hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[frustratedearthmother]

Getting some overtime is great news -bonus!

I go to bed early too...sometimes it works out for me and sometimes it doesn't. Like last night DH came to bed right after me, but he was still watching TV at around 2am., so my sleep wasn't high quality.... sigh.

Hope you don't have to do too much with the horse and if so - hope he slows down because of the heat too.

 

[Britesea]

We don't watch tv, but DH likes to read in bed- I need darkness to sleep so that doesn't always work for me. The part that really irks me is that he will fall asleep over his book or magazine, but if I move to turn off the light it wakes him up and he doesn't want me to turn off the light yet....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

but if I move to turn off the light it wakes him up and he doesn't want me to turn off the light yet....

Why do I know how that feels? I can turn off the tv when he's asleep and the "dark and quiet" will wake him up....sigh.

 

[flowerbug]

i used to not be able to sleep if there was any noise or light, but i have a towel i use to put over my eyes and if Mom is running the t.v. i'm so used to it now that i can sleep through it. when i'm out i usually stay out. used to take me a long time to fall asleep but learning Tai Chi and relaxation exercises turned that from 1&1/2hrs to get to sleep to roll over and close my eyes. especially after a day of gardening. i used to also wake myself up snoring. i don't do that any more. i just wake up once in a while in the morning with this bit of dried leather in my mouth... i hate that, but more often i sleep on my side or stomach so it's not so bad. i can tell how much i've been snoring by how my voice is when i wake up.

 

[hqueen13]

Sleep habits are kind of funny! I'm with you, @flowerbug once I'm out, I'm VERY out for the most part. And I agree, breathing exercises have helped me to fall asleep faster, too. I don't like a lot of light in the room, but I also tend to not like to have the curtains closed because there are no direct outside lights that shine into our room, and no one can see in.
Man, yesterday was CRAZY hot, and it really took it out of me. We had salad with chicken tenders for dinner, I couldn't muster up anything else, let alone heating the kitchen up. The chicken tenders can be done in the toaster oven, so it's not a lot of heat. I LOVE that thing. I didn't grow up with one, but I'll never not have one now. It's a mini oven, what's not to love??? I ended up helping with the new horse, I guess he's calling him Jonny (he already has a Cash..... LOL), but he sometimes calls him Sonny, so I dunno. I think RO doesn't always remember names all that well. At any rate, the poor boy is just really skeptical and worried. He put up a fuss with me just trying to catch him in his stall. Very tense, and trying to move as far away as he could. If I hadn't known how to move in such a way that he didn't move forward and keep walking in circles in his stall, he would have just walked himself into a tizzy in circles around me. I started with some really simple raport building stuff, and then I talked with RO about catching him, and told him that was his homework. We took the halter off, and attempted to catch him again, but we never did. He made some big efforts, though, and I was ok with that. I didn't really expect to catch him since he'd been in his stall for most of the day with the fan running since it was so hot. And I didn't have the energy to really push him or myself at that point. It was dang hot. Thankfully there was a breeze at least. That helped, but blech. I think it was a good lesson, and Jonny did well for what it is. RO is going out of town this weekend, so I let him know that I could work in some time if he wants me to work with catching him a bit more.
I don't know what was done to him, and it really doesn't matter in the bigger picture, but he has shown up at RO's as a very young very unconfident horse that I wouldn't trust enough to put a leg over. Maybe other people would, but I wouldn't. Mostly for the horse's well being, let alone my own. I want a trusting partner who is interested and willing to do things with me. Right now what they have is an anxious terrified horse who wants nothing to do with people. Not a great combo. I told RO he really needs to be in this for the long haul, and expect to take it really slow, and to really focus on the baby steps because for a while, that's all we're going to have. I explained that if he's afraid, he's not learning, so there's no use in attempting to do things. RO seems to get it on a brain level, but I don't know how long it will really take to sink in, and especially to connect it to his actions. It's different working with these things with a guy vs a woman. I like the challenge, and I think that he'll be good, and he'll be a really good horseman if he sticks with it, but it's going to take time for both of them to build the connection. He's only 6, so it will be REALLY worth it in the long run.
We got rain today, over an inch. most of it wasn't too hard, but it did come down pretty good a couple of times. We needed it a bit, so I'm glad we got some more. Hopefully it washes down the pollen again. I hope that we're close to done with that, but I'm not sure. I haven't had a bad reaction this year, and I'm not sure what the reason is, but I'm happy with that. I'll feel better by the end of the month if I am still clear. Yesterday I didn't wear a mask while working with the horses with RO, I normally do, and I was fine even with the breeze blowing. It was just too hot to wear one.
SR texted me the other day and asked if I would be interested in working the market at the veggie farm on Fridays and Saturdays for the season. That would be a 9 hour day in the garage market with the coolers blowing heat into the room trying to keep everything at a decent temp, and the fans running. It also means that I'll lose a whole day to myself, and I'll loose a weekend day with the BF. It would mean almost $700 per month in additional income, that would pretty much be guaranteed. So that's positives and negatives... but I don't know that I have the energy to be able to sustain that right now. I barely have energy to work on my business, and taking away that much time from the time that the BF and I have to do things together would not be fun. So I don't know. I'll have to sit with it a bit more and see what happens. I enjoy the work, so that just makes the decision that much harder. But $700/month for the next 2-3 months is a lot of income, on top of what I've got. That would make a big difference in several bills that I've been dealing with. It might let us get a couple more attachments for the tractor, and it may let me do some stuff towards getting the horse here, like getting the survey arranged. So yeah, tough call.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Extra money is good - but so is "me" time and time with your BF. Would she let you do it every other weekend maybe?

 

[flowerbug]

yes, that is the hardest aspect i have with doing any kind of retail appearances like farmer's markets. i just can't take that kind of time away from what needs to be done here.

the new horse adventures and that young child. i'm just not the kind of person who would trust such an animal and a young child with not much confidence or experience, but this will certainly be a way for them to get it and how else will they learn?

 

[hqueen13]

Yeahhh, so I'm really torn about how much time to spend on the veggie farm working for SR.
And the latest monkey wrench is that the BF's mom threw a hissy fit because she's feeling very empty nest and rejected at the moment, which I'm sure the pandemic has only made worse. The BF's brother, M, and his GF went down to the beach house this weekend, and the parents were there. His mom called their other brother, W, on Sunday in tears because M and the GF went and spent time with his friends at the beach (they're 20somethings, so they went out drinking, of course), and then went to visit the GF's mom who lives down there. And then not only did she cry about that, but then she drug situations into it from almost a YEAR ago that involved me, and W's now-wife. AR (W's wife) texted me and asked me to call her so she could just give me a head's up. Apparently their mom is having this whole woe is me no body likes me and everyone hates me moment. Which really irks the crap out of me, and reminds me of EXACTLY where the BF (and his brothers, or at least W, I don't know intimate details about M yet since I haven't gotten to spend much time with M's new GF) gets his lack of self confidence. Their mom drug up the situation when AR was here last summer visiting, and I took her out for the day, and we ended up going to visit Storm while we were out. His mom was whining that I *know* she likes horses and so why didn't I invite her. Considering it was a spontaneous day, there was no point in inviting here, AND to boot, poor AR had been in this country for a few weeks at this point and was forced to live in W's *parent's* house WITH them CONSTANTLY. I figured she wanted a break and to see somebody else for the day (I was right), and not have to drag their mother along with us. Then their mom drug up the day that AR and I went to lunch before she was supposed to go dress shopping for the dress she was going to wear for their wedding ceremony at the courthouse. I asked if she wanted to go to lunch, she said yes, then I found out that their mom was going to take her dress shopping that afternoon. I suggested we go up to a high end consignment shop that I knew about, and we found lunch on that side of town. We invited their mom, and at first she said she'd come, but then decided it was too far away. Apparently she had amnesia about the fact that she was invited, both to lunch, AND to go shopping, but didn't want to go because it was "too far to drive" (it would have only been about 30 minutes from their house). Then she drug up the visit when my parents were here last summer, and we went down to the beach house. His parents were already there for the weekend, and we decided we didn't want to have all 6 of us in the house at once (seriously, my parents and his parents all under one roof for days was more than he or I could handle), so we went down later on Saturday, and got there after dinner. We went and roamed around on Sunday for a while, and then met them for dinner. They left Sunday night, and we stayed until Tuesday afternoon before we headed home. She was upset that we didn't include them in more of our plans.
For craps sake. Poor W was stuck listening to all this crap and whining from her, and he basically told her that she should probably talk to each of the people that were involved about it instead of crying to him. So I guess M and his GF got back to the house, and they had a conversation about it, so that part is resolved. We'll see if she actually reaches out to AR and me about it, but lord help her if she catches me on a bad day.
Now I'm thinking that we should probably just not ask to go to the beach house, because I don't want to explain that we need *alone* time and I need a freaking break. And I don't need to deal with this drama BS around why you can't allow your son's and their partners to be independent people who have their own lives. But I guess this is expected since she has no friends of her own, and doesn't do anything with anyone outside of her own family, or going to choir at church, which of course she hasn't been able to do for several months, either, so she's been quite deprived lately.
SO yeah, I'm a wee bit cranky about that at the moment.
Other than that blip, the weekend was great. The weather was GORGEOUS, like windows open gorgeous, and lows below 60. Saturday I ran deliveries, another 100 miles all over the place. But it was beautiful with the windows down rolling through the countryside. We grilled burgers for dinner, and ate outside, which was SO nice since we haven't gotten to do that much this year. Sunday I took care of barn chores, then stopped by SR's to drop off the bags from deliveries, and to pick up my pay, and ended up working for almost 2 hours because they got slammed when the market opened at 10:00 (I rolled in at 9:50... perfect, or imperfect timing, not sure which!). He was very appreciative of me staying to help because it was really crazy. I got home about noon, and we ate some lunch, and I napped while the BF puttered around. When I got up he washed the car, and I took care of a few things before we ran our errands and I made my evening barn stop. It was a really lovely weekend, and the great weather certainly helped that.
Not much else to report. I got an email from BO saying that BC was going to be away next week, and BO also had to be out on Thursday and could I help cover the offices.... I was like, uh, no, I do not want to be interacting with patients right now, but I will answer the phone from home. She hasn't replied to me, I'm sure she's probably annoyed, but I don't really care. I'm not going to deal with patients and extra people if I absolutely don't have to, and right now I don't. So that's all there is to it. I'm in contact with way too many people as it is right now, and I can't afford to get sick, so I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I don't. That's part of why I wanted to go to his parent's beach house, at least I know that no one else has been there, and I don't have to worry about being exposed to others. We can go do what we want to do, and avoid the crowds easily, and then go back to the house.
I guess this is a little bit of a cranky post today! Hopefully things will be back to a better mood tomorrow.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You deserve to be cranky! But, glad the weekend was so nice. We're just hot, hot, hot.

 

[flowerbug]

...
I guess this is a little bit of a cranky post today! Hopefully things will be back to a better mood tomorrow.

i understand. i really must have some alone time once in a while and if i don't get enough then i do start to get cranky.