Bad day

While yesterday wasn't the worst day ever, it did rank pretty high on the list of days where hardly anything went right.

First, Ken's paycheck didn't come for the second week in a row, so I had to borrow money from a neighbor so I could run to Greenwood to pay my electric bill. After that I went to Marshfield, and on the way the muffler fell off the truck. *sigh* I went to Menards to pick up boards for fence, as lumber was on sale, and couldn't find any good 10 foot lengths so I decided to skip it for now.

I'm on my way to a pretty lovely headache by this point, but I had one more stop to make before I went home. The mall parking lot was crowded for a change, and when I went in I found out why. There was a home improvement 'show' going on, as well as a furniture disbursal sale. I went to Radio Shack to pick up an accessory for my new cell phone and had to wait 20 minutes for their computers to work again. The only good part of the trip to the mall was the 'petting zoo', a small gathering of cages and tubs that contained bunnies, kitties, and brightly colored chicks and ducklings.

Yep, someone decided that green, pink, blue and orange infant poultry was cool. I think they used food coloring, so it didn't hurt them, but it was sort of disturbing, kinda like Peeps come to life.

I finally get home at 4pm, and by now my head is really starting to ache. I turn Never out in the pen, make something to eat, take an Aleve, and try to get some work done. That's about when Ken shows up with his entourage in tow. Now, I like his girlfriend Mia (I think she deserves better, but it's her choice), but her 2 yr old son Cooper is a little hellion that she has trouble reining in. I take Ken to trim some hooves, and all the while Cooper is having fun shrieking at the horses and running around like a maniac with Mia yelling at him to behave.

Ken finishes up and goes to play with Cooper on the swings while Mia and I chat for a bit. They leave after a while, and I decide to take Never for a walk. He's been good, following at a touch and trusting that I won't take him someplace bad.

We walked toward the back of the property, then up to the apple tree. We did a couple of wide circles, then walked down to the pond. All was going well until we startled a pair of ducks, and then all hell broke loose. Never blew up and tried to head for home. I had a tenuous grip on the lead, as the ducks had startled me too, but I held on until I tripped and my glasses flew off my face. Never bolted for the barn, and I was on my hands and knees in a hayfield looking for my glasses. I gave up after a couple of minutes and hiked back to see where my scared gelding ended up. When I got into the yard I yelled for my sister, then saw Never hanging out by the mare pasture gate, quivering and snorting at his lead rope and trying to crawl through the gate. I caught him and quieted him down, then took him to his stall and gave him hay and treats laced with Rescue Remedy. That was when I took stock of my own injuries. No bruises or bumps, but I did lose a full layer of skin off of two fingertips due to rope burn.

My sister doctored my wounds, then we went to look for my glasses. The phrase 'needle in a haystack' come to mind, but trust me, 'glasses in a hayfield' is a much more difficult task, especially when you need them to see any sort of detail. Surprisingly, though, after about a half an hour of crawling around on my hands and knees I found them!

So today is another day, and everything seems a little better. My fingertips are sore, which makes it hard to type, but Never is leading well and doesn't seem to have any injuries from his run. I put him in the pen again, and went to make my own breakfast. While I'm filling a pot with water, I look out the window and see him trot around then stand at attention, looking at something. Then he takes off around the pen, full of snort and blow, then stands alert again. It took me a few minutes before I realized what he was looking at. I had pulled the Halloween yard 'balloons' and other stuff out of the shed so I could organize, and the breeze was moving the brim of a witches hat, which I guess is the scariest thing ever for a 4 yr old Arabian gelding. I put them away, and he calmed down a little.

So now I'm going to go change the dressing on my wounds, and then work on a couple of ideas that I've had. Later this afternoon I'm going to take Never for another walk, but I think I'll go scare the ducks off the pond first!