Thursday, August 08, 2024

This election appears to be Donald’s to lose, in a significant turnaround of what had seemed inevitable. Against new combatants, he can’t show signs of having changed. He hasn’t evolved or enlarged his vision beyond his personal ambitions. That it’s obvious argues for engaging ourselves in an important element in living and aging. That element is continually self-encouraging to evolve personally and socially.

It encourages us to follow or engage in a variety of interests. Learning forces us to readjust many of our held perspectives. It gives us a broader outlook and the skills to be more adaptable in various situations.

Of course, mental health plays a huge role in personal adapting. One must be willing to accept new knowledge to develop personally and utilize appropriate social skills in various situations.

Today’s politics is teaching us in real time that money and power alone aren’t necessarily able to combat uplifting surprises. Going forward, our politics will be a nail-biting journey.

Dear Friends: Learned necessities: pausing, thinking, evaluating, and arguing wisely. Diana

I didn’t know this small city has a high-quality coral group, the Central Oregon Mastersingers, until I accidentally discovered it in an unusual way.

The equine veterinary clinic that is treating my donkey Pimmy needed another blood draw, so Stephanie called, made an appointment, and came yesterday. I met her at the barn wearing my iPods. While she drew blood, I held Pimmy and figured those big ears were hearing my iPods. I whispered, asking Pimmy if she enjoyed the opera. To my surprise, Stephanie said, “Which opera?”

I replied, “‘Der Rosencavalier,’ which is some of the most beautiful music ever,” and she began telling me about her dad. He had earned a degree in music and became a conductor; he has long taught music and also conducted an orchestra in Eugene. Stephanie added a bit about herself: she grew up with music, has played trombone (among other instruments), has studied voice, and now sings with the Central Oregon Mastersingers.

That’s how it happened. After twenty years of living here, and more unknown to my embarrassment, this area has a performing group of Mastersingers.

That’s similar to my surprise in learning about this city’s High Desert Chamber Music group. While working in my part-time job and assigned to its Fancy Dress area, I was checking out a customer purchasing a formal gown. I asked where she’d wear it, and she said while narrating for a piece during an upcoming Desert Chamber Music concert. I asked, and she explained more, even inviting me to the concert. I did attend the concert, which was excellent, and then became a season ticket holder.

I love music and am an informal listener. I have a secret longing to sing with a choral group, but I am untrained, and my singing voice is ordinary, at best. So, I’ve never explored any possibilities. But get this: The Mastersingers are having a “Summer Sing-Along” on a Sunday when I will be off work. I am hoping to attend and participate.

Most of my years in this area have been riding on horseback and enjoying the nearby mountains and forests. Nowadays, while riding less, I’m learning there’s much more available around here to love.

Dear Friends: A formal gown and “Der Rosenkavalier,” opening new trails. Diana

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

Yesterday was quite a day. To start everything off, the world’s stock markets tanked, reeling all economies. After reading the major newspapers, I set aside world issues to take care of my animals. I was concerned about my donkey, Pimmy. She’s been separated from her horse buddies and living in the barn area to ease the routines of capturing and medicating her. She wasn’t happy but was adjusting and could be treated.

Then, I took my two most elderly dogs, Miles and Osix, to a new (to us) veterinarian. The dogs were found reasonably healthy. Miles has some arthritis and Osix is as flexible as a puppy. But both had big coats, tangled with cheat-grass seeds. So, their butts were shaved, and now, they’re very funny-looking.

While I waited for the dogs, a long-ago high school friend called. We hadn’t talked in a long while and had only a brief time to catch up. Afterward, while leaving the clinic with my dogs, my phone rang again, this time from another person I’d not talked with in a long while. While driving home, I held the phone and talked (yes, that’s illegal).

At home, I released the dogs and wanted an icy beer, so I headed to a nearby supermarket—a busy Safeway that might become a Piggly Wiggly (yet another story related to the economy). I came home and sat outside with my beer watching the lingering alpenglow, brightly intensified by active wildfires.

Yesterday entirely felt like a crash. Today, the world’s markets seem to be recovering, and I have simple and straightforward plans and a calmer perspective. Now, phase one of dog care is complete, and phase two (with the younger dogs) will happen on Thursday. Meanwhile, these are calmer moments for better catching up with my surprising and welcome callers.

Dear Friends: Today, the world will start to know Kamala’s selected VP candidate. Diana

Monday, August 05, 2024

This will be a beautiful day. While sunny and hot, it’ll be under 100 degrees; a welcome temperature as everything is relative.

My older dogs are going to the veterinarian today for long-overdue checkups and vaccination updates.

My donkey has been separated from her horse buddies to make medicating and feeding special food easier for me. She’s not happy, but I’m relieved.

Finally, the young and sweet blue hen I tried to keep alive for months couldn’t make it. I worked hard to keep her going, even knowing from experience that it’s possible to pause a chicken’s signs of failure without necessarily stopping the process.

I found a source for low-sugar hay, and a load will be coming, which is a great relief. Soaking hay to reduce its sugar and making it available has proved hard and time-consuming. Especially with the freezing weather ahead, I feared having to continue that process.

These few days, I’ve been home and seen people stopping their vehicles, coming to my fence, and feeding treats to the horses—so often that my horses know what’s coming and rush to the fence. That visiting must stop because sugar is bad, especially for Pimmy. It’s another reason she was separated.

My fencing needs electrifying to stop both unwanted treat-feeding and horse-butt scratching.

That’s what’s happening today and thoughts of what’s ahead. It’s always challenging to work at living as fully as possible–the best way to be alive, in my opinion.

Dear Friends: Balancing daily needs calls for non-working events–having fun. Diana

Sunday, August 04, 2024

The Harris campaign continues moving vigorously. If it has a positive outcome, perhaps this nation will reconsider instituting an ERA. At last, more Americans are moving toward supporting gender equality.

Over a hundred years ago, women began dropping their bustles and entering the Roaring Twenties. They then bared more feminine body parts, and especially knees while quick-stepping to the Charleston. Those were increasingly modern times as women transitioned from being full-time kitchen and household managers toward doing, saying, and influencing more.

About a hundred years later, American national politics are being roiled by an exceptional opportunity. There’s a strong woman candidate for President. The rapidity of her ascent and her popularity are confusing to the male-dominated opposition party, about how to combat her.

Along with most of the world’s population, I’m on the edge of my seat, amazed and watching, wondering how this bigger-than-an-Olympics contest will play out.

Most of us have spent a lifetime recognizing and accepting that social environments are primarily male-dominated. They often have ignored or downplayed and have mistreated women. What’s happening today tickles, as a viable national candidate, with strength, and a woman! vigorously opposes a recognized, known bully.

Dear Friends: These moments are historical, regardless of their outcomes. Diana

Saturday, August 03, 2024

Yesterday, in our triple-digit temperatures, a vehicle’s heated exhaust ignited a fire on this town’s northern outskirts, calling for evacuations. The city streets packed with traffic had vehicles crawling. In the department store where I work, all the electricity quit. We sent the store’s customers outside and waited an hour until the lights went on again.

Later, on leaving work, I avoided heavy traffic by taking an alternate route home. I knew the fire wasn’t active in my neighborhood, but I was worried about my horses in the smoke-filled air. At home, emerging from my air-conditioned vehicle, I was in a very noticeably hot, stagnant, and smoky environment. I checked on the horses; they were okay and hungry.

The heat and smoke made caring for them a chore. It included capturing and medicating my donkey, soaking hay bags, and struggling to hang those drained heavies. A good note is that her meds are working quickly, as Pimmy has a noticeably better appetite.

There’s sad news that the town of Paradise, CA, is again hit by wildfire, this fire having spread from a nearby city up in flames. Several years ago, many lives were lost in the first quickly appearing and raging Paradise fire. This second round is a double tragedy.

I often think of Paradise while watering areas around my house to hopefully keep it less susceptible to wildfire. I recall Paradise in two ways: first, as a community on television, in an astonishingly blazing fire. The other is a memory from twenty years ago: Paradise when I first spotted the tucked-away, surprising pop-up community in the middle of seemingly nowhere while traveling to and from Central Oregon in the process of moving here.

Here’s hoping that yesterday’s local wildfire is the closest my critters and I will ever be to one.

Dear Friends: Locally, the suns and moons spectacularly are reflecting wildfire. Diana

Friday, August 02, 2024

Yesterday, my donkey Pimmy had an appointment with our equine veterinarian. Everything started off awful though. Trying to start my truck revealed its dead battery. A trickle charger connected to the truck’s battery had failed.

I kicked myself for not practice-starting that truck the evening before. I thought about doing that, but the truck has always started—well, mostly—and surely it would again. When it didn’t, I had little time to fool around before Pimmy’s appointment and wasted a block of time waiting for roadside assistance. Finally, I figured out how to use a big jump-starter that’s stood around forever.

Pimmy loaded quickly into the horse trailer, and we went to the veterinarian. She got a physical checkup, had her blood drawn, had her front hooves x-rayed, and was re-diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease. I came home with a bag of medicines and new instructions about soaking Pimmy’s hay regularly. I dread the many needs, obstacles, and short time to do all.

I’ve learned from experience that a donkey is an almost impossible animal to medicate, except for one-time only.

Last evening, I haltered Pimmy and gave her three meds through different syringes. I also soaked hay for her and the horses. Then I found the drained nets too heavy to move and hang. I am trying to think creatively about how to lift future drained handbags, and I anticipate my donkey avoiding me this morning.

On the veterinarian’s advice, I will ask our farrier to trim Pimmy’s hoofs a little differently. If you’ve ever tried to tell a farrier to do something differently, you have a sense of what that’ll be like.

Oh, yes, about Cushing’s. It’s a metabolic disorder that surfaces in various ways. In Pimmy, it shows up in her weight, coat condition, and slowness of movements. Her disease appears primarily as laminitis which affects her front hooves. If left untreated, laminitis can become permanently disabling.

Dear Friends, I tell myself to do the best I can, and if it’s imperfect settle for progress. Diana

Thursday, August 01, 2024

We are entering the final month of summer. Here in Central Oregon, this year’s weather has been up for grabs, so hot that we have barely experienced a kind summertime. Now, I must start looking toward winterizing. That’s about bringing in hay and planning needed changes.

We had an early wet spring and hay is plentiful. I am waiting before ordering a new hay load, and am feeding older hay bales. They’ve been stacked at the rear of the hay shed. Clearing the back space will let me refigure the whole shed space. By rearranging how new hay bales are stored, I want to gain enough sheltered space for storing two lawn tractors through winter.

Another big task will be to clean and rearrange my “she-shed” workshop. Since last fall, a part-time job has kept me very busy and with too little time to be active in the workshop. This fall, I intend to reserve time to engage my brain’s creative side. I keep wanting to design and create; I don’t have ideas to focus on, but time for playing will grow them.

It’s unpleasant to already be considering the coming winter weather and shortening daylight hours. Having livestock and machinery forces thinking ahead and grabbing the future in friendly moments.

Dear Friends: The changing environment affects planning for our most routine needs. Diana

Tuesday, July 30 2024

A couple of days ago, my donkey Pimmy refused to eat. One thing about equines is the minute one doesn’t eat, it’s a worry. I watched closely and saw her eating again the next day, not vigorously but reasonably enough. Now, Pimmy has an appointment, for an exam by her equine veterinarian on my next day off.

Yesterday, Kate Beardsley, the knower of all things related to horses, came and took Pimmy’s vitals. Pimmy’s temperature and gut sounds were good; her heart rate was a bit quick, and Kate blamed that on some anxiety while being examined by a stranger. Kate also thought Pimmy’s front feet, while she walked, looked a little tender. That suggests oncoming laminitis, a worry, because Pimmy has a metabolic disorder called Cushing’s Disease.

We’ll know more later this week, and it likely will mean medicating Pimmy. That medicine is unpleasant. She has to accept a syringe along with bad-tasting liquid. After a single dose, Pimmy will start avoiding me. (A donkey tends to look sleepy but is keenly aware of everything, including what’s coming toward it.)

We’ve started down this road before, and each time I’ve quit that unpleasant medicating. Meanwhile, her disease progresses. This time, I must be on board and do what’s needed to stave off the Cushing’s.

Dear Friends: Experience with a donkey teaches that knowing one is a treasure. Diana