90 Degrees Plus

And I Substituted Again

So, yesterday the temperatures soared to over 90F.  The only blessing was that the humidity was low, so it did not feel horrible. Still, the horses sweated. They have not completely shed out their winter coats, so there was an extra layer of hair--here and there--keeping them a bit warmer than they should have been.  It was definitely too hot to work them.  Later in the season, when they are better acclimated, that kind of day would be fine, but not now.

I spent the day at school, subbing for a history teacher. It was an easy day since she left assignments for everyone and the students were--as always--good as gold.

Then I went for a nice swim. I think I did eleven laps, but I lost count at 6 or seven, so I think I added one to the ten I'd planned. Since I hadn't been swimming in a couple weeks, I didn't push myself beyond that.  And, by swimming for 25 minutes and not changing out of my wet suit for the drive home, I managed to avoid rush hour--4:30--by about ten minutes.  That made the drive through the little town I have to pass through to get back out to the highway a lot easier than usual.  There are about 6 traffic lights and usually the main street gets all congested adding a good bit of time to my homeward trip.

I still detoured off the highways US 1 to US 130 because of the construction delays on 130, but that only adds a few minutes more when I take the back roads.  Years ago, when the Academy first opened, I probably could have taken a job there as an English teacher.  Clearly, there would have been a lot of benefits as the school is wonderful, but the drive there is more than double the distance to the school where I did teach for 38 years. (15 miles as opposed to 6 miles)  With the horses at home, and no highway driving involved, I opted out of the opportunity.  Now, going there off and on to sub is just fine, but even those months when I was  full time there replacing one of the teachers on maternity leave, some days that drive was just dreadful.  I'm not sure I could have done it for years and years.

Still, it is a wonderful school and it's such a pleasure seeing how effective education can be when all the piece are fit together almost perfectly.  The only thing I would change would be to add a performance/assembly room to the building. The students are very creative and it would be nice for them to have a suitable stage area where they could put on performances and show off their talents. The common area is too acoustically open so its not good for sound and when they do present skits and things, it's almost impossible for the audience to hear well. Other than that the building layout is great and well maintained.  It's s nice atmosphere with good people inside.

It's beautiful out today, but once again, I had a chiropractic adjustment so I am not likely to ride. However, I do hope to lunge Chance and Tucker a bit later.  I'll get Chance trotting up those hills again to work those muscles. And Tucker? Maybe I'll have him do a bit of jumping.

On the kitty front, I just put Misty back outside. Her aggressive attitude toward the indoor Boys was stressing them out far too much.  I suspect that given a lot of time and effort on my part it could have worked out, but my kittyboys are far too sweet to be tormented through all that.

The nice thing was that as soon as she did go out, she trotted right over to Peppercorn and the two of them happily sniffed noses.  Clearly, their relationship is still fine, even in the new "neutral" stage.  I'm glad of that since Peppercorn was acting a bit lonely out there.  Hopefully the two of them will keep each other company and stay safely on my property.