I've been trying to write an entry to my blog for over a week. I promised myself the way to get going again was to write regularly - each and every week. Well, it's been 14 days since I posted. Sometimes it just feels like life has hold of me like a rip tide in the ocean. It's in control, not me. What's that old saw, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Well, I've been paving instead of writing.
Right now...I'm trying to write, and Drake is talking to me about the Newfoundland reservation. He's oblivious to what I'm doing. The upcoming trip has consumed us both. We sit together with dueling computers. Toronto? Try finding a place that's not a high rise with an underground garage. We learned in New Haven that the trailer has to have air, lots of air above it. Major screw-up today - we discovered the ferry from Nova Scotia to St. John's, Newfoundland doesn't start running until one week AFTER we are booked to arrive. Now, we are trying to flip our reservations from one side of the island to the other since the ferry on the opposite side runs all year long. (We could go and come from that side, but it's a 561 mile drive added in if we can't flip the house reservations. We are going to have to endure the French Canadians for an extra five days because it's cheaper to stay in Gatineau than Ottawa. Drake unearthed the Berlitz book of French which I bought in 1980 before I went to Europe. I'll need it. Gatineau is in the Quebec Province (official language FRENCH), and Ottawa is in Ontario (HELLO, ENGLISH). They are separated only by a river. We have managed to hammer out a trip timetable that starts May 5th and end October 23rd.
Then, there's exercise. I know I need to exercise. I have to exercise. I hate to exercise. It's sort of like a conjugation. Today, I finally felt so guilty I proposed a bike ride. You can not write while riding a real bicycle. We took a three hour bike ride. Don't be impressed, Sun City is FLAT. If you can't ride a bike here, you can't ride a bike anywhere. My carrot for the exercise is we rode to various garage sales. I didn't find anything in the jackpot category, but I managed several small treasures. Garage saling is big pleasure for me, so the three hours flew by. We also managed to work our way over to the new ice cream store. Yum. (I had maple walnut.)
Let's don't forget the family obligations. Our Arizona relations are always extremely busy. They are really like a rolling circus when there are family events. We've all been waiting for the babies. We've been expecting one human and three horse babies within a 30 day window. So far, we've got two. Drake Ryder was born just over an hour ago (he's the human baby). That little sucker weighed in at 9 pounds 12 oz. Yes, he's a giant. As Drake's sister just said, "Better return all those newborn clothes!" The horse baby, Arthur, born last week, came with less fanfare - he just appeared when Dee was making her morning stable rounds. I guess the stork dropped him from heaven. Two more horse babies are being expected.
In the midst of all the babies, babies, babies, we attended the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, or THE BIG HORSE DEAL as I call it. We took Drake's mom and her friend and watched Arabian horses prance around with their tails in the air and their nostrils flaring. Fortunately, we had a shady spot to sit. I've learned over the years, it doesn't matter about the temp - if you sit in the desert sun, it's freaking hot. There were also four family boys rolling around, eating ice cream, climbing, running, etc. You know, being little boys. The family ranged from the 4 year old to the 87 year old at the horse show. What would have completed the family circus atmosphere would have been adding the pregnant daughter-in-law - the one who dominoed TODAY. Saner heads prevailed, and she stayed home resting.
Drake's sister is raising Arabians; she is at this two week show constantly since she is having her horses shown in these competitions. Plus The Big Horse Deal is a way to advertise their business. It's very lucrative to sell hay (www.wesellhay.com) to finicky show horses. The Big Deal Horse Show is a great place to advertise that fact and a way to get to know the horsy people. Horses are Drake's sister's dream as long as I've known her - which is more than 40 years. She works hard promoting the business, but she loves her horses too.
Oh, and did I mention that Drake's mother is now in a memoir writing class? It meets once a week, and I volunteered to help get her started each week with her next memory. So.....Merilyn is getting her writing done, but it's not helping me get mine done. I am learning what a really interesting life she's had. I think I'll ask her to guest blog her favorite memoir when she gets a few more done. Hey, that's a way to meet my writing deadline; have someone else do it.
And then there's my health. I came back from Texas at New Year's Eve with an intestinal bug. I've been to the doctors who've done all the tests, and the consensus is I picked up an intestinal buy, and it will eventually go away. It's getting better, but especially in January, I was really tired by constant diarrhea. I wouldn't recommend this as a dieting strategy, but I've lost 12 pounds. It hasn't done a thing for my writing schedule.
I guess I need the proverbial desert island. Probably wouldn't work. I'd just make instant friends with whoever else was stranded and be chatting away in no time. Would I actually want to be without all the demands on my time? Boy, talk about having trouble finding a writing subject. Even I don't think my naval is interesting enough to write about. Sometimes, though, it would be nice to write uninterrupted and under no time pressure. OK. OK. OK - Drake is now talking to me about Pagosa Springs. Back to trip planning, and I've managed to write an entry about absolutely nothing. I feel like Jerry Seinfeld.
