Thursday, October 23, 2008

Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

And I am not exaggerating. First the horsey part: I have not been to the barn to see John all week due to bad work schedule and guilt over Montana being out on his 2-week sale trial. I can't quite understand this guilt but it has sapped the fun of horses for the moment.

Anyway today, a golden afternoon and warm, I dragged out to the barn to make amends to Johnnie for the week of zero work and attention.

What do I see but a line of tree cutting trucks like this:

except there were about 7 of them, and the din they were creating was audible blocks away. The power company had decided to trim the power line of trees and branches. There was a gigantic pile of stumps and branches at the entrance to the barn, and entirely obstructing our trail exit so that was out of the question.

I got Johnnie in anyway and stupidlytried to walk him past a gigantic chipper truck in full operation: huge diesel truck engine running, chipper gnawing away on tree trunks, truck backed in so that we had to pass verrrry close to the engine or fall in a ditch.

Well, John at first said maybe and then said no way. He just suddenly turned into horsey popcorn, boing boing prance to the edge of the ditch, prance forward toward the truck cab, and I was stuck between the chipper end of the truck and the ditch, with a horse who would go neither forward nor backward, just pop around in place being as tall as possible all the while.

Fortunately the only woman on the work crew saw my dilemma and went & asked the chipper guy to turn down the machine so we could pass. He didn't want to but she made him - hurray for bossy women!!

So I did get him mud-scraped and tacked up, and by then the chipper truck was gone although many many chainsaws were still screaming all around the edge of the property. We had a ride. Not a good ride. He was stiff and distracted. While we were riding a yearling filly got loose and ran madly all around the property, which caught John's eye and made him inattentive...

The work day...let me just say that some administrators make a sadistic habit of wasting peoples' time in pointless meetings, which seem to give joy to the admins but headaches to the victims. How about convening a whole bunch of department heads and then telling them, "We don't really have any business so let's just share..." Share what? My aggravation at being brought to this meeting? My dislike of wasting time indoors on a beautiful fall day?! Grrr.

I hope you all had a great time today to balance out the cosmic harmony. Off to comfort myself with chips and peach salsa.

6 comments:

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Sheez-not a good day to ride!

At first I was cussing the power company for wanting to come and cut trees down...then they never showed up and I was cussing them for not showing up when that branch fell on a friend's pickup.

Grey Horse Matters said...

I give you credit for even getting on with all that racket going on. I wouldn't have. Sounds as if you are missing Montana and it's going to be hard to make a decision at the end of the 2 week trial. Even though you know it's the practical solution and may be feeling pressured to sell him.I'm not so sure you sound like you really want to.
On the other hand what a lousy day at work. Don't you just hate unnecessary meetings just for the sake of having one. Too bad you had to waste time indoors for nonsense on a beautiful day.

Jocelyn said...

Kudos to you for atemtping to ride! I would have said No thanks! We'll just groom today!

My job doesnt have meetings, but what I do have is an open wall between my boss and my office, so I hae to hear wah wah wah wah all day long. Not sure what is worse.
I also console myself with Chips and Salsa on a fairly regular basis ! I could use some right now as we have a big show on Sunday and I am just as nervous as John was with those noisy chippers!

Anonymous said...

Good on you for riding with all that ruckus. Instead of viewing it as a not so good ride, see the silver lining and consider it a good learning experience for John. :)

Mmm...peach salsa. That sounds delightful! I've never had any.

20 meter circle of life said...

Oh i can sooo relate!!! I just have to dodge teenage stripper wanna be's playing at being cowgirls while listening to rap. And my company has meetings to discuss what we should discuss as the next meeting- for like 2 hours!!

Flying Lily said...

BECG: Branch on pickup - ouch. Do you still have those nice trees then?

GreyHorse: The Montana thing has me conflicted with my conflicts.

Jocelyn: I might have to kill my boss if I were forced to listen to all that all day. Good luck at your show!

Jenn: I like Newman's Own peach salsa; it has chunks of what seem to be fresh peach in it and is smooth & mild. Down side: It comes in a good sized jar and there's no natural stopping point.

20Meter: Meet to plan meetings! What a concept. We do that too. I always wanted to invent a meeting salary-o-meter that would show the true cost of the meeting time based on everyone's salary. "This meeting just cost us $897! Was it worth it?"