In the forecast: more severe weather, plus the butterfly effect

We had one of those long rainy days today.  The kind of day that makes you want to curl up on a sofa with a dog and a book.  There were no dogs nor sofas at my office, and the books make dull reading.

I realized I couldn't remember the last time we'd had a day like this here.  We tend more toward summer afternoon thunderstorms.  The climate keeps changing, bit by bit.  Everybody is talking about how different the winters have been, how much windier it's been.  In my head I nod and say "Yup, that's the global warming thing" but out loud I usually don't say much because very few people know anything about it other than the words "global warming".  And you can't say those words without somebody pointing out how it's chilly today.

This drives me bugnuts so I leave it alone.  But for the record?  GLOBAL does not mean in your backyard or even in your state.  It's worldwide.  Worldwide water and air temperatures.  A rise of a few degrees doesn't seem like much but can have dramatic effects on weather, populations of plants, insects, and animals, and who knows what else.

So the next time you're saying how windy it is and it's weird for this time of year, and I don't say much?  Global warming, pal.

PS I'm not trying to make out like I'm an expert here, but could you just please read a LITTLE about it?  And stop saying "Global warming my ass" every time there's a cold day?

If I was hiking alone, who kicked my arse?

Am I ever feeling my age this evening.

Most recently, the husband I cradle robbed is turning 38 tomorrow.  Living with a younger, healthier man is sometimes annoying.  Especially when he's all "I exercised for ten minutes so I get an extra five hundred calories today!"  Like it wasn't annoying enough that there is actual visible proof of his weight loss, while I look (and feel) exactly the same.  And then once a year I am forcibly reminded that I am, in fact, the older one.  Just what every woman wants.  And I don't get carded anymore so I don't even have that consolation.  Although I admit it is nice to finally get alcohol without a hassle.

Nevertheless I wish him a happy birthday, and a happy Mustang, tomorrow.

Anyway he'll get what's coming to him when I'm 83 and he's 80 and I'm too feeble to do anything so he has to wash all the dishes.

The other part of why I feel ancient is the ~10 mile hike/run I went on this morning.  Ginny Owen suggested I hike around Rosaryville State Park as a close by alternative to Greenbelt Park.  It didn't have any killer ascents, but it was more mileage than Greenbelt, and a lot more ups and downs.  I can't really get New England quality climbs without driving quite a distance, so I'll take what I can get.  I'm trying as best I can to get in shape / stay in shape for backpacking, so when I go out I don't feel like a wet noodle.  Ten miles of up and down ravines isn't strenuous enough, though, so I ran part of it. 

Well, technically I ran because I am insane.  And I am insane because I signed up for Run Amuck.  It's a 5k race, up and down hills, with obstacles.  It's in two months.  I *really* have to start training.  I guess I did already, I just don't feel very trainy.  Well, maybe now I do.  I'm not sure how much I ran.  My GPS app was totally flaky so I have no idea what happened where, and there aren't mileage markers on the trail (as there so conveniently are in Greenbelt.)  I know that I ran most of the last mile.

I'm kind of proud of that, actually.. hike/run nine miles, then run the last.  I think that proves that I am not made entirely of lard and noodles.  Also, maybe it proves the insanity thing.

And why did I sign up for Run Amuck?  It sounded good at the time.  I completely forgot that I am an unathletic schmo.  I am a sysadmin, for goodness sake!  We don't DO exercise.  We certainly don't do crazy five k races with walls and mud crawls.  (Well, maybe John Hord or John Anderson would.. or Fredrik Nyman.  I'm not really proving my point very well.)

The problem is that I don't do flabby very gracefully.  Also, I am too dumb to give up horseback riding and backpacking, both of which are MUCH MUCH EASIER if you have an intact musculature.

Not that I'm sure I have one, after today.  My neck hurt on the ride home (might have been watching my feet while I ran) and my hip hurt after dinner (... because it's angry at me?  I have no idea.)  And thus I am reminded that while I am still mentally fifteen, my body is actually forty.

Pete, JD, Larry, and Susan celebrating JD's birthday

Me, Delee, and Liza.  Shirley was taking the picture. 

A charming accident

Did I mention the freakily artistic collections of found items along the trail?

Bottle/bucket graveyard

Thank goodness the park was there to help me forget the bustling city

A collection of extended neepery

Gosh, what a wonderful day I'm having!  I'm going to stop and describe it now while it's still fresh in my mind.

I had a ride scheduled with Tara this morning, so I got all bundled up in my warm winter riding gear and headed out.  I found Pluto with mudsicles sticking to him, so I got busy with an extended grooming session.  Fortunately I got there before Tara so there was no rush.

That boy is shedding!  He apparently doesn't care that it's only February.  He is starting over on the coat issue.  The ground was not as white around the grooming area as it will be in a week or two, but he made a good start at it.  I brushed him in every possible location, and the hair never stopped coming out.  I got hair stuck to my riding pants, my fleece top, my lips, my eyes.. definitely shedding season.  I ended up spitting out hair as we walked to the arena.

But before we walked over, I swapped out the stirrups on the saddle.  I finally broke down and ordered jointed stirrups.  I can't remember who recommended them to me.  Possibly multiple people.  Over the course of multiple years, maybe.  (Possibly I am stubborn.)  Anyway I put them on the saddle.  They look huge compared to the old ones, and are definitely heavier.  The rubber tubes covering the joints make the stirrup leathers stick to them, which is nice - they stay tied up as we walk to the arena, instead of slowly working loose.  And I left out Pluto's super-cushy sheepskin pad today.  Lately it seems like it's been hindering more than helping.  I think his back has changed a bit such that the pad now takes up too much room under the saddle.

Also I swapped my cozy helmet liner in for my mesh helmet liner.  Niiice.  Just the right amount of insulation to keep my ears from freezing.  Although it turned out that even though it was only 40 degrees, I felt pretty warm.  I think this is the first time in months that there was no wind when I rode.  It felt closer to 60 out there in the arena.  I was surprised when I got back in the car and it said the temperature was 42.

Let's see.  Oh!  He was very good about being bridled today.  Woot!  I spent several minutes before tacking up just touching his ears, head, and neck.  And feeding him cookies.  Positive reinforcement or bribery, your choice.

Okay, so:  grooming: check.  Helmet liner:  check.  Flexible stirrups:  check.  I'm ready for the good part.

I woke up with a back spasm today.  (That's not the good part.)  I took some advil with my vitamins, and my back was feeling better by the time I got to the barn.  But I wanted to do a lot of walking, because that is a very nice way to get back muscles to relax.  It's almost like a massage, but of course nobody is touching your back.

What we do on a given day depends on Pluto.  He is not one of your agreeable pushbutton horses.  He has Opinions, and he is not shy about asserting them.  Like last week was canter week.  No way around it.  He wanted to canter.  He wasn't mean about it, but it was going to happen one way or the other.  Best to just go with it and enjoy.

So, I wondered how he would be this week.  I hoped he would be amenable to walking.  He seemed like he might.  He was attentive while I groomed him, and relaxed as we walked to the arena.  I took off his reins when we got there, as I usually do, to police the arena for fallen branches.  And to get all the pebbles out of my shoes.  I have GOT to start wearing gaiters when I don't wear my half chaps.

While he was reinless he followed me around, and when I sat down to empty out my shoes he was nearly catlike in his ability to interpose his nose between me and the shoes.  He was very, very interested.  And, he knew I had a pocket full of cookies.

I hopped on (have I mentioned how awesome he is about this now?  People who knew us two or three years ago would be astonished.)  We started walking around, doing leg yields, shoulder ins, halts, and just generally practicing all the things one can do at a walk.  He still sucks at backing up (maybe I should install one of those beeping things?) but he was into all the rest of it.  We walked for half an hour.  We did circles, we walked over poles, we did serpentines.  He was a sport.  At that point, I thought my back was doing pretty well so I decided some trotting was in order.

Tara came over to watch and provide advice, knowing how into the C-word he had been the previous week.  Her spot on advice was to drive him forward but half halt every stride.  He made two half hearted attempts to canter, but mostly he gave me a lovely, light and floaty trot.  It felt good and I'm pretty sure it looked good.

I try to do some sitting trot with him every ride.  He is not a fan, but he is getting used to it, and/or better at it.  Part of the problem is that his giant Lipizzan butt gives him a big trot.  It is just not like sitting the trot of any other horse I've ever ridden.  And I am not the world's most experienced rider, but I've worked at several barns and ridden friend's horses.  I counted up a while back and it was over a hundred horses I've ridden.  That should give me a pretty good idea of how a trot should feel.  And the only other horse who has a trot like this, that I've ridden, was a full blooded Lipizzan.  They just aren't like other horses.

My point is that sitting trot is not easy on this horse.  I taught his Thoroughbred predecessor to do a nice little Western jog, which was pleasant for both of us.  I may or may not be able to do that with Pluto.  But he is at least figuring out how to do a super collected trot that I can sit.  And he did that today.

Not using the sheepskin pad today meant that I had a lot more feel for his back than I've had, and vice versa.  So while we were doing this sitting trot, very slowly forward, I accidentally added some lateral movement.  And I got a few strides of shoulder in, which I quickly straightened out because that wasn't what I wanted.  In retrospect I should have gone with it.  We are usually charging ahead at the trot, and I have not spent nearly enough time doing lateral work there.  So I got it by accident, but I was happy with it and hope to do it some more, real soon.

I was reasonably happy with my riding.  Of course I didn't have the eagle eye of an instructor picking out faults, but it felt good to me.  My legs and back felt strong, and I felt connected to the horse.  Why now?  I don't know.  Time, I guess.  Trust in the horse.  (People told me I needed to trust him way back when, but those people were not riding that ticking time bomb.  )  If you have not spent years with a temperamental horse who gradually became trained and fun to ride, I probably can't accurately describe this feeling to you.  All I can say is that it is a VERY GOOD FEELING.

Pluto was having a lot of thoughts today.  I can't tell you what they were, but I know he was having them.  I know because he was licking his lips.  A LOT.  I don't know what he will retain from today, but I hope it will be the good parts.  (Also, I was never sure how aware he was of his own hair, but after he rolled today (which he always does when I let him back in the field) he was still licking his lips.  And then he shook and was enveloped in a cloud of white hair.  He stopped licking and shut his mouth until the cloud drifted away.  Then he started licking again.  So he knows.  Which means he's been getting me hairy deliberately.)

That's pretty much it for the neep.  I mean, I could go on indefinitely, and JD will probably never hear the end of it.  But I expect you've probably stopped reading by now, Internet.

Too bad, I had a couple of other things to say.

After riding, I headed up to Delee's and we planned our next backpacking trip.  I was happy both to spend time with Delee and to have a trip planned.  Love me some Delee and some backpacking.

Also I realized that I still have plenty of energy this afternoon.  I attribute this to the beer and pizza blowout at Shirley's last night.  I can't do that all the time, but I sure do love the extra energy I get from extra food..  If only my body didn't store it all in my gluteal region.  Also, my knees didn't hurt after riding.  Those jointed stirrups really do work.

So, that's my day so far.  Definitely a good day.  Maybe one of the best days.

Pluto and Mystery wondering if there any cookies left

Pluto contributing to the nests of birds favoring white interior decorating

Things I cannot stop thinking about

So you may not know this about me, but I like to hike.  A lot.  I like to hike for months at a time.  Time during which I do not work, which may or may not have an effect on my enjoyment of said activity.

Anyway.

I'm pretty excited about the hikes I have planned this year, even though they don't involve taking off for six months.  First I'm going out for a weekend in March.  I'm getting together with Delee tomorrow to start planning that.

Then I'm going somewhere in April and I haven't even started thinking about that.  It'll work itself out.

In May, I'm hiking southbound into Trail Days and I am SUPER EXCITED.  I am starting to plan food for this hike, which has two hikes between it and me.  My other two hikes are poor orphan hikes that nobody cares about.  But a week off?  In May?  During which I get to see the Grayson Highlands AGAIN?  That is exciting.

Also at the end of that hike I will see many hikers who I know and love (Hello Cody!) and I am looking forward to that too, but apparently I am more looking forward to a week with trail food and no showers, because that is what keeps coming to the fore.  With luck it will be warmish.  I am more of a warmish weather hiker.

June and July, similar to April, will have overnight hikes.

And then.  August.  I get to take THREE WEEKS.  MAYBE FOUR.  But probably three.  Three weeks is a good long time to enjoy a hike.  Sadly, it will be a solo hike.  And I probably won't see a lot of people, because I will be behind the Sobo hikers, and ahead of most of the Nobo hikers.  I think it will probably just be me and the Maine wilderness.  And I'm cool with that.  Sometimes me and the wilderness need to have some quality time.

And then in September, October, and November I have a few more overnights planned.  Those are also orphan hikes, because at the moment I can't think past Maine.  I'll go somewhere, I'll walk.  It'll take care of itself.

Maine.  Man I love Maine.  Pretty, and all northern-like, with the fir trees and the moose.  And the black flies.  Don't like the black flies as much.  But Maine!  I can't wait!

A notable moment in my life at NASA

Today kind of sucked for me.  It was like yesterday part two.  But I didn't spill nearly boiling liquids on my ladyparts, so I'm going to say it was an improvement.

I'm attempting to reshape my upper body into something containing fragments of actual muscle, so I have started going to the gym.  Accordingly I stopped by after work today.  (Now, I don't want you to think that I have become a gym rat.  I have no desire to strain anything, and so I am starting out slowly.  One set each of a variety of exercises with weights, hopefully to the point of muscle failure.  And as many situps as I can stomach.  (See what I did there?) The whole exercise takes about fifteen minutes at the moment.  That will ramp up as I get stronger, but not too much I hope.  I really want maximum gain for my minimal time because I don't find being in the gym entertaining.  At all.)

Today as I entered the gym I noticed it was unusually empty, but I didn't think much about it.  I stomped off to the women's locker room, divested myself of overgarments, and stomped back out.  And I found a crowd staring up.  The Shuttle was launching.  They were watching it in real time on the gym's tv.

You have not seen a more serious, somber, but hopeful crowd in a gym than this bunch of NASA employees watching the Shuttle go up.  It's personal for us.  I didn't ask the guy next to me, but I know my own chest tightens up whenever I watch, in anxiety for the crew.  I don't breathe easy until the big rockets burn out.  As soon as they fell away, I nodded and moved off to my first machine.  I noticed that most others stopped watching at the same time.  So I guess we were all nervous about the same thing.

Nobody cheered.  Few people talked.  We just watched, tensely, until it was okay.  And then we went about our lives.  It's a little sad that we have very little triumph any more.  What we hope for is lack of disaster. 

I keep checking for banana peels and falling pianos

I'm only writing because my mom is still in the hospital and if she gets the chance to look at a computer, she might want to read.

Not that it's good stuff to read.  Sorry Mom.  I kind of had a bad day.  But now that I think of it, probably better than yours.  Although you probably didn't spill hot soup on your crotch.  Hah!  And you thought you had all the problems.

I went for a walk, trying to clear my head and get some energy flowing, and neither happened.  In fact I felt more lethargic, and kind of nauseated.  I even decided not to go to yoga.  I said I DIDN'T GO TO YOGA.  This is kind of a big deal.  I love yoga.  More specifically I love how I feel afterward, and I love how it keeps me from getting backaches. 

On the way home from work I stopped and bought spinach so I could make my favorite "I don't feel good" soup.  It's an awesome soup, BTW.  Chicken broth, (and it turns out if you get the low sodium, no fat chicken broth?  you might as well use water), capellini, steamed fresh spinach stirred in, and a beaten egg cooked in it so it's kind of egg-droppy.  It is a *wonderful* soup, very good for comfort food purposes.  Plus, spinach!  It's good for you.  Nutritional-like.

I ate about half of the soup, and then somehow dumped the bowl on my crotch.  Fortunately I'm female so all I did was mildly burn my thighs.  Had JD pulled the same stunt we'd probably be seeking medical care right now.

JD, who was right there when I did it, ran right upstairs and got me a dry pair of pants to change into.  And I told him I wasn't washing any effing dishes tonight.  (Not that he'd mentioned it.)  And then he cleaned the litter boxes and got me some chocolate.

Because I married well, people.  You can't buy that kind of care.

After the soup debacle, and some chocolate, I told him we were going to watch some tv, dammit.  The good stuff.  And I marched right into the living room and watched two episodes of Castle.  And I only spent about half an hour of that coughing up the mint tea I had managed to choke on.

Yup.  It's been that kind of day.

Oh, and JD guessed what was in the box that was delivered today.  Jelly beans.  His special pectin jelly beans, that I ordered for his birthday.  He could tell from how the box rattled.  Who memorizes what jelly beans rattle like?  Seriously?

So now I am going to go upstairs, holding carefully onto the railing.  And I am going to take a shower (not too hot) and then I am going to get into bed and hope I don't manage to knock the lamp over on me, or choke on my own spit, or get a papercut on my jugular.  Because these are the sorts of things that are liable to happen on a day like today.

My weekend in pictures

A very happy JD at the Melting Pot

A view of people viewing the view (looking down onto Harper's Ferry)

My beloved, taking pictures of the scenery.  I liked this view better.

A historic view.  From where we were standing they could use a cannon to hit nearly everything in sight.

JD climbed up to find out what was going on with the funky holes in the rocks. 

Beauty looking alert while waiting for the doc.

Beauty is none too certain of her position up on the table.  Being up never leads to anything good.

Beauty wearing her tough guy vest at the vet's.

How did I have two year old jello in the fridge?