Being 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. :)

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.

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.

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 my 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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

A horse trailer passed to the left

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.

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

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.

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.

I guess that's it for now.

Safe for animals, but not humans?

*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.

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...

If it's not safe for human consumption, is it safe for animals...?

Water, specifically.

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.

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, 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We'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.

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.

Modified Bull Pen

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.

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...

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!

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 they 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. 

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

Then I went to get dinner and went an additional 2 miles north of the fire and it was still pretty noticeable.

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.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to work.  Yay!  hahaha.  Until next time.

The day the Wild Horses got me into trouble...

Or maybe it was my scanner...

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.

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.

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".

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!

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

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.

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.

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

A Horse Day Bust...

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.

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...

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...

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!

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...

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.

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...

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 my 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...

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.

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...

 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.

Anyway, that's how my busted Horse Day went.  Until next time...

Breeding 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?

Ragdoll courtesy of Wikipedia

Balinese courtesy of Wikipedia

  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.         

Thank you.                             

From Wild Horses to Payson --- Or...

How the heck did THAT happen?

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.

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.

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

I even got some video, but I don't know how to embed it into Blogger so it can be watched.  Bummer.

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.

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.

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...

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!

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...

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

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.

Finally, it was time to head back down the mountain, but first a stop at the rodeo grounds for the snow.

I couldn't go very far because the road wasn't plowed all the way yet

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.

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.