joflasher | Happiness is ...

sitting on my back porch with my feet up, the sun warming my sore arms and a good book and a cold drink in hand while the birds sing and the crickets chirp. That is happiness and I have it ... at least until the New England winter descends.

This weekend was very bi-polar.

Saturday I damn near gave myself a heat stroke while riding.

96 degree heat, an hour lesson with Doug and then trying to ride Magic (who hasn't been ridden in almost a year due to having a foal) just wasn't a smart idea. I was nauseous by the time my lesson was over and then Carol brought out Magic and asked me if I was willing to see how she acted under saddle. Note, Magic's baby isn't weaned yet and she was throwing an utter conniption fit about not being able to see him but still being able to hear him calling for her. All in all, she wasn't that bad once I got on. It took me 20 minutes to get a bridle on her though and during that time, we circled and circled and circled. Not good for an already upset stomach. I'm glad she didn't try anything once I got aboard...I don't think I had the balance to stay with her.

After I was done with her, I tried sitting in the shade but I couldn't seem to stop gasping for air and shaking. The Boy had me come over to the hose and started hosing me down with warm water. At that time my nose decided to start bleeding. He gradually cooled the water down until I had cold water going over me and that seemed to stop the shaking at least. The nose bleed eventually stopped once my heart settled down. I spent most of the rest of the weekend dealing with a dehydration headache.

Other than that, though, it was a good weekend. The Boy and I helped

pancua and

wyndam move furniture out of the house and carry boxes around. They took us out for dinner as thanks, which both the Boy and I thought was too much for all the more work we did. Sunday, the Boy went out to points west to help

wandelrust move stuff. Both days I got to go swimming down at Walden, though I had absolutely no energy at all.

I stayed at home and painted on Sunday. WorldCon starts on Thursday and I still don't have everything done for my panel. Tonight and tomorrow, I finish up pictures, Wednesday I go on a mad matting spree.

Oh, and my art passed the jury and will be included on the New Masters of Fantasy CD. This is something Epilogue does each year. They pass the CD out to art directors and such and sell copies at DragonCon and their web pages. Its a great way of getting AD's to see your work. This year, the judges included Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, and Don Maitz as well as some of the GFX guys. Hey, Larry Elmore saw my art and thought it wasn't terrible. Yes, I'm doing a fan-girl dance of glee.

The kittens are still waking us up at 2 every night. We've taken to locking them out of the room once they wake us up. Unfortunately, this means they dig at the door and meow at 5 when they think we should be getting out of bed.