This morning I was thinking about making a game plan for my horses. There is no snow anywhere in our 10-day forecast, which is unheard of in January in the Eastern Sierra, and on Sunday we are actually supposed to reach 60-degrees. I've had to neglect a lot of things this past year to no fault of my own, and I feel like I owe it to the horses to spend more time working with them.
Then I started thinking about how working with the horses is always a hassle. I have to chase Lostine around the paddock to get the halter on her, I have to fight Gabbrielle to get a cinch and bridle on her, I have to dance alongside dancing horse legs to get the boots on them, and it seems I'm always having to mount a moving target. Lostine tries all kinds of trickery to get me off her back. Gabbrielle is always either refusing to go or stop. Then there's Bombay, the quiet, sturdy, athletic, obedient partner who is perfect in every way, except that I can't trailer or ride him off the property without him having a complete nervous breakdown, cutting a main artery and squirting blood all over the place. The aftermath of each trip is always a horror show and a very expensive vet bill.
Ultimately, I think we all want the same horse: A horse that comes to the halter, goes in the trailer, rides quietly in the trailer, stands still for the saddle, bows its head for the bridle, opens its mouth for the bit, stands still for the mount, goes when we say go, and stops when we say stop. How many of us have that?
For those of you who do have that, what did it take to get there? How old is your horse? How often does someone work with it? Is it really as simple as just doing the same routine every day with your horse or did you have to suffer a few injuries along the way? What's your story? If you can't say what you want to say in a comment, please write a post about it and leave me a comment to read your response on your blog. It'll be nice for me to get back into the swing of discussing the topic of horse training.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Drying Out
No, it didn't rain.
I got all done rinsing, soaping, wiping, rinsing each vehicle, and before I could dry them off...
Come on. You can finish the sentence.
...a huge dust devil came roaring up the street, completely enveloping all of our freshly washed, wet vehicles, and they ended up looking worse than they did when I started. Sigh. Why do I bother?
Oh yeah, and while I was washing the vehicles, I heard a siren behind me and turned around to see an unmarked car with blue and red lights flashing on the dashboard at the end of my driveway. Just then one of my neighbor's boarders came down the street in her truck and he stopped her to talk to her. She drove off, and the driver of the unmarked car drove past and waved. He went to my good neighbors' house and knocked on all the doors. He was wearing a green uniform with a badge and a gun. When he found no one home, he left.
I wonder what that was all about. I'm guessing he was a prison guard, though I don't know if they have dashboard lights they can use. I know one of these neighbors works for a juvenile detention camp, so maybe it was just business. I sure hope there aren't any escaped convicts on the loose.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Reuniting with Nature
I didn't want a long recovery from this illness, so as soon as my lungs and sinuses started clearing up, I asked the kids to go on an afternoon hike with me. We brought the dogs along and hiked the motorcycle trails in the Pine Nut Mountains since the hills are rolling and they wouldn't put as much stress on my lungs as my usual Eastern Sierra trails do. I brought my new wide-angle lens on my Nikon and took pictures. This is an adjustable lens that can widen and shorten in frame, so when I wanted close ups instead of landscapes, all I had to do was turn the ring.
The air was filled with the pop popping of guns and we found several shell casings along the trail. At one point we walked to the edge of a cliff and noticed some men standing around a pickup truck down below. There was a big bang and we jumped back, thinking we were being shot at, but it turned out that they were setting off firecrackers, which is illegal in Nevada. Doing that in dry brush is unforgivable. Once they saw us, they stopped.
It was nice to get out of the house and have a warm enough day to take a hike without having to bundle up in coats and gloves. The dogs were so happy to get out too. I think it's good for the kids to get out into the brush after spending four months living at a concrete university.
I've been thinking about new year's resolutions, but have become a bit jaded since the best laid plans always get thwarted. I'm keeping my expectations for 2012 very low. In order to make resolutions, I'd have to assume that I'll have some kind of normalcy and can regain control over my schedule. There is so much that should have been taken care of or completed in 2011, and I'm still waiting for others to do their part, so thanks to other people, the settling of my mother's estate is dragging out way longer than I wanted.
It's been a hard year with my mother's death, and now my in-laws are having serious health problems. Between that and the fact that we are planning on moving out of state in 2012, I expect nothing will come easy. Maybe I can rest in 2013. I want to take my time in choosing a new home, because wherever we move is where we will spend the rest of our lives, so it has to be perfect. I don't want to compromise anymore. I don't want to give anyone the opportunity to move into my space and destroy my lifestyle with their actions. If I have to be around people, I want to be around people who share my values for peace, quiet, and respect of nature. I want to ride my horses around other horseback riders and hikers, without gunshots, firecrackers and motorized vehicles popping and roaring all around me.
Hopefully, my dreams can come true just over the next horizon.
The air was filled with the pop popping of guns and we found several shell casings along the trail. At one point we walked to the edge of a cliff and noticed some men standing around a pickup truck down below. There was a big bang and we jumped back, thinking we were being shot at, but it turned out that they were setting off firecrackers, which is illegal in Nevada. Doing that in dry brush is unforgivable. Once they saw us, they stopped.
It was nice to get out of the house and have a warm enough day to take a hike without having to bundle up in coats and gloves. The dogs were so happy to get out too. I think it's good for the kids to get out into the brush after spending four months living at a concrete university.
I've been thinking about new year's resolutions, but have become a bit jaded since the best laid plans always get thwarted. I'm keeping my expectations for 2012 very low. In order to make resolutions, I'd have to assume that I'll have some kind of normalcy and can regain control over my schedule. There is so much that should have been taken care of or completed in 2011, and I'm still waiting for others to do their part, so thanks to other people, the settling of my mother's estate is dragging out way longer than I wanted.
It's been a hard year with my mother's death, and now my in-laws are having serious health problems. Between that and the fact that we are planning on moving out of state in 2012, I expect nothing will come easy. Maybe I can rest in 2013. I want to take my time in choosing a new home, because wherever we move is where we will spend the rest of our lives, so it has to be perfect. I don't want to compromise anymore. I don't want to give anyone the opportunity to move into my space and destroy my lifestyle with their actions. If I have to be around people, I want to be around people who share my values for peace, quiet, and respect of nature. I want to ride my horses around other horseback riders and hikers, without gunshots, firecrackers and motorized vehicles popping and roaring all around me.
Hopefully, my dreams can come true just over the next horizon.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
You Know It Don't Come Easy
The man who rents space on my neighbor's front lot to store his junk vehicles has been showing up at 4:00 PM almost every afternoon to rev the engines on those vehicles while he "restores" them. I've been especially irritated by this since I've been sick and can't get any rest with his engine vibrating our walls. The other day I went out with my camera to film just how loud and obnoxious this disruption is, so that I could include a YouTube link to it in my complaint to the county. Of course, he shut down his engine as soon as I walked outside with my camera, so I didn't get my evidence.
My husband says the reason why these neighbors are so annoying is because nothing comes easy to them. They can't make money in the traditional ways, so they are always coming up with ways to rent out their land to strangers or to use it to sell junk to strangers. They've learned that it's too much work to board animals, so now they are concentrating on renting out the space for storage and to vehicle restoration hobbyists. Apparently, all that land they own is the only thing of value they have to work with.
The neighbors' vehicles and their renters' vehicles are constantly breaking down because they can't afford to buy new vehicles, and they can't afford to tow them to a shop, so they spend weeks working on them in their yard. My husband was trying to appeal to my sense of pity, but my argument is that if they didn't buy so many used junk vehicles, I'll bet these people could buy one newish vehicle that would last a while. Who needs a dozen cars, trucks, boats and trailers? Even if someone is a car restoration hobbyist, you can really only restore one or two cars at a time. Why have a dozen others just littering the neighborhood? Men and their junk cars are almost as bad as women and their fabric stashes. I am better at buying fabrics than I am at sewing them into quilts, but at least they don't take up as much space as vehicles, and they are a lot quieter.
Ultimately, this is a residential neighborhood, yet these neighbors continually behave as if it is an industrial district by playing around with engines and running power tools day in and day out. It has to end. There are laws about disturbing the peace. If these neighbors can't respect our right to peace and quiet, then I have no qualms with making their lives a little more difficult. They need to figure out ways to make money that don't involve making noise, increasing traffic, and piling junk up on their property.
Yesterday every time I let the dogs outside, they barked. When I opened the door I heard children's voices nearby. It turned out that my annoying neighbors had a bunch of strangers and their kids over at their house all day, and the adults allowed these kids to run around the horse corrals unsupervised. They also allowed them to ride their boarder's horses, probably without permission. That's an accident and lawsuit waiting to happen. I cringed to think about what all those kids were doing to my own horses over the fence, but I was too sick to go out in the freezing cold to investigate. It just annoys me that these neighbors are so lonely that they have to have dozens of people over at their house every day. When I'm 85 years old, I'll probably be too tired and worn out to entertain that many people. I'm too tired to entertain that many people now. In fact, all the guests they have running around the neighborhood exhaust me.
I'm getting a bit fearful and skeptical about taking on new home improvement projects, because so often I end up taking one step forward and two steps back. It astounds me how much work I can put into something and make it worse than it was had I not done anything to it in the first place. One would think there should be some reward for hard work, but things keep happening to me that teach me that I'm better off doing nothing.
I spent two days painting the crown molding in the bathroom with a paint that was labeled "Ultra Pure White" only to find out after it dried that it was the yellow paint (that was supposed to be beige) that we put on the walls. So, basically I would have been better off to not paint the trim at all, because before I painted it, it was actually white, just a bit thin with some water stains. So, now I have to go to the paint store and make sure I actually have white paint, and start over from scratch.
Hiring the handyman has been both a blessing and a curse. First off, he was supposed to be done with the job of fixing up both my kitchen and my studio in 4 days. Now he's saying that it will take 7 to 8 days just to finish the work in the studio, so I had to cancel my photography session this week. I need a break from his constant presence, so I'm postponing the work I hired him to do in the kitchen.
He was offended and asked why I was "kicking him out." I told him about the things I need to do that I can't do as long as he's hanging around. He needs to realize that I have a life and can't just sit at home all day for weeks on end while he takes his sweet time doing projects around my house. I still haven't even hooked up my horse trailer to my truck and tested out the tow package, because his truck is always in the way.
Also, he estimated it would cost us about $1,140 to work on both the studio and kitchen, and we've already had to pay him that much, and he's still got two more days of work at $40 an hour on the studio alone. So, that teaches me that his time and money estimates are worthless.
Although, I know I am to blame for yesterday's problem, because he needed all the doors and windows to be open to dry the putty on the ceiling, and with my cold and chills, I closed everything up so that I wouldn't get sicker. As a result, the putty didn't dry. Had he forewarned me that the job would require leaving doors and windows open in the below freezing temperatures, I would have postponed the job until spring. We are trying to fix that problem by running a fan in the room and pointing it at the ceiling.
It's really weird being sick and in bed or on the couch covered in blankets and having this guy walking in and out of my bedroom and den asking me questions. I tried locking the back door so that he couldn't get in and would just have to stay in the studio and do his work, but then he kept coming to the front door and knocking, which made my dogs go nuts and Scrappy totally attacked him again, this time biting right through his jeans, when he walked in the door. He won't give me time to put the dogs away in a room or out back. He just knocks and then barges in. Even my dogs have the sense to know that's not right. That's why they attack him. The guy crosses our boundaries. I decided that the commotion from having him knock on the front door was worse than him sneaking in the back door, so I started leaving the back door unlocked again.
I just want the guy to do his job and leave me alone, but he always has to make such a big production out of it, asking me to check his work after every phase to make sure it is to my satisfaction. That's nice, and a good way to assure that he'll get a good review online, but I wish he could just let me rest and have me check everything when it's all done at the end of each day.
Also, the guy keeps asking me to make decisions about details, and then when I make my decision, he challenges it and argues with me. Day after day he rehashes the same topics. I choose a color of stain for the deck, and he argues against it. So, I choose the other color, just because I'm sick and tired and want to get away from the guy. Then he has to question me on whether or not I'm sure. I tell him I really don't care about the color, I just want the job done. Then he won't finish the job until I choose a color and stick to it. I get angrier and angrier, and tell him to flip a friggin' coin and choose any damn color. I don't care. Just get the job done. I think the subject is closed, and then the guy shows up the next morning and sucks up an hour of my time rehashing that same argument. He's also one of these people who finishes a conversation, and before you can completely walk away, he says, "Oh, and one more thing..." It's maddening. It's almost impossible for me to get my chores done when he's around, because he keeps talking and won't let me get back to work.
I have different sensibilities from most people because I'm a writer. Alone time is like gold to me, so when people take it away from me, I feel like I'm being drained. My other frustration is that my kids are only home for a few weeks, a few days in the case of my daughter, over the holiday break, and I want to go out and do things with them once we get healthy, but by the looks of it I'll be stuck at home because the handyman will be here until my daughter leaves. Of course, he says I can trust him with a key to my house, but I don't trust anyone after having people stealing things from my mother's house when I gave them keys to take care of the place while I was gone. Even though I felt really ill yesterday, I took my daughter out to lunch after the handyman left, so we could have some girl time. I did feel a lot better after having some orange juice and a tuna melt made by someone other than me.
The handyman kept commenting on how crappy my neighbors' place looks and how rude it is that they park all their junk vehicles right up against my fence. He said we'll need to put up something to block that view when we sell the house. I told him I planned on erecting a wall, but he warned me that even walls get knocked down by our hurricane-force winds. I'll have to settle for something with holes in it to let the air flow through. That was disappointing to hear. Things with holes in them just offer my nosy neighbors peep holes to peer through.
At first he wanted to go over there and offer them some help in cleaning up their place, but then he said, "Actually, when a place gets that bad it usually means they don't have any money."
I noticed my nosy neighbors had come out to listen in our conversation, so I spoke louder.
The handyman keeps finding other things around our house for him to do to keep himself employed, and a part of me wants to tell him to just go for it and fix everything, but another part of me has to stick to a budget and get some alone time. I did let him fix a sliding glass door that wasn't sliding anymore. I had to open it with the force of my entire body. Now I can slide it open and closed with my pinky finger. That was one improvement I hadn't even considered that is already making my life so much easier.
When I've had jobs, I got paid once every two-weeks. This guy wants to be paid every two days. He says that since he doesn't know me well, he doesn't trust me to pay him in full when the job is done. Is that weird or what? I suspect he knows the bill is going to be double the amount of his estimate, and he doesn't want me refusing to pay in full since his estimate was so far off. I do refuse to pay him in advance, because I don't want him skipping out on a job that's half done. I don't know why simple things always have to turn into such a headache. At the rate things are going, I'm going to have to order more checks soon.
For future home improvement projects, I'll probably try someone else who will just do the job without having to get me so heavily involved. It bugs me that this guy can't just view this as a business relationship. He always has to take everything personally. He tries to manipulate me, and I've caught him in several lies. You know that when a person has to repeat how honest he is dozens of times, he's lying to himself. Whenever I point out a problem like the fact that he didn't use a drop cloth and ruined my brand new carpet, the guy says unstable things like, "Well, I can always go work for someone else and you can hire that other contractor who couldn't get out here until a month from now."
This guy actually sent me to the hardware store to buy him some parts that he forgot while I was busy juggling the tasks of writing my novel, doing laundry, mucking out stalls, and cooking dinner. I ended up having to get my husband and kids to deal with the chores when they were sick while I went to the hardware store. Of course, the hardware store only had one of the two parts, so I had to go to a second store, which didn't have what he needed either. He wanted me to drive into the city, an hour round trip, and I put my foot down and told him to do it himself in the morning. He apologized profusely the next day. He said he told his wife what he did, and she chewed him out for making a client do something that the client is paying him to do. I wished his wife had his skills because she sounds like someone I would like to hire.
Ultimately, people hire other people to do things that they themselves don't have time to do, so if the person you hire takes up more of your time than the job would have had you done it yourself, then you need to reconsider your approach. This seems to be one of those karmic events I can't get away from. Almost every time I hire someone to help me, the person ends up being more of a hindrance than a help. I try training them until I'm blue in the face, but I always end up with these people who are better at talking than they are at listening, so training becomes impossible. Sigh. If I can't find anyone else, it looks like I may have to take the road of a Do-It-Yourselfer, which is what I was hoping to avoid. However, if it buys me some quiet time, it will pay for itself.
My husband says the reason why these neighbors are so annoying is because nothing comes easy to them. They can't make money in the traditional ways, so they are always coming up with ways to rent out their land to strangers or to use it to sell junk to strangers. They've learned that it's too much work to board animals, so now they are concentrating on renting out the space for storage and to vehicle restoration hobbyists. Apparently, all that land they own is the only thing of value they have to work with.
The neighbors' vehicles and their renters' vehicles are constantly breaking down because they can't afford to buy new vehicles, and they can't afford to tow them to a shop, so they spend weeks working on them in their yard. My husband was trying to appeal to my sense of pity, but my argument is that if they didn't buy so many used junk vehicles, I'll bet these people could buy one newish vehicle that would last a while. Who needs a dozen cars, trucks, boats and trailers? Even if someone is a car restoration hobbyist, you can really only restore one or two cars at a time. Why have a dozen others just littering the neighborhood? Men and their junk cars are almost as bad as women and their fabric stashes. I am better at buying fabrics than I am at sewing them into quilts, but at least they don't take up as much space as vehicles, and they are a lot quieter.
Ultimately, this is a residential neighborhood, yet these neighbors continually behave as if it is an industrial district by playing around with engines and running power tools day in and day out. It has to end. There are laws about disturbing the peace. If these neighbors can't respect our right to peace and quiet, then I have no qualms with making their lives a little more difficult. They need to figure out ways to make money that don't involve making noise, increasing traffic, and piling junk up on their property.
Yesterday every time I let the dogs outside, they barked. When I opened the door I heard children's voices nearby. It turned out that my annoying neighbors had a bunch of strangers and their kids over at their house all day, and the adults allowed these kids to run around the horse corrals unsupervised. They also allowed them to ride their boarder's horses, probably without permission. That's an accident and lawsuit waiting to happen. I cringed to think about what all those kids were doing to my own horses over the fence, but I was too sick to go out in the freezing cold to investigate. It just annoys me that these neighbors are so lonely that they have to have dozens of people over at their house every day. When I'm 85 years old, I'll probably be too tired and worn out to entertain that many people. I'm too tired to entertain that many people now. In fact, all the guests they have running around the neighborhood exhaust me.
I'm getting a bit fearful and skeptical about taking on new home improvement projects, because so often I end up taking one step forward and two steps back. It astounds me how much work I can put into something and make it worse than it was had I not done anything to it in the first place. One would think there should be some reward for hard work, but things keep happening to me that teach me that I'm better off doing nothing.
I spent two days painting the crown molding in the bathroom with a paint that was labeled "Ultra Pure White" only to find out after it dried that it was the yellow paint (that was supposed to be beige) that we put on the walls. So, basically I would have been better off to not paint the trim at all, because before I painted it, it was actually white, just a bit thin with some water stains. So, now I have to go to the paint store and make sure I actually have white paint, and start over from scratch.
Hiring the handyman has been both a blessing and a curse. First off, he was supposed to be done with the job of fixing up both my kitchen and my studio in 4 days. Now he's saying that it will take 7 to 8 days just to finish the work in the studio, so I had to cancel my photography session this week. I need a break from his constant presence, so I'm postponing the work I hired him to do in the kitchen.
He was offended and asked why I was "kicking him out." I told him about the things I need to do that I can't do as long as he's hanging around. He needs to realize that I have a life and can't just sit at home all day for weeks on end while he takes his sweet time doing projects around my house. I still haven't even hooked up my horse trailer to my truck and tested out the tow package, because his truck is always in the way.
Also, he estimated it would cost us about $1,140 to work on both the studio and kitchen, and we've already had to pay him that much, and he's still got two more days of work at $40 an hour on the studio alone. So, that teaches me that his time and money estimates are worthless.
Although, I know I am to blame for yesterday's problem, because he needed all the doors and windows to be open to dry the putty on the ceiling, and with my cold and chills, I closed everything up so that I wouldn't get sicker. As a result, the putty didn't dry. Had he forewarned me that the job would require leaving doors and windows open in the below freezing temperatures, I would have postponed the job until spring. We are trying to fix that problem by running a fan in the room and pointing it at the ceiling.
It's really weird being sick and in bed or on the couch covered in blankets and having this guy walking in and out of my bedroom and den asking me questions. I tried locking the back door so that he couldn't get in and would just have to stay in the studio and do his work, but then he kept coming to the front door and knocking, which made my dogs go nuts and Scrappy totally attacked him again, this time biting right through his jeans, when he walked in the door. He won't give me time to put the dogs away in a room or out back. He just knocks and then barges in. Even my dogs have the sense to know that's not right. That's why they attack him. The guy crosses our boundaries. I decided that the commotion from having him knock on the front door was worse than him sneaking in the back door, so I started leaving the back door unlocked again.
I just want the guy to do his job and leave me alone, but he always has to make such a big production out of it, asking me to check his work after every phase to make sure it is to my satisfaction. That's nice, and a good way to assure that he'll get a good review online, but I wish he could just let me rest and have me check everything when it's all done at the end of each day.
Also, the guy keeps asking me to make decisions about details, and then when I make my decision, he challenges it and argues with me. Day after day he rehashes the same topics. I choose a color of stain for the deck, and he argues against it. So, I choose the other color, just because I'm sick and tired and want to get away from the guy. Then he has to question me on whether or not I'm sure. I tell him I really don't care about the color, I just want the job done. Then he won't finish the job until I choose a color and stick to it. I get angrier and angrier, and tell him to flip a friggin' coin and choose any damn color. I don't care. Just get the job done. I think the subject is closed, and then the guy shows up the next morning and sucks up an hour of my time rehashing that same argument. He's also one of these people who finishes a conversation, and before you can completely walk away, he says, "Oh, and one more thing..." It's maddening. It's almost impossible for me to get my chores done when he's around, because he keeps talking and won't let me get back to work.
I have different sensibilities from most people because I'm a writer. Alone time is like gold to me, so when people take it away from me, I feel like I'm being drained. My other frustration is that my kids are only home for a few weeks, a few days in the case of my daughter, over the holiday break, and I want to go out and do things with them once we get healthy, but by the looks of it I'll be stuck at home because the handyman will be here until my daughter leaves. Of course, he says I can trust him with a key to my house, but I don't trust anyone after having people stealing things from my mother's house when I gave them keys to take care of the place while I was gone. Even though I felt really ill yesterday, I took my daughter out to lunch after the handyman left, so we could have some girl time. I did feel a lot better after having some orange juice and a tuna melt made by someone other than me.
The handyman kept commenting on how crappy my neighbors' place looks and how rude it is that they park all their junk vehicles right up against my fence. He said we'll need to put up something to block that view when we sell the house. I told him I planned on erecting a wall, but he warned me that even walls get knocked down by our hurricane-force winds. I'll have to settle for something with holes in it to let the air flow through. That was disappointing to hear. Things with holes in them just offer my nosy neighbors peep holes to peer through.
At first he wanted to go over there and offer them some help in cleaning up their place, but then he said, "Actually, when a place gets that bad it usually means they don't have any money."
I noticed my nosy neighbors had come out to listen in our conversation, so I spoke louder.
The handyman keeps finding other things around our house for him to do to keep himself employed, and a part of me wants to tell him to just go for it and fix everything, but another part of me has to stick to a budget and get some alone time. I did let him fix a sliding glass door that wasn't sliding anymore. I had to open it with the force of my entire body. Now I can slide it open and closed with my pinky finger. That was one improvement I hadn't even considered that is already making my life so much easier.
When I've had jobs, I got paid once every two-weeks. This guy wants to be paid every two days. He says that since he doesn't know me well, he doesn't trust me to pay him in full when the job is done. Is that weird or what? I suspect he knows the bill is going to be double the amount of his estimate, and he doesn't want me refusing to pay in full since his estimate was so far off. I do refuse to pay him in advance, because I don't want him skipping out on a job that's half done. I don't know why simple things always have to turn into such a headache. At the rate things are going, I'm going to have to order more checks soon.
For future home improvement projects, I'll probably try someone else who will just do the job without having to get me so heavily involved. It bugs me that this guy can't just view this as a business relationship. He always has to take everything personally. He tries to manipulate me, and I've caught him in several lies. You know that when a person has to repeat how honest he is dozens of times, he's lying to himself. Whenever I point out a problem like the fact that he didn't use a drop cloth and ruined my brand new carpet, the guy says unstable things like, "Well, I can always go work for someone else and you can hire that other contractor who couldn't get out here until a month from now."
This guy actually sent me to the hardware store to buy him some parts that he forgot while I was busy juggling the tasks of writing my novel, doing laundry, mucking out stalls, and cooking dinner. I ended up having to get my husband and kids to deal with the chores when they were sick while I went to the hardware store. Of course, the hardware store only had one of the two parts, so I had to go to a second store, which didn't have what he needed either. He wanted me to drive into the city, an hour round trip, and I put my foot down and told him to do it himself in the morning. He apologized profusely the next day. He said he told his wife what he did, and she chewed him out for making a client do something that the client is paying him to do. I wished his wife had his skills because she sounds like someone I would like to hire.
Ultimately, people hire other people to do things that they themselves don't have time to do, so if the person you hire takes up more of your time than the job would have had you done it yourself, then you need to reconsider your approach. This seems to be one of those karmic events I can't get away from. Almost every time I hire someone to help me, the person ends up being more of a hindrance than a help. I try training them until I'm blue in the face, but I always end up with these people who are better at talking than they are at listening, so training becomes impossible. Sigh. If I can't find anyone else, it looks like I may have to take the road of a Do-It-Yourselfer, which is what I was hoping to avoid. However, if it buys me some quiet time, it will pay for itself.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Recovering
I'm recovering, but not from the holidays. For the first time in my life I was sick on Christmas Day. My son came home from college sick and wasn't getting any better, so we took him to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics. Then my husband came down with a cold that lasted a few days. My daughter and I did everything to avoid the sickos, but we still got tagged by the virus.
My cold started with a sore throat on Friday. The symptoms just piled on throughout the weekend and I'm close to starting my recovery. I've just been taking whatever drugs I can to alleviate the pain and other symptoms.
Christmas was a blitz. I vaguely remember making Christmas dinner at 11:00 AM, because I had the energy then and was hungry. Instead of baking everything in the oven for an hour, I microwaved it so that we could eat right away. I was afraid that if I spent too much time standing around in the kitchen, I'd pass out. Fortunately, everyone has been pitching in doing the dishes, so whoever is the least sick get the job.
Can you guess what I got for Christmas?
Does this next picture give you a better idea?
No, not another horse! Get your mind out of the barn! My husband got me a slightly fish-eyed wide-angle lens for my Nikon D300s. One of the first photography jobs I was asked to do was a job I couldn't take, because it required a wide-angle lens, which I didn't have. I was supposed to photograph a large dressage class with riders on their horses all lined up in an indoor arena.
My husband also got me a special type of oil mixture that will help our burger meat cook all the way through without burning the outside while leaving the inside raw -- a problem we've been plagued with at our high altitude for many years now.
My daughter got me a new backdrop for my studio, and my son got me a shoot-em-up video game, which he had me open early so that we could play it together while he was at home on his winter break. I got everyone a few items that they wanted or needed, and then suggested that the family go on a shopping spree the day after Christmas for new clothes since my son has ripped almost every pair of his existing blue jeans and is down to just shorts and sweats and my daughter needed job interview clothes. Everyone went without me, because I was still too sick.
The ice has been relentless this year.
Of course, one of our de-ciers in one water trough had to break. We go through this every winter. We pay $60 for a new de-icer and it never makes it through to the next winter. Somehow they always break when I'm sick with a cold or flu, so that I have to be outside in freezing temperatures swinging a sledge hammer or axe and pulling ice blocks out of the troughs with my hands. People tell me I'm going to hate the summer heat in Arizona, but I think I'd have an easier time of it dealing with air that is on fire while I'm sick than dealing with ice and snow when I'm sick. I'd rather fend off heat stroke than hypothermia. If I've already got the chills, the desert heat might feel kind of nice.
Although my daughter warned me about the Valley Fever you can catch if you get stuck outside in one of those haboobs. A haboob is gigantic wind that sucks up the desert floor and blows it in one massive sand cloud across Arizona. Here's a video of one.
I'm in need of a new coat, because the coat my father bought for himself in Alaska umpteen years ago is literally shredding every time I wear it, but I'm hesitant to buy a heavy duty winter coat if I'm just going to move to Arizona next year. However, even with our heater turned on, I still have to wear a coat indoors to stay warm. It doesn't help that the handyman removed our bedroom door to replace the rollers on the sliding glass, and all this cold air is blowing into the house while I'm sick. At least I don't have to worry about flies getting in, though. It just hit me the other day that I haven't seen a fly or a wasp in a few weeks now. I'll bet the horses are relieved. Although they do cry out to me in mornings when they have icicles hanging from their muzzles and pogo-nip on their whiskers.
My cold started with a sore throat on Friday. The symptoms just piled on throughout the weekend and I'm close to starting my recovery. I've just been taking whatever drugs I can to alleviate the pain and other symptoms.
Christmas was a blitz. I vaguely remember making Christmas dinner at 11:00 AM, because I had the energy then and was hungry. Instead of baking everything in the oven for an hour, I microwaved it so that we could eat right away. I was afraid that if I spent too much time standing around in the kitchen, I'd pass out. Fortunately, everyone has been pitching in doing the dishes, so whoever is the least sick get the job.
Can you guess what I got for Christmas?
My husband also got me a special type of oil mixture that will help our burger meat cook all the way through without burning the outside while leaving the inside raw -- a problem we've been plagued with at our high altitude for many years now.
My daughter got me a new backdrop for my studio, and my son got me a shoot-em-up video game, which he had me open early so that we could play it together while he was at home on his winter break. I got everyone a few items that they wanted or needed, and then suggested that the family go on a shopping spree the day after Christmas for new clothes since my son has ripped almost every pair of his existing blue jeans and is down to just shorts and sweats and my daughter needed job interview clothes. Everyone went without me, because I was still too sick.
The ice has been relentless this year.
Although my daughter warned me about the Valley Fever you can catch if you get stuck outside in one of those haboobs. A haboob is gigantic wind that sucks up the desert floor and blows it in one massive sand cloud across Arizona. Here's a video of one.
I'm in need of a new coat, because the coat my father bought for himself in Alaska umpteen years ago is literally shredding every time I wear it, but I'm hesitant to buy a heavy duty winter coat if I'm just going to move to Arizona next year. However, even with our heater turned on, I still have to wear a coat indoors to stay warm. It doesn't help that the handyman removed our bedroom door to replace the rollers on the sliding glass, and all this cold air is blowing into the house while I'm sick. At least I don't have to worry about flies getting in, though. It just hit me the other day that I haven't seen a fly or a wasp in a few weeks now. I'll bet the horses are relieved. Although they do cry out to me in mornings when they have icicles hanging from their muzzles and pogo-nip on their whiskers.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Spa Room Project
Also, the lights were very dim, so at night it was hard to see in this room. I asked the handyman to replace the two track lights with two other newer lights that would brighten the room more and allow me to point the light where I wanted during photo shoots on cloudy days and dark nights. My studio lights really aren't powerful enough for my purposes.
Here is what the deck looked like once the spa was removed...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Scrappy the Ferocious Guard Dog
Holy cow! I just noticed that the last post I did was #1,200 and that's not even counting all the posts I've deleted over the years, which must be in the hundreds. I think we need to create a chart that increases our ranks as bloggers based upon how many posts we write...
1 to 49 posts = Newbie Blogger
50 to 99 posts = Noteworthy Blogger
100 to 499 posts = Impressive Blogger
500 to 999 posts = Professional Blogger
1000 to 1499 posts = Veteran Blogger
1500 to 1999 posts = Diehard Blogger
2000+ posts = Get a Life (Just kidding)
Whenever someone comes to our house, I have to either lock the dogs up in a back room or put them out in the back yard, because they go absolutely nuts if someone knocks on the door, rings the doorbell or walks into the house. So, when the handyman first came by to give me his estimate half an hour early, I wasn't ready for him and the dogs began barking and throwing themselves against the front door.
I couldn't open the front door or they would run out and attack the handyman, so I had to go out the back door and run around the side of the house to talk to him. I asked him to wait outside while I locked up the dogs, and he said not to worry about it, because dogs like him. No, I said, you need to wait out here until my dogs are locked up, because they will attack you.
So, now that he's working on our home repair projects on a daily basis, the dogs have gotten used to his noises. However, he made the mistake of walking into the main part of our house before we could lock up the dogs, and Scrappy charged him, jumped up on his leg and bit his jeans. I ran over and pulled Scrappy off of him and made him sit.
All I did was gently hold him down, but the dog acted like I was beating him. He cried and whimpered and rolled on his side. Now I know how his previous owner treated him. I probably should have reminded the handyman not to come into the main part of the house until I have the dogs under control.
I wonder what would happen in a case like that where I warned someone that my dogs would attack him if he came into the house, and say he walked in unannounced, got seriously bit and sued me. Would my rights be protected because I told him not to come into the house? He obviously needs to come in to communicate with us, but I've been checking on him every now and then to see if he needs anything, and I can't keep the dogs locked up for several days straight while the handyman is around.
I'm sure at some point they'll get used to him, but it is bothersome that Scrappy bites visitors. His teeth are so dull that I doubt he could break anyone's skin. He usually just bites their clothing. It's difficult to train a dog to behave when visitors come into the house without having strangers ringing the doorbell and walking in again and again like they do on the dog training TV shows. I don't know of anyone who would give up their time to ring the doorbell and walk into the house repeatedly for several hours just to help me train my dog, and I'm sure at some point we'd have to swap out the stranger with a fresh stranger, because the dogs learn that each stranger is a friend.
1 to 49 posts = Newbie Blogger
50 to 99 posts = Noteworthy Blogger
100 to 499 posts = Impressive Blogger
500 to 999 posts = Professional Blogger
1000 to 1499 posts = Veteran Blogger
1500 to 1999 posts = Diehard Blogger
2000+ posts = Get a Life (Just kidding)
I couldn't open the front door or they would run out and attack the handyman, so I had to go out the back door and run around the side of the house to talk to him. I asked him to wait outside while I locked up the dogs, and he said not to worry about it, because dogs like him. No, I said, you need to wait out here until my dogs are locked up, because they will attack you.
So, now that he's working on our home repair projects on a daily basis, the dogs have gotten used to his noises. However, he made the mistake of walking into the main part of our house before we could lock up the dogs, and Scrappy charged him, jumped up on his leg and bit his jeans. I ran over and pulled Scrappy off of him and made him sit.
All I did was gently hold him down, but the dog acted like I was beating him. He cried and whimpered and rolled on his side. Now I know how his previous owner treated him. I probably should have reminded the handyman not to come into the main part of the house until I have the dogs under control.
I wonder what would happen in a case like that where I warned someone that my dogs would attack him if he came into the house, and say he walked in unannounced, got seriously bit and sued me. Would my rights be protected because I told him not to come into the house? He obviously needs to come in to communicate with us, but I've been checking on him every now and then to see if he needs anything, and I can't keep the dogs locked up for several days straight while the handyman is around.
I'm sure at some point they'll get used to him, but it is bothersome that Scrappy bites visitors. His teeth are so dull that I doubt he could break anyone's skin. He usually just bites their clothing. It's difficult to train a dog to behave when visitors come into the house without having strangers ringing the doorbell and walking in again and again like they do on the dog training TV shows. I don't know of anyone who would give up their time to ring the doorbell and walk into the house repeatedly for several hours just to help me train my dog, and I'm sure at some point we'd have to swap out the stranger with a fresh stranger, because the dogs learn that each stranger is a friend.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
All We Want for Christmas is Quiet
He parks it right up against the fence to my horse paddock and proceeds to rev the engine repeatedly for at least an hour straight. Between 4:00 and 5:00 PM is right when I need to clean stalls, put the horses in them, feed them, and blanket them. I just love bending underneath the belly of a horse to grab a belly or leg strap only to have Brutus fire up his engine at that very moment.
Lately he has been bringing a woman with him, and the two of them spend hours standing over the engine admiring it while it idles. Tonight he gunned the dang thing as hard as he could, spewing black smoke all over the neighborhood and choking me, only to have the engine gurgle and die. "I can't believe I forgot to put gas in it!" he yelled.
Really? I can. Especially since the guy seems to have a problem seeing past the nose on his own face. It obviously never occurred to him that he's disrupting the peace night after night with what he is doing.
Tonight the woman stood in the front yard next door and watched my every move as I did my chores in my back yard. I contemplated asking her if it is truly necessary to leave the god awful engine running the entire time they are standing around socializing or staring at me. The only thing I hate more than being stared at on my private property is being stared at while a jet engine is blasting out all the sounds of nature and robbing me of my oxygen.
Brutus actually has two jeeps, one pick up truck, one boat, three trailers, and two classic cars waiting to be restored on my neighbors' lot. He drives off in one jeep, only to return a few minutes later, fires up the engine on the other jeep, lets it idle for an hour shaking our house, drives off, returns a few minutes later, and on and on it goes. He's been shaking our house off and on for two hours now. All I can do is hope that his karma comes back to bite him the way it did when the nosy lady crashed into a fallen branch while staring at me instead of watching where she was driving. When Brutus does finally drive off, he speeds and kicks up rocks and dust all over our property. It's only a matter of time before he hits someone or something.
Also, our handyman has started our project on transforming my spa room into a photography studio, so he was busy sawing our fiberglass spa into little pieces today -- one more noise for the horses to get used to. They've been handling the bombardment of noises pretty well. They do insist on facing the source of the noise and observing, but I'm not seeing as much spooking and stampeding as I have in the past.
The entire family is home for the holidays, and everyone is sick. My son went to the doctor yesterday and was put on some heavy duty antibiotics. I told my husband he should see the doctor too, but he insisted it was just allergies. Now he's got a fever, so I was right. He should have seen a doctor. My daughter and I are faring better, but getting hit with symptoms here and there.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Odd Sightings
The other day when my son and I were driving through the city, a man in a Santa Claus suit crossed the street in front of us leading a donkey that was laden with pots and pans like a 49er's sidekick. What was so odd about this sighting was that it happened right at one of the busiest intersections in a highly populated city.
Then the other morning I was walking past my dining area window when I spotted a wild peacock strutting across my neighbor's front yard. I grabbed my camera, but it disappeared. We've heard the voices of wild peacocks off in the distance for many years, but they've never come this far south before. They sound like crying or screaming children.
On yet another day, I walked out to the barn and noticed our local flock of quail in a tizzy. Then I realized that a hawk was attacking them. I admit that those quail sure do look fat and juicy, so I don't blame the hawk for wanting some for dinner. My presence scared the hawk away, so I don't think he ever got his snack.
Today was a much better day after the previous days I posted about. I baked some cookies for my son, and then we counted and rolled coins together. Our family always tosses our change into a pickle jar, and then after a few years, we count and roll all the change and take it to the bank. Whoever does the most work in counting and rolling gets the cash. So, my son earned about $150 today.
Also, the animal welfare group that I've been doing pro-Bono photo sessions for invited me to one of their meetings. I was planning on joining their group in the spring once all the work is done in settling my mother's estate. I just didn't want to join now, because it is impossible for me to keep a schedule. I don't want to commit to being places or to handle responsibilities only to have to cancel or drop the ball and inconvenience everyone.
Anyway, at the meeting they presented me with a plaque making me an honorary member of their non-profit organization and thanking me for contributing my time and talent to helping present homeless pets in a flattering light. They also gave me a T-shirt and a $100 gift certificate to a very classy Italian restaurant. I was planning on taking my husband there this Sunday for our anniversary, so it was a nice surprise to find that the group covered our bill. We'll probably have to bring our son along too, because I can't imagine just the two of us running up a bill that high. It was very generous of them.
I sat through the rest of the meeting and listened to what they would like to do to increase adoptions and how they would plan fundraisers to cover the cost. I'll probably just turn around and donate that $100 back to them so that they can make pet adoptions more affordable.
The generosity of this group really amazes me. Every week they donate a bag full of props for me to use in my photography studio. My assistant is constantly buying stuff for the studio, and I've asked her to stop, but she says she does it for the animals. She bought me a really expensive backdrop for Christmas. I need to come up with some idea for a gift to buy her to thank her for all her donations and hard work. Any ideas?
Then the other morning I was walking past my dining area window when I spotted a wild peacock strutting across my neighbor's front yard. I grabbed my camera, but it disappeared. We've heard the voices of wild peacocks off in the distance for many years, but they've never come this far south before. They sound like crying or screaming children.
On yet another day, I walked out to the barn and noticed our local flock of quail in a tizzy. Then I realized that a hawk was attacking them. I admit that those quail sure do look fat and juicy, so I don't blame the hawk for wanting some for dinner. My presence scared the hawk away, so I don't think he ever got his snack.
Today was a much better day after the previous days I posted about. I baked some cookies for my son, and then we counted and rolled coins together. Our family always tosses our change into a pickle jar, and then after a few years, we count and roll all the change and take it to the bank. Whoever does the most work in counting and rolling gets the cash. So, my son earned about $150 today.
Also, the animal welfare group that I've been doing pro-Bono photo sessions for invited me to one of their meetings. I was planning on joining their group in the spring once all the work is done in settling my mother's estate. I just didn't want to join now, because it is impossible for me to keep a schedule. I don't want to commit to being places or to handle responsibilities only to have to cancel or drop the ball and inconvenience everyone.
Anyway, at the meeting they presented me with a plaque making me an honorary member of their non-profit organization and thanking me for contributing my time and talent to helping present homeless pets in a flattering light. They also gave me a T-shirt and a $100 gift certificate to a very classy Italian restaurant. I was planning on taking my husband there this Sunday for our anniversary, so it was a nice surprise to find that the group covered our bill. We'll probably have to bring our son along too, because I can't imagine just the two of us running up a bill that high. It was very generous of them.
I sat through the rest of the meeting and listened to what they would like to do to increase adoptions and how they would plan fundraisers to cover the cost. I'll probably just turn around and donate that $100 back to them so that they can make pet adoptions more affordable.
The generosity of this group really amazes me. Every week they donate a bag full of props for me to use in my photography studio. My assistant is constantly buying stuff for the studio, and I've asked her to stop, but she says she does it for the animals. She bought me a really expensive backdrop for Christmas. I need to come up with some idea for a gift to buy her to thank her for all her donations and hard work. Any ideas?
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
It's Not Over Until I Have A Nervous Breakdown
People tell me I'm pessimistic and a nervous Nelly, but it's only because of my sixth sense. I get gut feelings about things, and I knew as soon as I found out that the truck I bought didn't come with a complete tow package, it would somehow, some way, turn into a huge fiasco. When you consider that the majority of people who live in my state only have a high school education or less, it's pretty easy for something to go wrong when you are hiring a local to do a service for you.
So, today I set out to pick up some things at the market, handle some banking business, register my new truck at the DMV, pick up some office supplies, and buy an anniversary gift for my husband. Simple, right?
It started out well. I found what I needed at the market, although it didn't help that my mentally challenged brother phoned me while I was shopping and people kept coming up to me asking if I need assistance while I was trying to help my brother handle his latest emergency and shop for my family at the same time. My multitasking skills only go as far as being about to do two things at once. When you throw in a third, I have a melt down. And I absolutely hate it when people talk to me while I'm talking to someone else on the phone. We were supposed to learn back in kindergarten to wait our turn, yet so many adults now-a-days are incapable of doing that. I can't process two people talking to me at the same time. Someone has to be ignored, and I usually end up ignoring the person who is interrupting.
The banker gave me some good news in that the bank finally set up things so that I can now take care of what I need to online without having to make a trip to the bank every couple of weeks, which is awesome.
The DMV was shockingly easy. I usually have to wait a minimum of two hours before I can even get served, but I didn't even get to sit down and they called me up to a window. The lady was snarky and rude, but she got my vehicle registered in a matter of minutes, so I let her have her inhospitable moment without complaining.
Leaving the DMV was when things started to go haywire. I had noticed that this red warning light was on all the time on my dashboard. I thought at first it was the light that tells you to put on your seat belt, and it was showing up because I had my purse sitting on the passenger side seat. However, when I left the DMV I set my purse on the floor and saw that the warning light was still on. It was very distracting, so I stopped in a parking lot and looked up what it meant in the manual.
The manual said that it meant there was a problem with my airbags and I should take the truck into the dealership immediately. So, I did. I told them I bought the truck two weeks ago, and this air bag warning light won't go off. They freaked, because that's a liability. They said they wouldn't be able to get to my truck for about two hours, but they could drive me wherever I wanted while I was waiting. I let their shuttle service drive me to a shopping center where I could eat lunch and look for the gift.
I found a little gift, but not really at all what I hoped to find, when the dealership service department called me and said that whoever installed my trailer brake system drilled through the electrical wire that controls the airbag system. They suggested I take the truck back to them to fix. While I was waiting for the shuttle to arrive, I called my husband to ask if he could pick me up on his way home from work, because I would have to be leaving my truck in the shop for repairs. He was bummed, because this was the first day he's had in years to do anything fun. He was going bowling with some coworkers after work. I told him to go bowling, and said I'd call our son and have him pick me up.
He said he didn't want the truck accessory place to fix my truck, because if they did such sloppy work in the first place, how could we trust them to get it right the second time? He said he was going to meet me at the dealership to discuss our options. The dealership said that the repairs were not covered under their "bumper-to-bumper" warranty, it would cost us a minimum of $400 just for them to look at it, they will probably need the truck for a few weeks, and they will have to rip out all the carpeting and seats. I freaked.
I was shaking all over and on the verge of vomiting. I just spent a huge chunk of my inheritance on this new truck and not even two weeks later they have to strip it to make a repair. All I could think of was that I had made a grave mistake and should have never traded in my old truck. I should have just laid low, because every time I buy a new product I regret it.
The salesman who sold me the truck came over to ask us what was going on, and we explained it to him. He made me feel a little better by offering to take responsibility to resolve the issue. He was the one who set up this appointment between me and the truck accessory shop, which represents the Dodge dealership. Of course, he didn't know they were going to botch the job, but I appreciated him stepping in and not just letting us flail in the wind.
I drove the truck over to the truck accessory place, praying that I didn't get into an accident along the way, because if I did, the airbags wouldn't deploy. They took it back to their shop right away. I waited for about half an hour, and then my husband called and said he was coming over there too, just to make sure that these guys don't try to screw me. We had this fear that they would just cut the wire to the warning light so that it would turn off, and then tell us they fixed the airbag system.
Sure enough, they brought the truck out after about half an hour and announced that they fixed it. I was skeptical, because the dealership said fixing it would required stripping the interior and inspecting the entire airbag system. They explained that they just looked at the wire where they installed the brake system and saw that they nicked it. They heat-sealed it and moved it away from the screws, then reset the computer on the truck.
I said, "Are you sure the airbag system works now?"
The guy got angry with me for questioning him. I was taken aback, because if anyone should have been angry, it should have been me. Because of his employee's mistake, I had to drive the two-hour round trip back to his shop, postpone my errands, waste an entire day troubleshooting, and suffer through a lot of unnecessary stress.
My husband showed up and both the shop owner and the mechanic explained to him what they did. The shop owner apologized to him for us having to drive all the way out again. Ultimately, it had a happy ending in that the problem did get fixed without any cost to us. We were worried that we might have to sue the shop to pay for the bill that the dealership was going to slap us with.
I made one more stop to look for a better anniversary gift and to pick up my office supplies. I realized that I was making impulsive purchases because I was running out of time. It was getting dark and I didn't want to have to make yet another trip into the city this week. My calendar is pretty much booked up, so I had to finish my errands that evening. I hate buying crap for gifts, but every year this happens to me -- something comes out of left field and I run out of shopping time, so I just grab anything off the shelf in order to avoid being empty-handed on our special day. I thought this year would be different since I don't have an 80-hour a week job competing for my time, but I had no such luck. I'm just as busy as I've ever been.
The bummer about them resetting the computer on my truck is that I lost all the work I did to preset radio stations and set the time on the dashboard. I tried resetting the time while I was driving back home, but I couldn't get it to work. I'm hoping I was just pushing the wrong buttons and that the clock isn't broken now. Of course, it got dark before I could consult the manual, and I had to abandon the task in order to feed and blanket the horses.
I'm a bit freaked out because a friend told me that her father bought a brand new Dodge Ram truck and had so many things break on it within the first few months that he had to sue to get his money back using the Lemon Law. That's not exactly something you want to hear after you bought one. Of course, the airbag malfunction wasn't a fault with the truck, but a problem caused by someone not paying attention to where he was drilling. I just hope this isn't the start of a long series of mishaps, because I will drive that truck off a cliff before I will allow some stupid material possession to suck up all of my time, energy and money.
Of course, having all of this insanity come right on the heels of the photo shoot mishap I wrote about in my last post didn't help. Oh yeah, and did I tell you that the whole time I was driving all over Kingdom Come, my mobile phone kept ringing? Different people were calling, but not leaving messages. I couldn't pick up, because it's illegal to talk or text on a phone while driving now in Nevada, and I don't have a hands-free device, nor do I want one. It's impossible to pull over when you are going 65 MPH and completely surrounded by traffic. With my luck, they were potential clients calling for a portrait session, and since I didn't answer the phone, they called another photographer instead. Everything has to happen all at the same time with me. It just can't possibly be any other way. If things don't settle down tomorrow, I might just have to disappear into the mountains for a day to collect my thoughts and learn how to breathe again.
So, today I set out to pick up some things at the market, handle some banking business, register my new truck at the DMV, pick up some office supplies, and buy an anniversary gift for my husband. Simple, right?
It started out well. I found what I needed at the market, although it didn't help that my mentally challenged brother phoned me while I was shopping and people kept coming up to me asking if I need assistance while I was trying to help my brother handle his latest emergency and shop for my family at the same time. My multitasking skills only go as far as being about to do two things at once. When you throw in a third, I have a melt down. And I absolutely hate it when people talk to me while I'm talking to someone else on the phone. We were supposed to learn back in kindergarten to wait our turn, yet so many adults now-a-days are incapable of doing that. I can't process two people talking to me at the same time. Someone has to be ignored, and I usually end up ignoring the person who is interrupting.
The banker gave me some good news in that the bank finally set up things so that I can now take care of what I need to online without having to make a trip to the bank every couple of weeks, which is awesome.
The DMV was shockingly easy. I usually have to wait a minimum of two hours before I can even get served, but I didn't even get to sit down and they called me up to a window. The lady was snarky and rude, but she got my vehicle registered in a matter of minutes, so I let her have her inhospitable moment without complaining.
Leaving the DMV was when things started to go haywire. I had noticed that this red warning light was on all the time on my dashboard. I thought at first it was the light that tells you to put on your seat belt, and it was showing up because I had my purse sitting on the passenger side seat. However, when I left the DMV I set my purse on the floor and saw that the warning light was still on. It was very distracting, so I stopped in a parking lot and looked up what it meant in the manual.
The manual said that it meant there was a problem with my airbags and I should take the truck into the dealership immediately. So, I did. I told them I bought the truck two weeks ago, and this air bag warning light won't go off. They freaked, because that's a liability. They said they wouldn't be able to get to my truck for about two hours, but they could drive me wherever I wanted while I was waiting. I let their shuttle service drive me to a shopping center where I could eat lunch and look for the gift.
I found a little gift, but not really at all what I hoped to find, when the dealership service department called me and said that whoever installed my trailer brake system drilled through the electrical wire that controls the airbag system. They suggested I take the truck back to them to fix. While I was waiting for the shuttle to arrive, I called my husband to ask if he could pick me up on his way home from work, because I would have to be leaving my truck in the shop for repairs. He was bummed, because this was the first day he's had in years to do anything fun. He was going bowling with some coworkers after work. I told him to go bowling, and said I'd call our son and have him pick me up.
He said he didn't want the truck accessory place to fix my truck, because if they did such sloppy work in the first place, how could we trust them to get it right the second time? He said he was going to meet me at the dealership to discuss our options. The dealership said that the repairs were not covered under their "bumper-to-bumper" warranty, it would cost us a minimum of $400 just for them to look at it, they will probably need the truck for a few weeks, and they will have to rip out all the carpeting and seats. I freaked.
I was shaking all over and on the verge of vomiting. I just spent a huge chunk of my inheritance on this new truck and not even two weeks later they have to strip it to make a repair. All I could think of was that I had made a grave mistake and should have never traded in my old truck. I should have just laid low, because every time I buy a new product I regret it.
The salesman who sold me the truck came over to ask us what was going on, and we explained it to him. He made me feel a little better by offering to take responsibility to resolve the issue. He was the one who set up this appointment between me and the truck accessory shop, which represents the Dodge dealership. Of course, he didn't know they were going to botch the job, but I appreciated him stepping in and not just letting us flail in the wind.
I drove the truck over to the truck accessory place, praying that I didn't get into an accident along the way, because if I did, the airbags wouldn't deploy. They took it back to their shop right away. I waited for about half an hour, and then my husband called and said he was coming over there too, just to make sure that these guys don't try to screw me. We had this fear that they would just cut the wire to the warning light so that it would turn off, and then tell us they fixed the airbag system.
Sure enough, they brought the truck out after about half an hour and announced that they fixed it. I was skeptical, because the dealership said fixing it would required stripping the interior and inspecting the entire airbag system. They explained that they just looked at the wire where they installed the brake system and saw that they nicked it. They heat-sealed it and moved it away from the screws, then reset the computer on the truck.
I said, "Are you sure the airbag system works now?"
The guy got angry with me for questioning him. I was taken aback, because if anyone should have been angry, it should have been me. Because of his employee's mistake, I had to drive the two-hour round trip back to his shop, postpone my errands, waste an entire day troubleshooting, and suffer through a lot of unnecessary stress.
My husband showed up and both the shop owner and the mechanic explained to him what they did. The shop owner apologized to him for us having to drive all the way out again. Ultimately, it had a happy ending in that the problem did get fixed without any cost to us. We were worried that we might have to sue the shop to pay for the bill that the dealership was going to slap us with.
I made one more stop to look for a better anniversary gift and to pick up my office supplies. I realized that I was making impulsive purchases because I was running out of time. It was getting dark and I didn't want to have to make yet another trip into the city this week. My calendar is pretty much booked up, so I had to finish my errands that evening. I hate buying crap for gifts, but every year this happens to me -- something comes out of left field and I run out of shopping time, so I just grab anything off the shelf in order to avoid being empty-handed on our special day. I thought this year would be different since I don't have an 80-hour a week job competing for my time, but I had no such luck. I'm just as busy as I've ever been.
The bummer about them resetting the computer on my truck is that I lost all the work I did to preset radio stations and set the time on the dashboard. I tried resetting the time while I was driving back home, but I couldn't get it to work. I'm hoping I was just pushing the wrong buttons and that the clock isn't broken now. Of course, it got dark before I could consult the manual, and I had to abandon the task in order to feed and blanket the horses.
I'm a bit freaked out because a friend told me that her father bought a brand new Dodge Ram truck and had so many things break on it within the first few months that he had to sue to get his money back using the Lemon Law. That's not exactly something you want to hear after you bought one. Of course, the airbag malfunction wasn't a fault with the truck, but a problem caused by someone not paying attention to where he was drilling. I just hope this isn't the start of a long series of mishaps, because I will drive that truck off a cliff before I will allow some stupid material possession to suck up all of my time, energy and money.
Of course, having all of this insanity come right on the heels of the photo shoot mishap I wrote about in my last post didn't help. Oh yeah, and did I tell you that the whole time I was driving all over Kingdom Come, my mobile phone kept ringing? Different people were calling, but not leaving messages. I couldn't pick up, because it's illegal to talk or text on a phone while driving now in Nevada, and I don't have a hands-free device, nor do I want one. It's impossible to pull over when you are going 65 MPH and completely surrounded by traffic. With my luck, they were potential clients calling for a portrait session, and since I didn't answer the phone, they called another photographer instead. Everything has to happen all at the same time with me. It just can't possibly be any other way. If things don't settle down tomorrow, I might just have to disappear into the mountains for a day to collect my thoughts and learn how to breathe again.
SNAFU after SNAFU
I don't dare tell this story on my photography website, but the other day I had my most embarrassing photo shoot yet. I started taking pictures when all of the sudden my camera began ignoring my presses on the shutter release button. I looked at the LCD screen and it said my card was full. Oops, I forgot to delete the hundreds of pictures I took the previous week after I uploaded them to my computer.
Now I was in a quandary, because I couldn't individually delete hundreds of photos, and if I deleted the entire card, I would lose all the pictures I just took that hadn't been uploaded to my computer yet. I decided to switch over to my back-up card for storage, but soon that was full too. I apologized to my client and said that I needed to upload all the photos to my computer while she waited, so that I could them clear the cards and finish the day's photo shoot.
I went inside and started up my MacBookPro, only to get a blue screen of death. I tried restarting it, but it appeared to be fried, and I just bought the damn thing a couple of weeks ago! I ran into my son's room and asked him if he had a card in his camera that I could use to finish the photo shoot, and he did, but it only had a tiny bit of storage. I then asked him to work on my computer and see if he could fix it.
I got another 50 shots out of my son's card before it was full, so I had to start deleting the bad pictures while my client waited in order to make room to finish the shoot. When I still needed to take more pictures, I ended up just grabbing my Canon point-and-shoot and gave up on both my Nikon and my Mac. Then my Canon started acting up. The auto-focus stopped working and the pictures were way overexposed. It has just never been the same since that time it rolled out of its case and sat in a car trunk in 140-degree heat for several days before I noticed it was missing.
The whole day was just full of ridiculousness. We took a cat from the animal shelter to photograph, and told a man on staff that we were doing that, but I guess he forgot, and he put out an all points bulletin notifying everyone that a cat was missing from the shelter. So, we got back to the shelter and hoards of people were out and about searching for the missing cat.
I hope I don't have to experience another day like that in a long time, because otherwise I may have to change careers... again.
My husband suggested that I make a list of everything I need to do before a photo shoot and include clearing the cards and turning on the computer as some of the items on my list, so I did that. My other most unpleasant surprise was when I did an entire photo shoot unaware that the camera had been set to JPG mode instead of RAW. The quality of those pictures left a lot of be desired because so much detail was lost, and I could not do a retake.
I know it's all part of the learning process, but it sure feels like someone is out to get me when every piece of my equipment fails all at the same time. It's as if the universe is trying to sabotage my efforts. My son did finally get my computer up and running, but by then the photo shoot had ended. Anyone who thinks being a photographer is an easy, stress-free job, think again. At least since I work for myself, the only person who can yell at me besides my client is me. I wouldn't trade working for myself over having a supervisor any day.
P.S. I tested out the electrical on the tow package by hooking it up to my trailer, and it works. However, when disconnecting the trailer, a piece of plastic broke off the bumper of the new truck. Sigh. I was able to put it back together, but seriously? Doesn't anyone test out their products now-a-days or even care about quality? The next step is to find time to actually tow the trailer around empty to see what setting I should use, and then tow with horses.
Now I was in a quandary, because I couldn't individually delete hundreds of photos, and if I deleted the entire card, I would lose all the pictures I just took that hadn't been uploaded to my computer yet. I decided to switch over to my back-up card for storage, but soon that was full too. I apologized to my client and said that I needed to upload all the photos to my computer while she waited, so that I could them clear the cards and finish the day's photo shoot.
I went inside and started up my MacBookPro, only to get a blue screen of death. I tried restarting it, but it appeared to be fried, and I just bought the damn thing a couple of weeks ago! I ran into my son's room and asked him if he had a card in his camera that I could use to finish the photo shoot, and he did, but it only had a tiny bit of storage. I then asked him to work on my computer and see if he could fix it.
I got another 50 shots out of my son's card before it was full, so I had to start deleting the bad pictures while my client waited in order to make room to finish the shoot. When I still needed to take more pictures, I ended up just grabbing my Canon point-and-shoot and gave up on both my Nikon and my Mac. Then my Canon started acting up. The auto-focus stopped working and the pictures were way overexposed. It has just never been the same since that time it rolled out of its case and sat in a car trunk in 140-degree heat for several days before I noticed it was missing.
The whole day was just full of ridiculousness. We took a cat from the animal shelter to photograph, and told a man on staff that we were doing that, but I guess he forgot, and he put out an all points bulletin notifying everyone that a cat was missing from the shelter. So, we got back to the shelter and hoards of people were out and about searching for the missing cat.
I hope I don't have to experience another day like that in a long time, because otherwise I may have to change careers... again.
My husband suggested that I make a list of everything I need to do before a photo shoot and include clearing the cards and turning on the computer as some of the items on my list, so I did that. My other most unpleasant surprise was when I did an entire photo shoot unaware that the camera had been set to JPG mode instead of RAW. The quality of those pictures left a lot of be desired because so much detail was lost, and I could not do a retake.
I know it's all part of the learning process, but it sure feels like someone is out to get me when every piece of my equipment fails all at the same time. It's as if the universe is trying to sabotage my efforts. My son did finally get my computer up and running, but by then the photo shoot had ended. Anyone who thinks being a photographer is an easy, stress-free job, think again. At least since I work for myself, the only person who can yell at me besides my client is me. I wouldn't trade working for myself over having a supervisor any day.
P.S. I tested out the electrical on the tow package by hooking it up to my trailer, and it works. However, when disconnecting the trailer, a piece of plastic broke off the bumper of the new truck. Sigh. I was able to put it back together, but seriously? Doesn't anyone test out their products now-a-days or even care about quality? The next step is to find time to actually tow the trailer around empty to see what setting I should use, and then tow with horses.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Tow Package Saga Continues
I just want it to end! So, today I drove the hour into the city to pick up my truck with its complete tow package. At first, I thought I was getting a complete tow package from the dealership where I bought the truck, but that didn't happen. So then I ordered a complete tow package from a truck accessory shop.
The owner was busy with another customer, so he just quickly handed me my keys and mentioned that my ball was sitting on the passenger side floor. I thought that was a bit odd. Why not install it? That's what I was paying them to do. But then I figured they just didn't want someone stealing it off my truck while it was parked in their lot. Their shop was in kind of a bad neighborhood.
I got in the truck and hesitated, thinking I should make sure everything is in order before leaving, but some lady in another truck drove up and was waiting for me to back out so that she could have my parking spot. Considerate me can never pass up an opportunity to help somebody out, so I backed up right away and headed off down the highway.
I got home only to discover that the truck accessory place neglected to include a bar and cotter pin to lock the ball in place. Argh! I wanted to call up the guy and say, "What part of 'complete tow package' do you not understand?"
This is what pisses me off about the type of service we get now-a-days. People just don't seem to understand that when a customer hires them to do a job, they expect them to do the whole job unless otherwise stated. Most people do not have the time to go to the hardware store or shop for the missing part online and wait another two weeks for it to arrive. Being a truck accessory shop that specializes in installing tow packages, one would think they'd have plenty of these parts lying around. But maybe not. When I asked the owner why he didn't have any of the tow package parts in his shop at the time I brought my truck by, he said, "It's not towing season."
Nevadan's have this bizarre concept of every activity having its own season. It may not be towing season for people who are into towing recreational vehicles like motorcycles and ATVs, but if my horse needs to be rushed to the vet clinic, I'm going to need to be able to tow at any time of the year. There's no season for horse injuries.
Fortunately, in my case, my husband removed the ball and pins from our old truck when we traded it in, so I was able to use those parts to finish what the truck accessory place should have taken care of in the first place. I'm not done yet, though. I still need to hook up the trailer and make sure all the electronics work. I'm just starving from my long day of driving all over the place, so I'm taking a snack break.
One thing I am happy about is that they were able to mount the trailer brake control in a location where I won't hit it with my knee.
They took into consideration that the cup holder should still be able to fold down and not hit the trailer brake control.
Now we will just have to be careful not to spill anything.
The owner was busy with another customer, so he just quickly handed me my keys and mentioned that my ball was sitting on the passenger side floor. I thought that was a bit odd. Why not install it? That's what I was paying them to do. But then I figured they just didn't want someone stealing it off my truck while it was parked in their lot. Their shop was in kind of a bad neighborhood.
I got in the truck and hesitated, thinking I should make sure everything is in order before leaving, but some lady in another truck drove up and was waiting for me to back out so that she could have my parking spot. Considerate me can never pass up an opportunity to help somebody out, so I backed up right away and headed off down the highway.
I got home only to discover that the truck accessory place neglected to include a bar and cotter pin to lock the ball in place. Argh! I wanted to call up the guy and say, "What part of 'complete tow package' do you not understand?"
This is what pisses me off about the type of service we get now-a-days. People just don't seem to understand that when a customer hires them to do a job, they expect them to do the whole job unless otherwise stated. Most people do not have the time to go to the hardware store or shop for the missing part online and wait another two weeks for it to arrive. Being a truck accessory shop that specializes in installing tow packages, one would think they'd have plenty of these parts lying around. But maybe not. When I asked the owner why he didn't have any of the tow package parts in his shop at the time I brought my truck by, he said, "It's not towing season."
Nevadan's have this bizarre concept of every activity having its own season. It may not be towing season for people who are into towing recreational vehicles like motorcycles and ATVs, but if my horse needs to be rushed to the vet clinic, I'm going to need to be able to tow at any time of the year. There's no season for horse injuries.
Fortunately, in my case, my husband removed the ball and pins from our old truck when we traded it in, so I was able to use those parts to finish what the truck accessory place should have taken care of in the first place. I'm not done yet, though. I still need to hook up the trailer and make sure all the electronics work. I'm just starving from my long day of driving all over the place, so I'm taking a snack break.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Instant Karma
While I was tying the laces on my boots to get ready to ride, I somehow pulled a muscle in my hand. It felt like it was hung up on a bone. I thought, "This is the most ridiculous horse-related injury I've had yet. Could this be an omen? Maybe I shouldn't ride."
But I pushed past it and eventually the kink worked itself out so that I could lift a saddle. Lostine shocked me by volunteering to be ridden first, but once I got on her, she was a handful. Apparently, she had bloated her belly more than usual during the four times I tightened her cinch. As soon as I threw my leg over her back, she took off. I only had one foot in a stirrup and the saddle started sliding down her side. I halted her (not easily, I might add) and hopped off.
Lostine basically spent the next hour doing everything she could think of to try to get me off her back. The more she misbehaved, the more I rode her, and only when she obeyed me did I praise her and end our ride so that she could eat her lunch. We did a lot of walk and whoa, trot and whoa, as you can imagine.
Bombay was an angel. Gabbrielle was a turd, but I straightened her out pretty quick. Mares don't seem to do well in cold weather. Kind of like me.
This is what I don't get. This lady and her husband have lived in this house for five years, their driveway is about half an acre wide and long, yet they act like backing up and getting out of it is a huge ordeal. Whenever I'm in my yard they will literally back up going one mile per hour and turning so that they are facing me. Then they stop and stare at me for a really long time, then back up some more, then stop and stare, then back up some more...
Well, you may remember that several weeks ago one of their live-in guests trimmed a huge branch off their tree and just left it lying there. It was a branch with many smaller branches coming off of it. It was as wide as the trunks of some trees. When it fell, it almost hit my neighbor and the guy yelled, "LOOK OUT!" Of course, I had just put my horses in their stalls, and they freaked out over the commotion, trying to kick down the stall walls.
So, today my nosy neighbor was slowly backing up and apparently so enthralled with watching me in my yard that she wasn't watching where she was going and CRASH! The horses spun and galloped off, narrowly missing me, I screamed out my usual expletive -- the one I use every time my annoying neighbors do something stupid to cause my horses to stampede, and the woman's car came to a stop on top of this fallen tree branch. I glared at her, and she just sat there not knowing what to do. I shook my head and went in the house, all shaken up from my near-death experience, and when I looked out again, she was still trying to get her car untangled.
Instant karma. I'd like to say I hope she learned her lesson, but I seriously doubt it. The moral of the story is... always watch where you are driving instead of gawking at your neighbor.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Tow Package Experience
Of course, ten days after I bought my truck, another dealer advertised that he got in 100 Dodge Ram 1500s and they are all on sale at a price slightly lower than what I paid. We are still grappling with the issue of installing a full tow package on the truck.
When we were first shopping for a truck, we were hesitant to buy the Ram 1500 since it didn't come with a complete tow package. There was all this miscommunication between the salesman and myself. I thought he had said they came fully equipped, but it turned out that they only came with the 7-pin hook up. There was no hitch, ball or brake controller. When I told the salesman I wanted a truck that came with the whole towing package, he said they don't sell any of them that way, but I could have the rest installed for about $150 in a couple of hours.
I decided I could deal with that, so I bought the truck. After I signed the check, the salesman bumped his estimate up to $200 to finish off the tow package. He recommended a place that was an hour's drive from my house, and I complained about all the time it will take out of my day. He offered to pick up the truck, take it to the place to be outfitted with a towing package, and then deliver it back to my house. I accepted his offer.
As I was getting ready to drive my new truck off the lot, the salesman said he'd call me to let me know when he'd be coming to pick up the truck. Several days passed and he finally called, but now the estimate for the complete tow package jumped up to $400. I asked if there was any place that could do better on that price, and he said he'd call around.
I waited several more days for him to get back to me, but he never did. I made some phone calls myself, and my husband researched ordering the parts over the Internet and installing the tow package himself. I called the truck salesman and he said he was really busy, but all the places he called were way more expensive than the place he was recommending. I knew he was lying. I suspect that the owner of this truck accessory shop is a friend of his, and he probably didn't bother to call any other businesses. However, he said that the $400 quote was a special deal that they only do for Dodge customers. I took that statement with a grain of salt, because by now this truck salesman had lost all his credibility with me.
I asked if he knew if that deal included a trailer brake control that is integrated into the dashboard, or something hanging down that I will hit my knee on. He said he didn't know and would have to get back to me. Several more days passed, and I figured I'd never hear from him again, but he did call back and said there are so many options that I should just take the truck into the accessory shop myself and talk with the owner.
So, that's how I spent my Saturday. Of course, the owner of the shop had to be long-winded. I appreciated that he was educating us on all the options, but my husband was getting impatient with the up-sell. The guy talked me into something that I can no longer remember the name of, and I agreed to get it until I found out that it would triple the cost and I had to bring my trailer in to be retrofitted too!
I freaked. I said, "Not only do I not have the time to keep coming back here because I don't live anywhere near here, but I'm trading in my trailer for a new one soon and that would just be a complete waste of money."
So, we got the estimate back down to $400 until the guy recommended that we install a solid bar hitch instead of a hollow bar hitch to help us increase our towing capacity. We were trying to get the truck outfitted with parts that would haul at least 9,000 pounds. Suddenly, that bumped the price up to $530.
However, when I found out that the hitch we had on the F150 was only rated for 5,000 pounds, everything suddenly made sense. I always had problems hauling uphill between that truck, the towing set up and the trailer we had. I wanted to get it right this time, so I was willing to pay the extra $130.
We thought we were just going to have to sit and read a book for an hour or two and then the truck would be ready, but the guy told me I'd have to bring the truck back on Tuesday, which is when they pick up their parts. Gah! I asked him if I could just leave it with him under the circumstances since we had traveled so far, and since Tuesday is the only day of the week that I work. He agreed.
I'm hoping that when I pick up the truck next week, everything will just work and there won't be any issues. The accessory salesman had me sit in his truck, which was similar to mine, and move the seat forward to where I can reach the pedals to see if my knee would be hitting the brake control. It did. So, he's going to try to install it under the middle of the dashboard low enough where it won't interfere with the fold-out cup holder. I'm also hoping the rest of the process will be seamless, because I still have to get the truck registered, and that's going to be another entire day out of my life driving into the city and standing in line at the DMV. I guess the good news is that once I get past all this stuff I won't have to do it again for another 12 years at least.
I read an interesting quote in a book I'm reading (slowly, very slowly). It was something along the line that the things we own end up owning us. I find that to be so true. I bought a new vehicle, so now it owns my time, money and energy, because I have to get it accessorized how I need it to be, I had to spend a lot of time on the phone with the insurance company getting it insured, and now I have to wait in line at the DMV to get it registered. I'll have to wash it, gas it up, get it oil changes and do other maintenance.
The quote applies well to horse ownership as well. I don't think anyone gets a horse for the purpose of shoveling manure, yet most of us spend way more time cleaning up after our horses than we do riding them. So, who owns who?
When we were first shopping for a truck, we were hesitant to buy the Ram 1500 since it didn't come with a complete tow package. There was all this miscommunication between the salesman and myself. I thought he had said they came fully equipped, but it turned out that they only came with the 7-pin hook up. There was no hitch, ball or brake controller. When I told the salesman I wanted a truck that came with the whole towing package, he said they don't sell any of them that way, but I could have the rest installed for about $150 in a couple of hours.
I decided I could deal with that, so I bought the truck. After I signed the check, the salesman bumped his estimate up to $200 to finish off the tow package. He recommended a place that was an hour's drive from my house, and I complained about all the time it will take out of my day. He offered to pick up the truck, take it to the place to be outfitted with a towing package, and then deliver it back to my house. I accepted his offer.
As I was getting ready to drive my new truck off the lot, the salesman said he'd call me to let me know when he'd be coming to pick up the truck. Several days passed and he finally called, but now the estimate for the complete tow package jumped up to $400. I asked if there was any place that could do better on that price, and he said he'd call around.
I waited several more days for him to get back to me, but he never did. I made some phone calls myself, and my husband researched ordering the parts over the Internet and installing the tow package himself. I called the truck salesman and he said he was really busy, but all the places he called were way more expensive than the place he was recommending. I knew he was lying. I suspect that the owner of this truck accessory shop is a friend of his, and he probably didn't bother to call any other businesses. However, he said that the $400 quote was a special deal that they only do for Dodge customers. I took that statement with a grain of salt, because by now this truck salesman had lost all his credibility with me.
I asked if he knew if that deal included a trailer brake control that is integrated into the dashboard, or something hanging down that I will hit my knee on. He said he didn't know and would have to get back to me. Several more days passed, and I figured I'd never hear from him again, but he did call back and said there are so many options that I should just take the truck into the accessory shop myself and talk with the owner.
So, that's how I spent my Saturday. Of course, the owner of the shop had to be long-winded. I appreciated that he was educating us on all the options, but my husband was getting impatient with the up-sell. The guy talked me into something that I can no longer remember the name of, and I agreed to get it until I found out that it would triple the cost and I had to bring my trailer in to be retrofitted too!
I freaked. I said, "Not only do I not have the time to keep coming back here because I don't live anywhere near here, but I'm trading in my trailer for a new one soon and that would just be a complete waste of money."
So, we got the estimate back down to $400 until the guy recommended that we install a solid bar hitch instead of a hollow bar hitch to help us increase our towing capacity. We were trying to get the truck outfitted with parts that would haul at least 9,000 pounds. Suddenly, that bumped the price up to $530.
However, when I found out that the hitch we had on the F150 was only rated for 5,000 pounds, everything suddenly made sense. I always had problems hauling uphill between that truck, the towing set up and the trailer we had. I wanted to get it right this time, so I was willing to pay the extra $130.
We thought we were just going to have to sit and read a book for an hour or two and then the truck would be ready, but the guy told me I'd have to bring the truck back on Tuesday, which is when they pick up their parts. Gah! I asked him if I could just leave it with him under the circumstances since we had traveled so far, and since Tuesday is the only day of the week that I work. He agreed.
I'm hoping that when I pick up the truck next week, everything will just work and there won't be any issues. The accessory salesman had me sit in his truck, which was similar to mine, and move the seat forward to where I can reach the pedals to see if my knee would be hitting the brake control. It did. So, he's going to try to install it under the middle of the dashboard low enough where it won't interfere with the fold-out cup holder. I'm also hoping the rest of the process will be seamless, because I still have to get the truck registered, and that's going to be another entire day out of my life driving into the city and standing in line at the DMV. I guess the good news is that once I get past all this stuff I won't have to do it again for another 12 years at least.
I read an interesting quote in a book I'm reading (slowly, very slowly). It was something along the line that the things we own end up owning us. I find that to be so true. I bought a new vehicle, so now it owns my time, money and energy, because I have to get it accessorized how I need it to be, I had to spend a lot of time on the phone with the insurance company getting it insured, and now I have to wait in line at the DMV to get it registered. I'll have to wash it, gas it up, get it oil changes and do other maintenance.
The quote applies well to horse ownership as well. I don't think anyone gets a horse for the purpose of shoveling manure, yet most of us spend way more time cleaning up after our horses than we do riding them. So, who owns who?
Friday, December 9, 2011
The Short of It
Spent all of Thursday night wiping a virus off my laptop and changing the passwords to all my accounts
Woke up Friday morning
Ate breakfast
Fed dogs
Answered emails
Took shower
Unblanketed, released and fed horses
Started laundry
Rinsed dirty dishes and put in dishwasher
Made bed
Paid a bill and put in mailbox
Phone rang -- contractor asked if we were still on for our appointment
Dryer buzzed at me so I had to cycle laundry
Phone rang -- contractor was lost and needed directions to house
Met with contractor to get estimate on job, but contractor said he needed the weekend to research and would get estimate to me next week
Started collecting serial numbers and values for business insurance
Phone rang -- some charity asking for my mother
Tried to return to collecting serial numbers, etc.
Dryer started buzzing repeatedly at me, so I had to cycle laundry
Tried to return to collecting serial numbers, etc.
Husband walked in door 4 hours early from work complaining of ingrown toenail
Husband wanted help finding something to soak foot in
Found barf bucket for husband's foot with the help of a flashlight and long stick
Forwarded spreadsheets to insurance agent
Suddenly glanced at clock and saw I was an hour and a half late in feeding horses their lunch
Fed horses and noticed water trough was empty
Started filling trough
Moved truck back to its parking spot now that no more visitors need to park there
Closed off driveway
Remembered to get mail
Opened and read mail -- threw majority in trash
Remembered to go to bathroom
Checked Facebook and saw that I had two invitations to events I don't have time to attend, one of which is tomorrow
Somewhere in here dogs were asking to be let out and in for the umpteenth time
Got hungry, set two pieces of bread on a paper towel and pulled out a can of tuna
Dryer buzzed at me, so I had to cycle laundry
Started hanging clothes in closet
Suddenly remembered that the hose had been running in the water trough for the past hour
Ran outside and waded through flood to turn off hose
Returned to hanging laundry
Remembered to use bathroom
Walked past kitchen and saw two slices of bread sitting on paper towel
They were now dry and stale, so I toasted them and spread tuna on them
Ate lunch around 2:00 PM
Listened to husband tell stories -- by now ingrown toenail had morphed into a migraine headache
I realized that I never actually started dishwasher
Began wondering if the old company I used to work for was still in business and researched it on the Internet
Began wondering if the company that offered me the job that I turned down was still in business and researched that on the Internet
Found a job advertisement for a breeding and foaling manager at a 135-acre Friesian horse breeding farm and dressage training facility
Fantasized about it and then reminded myself that I've never bred a horse before
Phone rang and no one was on the other end
Phone rang again and this time it was the truck salesman giving me instructions on how to get my tow package
I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to call the other handyman to tell him if he got the job or not -- I told him I wouldn't know until next week when all the estimates and bids came in
Handyman begged me for the job and made me write down half a dozen references I knew I'd never have the time to call
Handyman asked if he is scaring me off because he talks too much -- his wife says he talks too much
I politely say no, even though the truth is a resounding yes
I'm too busy to deal with non-stop talkers, so I don't want him in my house for five days talking my ear off
Realized I still had laundry to put away, but before I could deal with that I noticed that the clock said 4:00 PM -- time to feed the dogs their dinner
Realized that I must clean stalls right after that, because otherwise half a dozen cars will start driving behind my barn around 5:00 PM and people will stand in the neighbors' yard staring at me
Sun started setting
Cleaned manure out of paddock
Cleaned manure out of stalls
Teased Lostine by pretending that I was jumping up on her back and then followed her around with my arm around her neck while she tried to get away from me
Chased Bombay out of Gabbrielle's stall before he could mess it up after I cleaned it
Wished I could ride a horse really fast while the neighbors were gone, but knew that by the time I got my boots and helmet on, as well as got a horse tacked up, the neighbors would be home
Decided to chase the horses around with a lunge whip to exercise them all at once before it got dark
Had a grand old time trying to out-smart the buggers under a nearly full moon
Chased them around the back of the barn only to have them spin in terror and stampede straight at me
I dove out of harm's way and looked up to see that my annoying neighbor was driving up the road behind the barn shining her headlights on us and that's what spooked them
Annoying neighbor stopped behind my barn because her loose dog was blocking her path
Kid got out of car and led dog back to house
I knew our fun had ended, so I put horses away in their stalls, fed and blanketed them
Put away more laundry
Wrestled with Scrappy on the floor while he pretended to bite me
Cooked and ate a really gross dinner
Fed most of it to the dogs
Realized that I never RSVPed to the Facebook invitations
Realized that I forgot to wash the towels and bed linens
Did a little research on writing, publishing and marketing
Brushed my teeth and immediately felt hungry
Had a snack
Brushed teeth again
Sat on couch feeling frustrated because another day passed without me being able to:
1. Exercise on home gym equipment
2. Work on my novel
3. Work on my quilts
4. Do anything to further my photography business
Popped some pills so I could relax and eventually sleep
Woke up Friday morning
Ate breakfast
Fed dogs
Answered emails
Took shower
Unblanketed, released and fed horses
Started laundry
Rinsed dirty dishes and put in dishwasher
Made bed
Paid a bill and put in mailbox
Phone rang -- contractor asked if we were still on for our appointment
Dryer buzzed at me so I had to cycle laundry
Phone rang -- contractor was lost and needed directions to house
Met with contractor to get estimate on job, but contractor said he needed the weekend to research and would get estimate to me next week
Started collecting serial numbers and values for business insurance
Phone rang -- some charity asking for my mother
Tried to return to collecting serial numbers, etc.
Dryer started buzzing repeatedly at me, so I had to cycle laundry
Tried to return to collecting serial numbers, etc.
Husband walked in door 4 hours early from work complaining of ingrown toenail
Husband wanted help finding something to soak foot in
Found barf bucket for husband's foot with the help of a flashlight and long stick
Forwarded spreadsheets to insurance agent
Suddenly glanced at clock and saw I was an hour and a half late in feeding horses their lunch
Fed horses and noticed water trough was empty
Started filling trough
Moved truck back to its parking spot now that no more visitors need to park there
Closed off driveway
Remembered to get mail
Opened and read mail -- threw majority in trash
Remembered to go to bathroom
Checked Facebook and saw that I had two invitations to events I don't have time to attend, one of which is tomorrow
Somewhere in here dogs were asking to be let out and in for the umpteenth time
Got hungry, set two pieces of bread on a paper towel and pulled out a can of tuna
Dryer buzzed at me, so I had to cycle laundry
Started hanging clothes in closet
Suddenly remembered that the hose had been running in the water trough for the past hour
Ran outside and waded through flood to turn off hose
Returned to hanging laundry
Remembered to use bathroom
Walked past kitchen and saw two slices of bread sitting on paper towel
They were now dry and stale, so I toasted them and spread tuna on them
Ate lunch around 2:00 PM
Listened to husband tell stories -- by now ingrown toenail had morphed into a migraine headache
I realized that I never actually started dishwasher
Began wondering if the old company I used to work for was still in business and researched it on the Internet
Began wondering if the company that offered me the job that I turned down was still in business and researched that on the Internet
Found a job advertisement for a breeding and foaling manager at a 135-acre Friesian horse breeding farm and dressage training facility
Fantasized about it and then reminded myself that I've never bred a horse before
Phone rang and no one was on the other end
Phone rang again and this time it was the truck salesman giving me instructions on how to get my tow package
I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to call the other handyman to tell him if he got the job or not -- I told him I wouldn't know until next week when all the estimates and bids came in
Handyman begged me for the job and made me write down half a dozen references I knew I'd never have the time to call
Handyman asked if he is scaring me off because he talks too much -- his wife says he talks too much
I politely say no, even though the truth is a resounding yes
I'm too busy to deal with non-stop talkers, so I don't want him in my house for five days talking my ear off
Realized I still had laundry to put away, but before I could deal with that I noticed that the clock said 4:00 PM -- time to feed the dogs their dinner
Realized that I must clean stalls right after that, because otherwise half a dozen cars will start driving behind my barn around 5:00 PM and people will stand in the neighbors' yard staring at me
Sun started setting
Cleaned manure out of paddock
Cleaned manure out of stalls
Teased Lostine by pretending that I was jumping up on her back and then followed her around with my arm around her neck while she tried to get away from me
Chased Bombay out of Gabbrielle's stall before he could mess it up after I cleaned it
Wished I could ride a horse really fast while the neighbors were gone, but knew that by the time I got my boots and helmet on, as well as got a horse tacked up, the neighbors would be home
Decided to chase the horses around with a lunge whip to exercise them all at once before it got dark
Had a grand old time trying to out-smart the buggers under a nearly full moon
Chased them around the back of the barn only to have them spin in terror and stampede straight at me
I dove out of harm's way and looked up to see that my annoying neighbor was driving up the road behind the barn shining her headlights on us and that's what spooked them
Annoying neighbor stopped behind my barn because her loose dog was blocking her path
Kid got out of car and led dog back to house
I knew our fun had ended, so I put horses away in their stalls, fed and blanketed them
Put away more laundry
Wrestled with Scrappy on the floor while he pretended to bite me
Cooked and ate a really gross dinner
Fed most of it to the dogs
Realized that I never RSVPed to the Facebook invitations
Realized that I forgot to wash the towels and bed linens
Did a little research on writing, publishing and marketing
Brushed my teeth and immediately felt hungry
Had a snack
Brushed teeth again
Sat on couch feeling frustrated because another day passed without me being able to:
1. Exercise on home gym equipment
2. Work on my novel
3. Work on my quilts
4. Do anything to further my photography business
Popped some pills so I could relax and eventually sleep
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Home Improvements
I wanted to utilize this time while it's not snowing to get a few of the more major home improvements done, despite my financial adviser's warning not to spend any money just yet. I'm on a time schedule to move, so I just have to do what I have to do while the weather is still dry. My husband and I have done a few DIY home improvements over the years and were frustrated with how much time it took. Simply painting a room can take weeks since we rarely can get time in our schedules to concentrate on home improvements.
So, I am interviewing handymen at the moment and getting estimates for jobs. I need to hurry up and get that new truck registered because the very first thing these guys notice when they show up is the new truck with the temporary tags, and that gives them the impression that I have money to spare. So, I suspect they are charging me more than what they might be charging others. Also, I can't trust people who ask me what my husband does for a living before giving me an estimate on a job. It sounds like they are working with a sliding scale.
I haven't used a handyman in years, because I've had some trouble with strangers coming into our house and then blabbing to others about what we have inside our house, and next thing we knew someone was trying to rob us. This time I looked for a licensed handyman through a website that does background checks and requires great references and reviews. Since I will be asked to fill out a review online of his work, he knows he will be held accountable.
What was weird was that when I called the service to locate the handymen in my area for me who had gone through their screening process, my other phone started ringing immediately while I was still talking with the service. The lady input the information on my job in the database, and these guys got notified through email, and called me immediately to set up an appointment. I consider that amazing, because when we first moved into this house 18 years ago, we couldn't get a handyman or contractor to do anything if our lives depended on it. They were all tied up in big jobs working in new subdivisions. Then the housing market crashed, and they had to abandon those subdivisions and start begging for work. Now these guys appreciate any job they can get, even if it's just cleaning someone's gutters.
One problem with living in Nevada is that a lot of these guys have the mafia mentality. One guy said to me, "We aren't friends. We are acquaintances. If a friend calls me with an emergency, I will leave your job to go help him. If you keep hiring me for other jobs, then we will become friends and I will return the favor to you."
It sounded a bit like both a threat and a bribe at the same time. There was also a lot of arm twisting to try to get me to give him a perfect review. Car salesmen do that too. My attitude is that they should do their job, and I'll give them a fair review based on their overall performance. I'm not going agree to give them a perfect review before they've done any work. That's dishonest.
Dodge/Chrysler called me the day after I bought my truck, and wanted me to answer survey questions in which the results get published as customer satisfaction ratings. I refused to take the survey, because I had only driven the truck home from the dealership. My husband said, "That's very socially responsible of you." I didn't have enough experience with it to give an accurate assessment. It's a good thing, because yesterday morning when I had to start up the truck in these cold temperatures, it almost didn't start. You'd think a brand new truck off the assembly line would start up as soon as you turn the key. My Ford never sputtered and choked. It started right up even in below zero temperatures.
As a writer, I got a bad review on my novel. It really wasn't a bad review, because the person said that she loved the book all the way through to the end, but just couldn't find the ending to be believable. So, she gave me one out of five stars. I didn't think that her star rating was fair, because she did say that she loved essentially 95% of the book. I thought it would be more appropriate to give the book four stars under those circumstances, but some people feel the need to fail everything that has any flaw at all. I guess the ending was everything to her, but her review resulted in a huge drop in sales of my book. Words are powerful. They can make you rich or they can make you poor, so I'm very careful and fair when I review other people's products and services, knowing that people do take my opinion seriously. I don't want to put anyone out of job, but I also don't want to vouch for someone who may end up disappointing some other customer in the future.
The guy I interviewed today took up an hour and a half of my time looking around my house and pointing out other things that need to be fixed. I told him I'm aware of those, but I only have so much money, so I have to prioritize. I don't want to make this house perfect. I just want to get it into livable condition. If I'm going to sell it, there's no point in putting in new flooring and painting every room in the house, because the new owners may not like my choices and will just switch it out with something else. Then all of my money will be wasted. If I'm going to rent it, I would want clean things up a bit more.
Ultimately, it's just nice to know that there are people out there available to do the work. It seems that when it comes to construction and home improvements, it's feast or famine. I've been alive long enough to see fluctuations in the economic tide, and I use timing to my advantage to get what I need now. I'll take before and after pictures of my projects for you in future posts.
I'm still struggling with my bizarre phone chaos. I can go for hours without anyone calling, and then as soon as one person calls on one line, someone calls on the other line, so I waste a lot of my day playing telephone tag trying to return those calls I missed. I didn't start the process of looking for a handyman until I was sure that I was done with all my insurance policy changes and other estate settlement decisions, because I didn't want too much going on at once.
Well, I was busy registering an account online, and my input was being timed for security reasons, and the freakin' phone kept ringing. I didn't want to get kicked out of the registration process by a time out, but I also have been waiting for a couple of important calls. So, I picked up. It turns out that my insurance changes are not complete like I was told. Now the insurance company wants me to do all this work to give them serial numbers and purchase prices and what not. I let the agent know that I wasn't happy about having to give up more of my time to prove that I own stuff. If I buy a policy, I shouldn't have to bend over backwards to provide them with such detailed information. It's paid for. What more do they want? Of course, once I got off the phone with the agent, my registration timed out. That's typical.
I would love to know why everything has to happen all at once. Now that I may be having a handyman start work tomorrow, the truck salesman finally called and said that we could probably put together the tow package tomorrow. I'm not leaving a strange man alone in my house to go take care of something that should have been taken care of last week. Something's gotta give. I know everyone's schedules are tight, but it truly seems ridiculous that everything has to happen all at the same time.
The animal welfare organization that I've been doing volunteer work for wants me to take a bigger part and start attending their meetings and events, and I had to explain that my life is so insane that it is impossible for me to keep a schedule. I don't want to commit to anything, because chances are that I will have to cancel, which disrupts other people's schedules. Most of these ladies are homemakers or retired, so they don't understand my lifestyle. It seems impossible to come into contact with other people and not have them want something from me. I miss the good old days when people could just interact without strings attached. Sometimes we should just scratch someone's back without expecting for them to scratch us back.
I was feeling good this week because I crossed a number of items off my To Do List, but now in just a few meetings and phone calls, my legal pad is filled up again with things to do for other people -- people who I hired to help me. For instance, this one handyman gave me a list of things he needs me to do in order to complete the project I was trying to hire him to do. I just want the guy to do it all, do it all quickly, do it all quietly, and stay out of my hair.
Right now I'm feeling like living in a cave with nothing more than a campfire, some water and food looks pretty attractive to me. I'd like to get down to the simplicity of a dog's life: Eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop. No insurance policies, no fussy websites, no dishonest salespeople, no handymen who charge $40 an hour in labor when I've worked ten times harder in my life and only earned half of that, and no more dogs dropping dead mice at my feet while I'm eating my breakfast.
Oh yeah, and remember how I just recently paid $500 to repair all the damage that Bombay did inside my horse trailer? Well, I just discovered that the big winds we had the other day blew my tack room door open and broke the spring controlled mechanism. (Sigh.) One more thing to fix. I was really hoping I could trade in that trailer before anything else went wrong.
I think I'll head outside for some stall mucking therapy, if my annoying neighbors and their dozens of guests will let me. I find it so bizarre that most mornings I can wake up, walk outside to feed the horses, and find two more cars I've never seen before parked on my neighbor's lot. They seem to multiply like rabbits overnight. My husband said I should pick a spot, and stand in the same spot and take pictures of their property each day, and then do a time-lapsed montage of it on YouTube. I wish I had the time, because I'm sure the results would be astounding.
So, I am interviewing handymen at the moment and getting estimates for jobs. I need to hurry up and get that new truck registered because the very first thing these guys notice when they show up is the new truck with the temporary tags, and that gives them the impression that I have money to spare. So, I suspect they are charging me more than what they might be charging others. Also, I can't trust people who ask me what my husband does for a living before giving me an estimate on a job. It sounds like they are working with a sliding scale.
I haven't used a handyman in years, because I've had some trouble with strangers coming into our house and then blabbing to others about what we have inside our house, and next thing we knew someone was trying to rob us. This time I looked for a licensed handyman through a website that does background checks and requires great references and reviews. Since I will be asked to fill out a review online of his work, he knows he will be held accountable.
What was weird was that when I called the service to locate the handymen in my area for me who had gone through their screening process, my other phone started ringing immediately while I was still talking with the service. The lady input the information on my job in the database, and these guys got notified through email, and called me immediately to set up an appointment. I consider that amazing, because when we first moved into this house 18 years ago, we couldn't get a handyman or contractor to do anything if our lives depended on it. They were all tied up in big jobs working in new subdivisions. Then the housing market crashed, and they had to abandon those subdivisions and start begging for work. Now these guys appreciate any job they can get, even if it's just cleaning someone's gutters.
One problem with living in Nevada is that a lot of these guys have the mafia mentality. One guy said to me, "We aren't friends. We are acquaintances. If a friend calls me with an emergency, I will leave your job to go help him. If you keep hiring me for other jobs, then we will become friends and I will return the favor to you."
It sounded a bit like both a threat and a bribe at the same time. There was also a lot of arm twisting to try to get me to give him a perfect review. Car salesmen do that too. My attitude is that they should do their job, and I'll give them a fair review based on their overall performance. I'm not going agree to give them a perfect review before they've done any work. That's dishonest.
Dodge/Chrysler called me the day after I bought my truck, and wanted me to answer survey questions in which the results get published as customer satisfaction ratings. I refused to take the survey, because I had only driven the truck home from the dealership. My husband said, "That's very socially responsible of you." I didn't have enough experience with it to give an accurate assessment. It's a good thing, because yesterday morning when I had to start up the truck in these cold temperatures, it almost didn't start. You'd think a brand new truck off the assembly line would start up as soon as you turn the key. My Ford never sputtered and choked. It started right up even in below zero temperatures.
As a writer, I got a bad review on my novel. It really wasn't a bad review, because the person said that she loved the book all the way through to the end, but just couldn't find the ending to be believable. So, she gave me one out of five stars. I didn't think that her star rating was fair, because she did say that she loved essentially 95% of the book. I thought it would be more appropriate to give the book four stars under those circumstances, but some people feel the need to fail everything that has any flaw at all. I guess the ending was everything to her, but her review resulted in a huge drop in sales of my book. Words are powerful. They can make you rich or they can make you poor, so I'm very careful and fair when I review other people's products and services, knowing that people do take my opinion seriously. I don't want to put anyone out of job, but I also don't want to vouch for someone who may end up disappointing some other customer in the future.
The guy I interviewed today took up an hour and a half of my time looking around my house and pointing out other things that need to be fixed. I told him I'm aware of those, but I only have so much money, so I have to prioritize. I don't want to make this house perfect. I just want to get it into livable condition. If I'm going to sell it, there's no point in putting in new flooring and painting every room in the house, because the new owners may not like my choices and will just switch it out with something else. Then all of my money will be wasted. If I'm going to rent it, I would want clean things up a bit more.
Ultimately, it's just nice to know that there are people out there available to do the work. It seems that when it comes to construction and home improvements, it's feast or famine. I've been alive long enough to see fluctuations in the economic tide, and I use timing to my advantage to get what I need now. I'll take before and after pictures of my projects for you in future posts.
I'm still struggling with my bizarre phone chaos. I can go for hours without anyone calling, and then as soon as one person calls on one line, someone calls on the other line, so I waste a lot of my day playing telephone tag trying to return those calls I missed. I didn't start the process of looking for a handyman until I was sure that I was done with all my insurance policy changes and other estate settlement decisions, because I didn't want too much going on at once.
Well, I was busy registering an account online, and my input was being timed for security reasons, and the freakin' phone kept ringing. I didn't want to get kicked out of the registration process by a time out, but I also have been waiting for a couple of important calls. So, I picked up. It turns out that my insurance changes are not complete like I was told. Now the insurance company wants me to do all this work to give them serial numbers and purchase prices and what not. I let the agent know that I wasn't happy about having to give up more of my time to prove that I own stuff. If I buy a policy, I shouldn't have to bend over backwards to provide them with such detailed information. It's paid for. What more do they want? Of course, once I got off the phone with the agent, my registration timed out. That's typical.
I would love to know why everything has to happen all at once. Now that I may be having a handyman start work tomorrow, the truck salesman finally called and said that we could probably put together the tow package tomorrow. I'm not leaving a strange man alone in my house to go take care of something that should have been taken care of last week. Something's gotta give. I know everyone's schedules are tight, but it truly seems ridiculous that everything has to happen all at the same time.
The animal welfare organization that I've been doing volunteer work for wants me to take a bigger part and start attending their meetings and events, and I had to explain that my life is so insane that it is impossible for me to keep a schedule. I don't want to commit to anything, because chances are that I will have to cancel, which disrupts other people's schedules. Most of these ladies are homemakers or retired, so they don't understand my lifestyle. It seems impossible to come into contact with other people and not have them want something from me. I miss the good old days when people could just interact without strings attached. Sometimes we should just scratch someone's back without expecting for them to scratch us back.
I was feeling good this week because I crossed a number of items off my To Do List, but now in just a few meetings and phone calls, my legal pad is filled up again with things to do for other people -- people who I hired to help me. For instance, this one handyman gave me a list of things he needs me to do in order to complete the project I was trying to hire him to do. I just want the guy to do it all, do it all quickly, do it all quietly, and stay out of my hair.
Right now I'm feeling like living in a cave with nothing more than a campfire, some water and food looks pretty attractive to me. I'd like to get down to the simplicity of a dog's life: Eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop. No insurance policies, no fussy websites, no dishonest salespeople, no handymen who charge $40 an hour in labor when I've worked ten times harder in my life and only earned half of that, and no more dogs dropping dead mice at my feet while I'm eating my breakfast.
Oh yeah, and remember how I just recently paid $500 to repair all the damage that Bombay did inside my horse trailer? Well, I just discovered that the big winds we had the other day blew my tack room door open and broke the spring controlled mechanism. (Sigh.) One more thing to fix. I was really hoping I could trade in that trailer before anything else went wrong.
I think I'll head outside for some stall mucking therapy, if my annoying neighbors and their dozens of guests will let me. I find it so bizarre that most mornings I can wake up, walk outside to feed the horses, and find two more cars I've never seen before parked on my neighbor's lot. They seem to multiply like rabbits overnight. My husband said I should pick a spot, and stand in the same spot and take pictures of their property each day, and then do a time-lapsed montage of it on YouTube. I wish I had the time, because I'm sure the results would be astounding.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Training a Horse to Stand for a Pedicure
First off, I don't know what the heck happened to the header on my blog. I guess it's time to start searching for a new look. (Sigh. One more thing to do.)
In other news, I am watering my pasture because despite us have freezing temperatures at night and on some days, we still haven't received any precipitation that has stuck around for a while. You might think, "That's great! You can ride your horses." Not exactly. The sun is so low in the sky throughout the day that the only way I could ride without being blinded and crashing into things is to find enough space where I can head north and only north. When I drive a car south, I pull down the visor and just look down at the road, but the visor on a riding helmet doesn't help all the much and the horses would appreciate having visors themselves. I've noticed that anyone who does ride around here does it after sunset, but by then the temps drop down below freezing and I just can't stand being outside. I'm a winter wimp.
The horses had their hooves trimmed today. I came to the realization that my farrier is scared of Gabbrielle after that fight he had with her at the training stable to get shoes on her feet. He was expecting the worst from her. We did the other two horses first and had our usual friendly conversation, and then as soon as I brought Gabbrielle in to be trimmed, my farrier suddenly changed his demeanor. He started in with his insults about how I don't have control of my horses and he talked about other customers who do whatever he says to control their horses, but he didn't give me specific examples of what other people do to get their horses to stand.
I was thinking, "Say what? I don't have control over my horses? Didn't I just hold two horses for you and weren't they perfectly well behaved?"
So, he picked up Gabbrielle's front hoof and I didn't see any issues. She wasn't rearing or kicking or doing a dance or leaning on him. She was just standing there. He suddenly jumped up, grabbed the lead rope out of my hands and started yanking and jerking it, forcing her to back into the railing. Then he pulled her forward, handed the lead rope back to me, picked up her hoof, again I didn't see any problems, and he dropped her hoof, jumped up and started jerking her around again. She was pissed and had her ears pinned back.
I said, "What is she doing that is bothering you? I'm not seeing it."
He said, "She's resisting and pulling her leg."
I said, "Then you need to tell me when she does that, and I will correct her myself."
He agreed, but then repeated the process of yanking her around. I could see that he was doing nothing beyond ruining his relationship with my horse. She used to adore my farrier, but I could see that after all this yanking, she didn't want him in her space anymore. So, this time when he tried picking up her feet, she evaded him by moving away.
I halted her from moving away from him in one stern look and word without having to jerk her around. She was now nervous and mouthing my jacket and the lead rope each time he took hold of one of her legs. I said to Gabbrielle, "You don't need to be nervous."
The farrier said, "If you baby her, she will get worse."
I rolled my eyes. I've tried a lot of techniques with horses over the years and I have never found that simply talking to them and communicating with them has ever had negative consequences.
I said, "You need to tell me as soon as she starts pulling her leg and be ready for her to react to my correction, because if I just correct her like this..." -- I gave her lead rope a yank and she jumped while he was holding her leg, which resulted in him jumping away from her -- "...then you could get hurt."
He agreed to tell me, and then I looked into Gabbrielle's eyes and realized that she was remembering that terrible experience at the training stable in which both the farrier and the trainer ganged up on her and yanked her all over the place to get her to hold still to have her shoes nailed in. I said to her, "Don't worry. You are just getting a trim. No shoes today."
Remembering what Temple Grandin says about animals thinking in pictures, I telepathically passed an image to her of her feet being trimmed and some horse shoes being thrown in the trash. I'm not kidding -- she instantly dropped her head, let out a huge sigh of relief, and the farrier said, "She's being real good right now. I'm proud of her."
We did not have to correct her once after I let her know that she wasn't going to get any shoes today. So, I'll have to remember to try that same technique next time she gets trimmed, and correct the farrier right off the bat if he starts up with negative expectations. They need to heal their relationship. Of course, if Gabbrielle does need shoes in the future, I'll have to figure out some way to make her comfortable with it.
How about you? What techniques have you had to use to get a horse to hold still and relax for the farrier?
In other news, I am watering my pasture because despite us have freezing temperatures at night and on some days, we still haven't received any precipitation that has stuck around for a while. You might think, "That's great! You can ride your horses." Not exactly. The sun is so low in the sky throughout the day that the only way I could ride without being blinded and crashing into things is to find enough space where I can head north and only north. When I drive a car south, I pull down the visor and just look down at the road, but the visor on a riding helmet doesn't help all the much and the horses would appreciate having visors themselves. I've noticed that anyone who does ride around here does it after sunset, but by then the temps drop down below freezing and I just can't stand being outside. I'm a winter wimp.
The horses had their hooves trimmed today. I came to the realization that my farrier is scared of Gabbrielle after that fight he had with her at the training stable to get shoes on her feet. He was expecting the worst from her. We did the other two horses first and had our usual friendly conversation, and then as soon as I brought Gabbrielle in to be trimmed, my farrier suddenly changed his demeanor. He started in with his insults about how I don't have control of my horses and he talked about other customers who do whatever he says to control their horses, but he didn't give me specific examples of what other people do to get their horses to stand.
I was thinking, "Say what? I don't have control over my horses? Didn't I just hold two horses for you and weren't they perfectly well behaved?"
So, he picked up Gabbrielle's front hoof and I didn't see any issues. She wasn't rearing or kicking or doing a dance or leaning on him. She was just standing there. He suddenly jumped up, grabbed the lead rope out of my hands and started yanking and jerking it, forcing her to back into the railing. Then he pulled her forward, handed the lead rope back to me, picked up her hoof, again I didn't see any problems, and he dropped her hoof, jumped up and started jerking her around again. She was pissed and had her ears pinned back.
I said, "What is she doing that is bothering you? I'm not seeing it."
He said, "She's resisting and pulling her leg."
I said, "Then you need to tell me when she does that, and I will correct her myself."
He agreed, but then repeated the process of yanking her around. I could see that he was doing nothing beyond ruining his relationship with my horse. She used to adore my farrier, but I could see that after all this yanking, she didn't want him in her space anymore. So, this time when he tried picking up her feet, she evaded him by moving away.
I halted her from moving away from him in one stern look and word without having to jerk her around. She was now nervous and mouthing my jacket and the lead rope each time he took hold of one of her legs. I said to Gabbrielle, "You don't need to be nervous."
The farrier said, "If you baby her, she will get worse."
I rolled my eyes. I've tried a lot of techniques with horses over the years and I have never found that simply talking to them and communicating with them has ever had negative consequences.
I said, "You need to tell me as soon as she starts pulling her leg and be ready for her to react to my correction, because if I just correct her like this..." -- I gave her lead rope a yank and she jumped while he was holding her leg, which resulted in him jumping away from her -- "...then you could get hurt."
He agreed to tell me, and then I looked into Gabbrielle's eyes and realized that she was remembering that terrible experience at the training stable in which both the farrier and the trainer ganged up on her and yanked her all over the place to get her to hold still to have her shoes nailed in. I said to her, "Don't worry. You are just getting a trim. No shoes today."
Remembering what Temple Grandin says about animals thinking in pictures, I telepathically passed an image to her of her feet being trimmed and some horse shoes being thrown in the trash. I'm not kidding -- she instantly dropped her head, let out a huge sigh of relief, and the farrier said, "She's being real good right now. I'm proud of her."
We did not have to correct her once after I let her know that she wasn't going to get any shoes today. So, I'll have to remember to try that same technique next time she gets trimmed, and correct the farrier right off the bat if he starts up with negative expectations. They need to heal their relationship. Of course, if Gabbrielle does need shoes in the future, I'll have to figure out some way to make her comfortable with it.
How about you? What techniques have you had to use to get a horse to hold still and relax for the farrier?
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