Stifling

And I Don't Mean Problems With Hind Legs

When I went out to feed around 4 PM, it was oppressively hot. The fans were blowing hot air around in the barn. But none of the Boys seemed to be sweated. It could be because the humidity is lower than it often is with these heat waves. A couple times during the day, I did see Chance and Tucker out and about, so they were being clever about not just standing in the barn all day. Still....

When I went out this morning around 7:30, I had no plans of working anyone. But the shady arena was pretty tolerable. Certainly not as cool as Thursday morning, but more than bearable. I decided--dressed in shorts and a tank top--not to bother going back inside to change, but rather to lunge at least Tucker and Chance for a little while. Chance needs to build his stamina, and Tuck needs to keep his muscles.

I would say, since I didn't have a watch on, that I lunged each of them for about 10 minutes, no more as I really didn't want to get them all sweated up so early in the day when I knew the temperatures were going to soar. Once done with the two kids, I walked over to Toby and he practically put his head in the halter to do some work too! I guess every now and then he likes feeling part of the gang. I lunged him for about 10 minutes as well.

These are just walk, trot canter sessions in a halter, with their flysheets still on--a good thing today as I am pretty sure I saw one on the infamous B52 horseflies buzzing about. I'm not sure, but when you can hear a fly's buzz from ten feet away, it is probably a pretty big fly. The sheets and the Endure fly spray may have discouraged him, so for now we are unscathed. These flies are over an inch long and bite like the dickens. I've been attacked myself and I completely understand the horse's extreme reactions. If those evil critters are out and about, it means I will have to start riding with the bug armor soon. No point in taking chances of being bucked off.

Once I fed the Boys, I went back inside to watch the Tour de France and then drove over to the pool . There was a swim meet going on which meant the lap pool was closed. Frustrated, I drove back home to do some cabinet cleaning--still not finished.

About two hours later I headed back over to the pool. As I had anticipated, there were tons of people there and the parking lot was nearly full. I found a spot pretty far out, but when I went in, to my surprise the lap pool was nearly empty. I had a whole lane to myself for the duration and, to celebrate, upped my full laps to fifteen--thirty lengths of the pool. Then I circled the Cozy Creek three times in a tube and headed up to the waterslides for some excitement.

The slide always feel really fast to me, especially when then curve this way and that, somehow managing to accelerate me towards the bottom. The white slide is an open one and the blue one is a totally enclosed pipe. I almost always ride the white one, but today I did one go down in the blue one. As I was about halfway, I remembered why I prefer the white. When you are in the blue slide, you have a totally different sense of speed as there are no visuals to clue up as to how fast you are going. There is also no sense of where you are in relation to anything, so it's kind of a blind rollarcoaster. It really felt fast to me--fun, but fast. Three trips down, two on the white, were enough for me. The worst part for my knees is climbing the stairs to get to the top of the slides, so three just about my limit.

Headed home to what is still a bit of a mess with the cabinet, but I will forge ahead until it is sorted out.

The John Deere was back home when I got back from shopping yesterday. Cost a fair penny to fix, but I do need it. Heaven only knows what will go on with the Bolens. Parts are hard to come by if it needs any since it's over 20 years old. Guess I will just have to wait and see.

Ah well, back to the cabinet. Should finish before I go to bed.