Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Movin' right along

I finished the kids' taxes, although I had to buy a new flat-screen monitor. I made a huge error when I decided to be a good greenie, and put "none" for the screen saver, and instead set the monitor to power down after one hour. So everything was fine, I went to eat dinner, and when I came back, the "sleeping" monitor refused to wake up! After much fiddling around, my son found that if he turned off the overhead lights and shined a penlight obliquely at the screen, he could just make out the images on it, so he tried changing the contrast, brightness, etc. but the screen remained obstinately dark. Hooking up his monitor temporarily at least reassured me that the entire computer had not crashed. Somehow, buying a new monitor just doesn't make me come all over warm and fuzzy. It's more like the feeling I get when I'm grocery shopping... so much money for so little pleasure. Just think, if you didn't have to eat at all, how much time, effort and money you would save. Maybe we could just plug in a recharger, and sit idle while we got a boost. No dishes to wash, no leftovers to store until they are green and fuzzy, no kitchen grease to coat the entire house with Essence of Fried Onion. I can get behind that.

The farrier came yesterday (this is the correct title for a blacksmith who works exclusively on horse hoofsies, in case it ever comes up in, say, a crossword puzzle) and as I ran a swift brush over them, I was appalled to see that all that loose hair isn't from just shedding their winter coats. No, of course not. They all three have "rainrot" a skin condition caused by an actinomyces organism, somewhat of a mix of a bacteria and a fungus. What it looks like is, well, mangy bare naked crusty oozy skin. Highly contagious, and probably part of their natural flora run amok in this G**damned wet weather, hot then cold then hot again, all with 100% humidity. I'm going to try some home remedies before I call in the vet. As nasty as it looks, it is not itchy or painful, just disgusting. Tomorrow I will use Betadine scrub, then Betadine solution, and light blankets and TRY to keep the stalls picked out and dry. The blankets will at least hide the worst of it. In addition, the old mare (24?) was turned out for a couple of hours yesterday, and today her right rear pastern is double in size, and she is very lame. This is chronic for her, and she gets meds for it, but she looked like she was really enjoying kicking up her heels yesterday, it's so sad that she has to suffer afterwards.

And the DH twisted his knee yesterday when the other mare tried to yank him off his feet while they were firmly planted in mud, in her effort to get through the gate a second or two faster. Just between you and me, he should have used the chain lead under her chin for better control, and also should not have tried to hang onto her. Believe me, in a contest of strength with a 900 pound horse, any control a puny human has is strictly a product of headology, as Terry Pratchett puts it.

I, in keeping with the general theme of our family vis a vis illness and injury, have managed to catch a cold. Last night, every time I tried to lay in bed, I began coughing uncontrollably. Then when I sat up, the coughing stopped and I got the hiccups. Every. Time. Not a fun night.

But enough whining. I made bread and brownies yesterday, and I am off to sample both. TTFN.

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