No Spare Moments

Things have been very busy and a little nuts of late. I did have a half day on Friday, which was nice, except I spent the extra "free" time setting up a forum for one of my clients. Saturday was a bit surreal. I woke up alone, Brian having slipped off before 6am to get in an early century. The precise dates of Meryl's visit have been up in the air due to various complications with schedules, but at 7:30 I received a text message letting me know she was on her way to the airport. Shortly thereafter I realized the flight she was trying to get on was leaving half an hour earlier than I'd told her, so this resulted in a bit of a scramble for her, but worked out in the end. It was also her fist non-rev experience, so I wanted to be on hand to help out in case she didn't get a seat on the plane she wanted to take to Chicago. Fortunately, she did, and as soon as I got the text telling me she was on the runway, I headed for the stable.

I went out to Steen and took a video of him, then rode. I came back to town, showered, and began packing for our trip to Chicago and getting a hot lunch ready for Brian so he could eat soon after he arrived home. Before he came home, however, he called my cell phone to tell me he was running late because someone had assaulted him towards the end of his ride and he was talking to the police. He assured me he was ok, just late.

When he finally got home, we got him fed, cleaned up and the both of us loaded in the car, but we still arrived in Chicago over four hours after my sister. Fortunately, Brian's sister happened to be on the same flight as Meryl, so his mom picked them both up. It was a bit of a trip walking into Brian's house to find Meryl sitting on the couch.

We had a lovely dinner in Chicago, came back Sunday afternoon and then Meryl and I headed for the stable as she was keen to meet Steen. What followed was definitely the low point of my relationship with my new horse. There is a more detailed post on the subject on my Steen blog, but we'll just sum up by saying two bucks and then hard contact with the ground has made for a very sore Robin the past few days.

The good news is the incident (which Meryl was not in the least involved in, fortunately) combined with my sister's fresh view of things sort of coalesced into a better view of my relationship with Steen. I needed to stop worrying so much about everything I've read the last few months and have some faith in what I've learned through my experiences over the last 15 years. The end of the story is a happy one and I've never been happier about my decision to purchase Steen, but I'm not going to type it twice, so you'll have to find it over here.

Last night after Meryl and I got back from riding Steen and Brian got back from work we had a glorious evening playing cards and drinking wine. I think the rest of the week is going to pass in a similarly enjoyable fashion.