It's been a long, cold winter already and winter hasn't even started!

I went out to feed yesterday afternoon and was getting out of my car just as the vet's truck zoomed past the barn. When I arrived at the pens, the vet, the farrier, the barn manager, and several other volunteers and boarders were doing their best to get Bella up. She went down about an hour before I got there, and the farrier and barn manager were right there and at her side instantly. Bella suffered nerve damage in her hind legs from West Nile, and then, a year later, managed to survive EPM but not without lingering severe neurological problems. Two other rescues rejected her before she made it to us, and I guess we have a weakness for retired, damaged horses. She had a lot of trouble balancing but, through massages and physical therapy, was sound enough to enjoy many years at the rescue playing with the other mares in pasture and getting love from all her human friends. Often she would roll and need help moving her hind legs into position to stand up again, but she always got up on the first or second try!

Yesterday, however, was very different. It looked and felt as if her legs were petrified- we could not move them into position for her, and after a couple attempts she stopped putting much energy into it. By the time got there, she looked completely defeated and was barely lifting her head. The decision was made to put her down, and it was a hard one to be present for. Always a fighter, Bella was on her side, whinnying to her friends, "running" with her front legs, and looked each of us in the eye before she calmed down, took a few deep breathes, and was still as the last dose was administered. As the vet said, not many horses can survive West Nile AND EPM, then live a happily into their late teens with the severe neurological damage Bella willfully pushed through!

2009 has been a hard year for many, and the rescue was no exception. In addition to three of our 33+ year olds, our 29 year old pony, and Bella all passing on, we saw four horses return to the rescue after their owners could no longer afford their care, two of whom came back sick but thankfully in good weight. This year, we have had so many horses in need that we perpetually had horses in iso pens, boarding spaces, and even turned out with boarders' horses.

On the plus side, we participated in a nation-wide effort to save 300 starving mustangs, and our two boys are looking fantastic and have started groundwork training with a professional who has volunteered his time! The downturn in the economy left us with some very nice riding horses who were adopted before they left iso, and many volunteers finally had the chance to adopt a horse that met their riding needs. We took in a mare from a kill pen who, at four years old, has grown more than 6" now that she's being properly fed. We took in a horse who had been abandoned along the highway and was severely underweight, but clearly well-trained, and watched him transform into a gorgeous, sound gelding who will make someone a very nice riding horse. And, thanks to the wet spring, hay prices went down enough that we could still afford to take in all the extra horses in need :-)

Back Home!

St Thomas was a refreshing little break from reality. Mike LOVED the water, which makes me really happy because I'm basically a fish. We've never had the chance to swim together and he hasn't been in water in probably over a decade, and I was a bit worried about this trip being so hydro-centric... but no, he took to the ocean just fine! The first day, Katy and I taught him the basics of snorkeling in the pool plus some diving tricks, like how to clear your mask without taking it off. The next morning we were off on a sail to St John, where we spent the day snorkeling in Caneel Bay. We were all a bit apprehensive about Mike jumping off the boat and not being able to reach an edge or touch the bottom, but in the end I could hardly keep up with him! We saw lots of rays, a turtle, a 3' barracuda, and the usual array of fan and brain corals, sponges, parrot and angel fish, yellow-tailed jacks, etc.

The rest of the trip, Mike was in the pool every chance he got and kept up with us as we snorkeled for hours around the coastline. We didn't do any diving, but I think Mike is motivated to get certified so we'll have to go back to do our open-water. It's very hard to complain about after being there again, even if rentals are stressful and repairs constant and consistently over-priced. Gram is always happy to visit with all her friends on the island, and it's been five years since I last went so it was nice to catch up with with the people who made my childhood so special!

We also got a chance to work on invitation wording and write some of the ceremony, plus we bought Mike's wedding band and decided to skip a second band for me and instead bought a lovely tennis bracelet. Would it have been better to use the money we saved but didn't use for ring purchases to pay off some loans? Yes. Do I regret buying something else useless with that money? Maybe, but only a little :-)

How come all injuries are stupid?

Yesterday I had a nice lesson, my right leg swung a bit more than I'd like in the sitting trot but as I was thinking that my trainer commented on how still my legs always are :-) This horse has MASSIVE gaits, too, and I'm still figuring out how to effectively ride them.

Anyhow, he can really extend those legs of his and it sometimes fools me into thinking he's bigger than he actually is. We did some stretchy-chewy figure eights with a cooling sheet on at the end, leaving me to dismount a la side-saddle so I don't take the blanket with me. The combination led me to jump down with a little less grace than usual, thinking I had a ways to fall and could correct myself before I landed.

Of course, I landed funny when I hit the ground a few inches sooner than I thought, and tweaked my ankle something awful! Mike wants to take me to the doctor, I don't want to go because I'm pretty sure they'll just tell me to take some tylenol and keep my weight off it.

So I lied... in a good way!

I went out to feed last night, which was tons of fun because I also locked myself out of our house so I got to feed in what I was wearing and it got COLD when the sun went down! I made Mike bring me a hat and gloves when he got home, but I really missed my coveralls and waterproof boots.

Anyhow, I went out to feed and Honey was still there! Turns out, they had planned to put her down over the weekend and had increased her pain meds (added more bute) to give her a comfortable last few days. When the vet came out, she was galloping full-tilt around the pasture having a blast. They did a flexen test and she passed it, and her chronic abscesses looked fine. So the decision was made to take her off bute, keep her on aspirin, antibiotics, and all the supplements she gets, and see how she does. The amount of bute she was on is not a workable long-term solution, but if she is feeling better and we can go back to managing her pain in other ways, then hooray! She looked great, and even put a little effort into defending her side of the hay trough she shares with Bella, the mare with nerve damage in her hind legs and back. There is a third mare in with them now, a healthy and sound but flighty paint mare who was just separated from her foal for weaning. Luckily, Glory is such a wimp she doesn't go near her lame but alpha-type pasture mates.

Also, cute new gray Arab-type (?) gelding. Ride-able, sound, and had very nice gate manners but I didn't get a chance to hear his story. Put his blanket on him and he was much more respectful than most of our newcomers are. He came up to the gate when I called, slipped his head into the halter, and was friendly without demanding attention. I get the feeling he's a real winner, and won't be with us too long :-)

Blech

Again, mad at CU. Well, mad at myself for not dealing with CU. I hate that I get As in upper-division hard science classes as long as there is no homework. When there is homework and/or the class is lower-level, I get Cs. WTF? I know why, though: I don't go to class if lecture makes me want to bang my head against the wall (hello there, PHYS 2010!) and I don't do homework problems that are "plug and chug" if I've already done the same friggin' ones on another assignment and had no trouble with them. I will do problems out of the book (that are, naturally, not graded) if I'm having trouble with a concept. If college is about learning, why do we get graded on how well we do busywork?

In other news, I need to finish this concept map now so I can raise my homework grade with an assignment that is actually helping me learn.

Oh, and we put down Honey. Some horses are easier to let go of then others, and Honey was a tough one for me. She wasn't even 20 years old, but we couldn't get rid of her pain. After a failed too young career, she was bred, starved, and rescued (by us). Someone adopted her, and after a couple years disappeared off the face of the earth with her (doesn't happen often, but does happen) and she reappeared with us, once again as a skeleton, over a decade later. We learned that she was bred at least once, abused and rescued by another organization out of state, adopted to someone who then sold her, and brought back to Colorado where she was kept in a dirt lot and not properly fed. The dirt-lot people had a huge house and lots of "toys" of the 4-wheeler/boat variety. Their excuse for not feeding her? They had no money to buy hay for the horses they weren't showing. Fuckers. She was one of the first horses to come in after I started volunteering beyond volunteer days, and I helped soak her abscessed feet and get her to move her legs. She was so sore, with abscesses in three of her hooves, that she wouldn't even come to her bucket for dinner without lots of physical coaxing. She was better for a little while, but with the winter weather her legs started bothering her and the decision was made... She was a total sweetheart, in spite of all the crap people had done to her.

People suck.

We finally closed on the condo today, so yay!!! Mike is a home owner!! Even better, we have enough money left to pay for the cat to have his surgery! I think Mike's a bit depressed about how quickly our money disappears and how "little" we have to show for it... but he'll be happier when he files taxes and sees how many deductions and returns he's getting.

Today, I was finished with my workout and chatting with my trainer when I started to feel not so great. I sat down, felt worse, got up, spent 5 minutes puking, then felt okay and drove home. It was extremely strange, especially since it was at the end of my work out and the exercise hadn't made me nauseous or anything and since I rarely vomit. I'm going to blame it on the fact that I hadn't eaten anything in five hours and try not to think about other implications. If it wasn't a blood sugar crash, it was probably the flu: Mike has a flu thing and my parents both had swine flu last week. My mom is on the high-risk list for swine flu so she went to get her vaccine and the doctor tested and saw she'd already had it, so we know for sure that we were all exposed. I was hoping I already had it- I was laid up for ten days earlier this semester with an awful bug- but the morning sickness allusions (my trainer has a ten week old baby boy and the cat breeder is currently preggers) are scarier than the thought of swine flu!

Other than that... my clones keep dying :-( and with midterms I haven't had a chance to start again, and I miss the lab! I keep going in and saying "hi" and puttering around a bit, doing some chores etc, but I feel like a slacker studying in the library instead of trying to get something started and then studying in the lab while it digests/ incubates/ runs/ autoclaves/ whatever. The fact that it's 4:30 and I'm home is frightening. My brain being fried is even worse, since I still haven't studied for my molecular test tomorrow. Crappity crap crap, indeed.

Everyone makes mistakes, right?

My day today:
"Multiply everything by 0.6 to make 600 mL of agar for plates." "Okay. Wow, this does not seem like enough agar." "You started with 1.5 g, right? So it should be okay!"

Two hours later...
"These plates aren't setting. Are you sure you remembered to put the agar in?"
"Yes, I am sure I put agar in. I'm making agar plates: I hope I'm not that dumb!"

Fifteen minutes later...
"These don't look right at all. Are you SURE you put agar in?"
"YES I am SURE I put agar in."
"You put 9g of agar in the bottle with the LB?"
"You mean, 0.9 g or agar in the... oh, crap, what?"
"You put 1.5 g of agar per 100 mLs, no?"
"No. Shit nuggies. I totally put 1.5 g per 1000 mLs. These are not going to gel. I have to leave in 20 minutes. The bacteria is ready to plate. Fucking fuckity fuck!"


In other words... I am that dumb! And I am going to spend the rest of the week making up for it, especially since my supervisor was just assigned to me last week and I've only been to work one other day since then! I wanted to make a good impression, but I think I'm failing pretty miserably at that! At least he is very friendly, and doesn't seem to be too bothered when I ask him a million questions and then five minutes later ask the same million questions because I didn't write enough down the first time...

It sucks to be completely new to something and have everyone expect you to know what you're doing! I think they've all forgotten what it's like to do all these standard procedures for the first time, but at least everyone is nice about answering questions and double-checking my work.

At least I have the cutest little pumpkin ever!!!