00.001-07:002016-05-06T14:34:43.707-07:00I'm no horse expert...Certainly not when it comes to colors and genetics, but how can someone say this horse...<br />
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is the same breed as this one?<br />
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Now, let me start by saying, it's a shame the first horse is missing and I hope he's recovered soon. Too many horses are disappearing these days and some have been found after it's too late. I don't want his disappearance to get overshadowed by the fact that I'm questioning how they can say he is an Akhal Teke. He is built wrong. Akhal Tekes are known for their slenderness. Some are just down-right skinny<br />
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but that's how the breed is. I believe the KHP <u>does</u> have one, but I believe he lives on-sight and I get the impression the missing one is from a private farm. So tell me, people. Can the missing horse be an Akhal Teke? Is it just a more stockier example of the breed? If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he was a stock horse of some sort. Or a cross of something. He just seems to be too square to be an Akhal Teke. His head is proportionate to the rest of his body. He has a thick neck. Two things not characteristic of the AT. Not to mention Akhal Tekes don't seem to come in Tobiano. Sabino and Rabicano markings have been seen in some, but not anything flashy like the horse in the flyer.<br />
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At any rate, I really hope they find this guy soon. I'm sure his people are worried about his welfare.<br />
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Speaking of welfare...yesterday some wild animals celebrated two victories. The State Senate past SB2340, which helps protect the Salt River Wild Horses and it now goes to the governor to be signed into law. This law would help protect the herd and develop a management program to reduce the breeding of them. Right now they breed whenever they want and however often they want so any time of year you might see a foal or two. It's not something that will protect them 100% yet, but it's pretty darn close. Yesterday was also the day the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to grant the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center a Special Use permit that would allow them to continue to give public tours. A few months ago, a man who moved into the neighborhood in 2012 filed a lawsuit against the facility stating they were operating a zoo illegally and he wanted them to stop giving tours or the county needed to PAVE the dirt road that leads to his house. ALL of the roads out there are dirt. He also wanted the facility to get rid of the coyotes and wolves they have because they howled and disturbed his peace and quiet. He doesn't even live there full time! Anyway, SWCC is an official part of the Grey Wolf reintroduction program and they have a fairly decent number of wolves on-site that are valuable to the population. Fortunately, he was just one person against the center AND the other neighbors. It was actually one of their neighbors that started the petition to get the special use permit. The center has been there for more than 20 years and should not be forced out because of one person. But apparently he dropped his lawsuit against the facility and, as I mentioned earlier, the Board of Supervisors voted to give them the permit. The guy, who is a dentist or doctor or something, now has 15 days to appeal this decision, but he dropped the lawsuit so why would he file an appeal? Hopefully he saw he was up against a whole bunch of support for the facility and knew he couldn't win. I don't know. But for now, much of Arizona (and beyond since this reached all around the world) is rejoicing that SWCC can continue doing what they do best and that is to rescue injured or orphaned animals, nurse them back to health then release them back into the wild. HURRAY!<br />
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Well, that's it for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend.<br />
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-7737887169466288662016-05-05T07:52:00.001-07:002016-05-05T07:52:56.378-07:00So much cuteness!It's hard not to go into sugar shock. Hahahaha. Recently, I saw a message on a co-worker/friend's Facebook page about a whole mess of Cheetah kittens at Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia. On March 21st, Milani gave birth to 2 males and a female. On April 1st (perfect day to have Cheetahs born <grin> ), Vaila gave birth to 7 kittens. <u>7</u>!!!! That only happens 1% of the time. Most litters are around 4 or 5 and even 5 is getting a bit unusual. Unfortunately, 2 did not survive, but the remaining 5 are thriving. But they weren't done yet. On April 2nd, Wiay gave birth to 6 cubs, which only happens 8% of the time. Only 5 of those survived. There must be something in that Virginia air, though, that is causing these larger litter. The National Zoo in Washington DC has a breeding program for Cheetahs and the facility is in Virginia and they've been having larger than average litters, too.<br />
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Breeding Cheetahs in captivity is a difficult task. In the wild, it's the females who decide which males they are going to mate with and they can be fairly picky with who they want to spend some quality time with. Only about 18% of cheetahs in captivity breed successfully. When I worked as a volunteer at the Phoenix Zoo in the early 90s, they were trying to get theirs to breed, but were unsuccessful so they had a program called Cheetah Watch where basically you'd sit on the hill overlooking their exhibit and watch them and take notes on their behavior and such. It was a popular program so I never got a chance to participate. Eventually, though, their Cheetahs did produce some babies. So anyway, because the females decide who they're going to mate with, zoos have to have a number of males for her to choose from and most facilities don't have the room to do that. At the time, the Phoenix Zoo had two adjoining exhibit spaces where they kept them. The female was in one yard and the males were in the other. There are 3 facilities that have had huge successes in breeding them, but they have a separate location from the main zoo for their breeding program and the public is not allowed there, which is a real shame, but I guess I can understand the reasoning behind it. Cheetahs are shy and somewhat timid animals and by having too many people around it stresses them out and it might affect the breeding program.<br />
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So, anyway, the Metro Richmond Zoo has some webcams set up in the dens of their female Cheetahs and I had forgotten about it until I saw it on my friend's Facebook wall so I had to check it out, of course. Man, what a time sucker! hahaha. I could watch them all day because they're so cute! And, well, I really like Cheetahs and even if there weren't any babies I'd still watch it. But I'd like to share some screen captures I got. Just so you can share in the cuteness.<br />
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First we have Milani and her 3...<br />
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And then we have Vaila's litter. I don't know where in the den area this is and I don't know where Vaila is, but her kittens area all dog-piled together.<br />
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So cute! I just checked the cam again and there was Vaila and her kittens are more spread out<br />
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The Phoenix Zoo currently has 3 male Cheetahs that are brothers. In the wild, the females are solitary unless they have babies, but the males form groups called Coalitions. Usually they're brothers, but occasionally they will accept a non-related male into their group. Unfortunately, these ones are not part of any breeding program, which is a bummer. Our last two, also brothers, weren't in the program either. There's one other facility in Arizona, Wildlife World Zoo, which is in West Phoenix, also has an unrelated male and female pair that they imported from a facility in South Africa. Since they're housed together, only time will tell if they end up producing any babies. WWZ doesn't participate in the Species Survival Program, but they don't do anything to prevent breeding. Those 2 have been at the zoo for a couple of years now, I think, and I have yet to go out and see them. I just don't really like that place. It's dirty and they don't enforce the No Smoking law so you see people walking around with cigarettes. One of these days, though, I'll go see them.<br />
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Well, we have officially had our first triple digit temperature. Yesterday the official high at Sky Harbor Airport was 101. Yikes! It's "only" supposed to reach 98 today, but something tells me it's going to be above that. It's too soon! It's supposed to cool down for a couple of days this weekend, but I'll believe it when I see it.<br />
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Until next time...<br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-29412424660549699932016-04-25T12:15:00.000-07:002016-04-25T12:17:09.071-07:00A good day for a trail ride...or maybe not...Because I couldn't motivate myself to make lunch for work today, I had to go out to get something that is more nutritious, even if it's only slightly so, than what's available in the snack machines here at work. Having decided on McDonald's, I went through the drive-thru and as I came out the other side, it had occurred to me that it'd been awhile since I'd driven through my "horse neighborhood". I was in no big hurry to get back to work and I was "right there" so why not? It's a gorgeous day today. Not to hot. A nice breeze. Oh wait. Scratch that. It wasn't breezy, it was actually quite windy. It was still nice out, though, and soon enough I'd have to go back to the office where the thermostat is kept too low and we get froze. Appreciated during the hot summer months, but not so much in the winter. Most of the time when I visit this neighborhood, I don't see anyone out on horseback, which is a shame. They have some trails that go between houses...<br />
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They even have a community equestrian park with a decent sized arena complete with low jumps and a nice big field<br />
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Surprisingly, I've only seen the park used 1 1/2 times in the 2 or so years since I found out about this place. Now, I say a 1/2 time because I didn't actually see her using it because she was on her way to the hospital after having a fall. I saw and heard (through my scanner) the aftermath. The police investigating the fall since it happened on city property and an officer going to her house to notify anyone who might be home of what happened. I don't know how seriously she was hurt, but hopefully not too bad. I also heard on my scanner them requesting the assistance of the mounted unit to come down with their trailer and help with the horse. They then canceled that because a neighbor came over to get the horse. Now, before you question or wonder, no, I don't go driving around in my car, chasing calls I hear on my scanner. I was already in the area and curiosity got the better of me. Two things that always jump out at me when I'm listening to my scanner: anything to do with a horse and when a specific Tempe fire truck gets called out. My neighborhood only has one station so whenever I hear Engine 275, I listen to make sure they aren't going to my house. And the one time they have? I didn't hear it. hahaha. I didn't have my scanner on at work that day. Which is probably good because I would've been freaking out. My brother thought he was having a stroke. He was eventually diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, but at the time, half his face was frozen and he was worried so he called for a ride to the hospital because he didn't want to drive. <br />
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ANYWAY...so I drove around a bit more, taking random photos. This house, I was hoping to get a shot of the horses, but the owner was out in the corral, doing something with what appeared to be jump standards so I took a picture of the trail sign instead<br />
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I HAVE seen someone from this house going to the park to use the arena, which is really close, but I don't know that she actually lives there because there was an extra trailer in the driveway and the 2 horses that I've seen there before were still in their yard so it may have been a friend who asked if they could come over and park on their property.<br />
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And then there's this trailer...<br />
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Every time I am in the area, it's there. It's never gone. Granted, I'm not there 7 days a week, only during lunch time, which is probably why I never see anyone at the park, but since it's hooked up to the truck, does that mean whoever owns/drives the truck takes the trailer wherever they go? Also, I have never seen anyone using the trails. A lot of these houses that have horse property and actually still have horses, why are they never out riding when I'm around? That's why I'm there...in hopes of seeing horses somewhere other than their corrals...that and looking at the nice houses. Not all of them are nice, but there are some great ones that I enjoy looking at. Oh well.<br />
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I figure one of the reasons for there not being anyone out on such a nice day is because of the wind. Wind causes things to move and we all know how horses react when things start moving unexpectedly. <br />
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The only drawback to my little drives is my lunch being cold by the time I get back to my desk, but today, with the weather being as nice as it was (I had both front windows down), it was worth it.<br />
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On Friday Breyer sent an email for a contest to win a Ram model.<br />
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His name is Rodney and they only made 40 of them so it was a micro-run. Since I'm an Aries and I like Bighorn Sheep, I entered all three days for him, but unfortunately I didn't win one. Oh well. I'll survive, I suppose. hahahaha. It seems like the only time I win these contests is when I am entering for someone else.<br />
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Well, I guess I'd better get back to work. Yay. At least it's more than half over.<br />
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<br />Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-70421595096427894662016-04-21T12:48:00.001-07:002016-04-21T12:50:54.499-07:00Shannondell...What do you know...I'm still here. Hahaha. I just haven't had much to say lately so rather than blog more about healthcare and health problems, I didn't blog about anything. I will say, since I blogged about it specifically before, that I'm nearing the end of a horrendous journey through the medical mine field. Apparently Aetna thought it would be a good idea to have me off work without pay for 2 weeks and take all of my Paid Time Off. I only just discovered this on Tuesday when I checked my bank balance online and saw it was significantly below what it should have been. Unfortunately, I won't get the missing money until next payday, which is next week, and I was supposed to have the days reversed to get them back into my time off, but instead I ended up in the negative two additional days. I'll give them a couple of days to see if they straighten that out and then I'll call again. The money is more important than the days off anyway, but both are mine so I should have both.<br />
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Anyway, so today Breyer released an image of the 2nd Premier Club model...kind of odd since we haven't even gotten our FIRST model yet and last year (the first year I was in the club) they posted a hint, not the entire thing. Initially I was going to offer it to someone who said they wanted both, but I think I may keep him because he looks pretty neat. And last year I only kept one of the 3 models and that was only because I couldn't find someone to buy that one. hahaha.<br />
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So, the new model is a new sculpt of a Clydesdale by a famous artist in the hobby and you have to choose which version you want. There's the typical plaited version so common with the breed, especially when in shows or whatever<br />
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Very nice model. The shading is beautifully done and the dapples look nice, too. And then there's the "free-flowing" version<br />
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That's the version I picked. I don't know why, I just like him better with the free-flowing mane and tail. The order form didn't use a drop-down menu for picking which one you wanted, you just typed it into the box, but when you hit "submit", an image of the plaited version came up so there's concern about that (not just me, but other collectors had the same issue) so I sent an email to Breyer to ask about that. He won't be available until August, but I guess they need to know how many of each to make so they're requesting that we reserve our pick now. I hope the actual model looks as good as the prototype, but that can be a crapshoot.<br />
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Yesterday I had the day off and had intended to go to the zoo, but then my knee decided it wasn't having any of that so I went off looking for wild horses and I found a couple of bands. As I was driving down to Butcher Jones (just about everyone in the free country knows they hang out there so no point in keeping it secret), I saw some coming up from the wash so I "met" them by the beach. They went in for some water then moved on down to the OHV trail. It was kind of weird because suddenly there was a lot of movement and then some clouds of dust and they came running back. At least, I thought it was them coming back, but I quickly realized it was a different band. The first group must've startled the second one as they came out for water. Well, later on that afternoon I went back to Butcher Jones and saw that BOTH bands were hanging out together in the water. They weren't really mingling, but they were both there together<br />
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The two on the right (grey and bay) and some of the others are part of the grey's band which includes my favorite mare Sapphire with her adorable weanling Diamond. The band stallion is Shadowfax. I don't know the names of the others, unfortunately, and I wouldn't swear to having ever seen them before. I'll have to look at my other pictures from Butcher Jones. If I've seen them before, it was before the foal was born. I had my big camera and I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven't downloaded them, yet. I'm hoping this one picture I took turned out as good as it looked to me. A stallion from "Band 2" was standing on the beach and was looking up towards my camera and all you could see behind him was the water and mountains. I need to get those pictures uploaded soon. I was going to do it today, but lacked the motivation. hahaha.<br />
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Well, I guess that's it for now. Our temperatures are starting to get into the 90s now and we've had to run the air conditioner a couple of times. Nothing major, just for an hour or two when the house temperature reached 86 or 87. 86 degrees is our "magic number" for when it's time to turn it on, but I've been known to turn it on at 85 when it's been particularly warm. It won't be long, though, before it'll have to be on all the time. Until next time!<br />
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<br />Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-77405729258152297312016-04-06T07:08:00.002-07:002016-04-06T07:08:47.176-07:00Being broken really sucks...**Warning** The first part of this is a rant about my knee issues, but then there's more fun stuff after that. :)<br />
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Not broke, although that sucks too, but brokEN. As in mind or body or even spirit, I guess. But in this situation, I'm talking body. For the past couple of months I have been dealing with some kind of injury to my left leg. It started at work when I got up from my desk one day to go to the printer and felt sharp pain in my knee. Holy moly did it hurt! But being the type of person that I am, I ignored it and hoped it would go away. The pain, that is, not my knee. hahaha. But it didn't go away. In fact, the pain gradually got worse. I went to an Urgent Care facility, but my blood pressure was real high and so all the PA cared about was me going to the ER to have it looked into. I don't have high blood pressure so I blew it off and went home. And still the pain continued. So I went to a different Urgent Care place and while my BP was still elevated, they weren't all fire and brimstone like the first place and ordered x-rays and gave me a prescription for Vicodin as well as a shot for pain...which did absolutely nothing for the pain. In the meantime, the pain had gone from the knee to a more traveling kind. In the morning it would start in my shin and by mid-morning it would be in my knee. By the end of the day it was in my hip and thigh area. It was terrible and I was taking more and more pain meds to alleviate it, which caused my BP to go up. Well, around about the time I went to the 2nd urgent care place, I started to get sick and that's how I ended up in the ER that day. I had been on my way to work, but I couldn't breathe because I was so congested and I couldn't walk because my knee hurt so much so I stopped at the ER in hopes of getting a breathing treatment or something. My BP was really high so they wouldn't let me go home. I have since seen a new Primary Care Doctor, who ordered x-rays of my knee and now I'm waiting to hear the results. I have access to my medical records online, but the x-rays haven't shown up yet and I'm beginning to think they're not going to. Next week I have a follow-up appointment so I may not know until then, which sucks.<br />
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And now we get to the point of this blog post. During this time, the annual Arabian show came to town. I took a day off from work so I could go, but I ended up having to "cancel" (I wasn't going with anyone) because it was a bad knee day. This past Saturday there was a Dressage festival in town. Yay! An opportunity to photograph a horse that wasn't Arabian or stock-type. But guess what? My knee hurt. Oh, and by now I'd progressed to using a cane to help me walk and when I go to the grocery store I use an electric scooter. Because of my weight I've never been super duper active or athletic, but certainly a lot more than what I've been reduced to now! The doctor suggested a pain medicine "schedule"...take certain drugs at certain times of the day...so as to stay ahead of the pain rather than wait for it to hit. I've been using it off and on and it does help some, but not always. Sometimes it just depends on how active I am during the day at work. When I have to move around a lot (getting up and down from my desk), the pain meds wear off quicker. At least the traveling pain has stopped and it's now just mostly in my knee and hip/thigh area, but I'm just so ready for this pain to be gone, you know? I had to miss an important meeting thing at work yesterday that we're all required to attend, but there would've been no way I could've walked from my work area to the conference room where it was, even with the help of a cane. So I went to my supervisor and explained to him the issue and he said I could reschedule it or look into doing a webinar, if that's available. He didn't seem too concerned about my not being able to attend, which is good.<br />
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So, this past Friday was my birthday. The big 46. Woohoo! hahahah. I took a couple of days off from work. On Friday I just hung out at home. We cooked a Ribeye Roast, which was totally nummy. I am easy to please. One day a year I require Prime Rib and that is on my birthday. Usually we go get something from Outback Steakhouse, but this past Christmas we'd made a real nice roast in the over for a fraction of the cost of the 3 of us eating out so that's what we did. We actually made 2 roasts because my brother wanted to use some of the left-overs for tacos and I wanted to make sure we had regular left-overs. Other than that, the day was nothing special. On Saturday was laundry and Sunday was our weekly grocery shopping. Monday, though, Monday was <u><strong>my</strong></u> day and I spent it out looking for wild horses. And boy howdy did I find some, including a rare treat. I finally saw my little mare Scarlett again for the first time in more than a year. The last time I saw her she was with Marty and Orion, but then she was pilched by another band stallion, who impregnated her, but somehow Orion got her back and now they have a cute little family of three. I don't know where Marty is, but I imagine he's running with another bachelor herd. I feel kind of bad for him since Scarlett was originally "his" and now his second in command has her. Oh well. That's how it works with wild horses. Anyway, I was driving along the road to the recreation site I used to see the Bachelor 4 + 1 all the time and I looked to my left and almost slammed on my breaks. I was so excited to see them. I'm a little bummed that Scarlett didn't seem to recognize me or wasn't curious about me like she has been in the past, but that's probably a good thing. It keeps her safer. Needless to say, I took a bunch of pictures. Most of them are on my big camera, but I took a couple with my cell phone.<br />
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Scarlett is the grey in the back and her colt, whom I'm calling Khasper for now, is in the foreground. I'm surprised he still has so much of his winter coat considering how warm it's been.<strong>
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After leaving there I went out of the area to do some other things, but then came back for another drive-through. All of the horses that had been there before were now gone, which was a bummer. I'd hoped to see Scarlett again, but I'm glad I saw her Monday.<br />
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They are doing road work on Bush Highway as well as resurfacing it so in one part, there's only one lane of traffic going through so you have to sit there and wait for your turn. What a pain in the arse that is, but sometimes it's a little interesting. Like them allowing a few cars to pass to our right at the Saguaro Lake turn-off. <br />
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The box on my dashboard is my scanner. Because the area is kind of canyon-ish, I don't always pick up transmissions in this area, but there was a cell phone tower at the marina so I got the best cell phone reception. hahaha. After the fiasco with the dead battery a few weeks ago I've thought about going to a regular carrier (I have Cricket right now) in hopes that I would get better reception at the recreation sites, but I don't know if I would or not. It's not like I can get a phone then take it out to where I go and see if there's reception then bring it back if it's not good enough. So I'm hesitant to change providers. <br />
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A horse trailer passed to the left<br />
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The last time I was out here a trailer passed by and a horse had his head stuck out the window. I was so mad to see that. People can be real stupid. Do they not realize something could injure his eye? There wasn't even a fly mask on to help protect his eyes. Aaaaargh. Idiot.<br />
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So then I went back to Butcher Jones (I'd been there earlier in the morning) and as soon as I got closer to the beach area, I saw some horses near the water so I pulled over to the loading area and started snapping away. Then, as I was leaving, some of them had moved to the inner part of the site so I had to stop and take more pictures<br />
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Again, most of my pictures were taken with my good camera and these are just cell phone shots. A couple of the foals kept playing around, but then Diamond decided he'd had enough and stuck by Mom, but the other foal kept racing around. I was worried he'd get hit by a car, but he stayed within the dirt area. He kept kicking up his heals and having a grand ol time. It was cute to watch.<br />
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Well, on Friday my unit moves across the street so our work area is full of big, yellow totes to pack our desks into. I haven't even started yet. hahaha. I might put a few things in today, though. We'll see.<br />
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I guess that's it for now.<br />
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-243595260755635382016-03-26T18:06:00.002-07:002016-03-26T18:06:36.673-07:00Safe for animals, but not humans?<div>*disclaimer* This post may read something like an editorial. That is not the intention. It's more of thinking out loud and wondering story of thing.</div><div><br />
</div>I was reading a horse-related blog that is out of Oregon. The author details her trail rides and adventures with her horse on the different trails in her area. I have never seen this blog before so there's "a lot" of reading, although I'll admit right now I'm mostly looking at pictures. I spend a lot of time at work looking at multiple computer monitors so I like to have a variety of background images to make it a little more enjoyable. I have a folder on my hard drive that is full of different scenic pictures that include lakes, mountains, lighthouses and pictures taken from the back of a horse where either the top part of the head, ears included, is visible or more of the head is also in the image, along with a scenic vista or a tree-lined trail or lake. I like these photos because it gives the feeling that I'm the one in the saddle, looking at these beautiful views. But that's not the point to this, just a little off-shoot of why I was looking at pictures more than readi the text. However, every now and then I would read the text if I was interested in more information about what was in the picture and that's what brings me to this...<div><br />
</div><div>If it's not safe for human consumption, is it safe for animals...?</div><div><br />
</div><div>Water, specifically.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The blog author mentions a trailhead with a camp you can use with horses and there's a stock tank with a sign saying to boil the water for human consumption. That go me to thinking...Most of us drink bottled water, either because our city water isn't safe to drink or it plain just doesn't taste good, but we don't usually give a second thought to giving city water to our pets. Further investigation led me to the reason tap water usually isn't safe for humans and that is the addition of Fluoride. Now, there's a small degree of natural fluoride in the water coming from our faucets, but when the water goes through the treatment facility, more fluoride is added, supposedly for the benefit of our teeth. The problem with that is, though, is that fluoridated water is not safe for drinking because it causes health problems over time, but it also causes health problems in animals so why do we mindlessly just fill our pets' water dish from the sink or toss a hose in the horse's water trough? I'm not suggesting we all start giving our precious furred family members bottled water, but I'm just curious about why "they" say it's not fit for human consumption, maybe it probably is it safe for our animals, either. Some people don't think twice about feeding our four-legged friends food that they don't feel is safe for them (people) to eat. My own mother can be like that, in fact. Personally, I don't subscribe to that type of thinking. If I feel that my dinner could potentially make me I'll, why would I give it to my dog? Sure, it probably won't make my dog sick, but I just don't think if you aren't willing to eat it yourself because it might be a little "gamey", don't give it to your pet. That does not, however, include regular ol table scraps that are leftover from dinner. If you couldn't finish your Maple Mustard Chicken Breast and have a few bites leftover, why let it go to waste? Hahahaha.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So, back before Christmas, I considered buying a Keurig brewer. Not because I really like coffee because I don't. Can't stand it and sometimes it makes me ill. No. I wanted it for the ability to make hot chocolate, iced tea and soup. I wanted it for my desk at work. I kept seeing ads for it and of course when I'm in the store, all those fun little boxes of K-Cups. But I got to thinking that maybe I wouldn't use it as much and talked myself out of it. Well, as with many purchases I am contemplating, I only forget about it briefly and then my brain keeps hitting me with "Come on, Brenda, you know you want to buy it." And next thing I know, I'm noticing that Walmart has the K10 Mini on sale. But I don't buy it. I try to ignore it. That lasts all of one or two days and before long I'm looking at different websites that carry it and seeing if I could find it cheaper. I ended up at Amazon and they had one for almost $10 less than Walmart. Total score. Except, it was only certain colors. If I bought the color I REALLY wanted, which was teal, then it would cost me about $30 more than Walmart, which makes no sense, but whatever. Anyway, before I could stop myself, I bought one. And some K-Cups. And since then, I've been on a K-Cup spending spree. Oops. I think I have enough for now, though. I did buy some flavored coffees, but after trying just a sip of one of them, I found some people to RAK them to and got rid of them as quickly as possible. I have my machine sitting on my desk at work and so far, nobody has told me I can't have it, but just yesterday I learned that someone on the CAT team has one as well. Theirs is one of the bigger ones, though, I think. Mine is the smallest you can get and takes up less room than my computer tower. On Wednesday, I had brewed a pod of Mudslide flavored coffee for a co-worker. I'd kept one of each flavor back when packing them up for mailing and told her if she found a flavor she really liked, she could bring them in and I'd brew them for her. If she wants tea or cocoa, she can have one of mine, but if she wants coffee, she has to provide her own since I won't drink it. Anyway, one of our QA people apparently noticed I had it and pointed it out to one of the others, who then came to me the next day and asked if I'd gotten an email from our supervisor about it because when he'd come into the office after D had said to E about the Keurig, she said T was here and she needed to talk to him and rushed off. E assumed D was going to tattle about my Keurig and so wanted to give me a heads-up about it. E figured T would send me an email to get rid of it and I told her I'd hope T would check with facilities about it first. At the other location, it would be considered contraband and the cleaning people had been told to keep an eye out for it and report as necessary, but that building had different management. Where we are now, and even when we move across the street, </div>is owned by our parent company. At any rate, I've had it on my desk for a week now and there've been no emails from my supervisor and none from facilities so until it happens, I'll keep it at my desk. If there comes a time they say I can't have it, I'll just take it home and use it there. In the meantime, I have been making a list of what flavored teas pair well with each other. The main drawback to the K10 mini is that you can't use a real big cup. The drip tray comes out, but you're still limited to the height of the cup/mug you use. Well, the first time I used the machine, I was going to make Snapple Lemon Iced Tea. Then, for some reason that escapes me now, I decided to make some Lipton Sweet Iced Tea and add that to the Snapple Lemon. It was actually quite good. But another experiment of Lipton Berry and Telley Iced Passion (or something like that), wasn't quite as good so I'm keeping notes of which go well together. I have also tried the Campbell's Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup and while it's not as good as the canned stuff, it's not bad. Like mentioned before, I've been buying a lot of K-Cups and some have been in sampler packs and I haven't gotten around to trying any of the hot teas yet.<br />
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I guess this is going to be a long post, I'm sorry. If you're bored, feel free to move on because my next part is a bit of a complaint. About healthcare.<br />
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Now that I'm on blood pressure medicine, I kind of have to find a new Primary Care. I left my last two due to differences in opinion in my care. I am tired of doctors not listening to me and helping with the issue that brought me to their office to begin with. I looked up some doctors in my network to call and the first one, it took forever to get through to anyone on the phone because they put me on hold almost immediately. When I finally got a new patient scheduler and told him what I wanted to see the doctor for, he asked a couple of questions then said it sounded like I needed a more urgent appointment than what he could provide and when I thanked him for his time, he pretty much hung up on me. Yeah. I don't need that. The second place I called I was put on hold with as well, but for a shorter time and I was able to get an appointment for this past Thursday. I arrived for my appointment ahead of the scheduled time and asked to use the rest room. When I was coming out, the nurse grabbed me and I was put in an exam room. Wow. That was fast. I don't think I've ever been put in a room so quickly and when I was early for an appointment. She gave me the new patient stuff to fill out then we got down to business. She asked me a boatload of questions, took some vitals then said a medical student would be with me shortly. A couple of minutes later, Amanda came in. She asked a bunch of questions as well, many of them the same as the nurse. Then the doctor came in. He asked the same questions then started talking about blood tests and do I want a flu shot and when was the last time I had a tetanus booster and when was my last dental exam and why did I have a bone density scan in 2010? Blah blah blah. Theh also kept asking about my diet. The doctor started talking about seeing a nutritionist. I told him I was following Weight Watchers so thanks, but no thanks. He kept talking up the nutritionist, though, and saying how great she was and how so many people who saw her ended up satisfied. Blah blah blah. I finally agreed to a referral just to get him to stop. Most doctors, in my experience, when they hear you're on some kind of program, especially WW, are satisfied and let the matter drop, but not this guy. The only thing that kept him from running a boatload of blood tests was finding out the hospital had already done them two weeks ago. Was it really two weeks? Yeah, I guess it was. Wow. And because it was done through a hospital the medical office was affiliated, they were able to access the results online. He said my A1C was a little high and might need to put me on diabetes drugs. I'm going to question that if he brings it up again because I'm just barely over. I think the max number should be 6.6 and I'm at 6.7 so it's just barely. But my reason for questioning it is this...once they put you on it, any test they do for diabetes will be affected by the medication so how do they know it's okay to take you off? I don't know. So, what did the doctor do for me? Not much. He upped the dosage of my BP drug, which is standard, and changed it to a different drug because the stuff I'd been taking was causing me to cough quite a bit as well as a couple of other side affects. He ordered X-rays, which I had done right away so hopefully I can finally get this knee thing sorted out. Unfortunately, by the time I got home, I could barely walk because the imaging center had me twisted into a pretzel. And I didn't have to drop off a prescription because they sent it electronically, which was nice. What he wouldn't do, though, was give me more pain drugs, instead suggesting a "management schedule" so I hopefully stay ahead of the pain rather than wait for the pain to happen to take something for it. I will start that on Monday since my weekdays are more structured than the weekends. He also told me I can add Ibuprofen to it as a way to "break up" the Acetaminophen dosages. Now that I'm taking the BP meds, apparently it's "safe" to take Ibuprofen in lower dosages. I asked for something stronger than Vicodin and was told no. Not on the first appointment. Okay. How about another one for Vicodin. Nope. Not on the first appointment. So, once again, the people who've abused narcotic pain relievers make it so those who need it, can't get it. I will ask again at my second appointment.<br />
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So, I don't know if I found a new doctor or not. At the moment, it doesn't look too good, but I'll give him another chance. I should know by my next appointment in two weeks.<br />
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Tomorrow is Easter. Not doing anything exciting. No special meal. No hunting for eggs. Mom and I will do our weekly shopping. Very exciting. Hahaha. If you are doing something special, I hope you have a nice time. <br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-3895664164486271962016-03-23T09:39:00.001-07:002016-03-23T09:39:44.654-07:00We're on the move again...my work unit, that is...I don't know if I mentioned it before and I'm too lazy to go back through previous posts to see, but my unit is moving...again. We've always known it was a possibility, even when we were moving to our current location almost 2 years ago. But we went from "We may be moving or we may not." to "We will be moving in May or June-ish". That announcement I missed because I was out of the office and nobody told me. But then May or June-ish turned into "We're moving April 8th". I missed that notification, too. We've known the location of our new space since the confirmation that we were moving to, but not what our furniture would look like or even the exact spot. We didn't know if we were going to get actual desks or if it was going to be like a bull pen situation where there's just a bunch of work stations set up. Apparently that's what our parent company is pushing for everywhere. The problem with that, though, is that my unit has rather sensitive duties that other units/associates aren't privy to. We pay the bills and need some privacy and couldn't see how putting us in a large, open area would protect the privacy of our vendors like their tax ID numbers. We sometimes have a hard enough time getting that just so we can pay them. Anyway, our supervisor was very vehemently against bull pen seating and assured us he was fighting against it. When I had a 1 on 1 with him last week I told him to tell them to send us back to Pima, where we worked for 6 years before our current location. Our desks were still there and were mostly unoccupied. The people who were taking up a couple of the locations could easily move back to their own units as there's no reason for them to be in that area. Anyway, he said he planned to use that as a last-ditch effort.<br />
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Well, yesterday we got the seating chart. All but 4 of us are getting regular desks and while they're modifying a bull pen area for a group within our unit, I'm glad I don't have to sit there and can have my own space.<br />
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Modified Bull Pen<br />
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There'd still be room to put up pictures and they have locking drawers and fairly tall walls. Better than what was being described to us. This is where Recovery and some of our Vendor team is going.<br />
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What the big surprise is what our desks look like. I'd overheard someone say they were larger than what we currently have, but what I didn't expect was how much larger. Here is my current desk...<br />
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Not all of it is viewable because I didn't want to go into the "hallway" to get both monitors and the rest, but it gives you an idea of its size, I'm sure. It's not huge. But the new desks...boy howdy!<br />
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What AM I going to do with all that extra space? I already see I can put my Keurig in the corner to the left. I may want to get a little cover for it, though. I still don't know that I'm allowed to have it, but it's been about a week now and I haven't been told it's contraband. And it looks like whoever is sitting there has some sort of fan or air filter under the desk. The only problem I can see is that the outlets aren't up at desk level like we have now since our computer towers sit on our desks. In fact, I can't even see the tower in this picture so maybe it's one of the older ones that sits on the floor. My Keurig has a short plug so there maybe a small issue with that. I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, the above picture is not my desk because someone is currently sitting there, but it's what the desks look like. Those are BIG desks. We don't need that much room, but I think I will survive. hahahaha. So, we're moving in about 2 weeks. This will be the...6th? 7th? time I've moved since starting in 2001. I lost track. Currently our neighbors are the CAT (catastrophe) team and New Loss and while we know New Loss is moving with us, we don't know where to. Even <u>they</u> don't know. Their manager knows, but for whatever reason she hasn't given that information to her people. Maybe she wants to avoid what my unit did...spend the morning going over there to look it over. Who knows, but some of them are a little annoyed they haven't been told yet. I'm just hoping they're not super close to us because it can get annoying listening to them on the phones sometimes. <br />
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So, yesterday some recycling plant near the airport caught fire. Last I heard, they didn't know what caused it, but they may have found out by now. It caused a lot of smoke and made the sky look cloudy. I live about 6.7 miles from the incident and could see the smoke pretty well from the house<br />
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Then I went to get dinner and went an additional 2 miles north of the fire and it was still pretty noticeable.<br />
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I couldn't really smell anything burning, but other people said they could. I don't know if it's out yet because recycle plant fires tend to burn for a few days due to all the fuel plus we've been having some gusty winds which make putting out the fire difficult. There's at least one gas station in the area and the local news spoke with one of the workers on the phone and she was concerned that the fire would impact the gas station and was waiting to be told to evacuate, but I don't know that that ever happened. Okay, so I just looked it up and the fire is 100% but there's still some hot spots so it's still burning a little.<br />
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Well, I guess I'd better get back to work. Yay! hahaha. Until next time.<br />
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Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-41836896190450416272016-03-10T17:23:00.000-07:002016-03-11T10:54:25.917-07:00The day the Wild Horses got me into trouble...Or maybe it was my scanner...<div><br />
</div><div>Yesterday I headed off for work since being out sick Monday and Tuesday, but when I stopped to get some gas and some breakfast, I was feeling a little jittery and light-headed so I decided to take another day off. I should have just turned around and went back home, but I didn't. That was a mistake.</div><div><br />
</div><div>After checking for horses at the first spot, I decided to go to another and just relax. Maybe have a little nap. I parked. Turned the engine off. Reclined my seat a bit and just relaxed. I guess about an hour passed and I woke up to the sound of my scanner making strange noises. I looked at it and it kept turning off and on. That was unusual. Well, I should get moving anyway so I turned the key and...nothing. Uh oh. Tried it again. Still nothing. I waited awhile, but got the same results so next step would be to call roadside service, right? Hahahaha. Silly, Brenda, don't you know you're in a bit of a canyon? You're not going to get cell service there. Well, the main road is nearby so I could walk up there and see if I get cell reception. Nope. Silly, silly, Brenda. So I sat down on the guardrail and watched for a deputy sheriff to drive by that I can flag down. There's a station about a mile and a half away and I see them driving back and forth all the time. So I wait. And wait. And wait. Murphy's Law, don't you know. There's never a cop around when you need one. Well, my next option was to take a risk and ask someone at the rec site for help. A mini van had pulled in and there were two women there. Yes! I walked over and asked them if they got a signal on their cell phone. Neither one had a phone, but their husbands would be back shortly and maybe one of them could help. Fortunately, they had a set of jumper cables so we tried to jump start my car. Nope. Wouldn't even try to start. First guy had no cell service, but the other guy did so I was able to call for assistance. Have you ever tried calling for roadside service when you don't know exactly where you are? All I could do was tell him which rec site I was at and the name of the road it was on and what major landmarks to use. Oh, and I couldn't give them a cell number as a call-back because I didn't get any service.</div><div><br />
</div><div>While I was waiting, I caught some movement in the trees and then a couple of wild horses came trotting up from the river then off "into the trees".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dsii2v9s9x4/VuHyxzgTENI/AAAAAAAAD20/6so8JM_ptC0tPQC_Rss-FGYa8JqXEXyHw/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dsii2v9s9x4/VuHyxzgTENI/AAAAAAAAD20/6so8JM_ptC0tPQC_Rss-FGYa8JqXEXyHw/s320/image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VAEaUcks_q4/VuHyx-K40kI/AAAAAAAAD20/4wW9npcYdh8Z_VYYnjilLLsbiz1qp9vhA/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VAEaUcks_q4/VuHyx-K40kI/AAAAAAAAD20/4wW9npcYdh8Z_VYYnjilLLsbiz1qp9vhA/s320/image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div>The tow truck came all the way from Sunflower, which is a good 30 miles, but he still made it within a reasonable time frame. Tried to use a portable unit to jump my car, but my battery was dead, dead, dead. So he used the truck to do it and it started right up. Yay!</div><br />
Once my car was running I went to Burger King to get something to eat then decided to check the one spot again before going elsewhere. As I came around the back of the rec site I saw some people standing around and that's when I saw them. It was Shadowfax and his band. I'd heard they'd come back down so I was excited to see Diamond. I can't believe how big he's gotten! He's huge and he's only about six months old. I took some pictures with my big camera, but only got this one with my cell phone<br />
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It was worth everything I went through yesterday to see them and to tell people about them that we're seeing them for the first time. <br />
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Now today is a different day. A different story. Still sick and now I'm in the hospital. Blood pressure is too high. The doctor might release me tonight, though, so I'm just hanging out in my room. I have a roommate and her husband is here with their dogs. I'm ready for today to be over with for sure.<br />
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Oh, I guess I should've said that my scanner wasn't the reason my battery went dead. Not entirely. My headlights had been on and when I parked it was light out so I didn't know they were still on and that's what drained my battery. Also, while I was back at my car waiti for the tow truck, FIVE deputies went racing by. Of course, they were headed for a call so they wouldn't have been able to help, but... Hahana<br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-70872817846829354422016-02-18T13:23:00.001-07:002016-02-18T13:23:40.508-07:00A Horse Day Bust...<span style="color: #3d85c6;">A couple of weeks ago I had requested yesterday off so I could go to the annual Arabian show that was in town. I don't go every year and have not been going more often than not, but I had decided to go this year. Picking a day to go was a bit more difficult due to coverage needs in my unit and the class schedule, but decided on Wednesday, even though there really wasn't anything in the class list that interested me. Anyway, I requested the day off and got it. And then I hurt my knee. I don't know how it happened, but it did. Some days it's difficult to walk and other days it's fine. When I stand up from my desk at work, I have to just stand there for a few moments while my knee decides if it's going to behave or hurt, but after I walk around a bit, it's fine.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Yesterday morning I got up and did a loop in the Lower Salt River Rec Area looking for my horses and then I stopped to get gas in my car. That's when I knew I wasn't going to the Arab show. As soon as I got out of my car and put a little weight on it, it started to hurt. Well, crap! Now what? Errands. My big horse day turned into errand day. I went to the post office to mail some packages then did another loop of the Lower Salt and saw some domestic horses heading out for a trail ride, but still no wild horses. The next stop on my agenda was WalMart for an oil change on my car, which was way overdue. Of course, everyone and their uncle decided it would be a perfect time to get their oil changed at that very same Walmart so I had to wait more than an hour. When I finally got finished there, I had to decide where to go next. I know! I could go to the show grounds and take pictures of the bazillions of horse trailers and maybe catch a glimpse or two of an Arabian. It doesn't cost anything to drive within certain areas of the park. But when I got to WestWorld, I was greeted with this...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">What's going on? Usually this area is PACKED with horse trailers. It looked very odd to see so much open space. And then I saw this...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Please tell me this isn't a horse trailer. Please? I think it had a couple of windows in the back, but that's it. Maybe it is used for hauling equipment. I really hope it's not. I think it says it's made by Sunlite so I went to their website just to verify it's NOT a horse trailer, but I wasn't going to go through all of the makes and models just to find it. The Toy Hauler section alone had 1,484 listings!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">So, after leaving this area, I went in search of the other parking lot that's usually filled with trailers as well and saw...yet again...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Even fewer trailers in this parking lot. What's going on? Is the fear of the HPV virus keeping people away from the show this year? It's allegedly been contained to Turf Paradise and they say there's no reason to be concerned for show horses coming to Scottsdale or other parts of the valley, but are people choosing to be cautious? It was a real shame to see so few trailers around. Now, there were some others within the fenced in stabling areas, but because of the temporary and permanent stalls, there's not much room for big (or small) trailers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">I did get to see some horses, though. Mostly ones sticking their heads out of the stalls, but I did see someone walking around a rather spirited flea-bitten grey. I didn't get pictures of that one because I didn't want to call unwanted attention to myself by parking in the middle of the road with a huge camera. And unfortunately, the stables shot I got didn't include any horses sticking their heads out. Oh well. You'll just have to trust me that there was a line of bays, all with their heads sticking out...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">After leaving "Horseworld" (what it was called when I went to my first Scottsdale Arabian show), I headed up a bit north to Bartlett Lake. It's a bit of a ways out there and took me almost 45 minutes to get there from the show grounds, although it only took 30 minutes to get back to <u>my</u> neighborhood. Of course, much of that was on the freeway, so that probably has something to do with it. Anyway, I don't know if I've ever been to this lake and if I have, it was a long time ago and I don't remember any of it, but it wasn't all that spectacular or inspiring...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">I couldn't really find a way to get much closer to it without worrying about being in the wrong place, plus there was something else I wanted to do back "in town" so I got some pictures and headed back. I wonder how long the water level has been that low...maybe it's only like that during the winter, like the Salt River. During the summer the river runs quite nicely, but right now they don't put much water through it so there's hardly anything to it in some spots.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">My next destination didn't pan out too well and I still had some time to kill before heading home so I went to the resort I used to work at back in the 90s. Back then, it was the Pointe Hilton at South Mountain. Then Hilton pulled out so it was just the Pointe at South Mountain. Now it's the Arizona Grande. I didn't recognize ANY of it. Not one bit. No, I take that back. I recognized the fountain when you first drive in and I recognized a side area where they've had events in the past. When I worked there they, and the other two Pointe Hilton properties (Tapatio Cliffs and Squaw Peak) all had horses available for rent. I don't know if the other two still have theirs, but South Mountain stopped doing rides years ago. Possibly when Hilton pulled out. The building where you signed up and one of the corrals is still there...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> I was a mini bar attendant when I worked there so I was responsible for refilling the mini bars and charging the missing items to the guests. Back then it was done by phone. Now it's done by weights within the fridge so even if you move something to put your own stuff in there, it charges you for that item. It wasn't too bad of a job. I worked mostly alone. The only thing I didn't like was you had to do the "check out" rooms first so you had to go knocking on people's doors at 8.30am even though check out wasn't until 11. I hated that. And any money left behind, it was automatically for the housekeepers, but every now and then we were allowed to take it, but ONLY if there was a note specifying it was for the mini bar people. That didn't happen too much, though. What we were allowed to take, after a guest had checked out, was anything left in the refrigerator. Not our stuff we put in there, although we were allowed to help ourselves to the snacks and such, but if a guest brought their own food and put it in the refer but didn't take it with them we were allowed to take that and not the housekeepers. The only exception was any liquor left behind had to be put in the "cage" in our office, but once a year they'd have a party with the booze. I wasn't there long enough to enjoy that because an ambulance company called and wanted to hire me. I was allowed to wear shorts in the summer, too, which is good in Arizona. Another good thing about this place was how generous they were. When I worked at a Marriott resort, we weren't allowed on the property if we weren't on the clock. I'll have to do a post later on about my adventures at that place. But like I said, we weren't allowed there if we weren't on the clock. Some of the people in my department went one afternoon to play basketball and got caught. They weren't fired or anything, but they did get a lecture. Anyway, the Pointe Hilton WANTED us there. They WANTED us to use the swimming pools and spas and rental stables and they gave us decent discounts to entice us to do so. Why? Because they said that guests will ask us for recommendations on what to do on the property and how could we do that if we didn't know firsthand what the activities were like? How, indeed. I never got a chance to try the facilities, though, which was a bummer.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Anyway, that's how my busted Horse Day went. Until next time...</span><br />
<br />Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-31570407651001576172016-02-16T07:10:00.000-07:002016-02-16T07:10:14.133-07:00Breeding Cats...No, not me. I would never do that. But there's someone on a message board I'm on whose cat just had a kitten. She said it was her first. So I asked if the kitten was an "oops" or if she intends on breeding them. I also asked if they were Ragdolls because the female has Ragdoll characteristics, but the male looks like a long-haired Siamese. She told me the kitten was intentional and that she's been "toying" with the idea of becoming a cat breeder. Toying? You don't "toy" with breeding animals. It sounds more like she's going to end up being a backyard breeder and that just makes me sick. The whole thing makes me ill. In regards to what breed the cats are, she says both are purebred Siamese, but they don't have papers because she couldn't afford the registration at the time of their birth. So, she's going to start breeding "alleged" purebred Siamese...and why? If the parents aren't papered she can only sell them as pets. At least, that's my understanding. And she doesn't even know what breed they are with 100%. She said the female had Ragdoll coloring so she "supposed" it was a Balinese. If you aren't certain what the breeds are of your cats, WHY ARE YOU GOING TO BREED THEM?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ragdoll courtesy of Wikipedia</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjWAkBriJlgVWU6W9mXzvqVqJ9AdnFyZ7SMIvRFniT21gpjSHX4nn1uvQXpSEO-OemFrJ4jhKbKQPROBeSzoXYEENv523pQoVylqy5Dex4TjbzN7JAdp4Y_QCf-T6pDdM-gi2BKnDOFNG/s1600/balinese.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjWAkBriJlgVWU6W9mXzvqVqJ9AdnFyZ7SMIvRFniT21gpjSHX4nn1uvQXpSEO-OemFrJ4jhKbKQPROBeSzoXYEENv523pQoVylqy5Dex4TjbzN7JAdp4Y_QCf-T6pDdM-gi2BKnDOFNG/s320/balinese.png" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balinese courtesy of Wikipedia</td></tr>
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The Balinese is the long-haired version of a Siamese and her male cat resembles one, but the female has short hair and Ragdolls don't have short hair, they have long. There's just so many things wrong with this situation, but all anyone is doing is going ga-ga over the baby kitten. Why does nobody else see the ignorance in this whole thing? No, it's not my business what she does, but considering how many homeless cats there are out there, why perpetuate the problem? She said this kitten already has a home when he's old enough, but what happens when the female has a larger litter? Then what? <sigh> I can't voice my opinion on the message board without getting attacked, so that's why I'm putting it here because I really needed to get it off my chest. <br />
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Thank you. <br />
Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980992536001449329.post-4995859834813720802016-02-03T09:28:00.001-07:002016-02-03T09:39:51.212-07:00From Wild Horses to Payson --- Or...How the heck did THAT happen? <br />
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I started my Monday like any other Monday I have off. I went and got my "traveling breakfast" of Six-Cheese (they're called 6 Cheese, I didn't order a quantity of 6) bagels and soda, going to a different Einstein Brothers Bagels because the manager from the one closest to my house moved to a different location and I decided to go see him. He's a nice guy and I miss seeing him on a regular basis. And he even gave me my food for free. Can't beat that with a stick.<br />
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From there I went up to start my loop along the Lower Salt River. Initially I didn't see anything, but then I spotted a singleton on the side of the road and got some pictures of him. Then I saw what initially I thought was 3 horses at one of the recreation areas, but it turned out there were at least 6 there, the others were in some brush so I stopped my car in the middle of the road to take pictures. Nobody was at the picnic area so I knew nobody would come up behind me, although it didn't stop me from looking. hahaha. And I'd be able to see anyone coming my way. Anyway, I was only in the middle of my own lane on a two lane road, not in the middle of the entire road. So, I was taking pictures and this dude in a van stopped right in front of where the horses were (they were behind a fence) and came over and started talking to me. Kind of creepy, but eventually the horses moved on and so did he. My car was running the entire time so I wasn't too worried about him. I could just hit the gas pedal and be off. But it's situations like this that keep me from venturing too far from my car when there's others around. I don't know if I've ever seen this group before. There was a chestnut that was a really light color that made him stand out so I figured I would remember seeing him, but I couldn't. But then it occurred to me that maybe I'd seen him as a yearling or a little older. I'll have to check my other pictures so see if I can tell.<br />
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After completing my 2nd loop, I noticed it looked like it was snowing to the north so I headed back to the Beeline Highway and started up north. I figured I'd go as far as Sunflower and if I didn't see any snow by then, I'd just turn around and head back. Except that's not what happened. When I reached Sunflower, which is only about 30 or so minutes from where I was at the moment, it was snowing pretty good, although some might call it "Grapple" because it was more like ice pellets and not snow, but it was still pretty neat considering it'd been more than a year since I'd seen ANY snow other than on TV<br />
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I even got some video, but I don't know how to embed it into Blogger so it can be watched. Bummer.<br />
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While still in Sunflower, I decided to go down this one road and I discovered it was the old part of the Beeline that you took to get to Payson and other points north. There were houses and farms on that road and I always wondered what happened when they built the wider part of the Beeline and now I know.<br />
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After leaving Sunflower, I decided to go "just a little" further and before I knew it, I was seeing signs telling me Rye was only 9 miles away. Well, if Rye is only 9 miles then Payson is only another 11 miles after that so I may as well just continue on to Payson. So, I ignored the "Snow chains or 4 Wheel Drive Mandatory" sign and kept going. I thought it was funny when I passed one area where there were a bunch of snow plows parked. Huh. Snow Plows here?" but then I discovered they were needed. The Beeline is a 2 lane in each direction road and the outer lane had been plowed northbound, but the inner lane hadn't been. Guess which one I chose? Yup. The inner, unplowed lane. I wasn't there very long, though, when my car started to fishtail a little so I quickly got into the plowed lane. hahaha. I won't be doing THAT again anytime soon. Anyway, before long I was seeing the telltale signs that Payson was "just around the corner". When going northbound in Rye, you see signs advertising businesses in Payson. When going southbound, it's for Mesa and Scottsdale, but mostly Mesa. It's how you "know" you're either getting close to Payson or leaving it. At least, that's how I saw it during the many trips there and back over the years my parents lived there or when we went there for vacation.<br />
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Once I arrived in Payson, my main intent was to go see what my parents' house looked like. We'd been told by a neighbor that the new owners had made quite a few changes to the inside, like new carpet, fix the floor that was already drooping when my parents moved in, and improve the heating. I wish I could've gone and knocked on the door to ask to see the inside, but I'm not that daring. They also made a couple of exterior changes such as the fence into the backyard was improved and they added a shed or something. The sign on the left with their name is new and it looks like they may have graded the driveway so it was all one level. I want to say a tree is missing, too, but I wouldn't swear to it...<br />
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It was a little weird seeing it. I haven't been to Payson since helping my mom move back to the valley in 2010 and it made me feel a little down. I miss my dad. But I'm glad I finally made it up there, plus I got to see snow!<br />
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I drove around a bit and took some more pictures. I've always liked this house. There's two parts to it, the garage apartment and the main house, but I liked the garage apartment and if my parents had gotten that one, I probably would've moved to Payson with them. hahaha. Probably not, but still...<br />
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Next stop was Green Valley Park. My mom used to take her dog Ebbie there to walk around the lake, but then the dog park was built so she started going there instead<br />
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The little black birds were crazy. They started crossing the road so I stopped to wait. And I waited. And I waited. It seemed like just when I thought there were no more, a few more would run across the street. They were cute, though.<br />
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Finally, it was time to head back down the mountain, but first a stop at the rodeo grounds for the snow. <br />
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I couldn't go very far because the road wasn't plowed all the way yet<br />
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There's nothing to see there right now anyway because there's no events going on. I remember during the Rodeo-Chediski Fire back in 2002, they used the rodeo grounds to house the larger animals that had been evacuated from the fire area. The dogs were housed at the dog park and the cats were at the humane society. The people were housed at the high school. It was a crazy couple of weeks for sure. Living in the mountains, you learn to be prepared for forest fires and while my parents weren't on evacuation alert for that fire, they were for a couple of others. They had suitcases packed and by the door and the plan that if evacuation was only going to be a day or two they'd go to the high school, but if it was going to be longer, they'd bring the dogs down to our house.<br />
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It was still early when I got back into town so I did my loop again (the highway to Payson intersects with the one for where the horses are) and didn't see any, but as I was coming back out towards Beeline I noticed a couple of cars on the side of the road and saw there were some horses in a bit of a ravine. Nice way to end a day.Brendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05146226726351299463noreply@blogger.com0