My old self

Okay.  I'm back to work and Joey is back at therapy -- and ON TIME this time.  ;-D

I finally feel like my regular self for the first time since we got back from vacation.  I spent the weekend doing pretty much nothing except hanging out with our critters.  Poor Harley (our oldest cat) doesn't seem to be doing well.  She's gotten very thin and has stopped using the litter box and begun using the window sills on the porch as her potty except to urinate.  Sigh.  I've been keeping both of their (enormous) litter boxes immaculate but it makes no difference.  Maybe she's just getting a bit senile - if that happens to cats.  Does it?  I found Harley as a kitten the winter of the first year I moved up to Cincinnati - 1993 - so she's 18 years old.  Until now I hadn't noticed any difference at all in her.  She's still fairly active, but all of a sudden she just seems somehow . . . old.  So I've been bringing her inside each night and feeding her canned cat food and just holding her and she does seem to be happy about that.  But - she's still using the porch window sills for her potty.  Oh, well.  It could be worse, I guess.  At least she's not peeing on everything.   It's not all that difficult to clean up after her.

All the horses are doing fine despite the intense heat around here.  Twice now, though, I've gotten over there to the barn and found that Duke had managed to pull his fly mask off his ears and down his face so that it hung from just below his eyes to about 6" lower than his chin!  It looked pretty silly (like a horse bank robber or something), but at least it still kept his nose from getting sunburned so "oh well."

Got a surprise call from Janet this weekend.  Haven't had much contact with her in months.  She's been shut away trying to finish that biography she's writing about Henry Darrow in time for the High Chaparral reunion this fall (he was Manolito Montoya on that show for years).  So glad to hear from her -- she's the only friend I've got who cares as much about horses as I do!   And she's cared about them for far longer than I have.  I just got addicted about 5 years back -- she's been a horse person virtually her whole life!  Can't wait for that darned book to get published so we can go riding together.

Mark is very unhappy at the moment about the barn status.  When I talked to him last night he was completely aggravated about the new windows.  Hmm.  He seemed fine about them when I talked to him after the guy came out to give us a bid.  And it seems to me those windows should be a huge relief for him.  He was stiff and sore for WEEKS after he finished screening in the back porch of the house.  This way he won't have to screen the barn porch after all.  And the guy I bought the windows from is not just going to install the windows,  but finish the framing to enclose the porch as well, so all Mark will have to do is put up the siding and insulation -- a lot easier for him than screening would be, I think.  And we can always get someone else to do that part as well, if he wants to.  

Anyway, I hope he gets over his snit before he comes home next week.  But if not, all he has to do is look around the house.  There's a saddle on the kitchen island, two dining room chairs are piled with boxes containing bits and halters and things.  There are two more saddles and about a dozen saddle pads stored in our bedroom closet (on HIS end!) and more stuff sitting around in our office -- all of which needs to be stored in the barn.  There was no way all that stuff would fit into a 10 by 12 tack room.  I'm sure once the thing is done and the house gets cleared out again I'd think he would be happy to see it.  (I know I will!)  But in the meantime I guess I'm on thin ice.  Sigh.