Confessions of an Internet Junkie

Finally! A spring day. Full-on sunshine, warmish temperatures. Mud up to our butts. Yeah!

I've been going out to the barn with Dar to do the morning feedings all week. Now that the snow is receding it's easier footing for me, so I've been able to trot along. We've been getting the young alpacas used to wearing halters. Alpacas do not love wearing halters. No, they do not. Adama and Hannibal have worn them before, but this was a first for both Delilah and Valentino. They all did pretty well, I must say. Catching them to actually put the halters on them requires a bit of dodging and weaving on everyone's part, but it's been OK. I mean if you don't count Dar getting knocked to the ground or thrown against a wall every now and then. Or me smashing my fingers somehow. At least the alpacas seem no worse for the wear.

I spent a lot of time outside in the sun today. I wore sunscreen and a hat; hopefully that was good enough to avoid a major flare. Dar was out there for hours and hours and hours, working way too hard and she completely overdid it. Completely. (And yes, I know you're reading this.) Scared the crap out of Q and me when it all came crashing down on her around 4PM. But she seemed to be better after resting and getting something to eat, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she'll be OK tomorrow.

Q was like a crazy farm woman today :) Wrangling alpacas, throwing them to the ground and sitting on them (no lie! just ask her), hauling, feeding, and looking very stylish in her high-fashion tan farm boots with roses and skulls on them. The boys (Sparky and Valentino) weren't quite sure what to make of her. It was the boots that threw them off. That and the fact that she wasn't wearing a scarf and a big poofy winter cap.

We thought that with all the sun and the warmth Satine would give up that cria, but no. It was one weird disturbance after another, and Satine does not hold with weird disturbances. We had cats and dogs and runaway horses and neighbors with noisy ATVs. Everything but a clown parade, I swear.

I let Mao out into the back yard while we were working in the barn. Gertie spied him walking around right by the house - 250 feet away - and started alarming like a freakin' wolf pack was at the gate. That got everyone else all freaked out. I went back to put Mao inside, and it turned out that Gertie's braying was scaring the crap out of him! Poor kitty was a wreck by the time I got to him. Gertie's seen Mao a lot closer than that, but it's been a long winter and I think she just forgot who he was.

Then our friend's daughter, Taryn, came over to help with Jester the horse. She's very good with him, but her better judgment kind of abandoned her today, because she took him for a little stroll using just a lead and no harness, and she lost control of him. Jester took off for our neighbors' yard. Carol (our neighbor) and I had just finished visiting across the fence line, congratulating each other for having survived the winter; she had her Golden Retrievers with her which, again, not such a happy occurrence as far as the alapcas are concerned. Add to that one humongous horse at a pretty good trot, and you have yourself some chaos. Q took off with an apple in hand to help lure him back, Taryn was on him from the opposite direction, Carol was trying not panic, and poor Jester really only wanted to munch on the green grass that he'd spotted in her yard. The only grass around, I might add. Eventually they got him back in his own paddock. but Taryn zigged when she should have zagged and got a hoof to the thigh. It wasn't Jester's fault, but she's going to be sore as hell tomorrow anyway.

I had to go back inside by that time, so I missed the great alpaca toenail trimming event, but Q or Dar will be able to tell you all about it. Hannibal, Adama, Delilah, and Valentino got pedicures in preparation for their appearance in the show ring next weekend. And I had to miss out on the fun.

I'm going to miss out on everything tomorrow,too, if I don't get some damn sleep. Here I go.

I feel numbers coming on. And here they are!

1. darlong really hurt herself while doing her morning alpaca routine. I'm not sure what the exact damage was, but it set off her Chiari. She was in so much pain :( And it scared the hell out of me; I worry about her every time she goes out there by herself for just this reason. The good news is that she's doing much better now, although she's still not back to normal.

2. Q and I shoveled out the driveway this morning. She's like a maniac with that shovel, and I mean that in the very best way. Zoom, zoom, shovel, toss, zoom. It was inspiring :) We still have to get her car out of the driveway and finish up, but tomorrow is another day. Q's got most of it shoveled out. Now we just need a break from the freakin' daily snow storms. Spring now, damn it!

3. The two of us tackled the evening alpaca/Jester chores. Tough walk out to the barn, let me tell ya. The snow is pretty deep, and my walking skills are not all that they used to be. It was pretty out there, though, and that went a long way toward making up for the slog through the snow.

It was great to see the guys again. Satine still shows no new signs of having that cria. I guess that's not such a bad thing until Dar gets back to her old self. They are mysterious critters, for certain. Delilah made me laugh by romping through the snow like a mad thing. She's such a goof. Satine and both of her daughters (Delilah and Cinnamon Girl) can be very playful, which I find just delightful. I hope that they never outgrow it.

4. Dar taught me how to take someone's blood pressure. Or at least she tried to teach me. I managed to get it right twice out of five times. And I only almost amputated her arm with the blood pressure cuff twice. Go me! I'll practice on her again tomorrow, and I'll see if I can torture Q for a bit, too. Although, like Dar, she has low blood pressure. I need a normal volunteer, damn it. Ooooh, sffan is due to visit tomorrow. Heh, heh, heh. Fresh meat.

Seriously, there's a lot going on with that procedure. From what I can tell, you really need three hands. Four would be better, but I'm not greedy.

5. Speaking of bp, I still can't get mine under control. It's not horrendously high, but it's still higher than I'd like, especially considering the high dosage of atenolol I'm on. (At least I think it's a high dose.) I decided to experiment and up it from 100mg to 150mg a day for a while to see if that'll help. Today was Day 3, and it really hasn't made a difference. I'll give it another couple days.

6. I was happy to see Jericho last night. I'm pretty sure that it's doomed, so I plan to just enjoy it while I can. And Lost is making me deliriously happy. I'd forgotten what it's like to have appointment TV in my life. Jericho, Lost, The Wire. I'm getting spoiled. When Battlestar Galactica reappears I'll probably bliss out completely.

7. After all of the exertion I put in today, I was expecting to be zonked out by now. Instead I am not just awake but also a bit wired. The workings of my body this past year continue to confound me. Based on recent experience, I'm expecting that tomorrow is going to be a bit of a bad day for me. I'm hoping to be proven wrong.

8. I'm half way through the last book of the Dark Materials trilogy, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. He really can't write decent dialog to save his life, but his world building is first rate. I love the daemons and the multiple worlds and omg the mulefa! who I can't help but envision as tribes of Hortons from Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who. Except, you know, on wheels. And I find myself thinking that it's a damn lucky thing that Will has so far avoided cutting into an ocean, because I don't think it would be so easy to close up that hole, eh. Funny how that works out. Of course, I still have the last half of the book to go, so who knows.

9. Lots of small gall bladder attacks this past week. I don't eat a lot of fat to begin with, and I've cut it back even farther. No Bailey's at all. (Damn it.) I wonder if my meds are setting it off? I'm just thankful that so far I've been able to shut it down after just a few minutes. Verrrrrry unpleasant, as some of you unfortunately know first hand.

10. I really want to organize my iTunes. Several thousand songs. Really, how long could it take?