slightly chaotic monday

It was raining. The back gate was left open by accident. All the geldings were soaked to the skin when I got outside to feed breakfast. Massage therapist was due in an hour.

I got them in, fed them breakfast, closed the stall doors, mucked while they ate hay, and then came in and got cleaned up to get my hot stone massage first, in hopes that they would dry out.

One Corgi climbed into H's hot stone case. The other one tried to leap onto the freshly made massage table. Mystic-kit played music on the table cords with his paw.

I was telling a story about Dickens E. Wickens when the door burst open. It was Dickens. H. shut the door back and continued. By this time there were two dogs and two cats in the room with us.

Mid-massage, I heard my kids. "Keats! What IS that?" Keats the cat had brought in a bird, which was upstairs in our tree. The rest of the cats ran up (H. had to open the door again to let Mystic and Keats out) and chaos ensued. H. asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Just keep massaging," I said.

The kids opened the upstairs windows and the bird eventually flew to safety.

After my massage, I went out to help get the horses set up. Cody was being very antsy, so I ended up holding him. The pony was nervous about the hot stones, as it was his first time with them. I ended up holding him.

Keil Bay stood at his stall door and quite literally begged for a massage the entire time. The donkeys propped their little velvet noses on the stall door across the aisle and begged to come out. Salina knew it was not her turn for massage and she munched hay and kept an eye on the donkeys.

Keil Bay eventually managed to let himself out of his stall and into the barn aisle, where he stood gazing at the big bowl of hot stones.

H. brought me a bitless bridle to borrow and we tried it on Keil Bay. All the buckles had to be put to the last holes, his head is so big. He loved modeling the bridle. He was somewhat upset when we removed the bridle and he did not get that massage he wanted so badly.

Alas, it was still raining so no trial ride today.

H. and I decided that our word for 2009 is "balance."

H. made the very astute statement that perhaps mine is "balance w/o symmetry."

H. sent me in to take a hot bath with epsom salts to get warmed up.

While I was in the bath, jets going full blast, the power went out. It came back on.

All chaos aside, though, it's been a great day.