Catching Up...

Damn NBC and thier confounded blank screen.

Sorry to have abandoned you for a while.  You know how it goes, real life tends to intrude on the stuff you really like to do.  Work got crazy busy and required all my attention.  Then there was the Great Computer Crash of Summer 2012, which was somewhat like the Great Computer Crash of Winter 2011. 

So let me catch you up.  I was trying to watch the Olympics, getting up at 5:30 or 6:00AM so I could catch some of the action before work. Did you watch any of the NBC livestream coverage?  Have any issues?  I couldn't sleep the night before Tina Konyot ride down centerline at Greenwich, so I gave up and went downstairs. I waited, foregoing coffee (didn't want to wake up the family) and when 6 o'clock came I switched to NBC's stream and all I got was a BLANK SCREEN. 

I could hear Calecto V's footfalls.  I could hear his breathing.  I just couldn't see him.  I had a minor meltdown.  Guess the lack of sleep and lack of caffeine caught up with me.  I swear I didn't do anything like throw the computer or anything (although I did think about it).  When it died a few days later it died all on its own, with no help from me.  As you can imagine, with a dead computer there wasn't much Olympic equestrian livestreaming in my house. 

The good news is that while I was AWOL the Sainted Mare was cleared for full duty!!  We had our first lesson in what seems like forever, jumps and everything.  Granted, they were little baby jumps, but they were still jumps.  Madame Mare was very happy to be jumping again, and she let me know with several very sassy head shakes and a couple of small bucks.  Thankfully she wasn't overly keen and I was able to rate her, which was a bit more of an issue the last time she came back from rehabbing. 

I was in crappy shape and needed several water and oxygen breaks during the lesson, but you couldn't keep the smile from my face.  It felt so good to have her back.  I worried a bit overnight thinking that her leg might fill up and that the work may have adverse affects, but the leg was cool and tight the next morning. Phew!  Finger crossed, next week we'll do another lesson and more days of flatting, and then the week after move back to our normal 2-lesson-a-week schedule.

That about sums it up.  Now we're back to Situation Normal, or at least as normal as it gets around here.

Billie Jean and I enjoying the evening after a nice ride. 

Sug's in the field, enjoying the evening her way with some grass.