There have been too many deaths in the past year: friends, family, horses. A friend of mine told me that their grandmother had recently passed away. I listened to as much as they wanted to say and just kept them company. My friend wasn’t close to their grandparent, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It just makes the emotions more convoluted: a mixture of grief and guilt for not feeling sadder. My...
Continue reading...General
Parking redux
The last few nights I’ve watched for the yellow flashing lights of the tow truck. The truck is there every night some where between 9:00 and 11:00 PM. Last night, three of the visitor spots had resident vehicles in them. Again. I’ve shown my friends the areas where there are blocks of visitor spots so they can park without worrying about being towed. I hate that they will probably have to walk a...
Continue reading...Parking policy paranoia
A friend from my Wednesday WFRP gaming group visited today to review some of the material for the next gaming session. Parking at the complex was tight: no visitor spaces available close by. (Three of the six visitor spaces had residents in them again.) I gave my friend the visitor pass for the car. We came back up to the apartment, got the gaming stuff, and both started getting twitchy. We ended up...
Continue reading...Stupid human trick
I have floppy ankles. Most of the time, I’m fine. Other times, I’ll be walking along and my ankle will suddenly give out and flop towards the ground. This lovely “feature” is exacerbated by the fact that when I was 18 I tore all of the ligaments in my right ankle from a riding accident. It’s never fully recovered. So, today at work, I was trotting across the cross walk and my right...
Continue reading...Good bye, my friend
A good friend of mine died today at 3:45 PM. She lost her fight with cancer and is at peace. She will be missed. Related Images:
Continue reading...Kittens in Space
Ultra cute video created by Jonathan Man for Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin. io9 featured a post about the video today. So cute. I had to share. Related Images:
Continue reading...Things to try for sinus headaches
I’ve had a sinus headache since last Thursday. It’s rather mild today, but I can feel it building. I get sinus headaches with migraine-like symptoms: light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, and some times floaters in my vision. My doctor on Friday said that I really get migraines with sinus triggers. Who knows what other things like food, stress, lack of sleep might contribute to triggering a migraine? I can’t take regular sinus meds because...
Continue reading...Silly Christmas traditions
When I was still living at home, every Christmas, Mom would take us caroling to the neighbor’s houses. We had a pretty good knowledge of carols thanks to Tasha Tudor’s Carol book. We’d to the requisite songs and some lesser known ones. Having a good knowledge of carols is a fine thing, unless you are on a nine-hour drive from Knoxville to Pennsylvania. On one of those drives to my grandmother’s house, Mom...
Continue reading...One thousand posts and counting
This post is the 1000th entry on Y Ceffyl Du. It’s only taken seven years to get here. I’ve blogged the tales and tribulations of four cats, five horses, and major events in my life. Here’s to Isis, Basette, Stella, and Ambush, who have passed and are missed. Their antics and memories are chronicled here. Here’s to Rajiyyah, Logan, Kasane, and Prize, two still in my life and two with other people who...
Continue reading...Gym and not riding
A “perk” of the apartment complex where I live. Half of the machines look um… well used, so I won’t touch them, but the elliptical machine and the treadmills are fine. Yesterday, I started an actual workout program and went to the gym by myself for the First Time Ever. It might not sound like much, but considering I’ve only been to a gym to work out twice before (and then with a...
Continue reading...Giving meaning to loss
I did something very difficult last night: I went to the Horsemasters meeting and talked about Isis’ death to a group of people who understand what it is like to lose a horse. I wanted to warn people about EPM and tell them that there is a new treatment available and that it made a world of difference for Isis. And some times, unfortunately, it can be too late, too, but it was...
Continue reading...Music, Dad, and “Like Pictures”
This past week a dear friend’s father died. I went to his funeral on Monday. I’d never met him, but his daughter is a phenomenal person. Stepping into a funeral home was like being two places at once: at my own father’s funeral and present at my friend’s. The funeral home decor was almost identical: red velour cushions in the chapel pews, unobtrusive “comforting” music in the background, and boxes of tissue every...
Continue reading...RIP Elisabeth Sladen, 1948 – 2011
The first Doctor Who episodes I saw featured Tom Baker (fourth Doctor) and his companion, Sarah Jane Smith, played by a very young Elisabeth Sladen. Many more Doctors and companions have followed in their shoes over the decades, but Sarah Jane was always a favourite. One of my favourite episodes from the new series of Doctor Who (“NuWho”) was School Reunion, which featured a previous companion, Sarah Jane, meeting the Doctor and his...
Continue reading...Really? That day? Again?
I woke up by grabbing my cell phone and then dropping it by running out of power cord length. Dropped it. Alarm reset and then never went off… and well I’m late today. Not feeling great. Would rather stay home but might as well go to the barn. Heck of a way to start a birthday. 🙂 Related Images:
Continue reading...Flowers, fragrance, and funerals
Orchids and chrysanthemums smell like death to me: the cloying sweetness of casket-side flowers, wilting from the heat of bodies pressed too close as passersby sob their payment to Chiron. The trees outside my apartment complex have a sickeningly sweet scent: not pleasing like honeysuckle, but of something decaying like fruit left too long in the sun. The blossoms themselves are beautiful white flowers sprinkled like snow across dark branches. Bradford pears or...
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