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October 29, 2018: Snow Day

The snow rain mix started falling early afternoon yesterday. Late in the afternoon it turned to all snow. And it kept snowing. It was still snowing this morning when I went outside. I estimated that there was at least a foot of snow on the ground.

I had thought that perhaps we would not get any snow at all this year. I thought wrong. We were prepared – we’d filled the hay barns and woodshed, and had the day before yesterday, finished the garden harvest and processing. For two days we sat smug. Yes, we were prepared, but we were not ready for the snowfall. Little things had to be dealt with today.

I once again realized that for good or bad, that I am an adult. And as such, I do my share around here, otherwise. The word otherwise is key. It implies that if you don’t take care of what needs taking care of, that you are not acting in an adult fashion.

Okay. So rather than do horsey home schooling this morning, I instead worked on my recycling book. Otherwise, it would never get done. I then prepared to go to town. Pete had me post messages on the porch window and the gate, telling the UPS driver to put the package we were expecting, that is my saddle, on the


Tinni

porch. I did this, for otherwise, he might not have delivered the item today. As it was, we met him on the road where he did the handoff.

We went to town where I resumed my fitness training. Ben Cagel, my teacher, spent a lot of time of time with me, showing me how to do things correctly. I knew that it was good that I resumed my training, otherwise I would have slacked off and fallen through the cracks. I do, when he has me do specific exercises, see how this is going to improve my riding. Today, for example, we worked on my having my hips back and my knees loose. This is what Susan Harris was working on with me when we were doing posting/two-point transitions.

We returned home. I wanted to get the horses out, but instead I scooped and shoveled out the front area of the paddock. Otherwise, I’d later have to deal with snow and poop mixed. I also shoveled the path to the tack room; otherwise I’d have to trudge through the snow, which is something I hate doing. I also emptied the manure buckets into the compost station; otherwise it would freeze in the buckets and not thaw until spring.

I next trudged up to the playground of higher learning and put away my agility equipment. This necessitated my digging buried poles, cones, and buckets out of the now deep snow, and putting all in the shanty. Several otherwises here – otherwise I would not be able to find the equipment when I resume horsey home schooling. Otherwise, Pete might run into said items when he plows this area. Otherwise, my stuffed animals and Halloween decorations (which were used in constructing the scary corner) would become sodden and useless.

I came inside and did household chores – washed dishes, got a fire going, put away clean clothes, etc. Otherwise, Pete would have to do these things and this would not have been fair to him.

So yeah, being an adult means doing things that must be done because (as we all know) putting off what needs to be done can be more time consuming than dealing with it directly.

Next: 303. 10/30/18: Why?

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