Pluto contributes to a really good day off

Is the Mother Ship still in orbit?  I'd like to send flowers, or maybe a handwritten thank you note.  Pluto's recently delivered Alien Brain is in full working order.  Me likey.

It was chilly today, with wind gusts up to 35 mph.  Just the wind would have been enough to make me call it off two years ago, but I have more faith in Pluto now.  And he didn't let me down.

Tara was already hooking up the trailer when I got there, so I hustled and grabbed all my tack to throw in the trailer.  Pluto thought I was up to something hinky and didn't want to be caught.  Mystery didn't care, he knew I had cookies.  So Mystery got a cookie and some scritchies, until a white nose interposed itself between us.  Pluto hates it when somebody else gets the attention.  Thus captured, he acquiesced and walked down to the trailer with me.. until he saw the big silver tarp somebody had put over their trailer.  MAN he was not going past that.  He just stood there gaping at it.%  It took me and Tara and two crops tapping to get him limbered up enough to actually walk into Tara's trailer.

He and Timber were a little excited with the wind and whatnot, but when I lunged Pluto at the park he said "eh."  So I got on and he was all "yeah, sure, you betcha, I do this all the time."  SRSLY?  Horse?  You are a lying.. liar.  I know for a fact you have never been to Greenbelt Park before, so there.

Anyway we rode around and it was fun.  Cold, but fun.  We had two teeny little incidents.  A branch fell somewhere in the woods and we had a spontaneous gallop for a few strides until we reached the safe harbor of Timber's butt.  Um.  His butt-adjacent zone.  %%  What I'm saying is he felt much better being RIGHT BEHIND Timber for a little bit.  Just in case that branch was going to sneak up and attack him.

About a mile later a holly branch scratched on the top of my helmet and Pluto had a little skitter but a holly branch doesn't really compare to a Giant Attack Branch of Unknown Dimension so it was over quickly.

Timber, BTW, settled quickly and acted like the distinguished gentleman that he is, despite Pluto's occasional scared forays into his butt-adjacent zone.

Pluto spent the whole time tripping over roots.  I encouraged him to, I don't know, maybe look where he was going?  But he was averse to that idea and instead kind of felt around with his toesies.  It was an odd sensation.  The only time I've felt it before was riding a blind horse.  Since Pluto refused to look at the ground, that was effectively his condition.  He got a good gander at everything else though.

We haven't done a lot of hill work, so I was happy for him to have some time to figure that out.  The first few he went down, it felt like he was on his tiptoes.  Which is not a fun way to go down a hill, for either of us.  I am pretty sure that by the last hill, he figured out you have to bend your hocks a little.  He might be sore tomorrow, as he isn't used to actually working or anything.

So, that was it.  No major excitement, no bruises, and a safe return home.  I call that a perfect trail ride.

PS If you're thinking of taking horses to ride at Greenbelt Park, call ahead first.  There were no signs, but a park employee told us (fortunately after we were done) that horses weren't allowed.  Despite the "horse trailer parking" sign and the "horses and pedestrians only" signs all along the trails.  Apparently there is an unsafe condition somewhere.  Perhaps they have an infestation of Attack Branches.

%What was he thinking?  "Bad fashion decision!  Bad!"

%%Walk-Gallop transitions are not something I have practiced recently.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel

That light might be an oncoming train.  Or it might be the end of the tunnel.  Alternatively it might be one of those little one-car dealy-bobbers with an engineer on it.  Or a medic.  At any rate, the light and I should be intersecting on Monday and ONE WAY OR ANOTHER the last several weeks' frantic journey will be over.

First I have Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday I'm meeting Tara, not very early, and we are going to trailer our horses to somewhere where, we hope, we have a minimal chance of getting shot.  Unlike the environs of the farm, where it is fairly likely due to it being hunting season.  Frankly this makes me very nervous, but the hunters seem to be pretty good and so far no horse has ever been shot there.  That I know of.  And the horses are fairly blasé about gunshots now, so that's good.  When Playboy lived near a skeet range he heard gunshots all day and could not have cared less.  I, on the other hand, get a little jumpy.  I've never been shot but I've been shot *at* and it made an impression on me.  On the psyche part of me.

Anyway we're going somewhere else to ride.  I hope very, very much that nothing exciting happens.  Or that if it does, Pluto keeps his shit together and I keep in contact with the saddle.  Because after the riding I plan to have a nap, and that's harder to do if you're bruised all over.  I figure our most likely suspects for excitement are a) joggers%, b) loose dogs%%, c) bridges%%%, or d) road noise.  The park has big roads on all sides and Pluto isn't really used to a lot of road noise.  I hope he's too busy being in a new place to really focus on the tractor trailers going by at 75 mph.

Then we take the boys back to the farm, and then I go home and nap.

Sunday, my coworkers and I are shutting down the server room and securing everything for travel.  Everything is only being shipped one building away.  Fifteen years ago, we moved most of it by rolling it downhill.  But we have a lot more stuff now.  Also, I'm fifteen years older, and it's all uphill.  So we're using a moving truck.  Also, professional movers. 

Monday morning I guess I'm getting up early so I'm there when the movers arrive.  I won't have much to do on the near end, I hope, but on the far end somebody needs to tell them where to put things.  And then, the fun.  Finding out which machines jiggled something loose in transit, or took their opportunity to mysteriously quit working for no obvious reason.%%%%  Also, which ones I was successfully able to change the IP on before they shut down, and which ones didn't take.  Or DID take but won't talk to the network anyway.

I've moved machines before, and I've moved networks before.  So I've seen a lot of failure modes.  I can only wonder what new problems I will surely encounter.  And hope that my temper holds until the end of the process.%%%%%

% I mean hell, I do that myself.

%% Which will either be terrified of Pluto as the biggest dog they ever SAW, OMG, or potentially growly.  Pluto is not scared of dogs so far.  He has tried to stomp one before.  I think if Pluto stomps a dog it could lead to incivility, so I will try hard to avoid that.

%%%For some reason Pluto hates to cross running water.  Maybe he's a witch.

%%%%You know it happens.  It's the dang server gnomes' fault.

%%%%%I'm sorry, coworkers.  I'm sorry, world.  Somebody is going to get yelled at.  It is inevitable.  If you're all lucky, the one getting yelled at will be the ancient VMS machine.  It's used to it.

Happy rider

Today was full on awesome.  I met Tara out at the farm, and we trailered our two horses over to the farm where Liza boards.  They were having a small games day.  8 horses, 4 kids, 4 adults, plus some unmounted adults.  A team of adults and a team of kids went in different directions for a scavenger hunt.  The hunt was pretty easy.  We had to take pictures of items such as "something smooth", "something beautiful", "something red", and "something old".  Which we did, but mostly gabbed and rode in pretty woods, in stunningly good weather.  Pluto was pretty antsy to start with but he settled down.  Which was good, because I was the one taking pictures.

So some of the pictures are kinda blurry.

I am about to burst with pride for my pony.  He's getting it figured out!  His brain is fully delivered, I tell you.

Unfortunately my pants are too large now, thanks to hiking.  I need to buy some smaller ones, once I figure out what size these are.  Tara had no sympathy for me at all.  On the other hand, she wasn't hauling her pants up every two minutes.

This evening JD is handing out candy to cute little tykes, and I think I might have an early night and a well deserved sleep.

A thing!  In the woods!  Could be a sandworm.