The Party

With a Big Thank You...

....to all my friends at school who so generously gave me gifts at my retirement party this afternoon. I was given two lovely books, some money, a beautiful hand made quilt, a key chain, a deck of Shakespeare playing cards, a pewter plate, a huge card, and some wonderful gift cards for the mall and bookstore. And I was treated to a super tasty strawberry magarita and a delicious dinner.

School is not finished until June 24, and my official retirement begins on July 1, but the party was today so it was a special day. I have plenty of work yet ahead of me. I have all the students' grades entered into the computer, so that's good, but I still have to administer and grade final exams and essays. There's some other paperwork to be done, some room cleaning...although I have cleared out most of the books and teaching materials the other teachers can use. I still have a few of my own things to carry home, and some general tidying up to do.

As they say, it ain't over until it's over, so about 10 more days to go.

Since I went out to dinner, I fed the Boys early by coming home from school during my afternoon prep period. They were a bit confused to eat then and none too pleased that I closed off the pasture while they did. The forecast was calling for thunderstorms, so I didn't want to take any chances.

When I got home from the party, I lunged Tucker for a short but "forward" work session. He was really a good boy, but kept cross cantering when he was on his right lead. Part of it was because of the little mud puddles in the arena which made him break stride, but he has done this since day one. I suspect he is a bit weak on his right hind and will choose the left hind as the lead leg when he feels he needs some more support. He does not cross canter when I ride him unless we get some kind of bad lead change, so I'm not too worried. But, I always have to keep it in mind as a possible training issue.

Gee, you'd think, then that making a flying change right to left would be an easy task for him. And, one would suspect it would come from behind. Alas, as of last efforts, we had minimum success. However, he is also not as fit and strong as he should be to learn the flying changes, so again, I am not too concerned.

Ask me in a month or so.

Then I will be off for the summer, retired for the rest of the year, and completely lacking in excuses for not getting my horses fit.

It really was a nice party.