HURRAY FOR SLEEP!!

Mother Nature has changed her fickle mind yet again and brought winter back to roost.  It's a chilly 46 degrees this morning, requiring heavy duty pjs and wool slippers to return.  My plan to sit out in the sun disappeared behind the clouds, along with the sunlight.

On the bright side, I got some SLEEP!!  Sometimes it amazes me how I can fall asleep in the middle of the day ... and then when I WANT to, I'm wide awake.  I was so wide awake that I finally drug out the vacuum.  The dust bunnies were actually following me around the house.  

You're not going to believe this ... I even vacuumed the FURNITURE!  I must be sick.  Oh wait ... I am.  Sadly I didn't finish and the vacuum now lives in the middle of the hallway to my desk.  Maybe today I can get it finished up.

This was certainly a nice surprise.  I don't think I have ever seen clouds like this since I've lived in this part of California.  It was a good excuse to put the vacuum down and take pictures, which is why it's in the hallway.

First off ... breakfast.  You all know I like sweet, but that last waffle with maple syrup was WAY over the top ... even for me.  I decided I should actually make their recipe and see how it was.

It had peanut butter melted with creme fraiche ... a kind of cream cheese maybe?  Followed up by honey stirred into cherry jam.  Well right off the bat, I heated up the peanut butter mixture too much and it turned into a grainy glob of goo.  I smeared it on anyway.  Next ... the jam ... making it look oh so professional with swirls on the plate!!  I topped it with thin slices of fuji apple.  

I have to admit it was really good!  Not near as sweet and not the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I thought it would be.  I've got two more waffles to enjoy, but sadly I used up all the toppings.  I'll have to come up with something else.

Off the subject ... On one of my quick trips to town, I picked up a roasted chicken for lunch.  That will be the last time I go anywhere but Costco.  It cost me $8.99 and tasted TERRIBLE!!  Even Cooper wouldn't eat it.  Not to be wasteful, I tossed it out for the kitties who roam at night, and the BIG kitties better known as foxes.  They are always so vigilant.

Coughing continued all morning long ... like every 30 seconds.  Not big hacking coughs, just enough to be terribly annoying.  However nothing could keep me from watching the finals of the Colt Breaking National Championships.  

This is Tik Maynard from Canada.  He rides only English and has won every eventing championship there is, including the Olympics.  Maybe my Canadian friends have heard of him?  When he decided to do this, he spent eight months preparing by riding a western saddle.  Quite the change for him.  I knew from the start he was going to win.  

You have to be able to read horses to break them to ride.  You have to wait on them, which gains their trust.  You can't force them to do anything.  This is the third day where they had 20 minutes to warm up the horse before going outside the pen.  

Once they showed the walk, trot and lope in both directions, they had to stop, back, get off, lift up their horses feet and remount before heading off to the obstacles.  In normal training, all you get done on the third day is MAYBE saddling them, definitely not RIDING them.

They had to walk around those poles in the background, over a tarp (which none of them did), walk up these steps, go through the car wash (pool noodles sticking out the sides of poles) ... so many crazy things, when at this point you can't even ride them in a straight line.  It's pretty fascinating to watch.  It brings back so many memories of my horse training days.  I'm yelling at the TV ... WAIT ON HIM!!!

In the end, Tik won with flying colors.  Even though he had to skip some obstacles, his horse did the remaining obstacles better than anyone because he gave the colt the time to stop and think about it.  He did in three days, only 2 hours each day no less, what would take the normal trainer a month or more.

I tried to pick up some tips on training this kid, but I'm only good at giving him treats!!  He slept through the whole thing.

In the end there were even more amazing colors in the sky.  Yes, the vacuum is still in the same spot.  I promise I'll get to it ... some time ... maybe.  I took a chair outside and watched the colors pass by.

I slept fitfully, but at least I slept with very little coughing.  Today I'm going to concentrate on NOT coughing as I eat those Ricola cough drops like candy.  I'm even going to call the doctors office again and see if they have any recommendations.  I'm getting pretty tired of all this nonsense.  

Besides that, it had me so distracted I forgot to pay some bills.  I wondered why I all of a sudden had so much money in my account!