The ground I stand on is never firm. I get through each day, more or less, in a state of moderate anxiety; I go to bed, get up the next morning, and mood wise, repeat the above. I dreaded the day following until I began the book project – now I every so often feel firm ground.

That’s the figurative stance. The analogy – it has rained, it is raining, it will continue to rain. The sun comes out in the late afternoon, and we all jump for joy. But then the clouds roll in and it again begins to rain.

The goats – they hate rain. I get them out in the early morning and the late afternoon. They’ve figured out where the dry places are. Sassy makes a beeline for Tinni’s shelter and Ranger hangs out on the steps, under the tack room over hanging. Swampy, I don’t know where she goes, but when I go to take the goats back up to their sheltered area, she is dry.

Camping in the rain

The mares and Tinni hang out in their respective shelters, just looking out at the rain, wondering when their next meal will be. The dogs go off the porch, in order to poop and pee, but quite obviously, this is something they don’t want to do.

The ground everywhere, in the horse pen, in the upper quadrant, in the goat pen, is sodden, goes squish squish under foot. I have never seen the ground here this saturated.

As I was coming home, I saw two cars heading up the Murphy Road trailhead. I stopped my vehicle and went over to one of the drivers – the vehicles were just trundling through the mud. I went over and talked to one of them. He didn’t hear me say that the trails are a mess and perhaps he and his buddy could stay off them. I tried another approach, saying that most likely they’d get stuck. He said they carry winches.

Dumb asses. Later, when we were out riding, we could hear the drivers revving their motors and spinning their tires, in hopes of getting stuck vehicles unstuck.

Why people are this way, i.e., rude, inconsiderate, uncaring about the environment, is totally beyond my comprehension. Totally. Most things (with the exception of quantum physics) I can figure out – but not this.

I was on firm ground most of today. Sorted books, got a good load. As I worked, I could hear the rain on the roof of the recycling center building.

The sun came out briefly when Pete arrived and came and picked me up. We first took books to the meeting house, then went to dog agility – the first of six classes.

There are four dogs in our class, a good number. All are experienced agility dogs and know what to do and what’s expected of them. Shadow and Pete, they did the best. The dogs had to pay attention and the handlers had to think ahead, in order to get the dogs up, over, and under the right obstacles. All did well. Quite clearly, all were on firm ground in terms of their knowledge base.

Next: 280. 10/10/21: Watching the Days Go By