Pico, Polly, Tivio Cat, Nugget and More

#@%$#^%$(@#$%#$^@!!!  Good morning!!!!!  Yup that's all the bad words I said about my neighbor last night who had a big party, complete with microphones, big amps and screaming loud music until 2 am.  Earplugs and pillows over my head did little to dampen the noise. If my train of thought runs amuck this morning, you will know why.   

Yes I definitely need to move.  It happened when the market crashed 12 years ago and these houses sold for 1/3 of their real value, allowing younger not-so-stable people to move in.  Obviously no one teaches their kids manners any more.  I mean really, who would take their dog onto someone else's lawn to do his business and just leave it there.  Yup ... that would be one of my neighbors on my lawn.  Crazy, right??

UPDATE:  My neighbors fixed the water running on my property causing those pesky weeds to grow.  I was out spraying them when I got the text message.  They have restored my faith in neighbors!!!

Anyway, my coffee is sort of working.  There's nothing like that 2-hours-of-sleep drug out exhausted feeling.  

I did yell out this word when I saw the video.  Raccoon!!!  Who would have thought we have raccoons in this area?  Just like the fox, he's on the road to somewhere, passing by all the rest stops!!  I need to find a better location for the camera.

In case you were wondering where all the cowgirl stuff came from, I got my first horse at four years old.  This is me at 5 on my horse Pico.  I'm the one on the back.  I was forced to give up the drivers seat to a friend who didn't know how to ride. 

This horse was bomb proof, but boy could he cut a cow!!  He was a little too tall for me to climb on, so I would lead him up to the half barrel water trough, step on the edge and jump on.  There was no help in that department, you had to be self sufficient on the ranch, even at five years old.  Other days we would use his long mane as a rope around his neck, lead him up to the fence in the corral and jump on bareback.  We would ride around the corral for hours, later getting chastised for our dirty butt Levis.

After Pico came Polly (the runner who had no patience for new riders), her colt Echo, Nugget (a real cutting horse who would kick you if you touched his tail), Cricket (who would run away with you if you let her), Tivio Cat who bucked me off on her first ride because my dad jumped in front of her, scaring her into the wildest bucking scene I've ever known) and many many more.  My love of horses was all consuming.  If I wasn't in school, I was on a horse.

My love of this kid is the same.  Although his eating is not exactly back to normal, he's feeling better and his ball game is exceptional.  You can see the intensity.  He's thirteen by the way, and plays just as hard as when he was three.

Yeah, this is what my living room looks like most of the time.  He puts the ball down and pulls the rug over it.  It's how I keep in shape, kicking the rug back in place so I don't trip over it and break my neck!!

An hour later, there's this!!  The weird positions he gets his legs in cracks me up.

Finally, it was time to get something accomplished.  I had not emptied my water tanks in the rig.  Why they put that drain handle two feet back underneath the tire is beyond me.  I need to find some kind of handle, because by the time you pull it and back out, you are soaking wet.  I also dumped the hot water tank.  

For you trailer people out there ... how long do you think this plastic cap is going to last?  I try not to tighten it up too much, but I hear of them breaking.  It has some kind of yellow stuff on the threads.  Do I need to put more on occasionally?  This is all new to me since my other rig had on-demand hot water, no hot water tank.

And then I noticed this.  This is an auto leveling system.  To be level, the right side tires are off the ground.  Is this okay or do I need to add some blocks under the tires.  I have always read it's not good to let the jacks carry all the weight.  But of course I could be out in left field.

Another fifteen minutes was spent adjusting the air in the truck tires back down to normal driving.  If I don't, it feels like I'm tippy toeing down the road, not to mention it's rough as heck.  Another adjustment to the air bags and I'm good until the next trip.

As much as I want to go on a road trip, that $75 price tag for the diesel just to go to the foothills has me stuck at home.  I can be real conservative when the cost hits my wallet.  It's the accountant in me.