They're at it again!

Here's a news article... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ifySBgx8dfwPFoX97JRBgX3vPX5QD90EFH9O0

You may remember that last January I wrote about the death of Barbaro, another racing horse who was obliged to be killed because he broke a back leg very severely.  Well, here's another case of running horses in a way they should not be run.

I wonder how difficult it would be, not to ban racing altogether, but to make it a law that horses must be at least 5 before they can race?  I am shockingly surprised that all the animal rights people aren't up in arms about this.  It makes me angry enough, and I'm not a fanatic about this sort of thing in general.

Chicken Pox

  I got the chicken pox.  My brother, as I said earlier, got them first, at a dance.  I got them two weeks after he broke out with them.  Thankfully, it was not any earlier.  A week and a half after he broke out with them, I was at Heather's wedding.  Three days after returning home, I came down with the fever part of the pox.  Mom put me abed immediately, and I really did not rise again for five days.  Well, that's not entirely true.

Tuesday was the day that I came down with the fever.  I was asleep in the living room on a bed of sleeping bags I had made on the floor when Justice came in, soon after noon, and told me that Misty, one of the new horses, had a bad cut on her hindquarter.  In about twenty minutes, I'd dragged myself up out of bed and gotten dressed to go outside.  Misty had indeed cut herself very badly, taking off a strip of skin about two inches long and half an inch wide, leaving bare flesh exposed, bleeding, and looking nasty.  In my weakened state, I struggled with her to clean it and then apply plankton (a weed that grows in our lawn which, when chewed up and applied to a wound, draws infection and stops bleeding).  I called a friend to make sure that this sort of cut wound not get her tetanus, and then I went out once more to put some anti-infection cream on it, and then I went back to bed.  And, in all seriousness, I did not really get up (save for meals and necessary bathroom breaks) until Sunday morning.

Tuesday night the blistering pox began to break out. They were not so bad, nor so thick, for nearly twenty four hours.  I was mostly aware of them in my hair, but I thankfully had few on my face and not many on my torso.  But my hopes of a mild case of pox was soon shattered and I spent Thursday and Friday and much of Saturday in misery, as more and more blistered rose.  In time (I think Friday was the worst day), they began to break, and I was left with raw skin and many, many itching spots.

I will not continue to describe how it went.  It was awful, but I think the pictures will suffice in explaining.

I have promised myself time and time again that if ever I have kids, I will go way out of my way to make sure that they have it before they are ten.

Random stuff around our house.

Good grief.  Long time, no write, and that's no joke.

The last time I blogged, I see, I wrote on Thanksgiving and the boredom thereof.  Life has been more interesting since then, if you'll believe it.  One would think I would have written about it, then, right?  Well, no...not necessarily.

A week or so after I wrote that last post, I learned from my best friend that she had met a young man who asked to court her.  Well, they've courted, and been engaged, and as of Friday, April 4th, they were married.  I was a bridesmaid.  The wedding went well, except the fact that the union candle burst into flame and caught the table cloth on fire, and all the guests were laughing quite unrestrainedly ere that was dealt with.  The two ringbearers shoved their way half up the aisle at the beginning of the wedding - brotherly disagreement, you understand - and that, too, caused laughter.  With such amusement interspersed with the ceremony, one would hardly be surprised to hear that I didn't cry quite as much as I was expecting.  So that was good.

My younger brother (aged 14) caught the chicken pox a week before the wedding.  This came unexpectedly.  I have not had the chicken pox, so I am now fully expecting to get it in the next couple days.  Is that not exciting?  Just think, 19 years old and only just now getting the chicken pox.  I hope very much that I do not get it terribly bad - I will get it quite bad enough, it doesn't have to be terrible, does it?

Oh, and one last thing before closing and going to bed.  You'll laugh at me, I know, for switching back and forth from one decision to the other, but I have decided not to sell Eohwyn.  I have found someone to help me with her and she and I have been getting along capitally, with me as the boss.  I came to that decision a couple months ago.  She's both wonderful now in looks and behavior.

Merry Thanksgiving, all.

Today is the American holiday of Thanksgiving.  I am afraid I was very naughty today, for I did not feel very thankful at all.  Quite the contrary - I was a grumpy guest at Grandma's house, feeling ill and extremely bored.  I do not know how it is that every time I come here, prepared or not with books to read and books to write in, but I am bored nearly to death and nearer to tears.

The rather disappointing trip began yesterday at 8:45.  We left our lovely home in temperatures rising nearly to 66 degrees and began our drive to Grandma's.  Before an hour was up, we had run into the coldfront and the thermometer read 49 degrees.  We picked up my sister (who finally had spent a few days at Great Uncle John's house) and ate lunch and got back on the road around 12.  For the next several hours, we drove in cold rain...I sitting the back of the truck with my little, very noisy brother.

We arrived non too early (non too late, either) at Grandma's and there whittled away at the hours before dinner.  Today was spent in nearly the same useless boredom.  I helped in the kitchen when I could, but with so many of us women about, there wasn't much to be done.

And all the while, my crazy little cousins were running around with my brother, causing everybody fits...  they don't listen to a thing anybody tells them, they're disrespectful and rude, and - and...well, that's enough.

This evening, the entire clan came for dinner.  That was rather enjoyable - after dinner.  The food was great, but I didn't eat as much as I could've.  I actually consumed three pieces of pie afterwards, but that doesn't really count as dinner.  After all the feasting, I found the younger set of cousins (the older ones were up drinking ridiculous amounts of wine and beer) and fell to talking.  After a while we decided to play a game and found one called Mad Gab...a game which is, indeed, full of mad gabbering and gibberish.  However, it was insanely fun - or would have been if Garrett (little cousin) hadn't been shrieking out his guesses at an eardrum rupturing volume the whole time - and I enjoyed myself immensely.  Uncle Mike wanted to go too soon, and we did not have a chance to play a second game, which people very much wanted.

Tomorrow we take our homework journey, and in the evening, two very dear friends of mine are coming to visit from way out of town.  My birthday was last Monday, you see, and they are coming to help celebrate it.

O-oh...before I end this rather pointless blog post, I must add something.

Do you recall that grey mare I bought in February?  Eohwyn.  Well, I have decided to sell her.  She's is a stunningly beautiful creature still, but she's got the attitude of a...of a...a spoiled schulery maid who thinks she's a queen.  I've decided to quit trying to get her to behave (it's all been useless attempt thus far) and once I get rid of her, I intend to buy an older gelding - one who's well trained and will be better behaved at all times.  Yeah...let's hope.

That's all.

Life goes on.

Life has been busy lately. Busy, but somehow boring, too.

Nothing of consequence happened after our vacation until about two weeks ago. It was then that Mom and Pop told me that they thought it would be a good thing if Chava and I were to go to college together in a year or two. I have to admit and say that came as a very unexpected surprise. (Aren’t surprises supposed to be unexpected?...Never mind.) I go information from a college here in town and if I end up going, I would really like to go there. It’s a Christian College and it’s right here in town, which is nice. I don’t want to go to Rolla, that’s too far of a drive, and, besides, the colleges there aren’t Christian.

I may start classes by myself in January. Until then, I need to study for CLEP tests, see what classes I want to take, apply, see about funding, and all the rest of the complicated college stuff that a poor student has to go through whilst trying to enroll. I am not having fun.

All of last week I was working like mad in finishing my civil war dress. On Monday (Sept. 17) I had not even attached the skirt to the bodice yet and had still lots of hand stitching to do. By Friday I had completed the entire thing, save for putting a clasp onto the belt. Saturday and Sunday the Civil War Re-enactment at Pilot Knob took place. My two sisters and I and a friend set up a tent with sewn, knit, and crocheted merchandise in it for sale.

It was quite an interesting situation. There we were with a tiny fly made of green canvas, sporting our few, very well made goods, and dwarfed by the large (huge) white tents of the other Suttlers. Their tents were tall and very fine looking, closed in on all sides by canvas walls, and every single one of them were made of white canvas. Eh...well...I always knew that wherever we went we were at least somewhat out of place. I say, though, it was embarrassing setting up the ancient green fly and the first morning of the re-enactment was pretty awful.

Over the weekend we sold a total of six items, I believe. I’d say we made about $400 in all. Kimberly made most of the money, selling two of her dresses (those alone brought in $320). I got $22.50 out of it. I didn’t sell even one of my rag dolls.

So was it a failure? One might see it as such if we look only at what we sold and what little profit we made. I don’t think it was entirely, though. Kimberly got a lot of advertising out for her website and her new dress sewing business. We learned a lot and a neighboring Suttler gave Kimberly a lot of information about different people she should contact. Our costumes were so nice, he said, that we should not come to these re-enactments - we need to go to the living history people - the museums and what not. Kimberly could speak at conferences, her work was so good... I really don’t know what she’s going to do with that.

So, that was this last weekend. Since then I’ve been at work. Monday was miserable. I as exhausted and didn’t want to come in. I got next to nothing done. Tuesday was little better. I did go to the library and borrowed two American history books. Today I’ve done some reading and a bit of writing. Shortly I will call the woman who gives the CLEP tests in town.

Oh...another thing that happened about two weeks ago was that my horse, Eohwyn, and I came to the point where we really couldn’t get along together. She was disrespectful, rude, and dangerous. I was annoyed, frightened, and out of control. So, I began to work with her on the ground. It’s been two weeks now. I’ve accomplished a fair amount. She backs up away from me upon a word of command. She moves her shoulder when I ask it as well as her hip. She’s respectful and generally well behaved. Sometime in the near future we will ride again.

Well, there you are. Not a lot of new stuff, nor a lot of emotion, was put into this. So sorry.