Emails

This is an excerpt from a running email between my sister and me. Part of the fun of living out of the US of A is in learning different lifestyles and embracing what fits and realizing what doesn't.

"...A few more observations: Young Mexican women are SUPPOSED to arrive late. There may be something about making an "entrance", but I'm inclined to think it's more about the poor time management multiplied by the number of people in the car. I might be able to work out an equation, given the variables (number of women in the car and distance to the location), and find an answer to what time they will arrive. Another thing that we have learned is that Mexicans find
so much joy in partying late into the night. I liken it to the joy I find in my early morning coffee..."

Change Is In The Air

The full moon brought us a blissful change in our weather. The temperatures are changing, the percent humidity is changing, the water temperature is changing, the wind direction is changing, and my mind is changing.

By mid-September most of us who made it through the summer and hurricane were pretty bored with the overwhelming, sweat inducing, heat and humidity. A few days ago? Bingo, humidity is gone and temperatures are slightly lower. I guess it feels more like Phoenix or Las Vegas. Yippy.

I enjoyed a little grooming session with Bella yesterday evening. We still need to work on holding the hooves up nicely. She does very well with two of her feet, then the last two she starts pulling away. I patiently waited until she was still before letting them back down. She also doesn't appreciate her forelock being combed. So, we'll do that everyday now. I led her out to my car to get the bucket-of-love and take it back inside to the stall feeder. She handled that pretty darn well. We had to open and close the gate both ways and she wasn't allowed to even ask for a bite of her pellets. No pushing or pulling and she had to back up and wait until I poured it into the feeder. She has turned 2 and a half this month. I'll drag the saddle out and put it on her this weekend. She doesn't forget anything we've worked on, so I'm ready to move forward.

Pods

I love my iPod. Downloading podcasts and syncing them onto my lovely, black iPod makes me so happy. As I drive through the Mexican desert listening to Geek Speak from NPR in Santa Cruz I am not unaware of the irony.

We are heading across the border for 2 days tomorrow and I'm all 'N Sync.

A few monsoons and a windy hurricane and the desert just comes alive. The beautiful rocky mountains in the background are blooming as well. The horses are in heaven.

Back Again and Back Again

In between hurricanes and sisters I have had more than my fair share of trips up across the border this summer. My husband and I just made a quick up and back trip this last weekend, getting back home last evening just at nightfall. To say the least, my cupboards are well stocked. I've got a million gallons of wine and mayonnaise on hand now. What more could I need? Oh! Bread! duh. I got it.

Well, what I do need more of is time with my filly. I hate leaving her over and over. She seems to be ever more accepting of my absences but almost forgets her manners when I take her bucket into the stall. A strong word usually accompanied by a hand signal gets her to back off until the pellets are poured into the feeder. Funny how the rules get ignored or pushed when Mama isn't around. I'm anxious to start working her in bits and pieces but the weather is still miserable for more than a tiny bit of activity. I think we've got about a month to go until the cooler breezes come in. Then, this winter I have big plans of lunging and ground driving. I hope you blogger friends will offer some assistance in my starting. She'll be a worthy little mare if we do this right.

Life returned to normal, the hurricane almost forgotten.

Hurricanes are windy.

Henriette

It's not surprising news to us but we awoke to pounding surf and wind this morning. Tropical Storm Henriette could possibly make a direct hit on us today. We have our storm shutters down in-case the wind gets scary. I'll get pictures of my little bay later, when dawn breaks.

I didn't see Bella yesterday. As Diane was putting the mares away, one by one, Bella and Sonora made a break for it with McCoy, the big black gelding. If you ask me, he's a nice looking, older quarter horse with too big a head and a bit of a sway in his back. I guess it's his charisma. The little girls really believe his pick-up lines and follow him like a flock of geese. Maybe he sings Spanish love songs.

Cross your fingers that we don't lose our electricity.

Sky Lights

Venus showed up yesterday morning. As I turned over and looked out over the slightest bit of breaking dawn it was unavoidable to miss a miniature moon gazing straight at me. After a five second brain delay I realized it was Venus rising in the eastern sky. My eyes kept wanting to close but Venus kept demanding attention. She was strutting her stuff as well as any celestial ball can and telling me I should look now for it would be awhile before she had this kind of time and energy to send my way. I lay there and worshipped her as she deserved for well over 15 more minutes before getting up for coffee. As daylight overtook, Venus disappeared.

Early this morning my eyes popped open again before dawn and I turned over excitedly to see if Venus was still my morning friend and was sorely disappointed to only find a small, slightly larger than a star, Venus. As I blinked away sleep, she rushed across the sky on her morning duties, much too busy to bother showing off for me.

We women have the prerogative of being productive and busy one day and languishing Goddesses another.