Letting Go

I like this poster and also a comment one of my teacher friends (Jayne) made about dancing... "Sometimes, you just have to be happy, feel the music and let it go."  When the music starts, so do my hands and feet... at first clapping and tapping, but soon, I just have to get up and dance.  I invite all of you to not be afraid of letting go, like this guy in the video, and join me in the dance, any time. 

As I was looking for a "let it go" picture, I found many things which people suggest letting go of.  One was in this article (by Chuck Queen) on Christian Exceptionalism and it also discusses American exceptionalism:  Letting-go-of-christian-exceptionalism-does-not-mean-letting-go-of-jesus.  It has helped me to better understand my feelings on Christianity and figure out what it is I believe and how to live by those convictions.  I need to humbly seek God with an open mind and an open heart, and (like Jesus) be faithful, loving, peaceful, compassionate, etc.  The love that 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of is of the most importance.

Saturday morning the sun was shining, but the air temperature was in the mid 50's.  Rather than eating at my feeders, Mr. Squirrel felt the need to let it go, and lay in the sun and soak up some of its warmth.

As I finished up last weeks blog, and reflected on different events, I wondered how the rescued dove was doing.  A little later, this dove came to the feeder, and I took it as a sign that the other one had survived... but who knows.




The dove also spent some time sitting in the sun.














Callan was subbing for me so I could attend the Rotary Club music festival.  I got there shortly after noon, just when it started to drizzle.  It was cold and damp, but the first band, The Soc Hops, (seen bottom right photo) was a lot of fun to sing to and boogie with.  I didn't completely let go and break out some moves, but beboped enough to keep warm.



I sat with Don (a St. George employee), his wife, and two other couples.  Joe joined us after he got off work.  The drizzle stopped but it was windy and cold.  Dancing helped warm me up, but there wasn't enough of it, because the 2nd and 3rd bands mostly played music they wrote.  Good listening music, but not dancing music.



Joe had gone home and returned later with Maggie, at the time the 4th and final band (and the best one) had taken the stage.  At this point I was chilled to the bone, so we left before the festival was over.


This photo was in this week's Glade Sun news paper.  The photo was taken by Rebekah Bohannon Beeler.  We're famous.  Ha ha ha.


It had been announced that some of the band members were going to Red's for Karaoke, so the eight of us, plus Brian, decided to go check it out.  The festival band people never showed up, but we let it go, and still enjoyed some other good singers that were there.  We had a fun time singing along, over good grub and ale, as we also chatted and got to know each other better.


I lost track of time here at my computer on Sunday, and missed Church again.  It would have been really cold (51 degrees) at the outdoor service.  Once I got going, I went to Shirley's to check on and play with Miss Kitty (seen right).

The rest of my day was spent out back, working on the drainage ditch.  I laid out the pavers to get an idea where and how I wanted to cement them in.  I plan to widen the trough near the bottom so that the wall doesn't have to be so high.  And at some point, I will stop using concrete and just place paivers and large flat rocks over dirt or sand I haul in to cover all the exposed roots.  Seen left, photo taken after rain the next day.  You can seen how uneven the paviers are because they are right on top of the exposed roots.





These two photos I took (left) before, and (right) after the day's work.  You can see in the right photo the seven additional paviers I got cemented in.  

I also cemented some rocks to a few low areas along the sides where the water had washed over during last weeks gully washer.  And I added a rock at each side of the top end (seen right) because it had washed over here also.  At the lower end of the trough, you can see that I covered the paivers with plastic.


I got a slow start Monday morning.  It was cold, damp, (rainy actually), and a second cup of tea appealed and was needed.  Then I remembered my farrier appointment and had to rush to get dressed and to the barn in time.

Tom worked on Zorro's front hoof that I have been treating for thrush.  I haven't been 'letting it go,' but decided that it needed some additional treatment to help get completely better.

Tom said it wasn't that bad, but he notched out the outer hoof wall where the crack was and removed some of the inner hoof wall and toe callus where the thrush had grown up into Zorro's foot.  Now I can get the medicine to the thrush better, this will allow the tissue to dry out, and Zorro won't get little rocks and mud trapped up in the hole. 

Since I was in barn clothes when I got home at 9:30, I skipped out on more computer time and worked out back for awhile.  I checked on the new concrete, cleaned it off in some areas, wet it down, recovered it with plastic, and put the hose away since Joe was going to mow in back.

While Joe was mowing, I went into the woods, across Lakeview and upstream from our pond.  I was looking for some larger rock to use for the ditch retaining wall, and to also partly clear a path I have been taking to cut through to Cromwell Lane.

I took these photos when walking the dog later.  Above, you can see the natural rock outcropping.  Basically I followed it from the Lakeview hiking trail to Cromwell, raking leaves and dirt off of it.

I had to cut down a few seedlings, and move the large log (seen left) and many other tree limbs off of the rock walkway.  Leave it to me to get carried away, and work back there for over an hour, clearing this trail.  In the right photo, you can see it coming from Lakeview, the road in the background.  Oh, I also collected a few rocks and carried them home.

Next I ran out to Terry's new property, where she was cleaning the house and getting ready to move in.  The photo seen left, she took a few days ago.  Part of that mountain ridge in the distance will be where they are planning to put the ginormous windmills.  We chatted about the possibility of me boarding Amiga (and maybe Zorro) there at Terry's barn.  I have lots to consider before making this decision and am very much up in the air on it right now.  There are many pros and cons.

I ended up being late getting to the barn to ride with Jan, so quickly got Amiga from the pasture and tacked up.  We left the barn in a hurry and I rode her hard until we caught up with Jan.  We decided to ride to Terry's property to again check it out and say hello.

We rode for over two hours, and once back to the barn, I noticed that Amiga had lost a back shoe sometime during our ride.  Nuts.  Now I worried that her foot could have gotten bruised and I also need Tom again.  :-(

There was time before dinner to work out back, so I moved lots of rock farther down the hill to cover the dirt and act as temporary edging, seen below. 

Seen left, the rocks had been piled by the tree up the hill, at the start of my drainage ditch work.  

I also removed the plastic off the pavers, because rain was expected, and I hauled more sand up the hill that had washed into the creek bed (seen below).



After dinner, Joe and I sat by a fire (it was 46 degrees out) and watched a movie (Brooklyn).


Rain started during the night and continued off and on through Tuesday morning.  Britney and I chatted on FB Messaging (like we do many mornings).  I took this selfie of Stevie on my lap to send to her.


I finally got my rear in gear and went to the gym to work out.  I had forgotten my weights note sheet and head phones, so made do without, going with the heaviest weight I could do at least ten reps with.  Then, instead of the elliptical, where I watch HGTV (with head phones) I did a class, 'Rockin to the Oldies.'  Well, it was more of a weight work out than a dance / aerobic workout, so my muscles were screaming by the end.  At least the class ended with a good stretch, which I usually skip.

While I was gone, this unfortunate Pileated Wood- pecker flew into our front window.  Joe took these two photos.  He said it had been 30 minutes between them.  And later, when Joe checked, the woodpecker was gone.  Thankfully, it appears he recovered and flew off.

I had gotten up earlier than usual because of the loud storm, so ate lunch and then took over a 90 minute nap.  It was a good one.  But I had to kind of hustle to get to work on time (subbing for Callan).  It was a slow, uneventful afternoon and evening at the Conference Center.

Wednesday morning I worked here at my computer and finalized plans to trailer into the Glade with Jan.  It was much more overcast than predicted and actually rained some.  (Seen left, Amiga and Cash in the trailer) 

I took a detour while driving to the barn, to find a place we could park the trailer to off load and tack up.

Jan and I got the trailer loaded with gear (first time since last fall so we were rusty and took awhile).



Then Joe came to hook up the trailer and help us load horses.  I was amazed (and most thankful) that Amiga got right on with only a moment's hesitation to look down and sniff at the ramp.

We drove to Laurelwood Dr. near Lake Malvern and got tacked up.  Joe took a few photos while we got ready.

Joe drove the trailer back to Wildwood Stables and we had a wonderful (adventuresome) two and a half hour ride back to the barn.  Both horses did great and got some new experiences.  I wish I had taken more photos.

As we rode along the geldings pasture towards the barn, we noticed Bahem's grazing muzzle was messed up.  Once I got Amiga cared for and turned back out, I went out to get Zorro, but first rescued Bahem by removing the muzzle.




Bahem really had the muzzle in an awkward position, but kept trying to eat more grass anyway, poor guy.

I treated Zorro's thrush, came home and took Maggie for a long walk, sat in the hot tub, got a fire going, ate dinner and then watched an episode of Fixer-Upper.  (Joe was at his weekly poker game.)  I don't think I even turned on this computer, but read in bed before conking out.

I woke up at 3 am Thursday and finally got out of bed after 30 minutes of trying to get back to sleep.  Much work on this blog was accomplished as I consumed three cups of tea.  The dog and cat were quite playful during the wee hours but took naps after the sun came up.  I finally got in my nightly quota of 6 1/2 hours of sleep by taking a two hour nap after Joe left for work.

Once out of bed for the second time, I worked in the yard, tying up all the daffodils (as Cathy suggested) rather than trimming them.  Maggie laid in the grass watching, chasing flies, and chewing on sticks.  Once  that was done, I proceeded to pull weeds and spray (with Round-up) the random poison ivy and other weeds that were too well rooted to come out with a tug. 

I put in my usual Thursday 2-9 shift at work.  We were busy (because of the Comedy Night performance) with lots of folks coming in, buying snacks, and asking questions.  Also, the early summer vacation crowds have started to pick up.  And then, because of a 5:30 accident, Public Safety was tied up, so all the business POS's (ten total) came in with their deposits for us to later turn in at 9 pm.  I was a little too wound up to go to bed right away once I got home, so I took Maggie for a night walk and had popcorn while catching up with Facebook.  

Friday, rain was expected, so I took my sweet time in the morning working here at my computer.  I did get in two 20 minute walks with Maggie, thinking we wouldn't be able to go later in the day, and sure enough, we weren't.

Seen left, Maggie was lunging and licking her chops with the hopes of helping Stevie take care of the little furry mouse that swivels around in this cat toy.




I reminded her to leave it and the cat alone, but she had troubles completely letting go, so I was okay with her in a 'down' as she kept a guarded eye on the toy.

Letting go of any hopes of getting work done outside, I took the SUV into town to shop.  The marinas were closed for the day, so Joe was home and his vehicle available.



While shopping, I dropped in on three furniture stores looking for a bench and two swivel chairs.  It wasn't until I saw a set of swivel patio chairs at Big Lots (at a great price) that I decided this might work and would definitely be a cheaper way to go, than buying nicer padded accent/ side chairs.





Once home, I moved our two patio swivel chairs inside from the porch, to give them a whirl.  Something like these would work if they had cushions, a lower back and were a little more comfortable.  Seen right, Stevie has to get in on the photo, disturbing the dog in the process.




Unfortunately, we have to get rid of Britney's chair (Goldie), which is broken and not really usable anymore.  Britney salvaged it from the curb for her dorm room and I grew fond of it after she had moved out and left it behind.  Letting go of this nostalgic piece of furniture was bitter sweet as we moved it to the garage. 

I finally found a bench (at a very reasonable price) for the foot of our bed.  I have been looking since we bought the bed frame over two years ago. 





It actually was with a dinette set.  It will be a place to sit to put on shoes during the day and can hold bed spread and pillows during the night.  It works for Stevie too.







I was in search of my blue hoodie all week, literally checking everywhere I have been and might have left it in the last ten days, even though it was rather worn and had a few stains, it was one of my favorites.  I forgot to check at Ruby Tuesday's when in town though.  I guess I am officially letting go of it, or at least trying to, but I still find myself looking for it.

Not only did I buy a pair of black slacks for work, I also bought three pairs of jeans and two shirts.  Then at Lowe's I picked up a Weeping Willow and five Mountain Fire Pieris (seen right).  Eight stores, almost four hours, and minus a little over $350. I guess I am a supporter of capitalism.  The State of TN profited $35 as well.

Joe and I had dinner at the Mexican restaurant and then watched the three hour end of Survivor.  I wasn't a fan of the winner, but will be watching the next season this coming fall.  Life is good.

I think  Steve Maraboli had me in mind when he said “You must learn to let go.  Release the stress.  You were never in control anyway.”  Going for long walks, riding my horse, exercising at the gym, working in the yard, and dancing, all help me de-stress, but when I wake up in the middle of the night, the wheels start turning and I have troubles letting go of my worries.