Tartle

We have all run into someone we know, especially in an out-of-context setting, and blanked out on the person’s name.  You know the face, but the name escapes you, and there is a brief awkwardness while you rummage around your brain for the answer.  The situation becomes even more distressing if you’re in the presence of a friend and an introduction seems in order.  Oftentimes, I know I'm just not going to be able to recall their name.  What do you do?  NEVER guess!  The only thing worse than letting someone know that you’ve forgotten their name is to call the person by someone else’s name.  Honesty is the best policy.  You can excuse your apparent rudeness by saying: “Sorry for my tartle.”  Or you can say “Of course, I remember you, but your name has slipped my mind.”  or “I’m sorry, I’ve just gone completely blank.” or “Please remind me of your name.” (in part from The Scotsman)

Saturday 7/20 - While admitting couples into the dance the night before, there were so many names I should have known, but I had to keep asking.  I would ask for their last name, in hopes it wouldn't appear that I had forgotten their first name.

Maybe like Zsa Zsa, or people from the south, I could get away with a generic name for everyone.




I was off to work before 9:00.  Tartle happens to me all the time at the pool.  I have regular customers I know by face, and can tell you about them, but their name escapes me.  It makes me so frustrated that I have such a brain block on names.

Patty took this photo on the left while she was riding Zorro, at about the same time we at the pool got hit by a big downpour of rain.  Patty said it never rained at the barn, which was just two miles away.


This interesting looking moth blended well on the rock siding of our pool building.

After the one rain shower, the weather did not interfere with swimming for the rest of my shift.


Once home, I picked up sticks in the yard until time to go to the Four Way for the Blues, Brews, and BBQ fest.  I met Patty and Shirley.  We sampled several beers and checked out the food venders.  Soon after getting seated with our food and drinks, a little storm blew up (or blew in).  The (not so good) band quit to put tarps over their equipment, one of the vender tent roofs blew over, and Shirley and Patty had to hold tight to their umbrellas.  When the weather had calmed, we decided to head home before the next (bigger) storm cell came.

Sunday 7/21 - I always love watching my visitors while sitting here sipping tea in the morning.  I had gotten up rather early and was feeling sleepy about the time to get ready for Church.



After Church I worked in the yard for a few hours.  Brian had given me permission to take some ferns growing from his flower bed, that have spread out into his rock landscape.  I put them here between these three trees in back, where I had removed a big rotten log I had sitting on end.

I weeded and raked up very old leaves from a section behind the bench down back.  In the process I found this pretty millipede.  I kept my eyes out for snakes because I don't like to be surprised by them.  Thankfully, there were no surprises.


Before finishing, a mama deer and fawn came between me and the house.  The mom noticed me and quickly move over into the back of Allen's house.  The fawn was busy exploring.







Eventually, it decided there was not much worth nibbling on and it moved on, to catch up with its mama (video).

Finally, I made it to the barn to check on Amiga.  I rode her bareback to give the saddlesore more time to heal.  My intention was to see how she felt walking and give her a chance to graze.  Karen, Jan, Emily, and Sandy were all horsing around and I watched them.  But Amiga was rather wild, moving faster than I wanted, not standing still or listening, doing her crow hopping, wanting to go back to the barn.





According to Cowboy Way -  In horses, a crow hop is a kind of mild bucking where a horse arches its back and takes short, stiff hops. All four legs come off the ground, but often not very far; and the back legs barely clear the ground.  All four legs hang straight down, i.e., the horse does not kick up high with the back legs.  To me, it feels like Amiga's front end comes up more than her back end, but it is definitely very bouncy.



Well, I rode Amiga back into the barn and put on her leg wraps because I didn't want her to injure her front left leg any further.  Then I worked on getting her to go at a calm, slow walk.  I was careful to not turn her sharply, especially to the left because that's when she seemed the most sore.  She finally improved, calming down so I got off immediately to reward her.  Back in the cross ties, I gave her Prevocox for the lameness and then noticed she had the start of scratches (also called mud fever or dew poisoning) on her back (white sock area) leg.  I have seen this get much worse on her before, so jumped to action, washing it with an antibiotic soap, drying it well, and putting a medicated sab on it.



Scratches generally begins with a fungus as the culprit, but may progress into a secondary bacterial infection.  The fungus thrives on organic matter and finds its way into breaks in the horse's skin. It begins as a small, pinkish ulceration and develops into sores with black crusty scabs that can ooze puss and cause hair loss and edema.  This painful equine dermatitis/inflammation will infect the deeper layers of skin in the heel, fetlock, and pasterns; more often in the back legs and on light-colored (nonpigmented skin).  Horses in excessively wet or muddy environments are at greater risk of getting it.

After a late dinner, Joe and I watched TV (two more episodes of Designated Survivor) like we had done the night before.


Monday 7/22 - Stevie wanting to climb into my lap during my morning computer time.

There was a new line dance class starting at the Wellness Center so I was there for that before 9:30.  It was well taught and we learned five new dances.  Then I started my weight workout, but I had no energy and not enough time to do it justice, and I wanted time to eat before going to the dentist for my noon appointment.  So I quite after three machines, and went home.

No Cavities  Yay!  Before leaving Crossville, I shopped at Wal-Mart, a thrift store, and picked up my boots (I had about wore the rubber heel off my black ones, all the dancing I guess).


This photo was taken while driving on Chestnut Hill towards the barn.  I could see it raining on the distant mountain about where I was headed.  I dropped by the barn on the way home to check Amiga and give her another Prevocox.  She only favored her left leg when going down an incline when I lunged her to the left.  The storm hit before I left the barn, so I worked Amiga on some ground manners, dried and treated the scratches and then put her in her stall.




I got store items unloaded once home and then went to the gym to do a much better weight workout.

For dinner, Joe and I took Patty to Stonehenge.  We each enjoyed a great meal.






It was the third rainy night in a row.  A call from Courtney and then a little computer time ended the day.

Tuesday 7/23 - Britney's birthday and I woke up way too early.  It poured all morning.  I got frustrated by Blogger not being user friendly, and then on top of that, Joe stalled out my computer by up loading photos into my cloud, which I hadn't even asked for.

The fun Zumba class I did, helped me feel better about life.
The weather finished up the rain downpour (video) and we ended up getting four inches, so everything was flooded.  I had to keep moving to get lunch, pack dinner, and go to the barn to care for Amiga.  She played hard to get, so I only had time to give her the Prevocox, but not put sab on her scratches.




Then, I was further disgruntled by some scheduling conflicts at work.  So I was not my usual happy self at the pool.  I put in a long (almost six hour) shift and came home to an empty house and hungry dog and cats after 8pm, so further irritability occured.  Joe soon got home from a quick poker game his friend had invited him to.

Wednesday 7/24 - The temperature had dropped significantly, being 59 degrees at 4:45 when I got up.  I put on extra sweat pants and top to walk the dog.

After doing the Line Dance class, I did weights, feeling good and having a great workout.







Right after lunch I made a trip to the barn to care for Amiga.  As you can see, her scratches aren't too bad, but I need to stay on top of it so they don't get worse.  She also barely seemed lame, and her saddle sore is so much better.  Coming home, I dropped in at the pool to talk with Nancy about scheduling.



My afternoon agenda was to do rock work down back.  But first I cleaned and re-filled bird feeders and picked up lots of sticks and raked mulch that had washed out of beds into the grass.






I had planned to do some concrete work on the drainage ditch, but decided I didn't want to work too late into the day (was feeling too tired) so tackled lengthening this one rock step by adding a few more rocks to it.  The one large rock had been sitting off to the side for a long time, and needed to get placed.  Before photo above, once I had already started moving dirt.  Finished step seen right.

The loose rock wall to the left needs to be stacked better, but that will be another day (many days work actually).  I had to transplant some of the Japanese Spurge, and noticed it had been nibbled on some.  Usually it is left completely alone.  As it turned out, it had gotten quite late.  My deer visitors even came for their evening corn, so I stopped and put some out for them.  They ate while I worked just 20 feet away from them.





Seen right, photo taken looking down the hill at the lengthened step.  It was a 7:30 dinner for all of us, and my back and hamstring were already hurting from wrestling with the one large rock.  The hot shower didn't really help it.  I finished up a load of laundry and then took a pain/sleep aid which did the trick for the night.  I didn't even hear Poker Joe come home.

Thursday 7/25 - Another unbelievably beautiful morning and day.  It was perfect riding and gardening weather, but I didn't have a chance to do either.  Seen in this first photo, a humming bird looking at Monita (He is between her left ear and the bottom of the hummer feeder).  Seen below, the only other photo I took, Monita scared it away when she jumped up at the window.








I went to a fun Zumba class, repaired some clothing with needle and thread, unclogged the kitchen sink, and did other household chores.

I went to the barn before work and did my usual care of Amiga.  Getting off work at 8pm seems so late, it is dark by the time I get home.

Friday 7/26 - I spent almost two hours at the gym, followed by two hours at Druid pool where I laid in the sun, read my book, and cooled off in the water as necessary.








A protein lunch was eaten on the porch while watching my silly girls (video).


I didn't have much time, but started work on this walking path down back.  I plan to re-mulch it in addition to mulching the hill below it that goes to the oasis.  I haven't been able to get much grass to grow on the hill and it is difficult to mow because of all the trees and shrubs.







Maggie hung out with me and kept an eye out on golfers and critters.



I needed to quit sooner than wanted because I had planned to meet Cheryl to go for a short trail ride.




This is the first I have had a saddle on Amiga for over a week.  She was still giving on her front left leg, ever so slightly when turning to the left, so I kept her at a walk as much as possible, even though she really wanted to gait.

Back at the barn, I rode her on part of the trail obstacle course Jan and Polly have been making.  Amiga does great with most everything.

I gave her another Prevocox and treated her scratches which are improving.  And, the girth did not re-open her saddle sore, which is also almost all better.

I had to hustle to get ready for a night out.  I met Brian, Joan, and Ken at Spikes for a good (although slow service) dinner.  It was nice to catch up with them.
Then I moved on to Reds where I met Micki, Sherri, and several other friends (whose most names I remembered).  We had a good time singing and dancing.



According to ANS - American Name Society on 'Why do we forget names?' - Forgetting names is one of our memory’s most common failures, but there are ways to make them stick. Our brains don’t have a simple filing system, with separate folders for each kind of information and a folder labelled “Names”. Rather, our minds are associative. They are built out of patterns of interconnected information. When you meet someone for the first time, you learn their name. For your memory, however, it is probably an arbitrary piece of information unconnected to anything else you know and unconnected to all the other things you later learn about them.

So a few tricks I try is to repeat their name, ask them to spell it, create a link to someone I already know, and associate their name with something else.

Whether or Not Weather

It will rain (or not) whether or not you want it to, so be ready to weather the weather.  Robert Mac is a funny comedian and I enjoyed this section of his (comic act) about the weather.






This week with two outdoor party venues planned, and the after affects of Hurricane Barry headed our way, I wondered whether or not the parties would go on.



Saturday 7/13 - A morning e-mail informed me that Uncle John, my Dad's brother, had passed away the night before.  He had been under hospice care for the last 3-4 months.  He was a very kind, quiet soul and I know will be greatly missed by Aunt Miriam, his children, and grandkids.  I am thankful for all the years I knew him, and although we only got to visit once or twice a year, I have tons of fond memories.

I had a morning shift at the pool, so went in at 8:30.  I thought I might be busy early because rain was in the forecast for later in the day.

I had about 18 people when the rain hit.  Several left, but a few stuck it out, sitting under the cabana.  This view of the pool from my office makes it look disserted.




The rain didn't last too long and then the sun came out.  But it was still thundering off in the distance all around us.  I had four customers left, but couldn't let them in the pool because of the thunder.

My last hour of work drug.  Once Mike came to relieve me, it started raining again on the way home.  But you can see from this photo, the showers (and rainfall) were scattered.

I had thought about going to the gym to workout, but only had an hour, so sat down here at my computer to start this blog.  Another storm came through while I was working, and I soon got so sleepy, I took a nap with the sound of the falling rain in the background.  Meanwhile, Maggie hid in our master closet.







Once it had stopped, I went to put corn out, and took photos of the flooded creek.




I wish the water was always at this level, but I don't like the muddy appearance of it.

I watched the weather channel to check out Hurricane Barry.  I have no business complaining about our weather here.  Then I decided to watch a movie until bedtime.

Sunday 7/14 - I had the pleasure of watching a mamma deer and her two fawns come to eat down back.











The kids went into the creek, but did not stay long enough to get a game of chase going or to run up and down the sandy creek bed.














I was delighted that the predicted rain had been removed from the forecast, so after Church, I got to work in the yard.  My first task was to trim these two Holly trees.

This is a nine foot ladder to give you an idea of the size of the trees.  The tree on the right grows into the power lines and the one on the left crowds the sidewalk.  Maggie hung out with me while I worked.

I wanted this to look like one tree, so topped them both at least four feet, and then took a neighboring side branch from each and tied them up in the middle, so that apical dominance would cause them to become the new active growth for height.  We'll see how it works.


It took me longer than expected to get all this Holly trimming done, but I still had time to tackle these scraggily shrub in this bed.  And since I had the electric hedge trimmer out, I really cut these back, in hopes they will fill in better.






The juniper in this bed, that I had transplanted from the woods, is doing quite well.

After a snack and water break, I walked Maggie and then went to the barn for a late afternoon ride.




Jan, Kayla, and Emily were out in the pony pen horsing around.  Emily joined me on a trail ride, while the other two headed home for dinner.














It was 7:30 by the time I got home.  I had to treat some poison ivy spots after my shower.  I must have gotten into it when I was dumping bush trimmings deep into the woods on the other side of Allen's.

Monday 7/15 - Again the weather forecast had changed, originally from rain, to now just a partly cloudy day.

I had a good protein lunch when I came home from the gym and then I went to the barn.  Getting a selfie of my horse and I, while she is walking down the path, is not an easy task.






Amiga has a saddle sore, under the girth, that I have been treating.  It is improving, but after a ride, gets opened up again.  So I chose to go bareback.  We had a nice leisurely trail ride, and then I worked on leg cues out in the round pen.  She does well with just about everything, except the stop.







With less than an hour to get cleaned up and to Mirror Lake Blast, I hustled once I got home.  There had been no rain in the forecast, but it was changed again to a 40% chance at 6:00, just after the music started.  Thankfully, this dark cloud that pasted over, never released its contents on us.



The air had cooled somewhat and there was even a little breeze.  Jeff Allen and band were awesome and so many people enjoyed dancing.  I love this (video) posted on the Fairfield Glade Facebook page.  Notice how we are all synergized doing the Boot Scoot and Boogey.







We were so thankful, that in spite of the weather forecast, the show (and party) did go on, and so many people had a blast, singing and dancing to great tunes from our era.

Tuesday 7/16 - It was forecasted to be another pretty day, and turned out to be a correct prediction.  I worked in the yard for a few hours, weeding and trimming beds around the house.  Then I went to Zumba class.  I took a photo of us waiting to get started.

I put in a full shift at the pool, and Joe dropped in for a swim, having got home from his camping trip.





I decided to sit in the hot tub when I dropped my money and accounting bag off at the conference center.  My right gluteal, hamstring, and calf were hurting so much.  I did some stretches while soaking and it felt a little better.

However, when walking Maggie at 9pm, she charged a skunk and I tweaked the sore leg in an effort to brace myself and hold the dog back.  It was a full moon night, and would have been beautiful for our party, but it was scheduled for Wednesday, which had a horrible forecast.

Wednesday 7/17 - I had gone out to the barn to check on Amiga, who had acted sore on her front left leg after our ride the day before.  I think she strained it when cantering in the round pen.  She had decided to turn into the center and then I turned her back out, so she did an S pattern through the middle of the round pen, but at a canter.  She seemed fine except when turning her sharp in either direction.  I gave her a Prevocox and let her graze out behind the barn with Scout (while sitting on her bareback).

True to prediction, the rain came and Amiga and I got fairly wet.  It looked like the rain would continue for the remainder of the day.  The pool was closed due to the weather so I put the sign out when driving back home from the barn.



I was feeling quite discouraged by the weather, and disappointed that the party would surely be cancelled.  I headed to the boot shop for a repair job, Tractor Supply, Lowe's, and Wal-Mart.

As time passed, so did the rain and the forecast actually looked much more promising.  I got a text from Abby that we were to open the pool at 2:00.  It was my day off, but I was planning to help with the Full Moon Party, so I hustled to get home and get my five bean casserole fixed.

There was confusion as to whether or not the party was still going to take place.  Long story short, we had it.  However, it was a poor turn out (only 35 people, counting 18 resort guests who didn't even know about the party).  Most people who would have come changed their plans because they had given up on the possibility of the party with the morning forecast being so ominous and rain occurring till 2pm.





We never got a drop of rain and it turned out to be a beautiful night.  We were a small, but mighty fun group, and Donna and DJ kept the party rockin'.  Joey won the cannon ball contest and Donna did best at hula-hooping.  The party broke up early, ending at 8:30, so we never saw the full moon or fully enjoyed the pretty pool lights.  I had most everything cleaned up by 9pm.

This fickle weather, that is so unpredictable, and the forecast (which is usually wrong), keeps me wondering whether or not we are going to have the weather expected.
I didn't hit the hay until 10:30, but long before Poker Joe got home.

Thursday 7/18 - I have found I can't sit here at my computer for very long without getting butt and hamstring pain.  Late last week, I came to realize that my pulled hamstring (there was nothing specific I did to hurt it) is actually, probably sciatica, a pinched sciatic nerve.  It started with butt pain, which I have actually been having for a long time (I get quite uncomfortable after sitting for more than 30 minutes).  The hamstring pain started five weeks ago, and lately I have been getting a cramping feeling in my calf and sometimes knee pain.  I have been trying stretching exercises but may need to seek additional help from pain/anti-inflammatory pills, or even a Dr. visit.

I was slow moving to get up and at em.  I still had a lot of un-packed store items, a sink of dirty dishes, and pool party stuff to stow away.  But, this was motivation to get going once I did roll out of bed at 6:45, later than usual.

I only took three photos all day, and they were all of Monita while I sat here at my computer. 

I did a Zumba class and some weights and then worked my 2:30 - 8:00 shift at the pool.  Getting home so late interrupts my evening routine and I haven't been getting in my after-dinner walks.  Instead, I tend to snack on crap before going to bed.  😒

Friday 7/19 - Doggone it, I was out of bed at 4am, having woke 40 minutes earlier and unable to get back to sleep.  I couldn't understand because I had taken a pain relief sleep aid.  However, I had several things on my mind and was mentally planning my day.  Now I would need to add a nap to my to do list.

Monita was ready to start the day.

I took Maggie on a long (40 minute) walk while the sky went from dark to light.  I also caught a short nap on the couch before Joe got up.
I was debating going to the barn early, but decided more rest might do Amiga good.  So I spent two hours at the gym, made a quick trip to Food City, folded laundry, and then went to Druid Pool to lie in the sun, read, and nap.  A rain shower popped up out of nowhere, chasing me home sooner than I wanted.



I met two couples at the Library Building to decorate for the night's patriotic dance.  I had two hours to shower and rest before getting back to the dance hall to let the band in.  Memory Road got set up and soon people started arriving.  Joanne, Barb and I helped get them checked in.





There were a few more slow dances than I would have preferred, although it did give me a chance to rest.






We did get more rain, but it didn't affect our dance, since we were indoors.  I got home at 10:30, after helping get all the decorations down and everything stored away.
Poker Joe got home just as I was settling in to sleep.