Tomorrow we’ll head to Fairbanks for a three-day competitive trail ride clinic. We won’t be doing the July Challenge of the North CTR this year; rather, we’ll be doing the Tolting the Divide trek. But there’s much to be learned by participating in this event. We’re taking Raudi, Siggi, and Signy. My friend Heather will be riding the latter. Hrimmi and Tinni will stay put. We have a house sitter who will tend to them, and to the goats.

I have, all week, been attempting to get ready for this upcoming weekend. Much of what I’ve been doing has been in preparation for our long ride, so my

efforts have been twofold. But, nevertheless, today I’ve been feeling rushed. I now know that I’m not going to get all done that I set out to do. For instance, I won’t have all my gear cleaned. And I don’t think that I’ll get all the horses out for a ride.

I figured that tomorrow, we’d leave midmorning, giving me time to take care of additional odds and ends. But my friend Amy Rodge, who was just in Fairbanks, purchasing a trailer (this is what we horse people do) forewarned me that right now there’s considerable construction in between here and our immediate destination. So we’ll be leaving here earlier than originally planned.

I feel busy. I AM busy. I have to finish the article about our trip for the Frontiersman Newspaper. And I have to clean up my work area/bedroom because we’re having a house sitter come and take care of the goats and Hrimmi and Tinni. We’re also running back and forth to Keith’s, dehydrating fruit leather. So I should go and see how this is coming along. And oh yeah, I have to finish writing this dispatch on the subject of being busy. Ya dee daah. I won’t continue to elaborate. What I have to do is as interesting to my readership as my dental history.

I do not like it when people I care about make it a point to tell me how busy they are, for it seems to me that this is time that would be better spent doing other things. I also don’t like it when they keep doing what they’re doing, because I do not then have their undivided attention. Seems to me that both are a form of invasion, as well as an excuse for inattentiveness. But today, I AM really busy.

This morning Leah, our gardening consultant, came over to get manure and to go over the garden plan with Pete. I flew past her and said that I was too busy to talk. I really felt bad about this because for once it appeared as though she was not rushing to and fro. Leah, you see, is a very busy person. It’s so unlike me, to be this way.

I didn’t say it (I was too busy), but I was on my way to meet Amy. Yeah, I had a lot to do, but I wasn’t going to cut our visit short. I asked Amy if she wanted to get a cup of tea. She said yes, and that she was very hungry. She’d spent the night in her trailer, and I think she hadn’t eaten much. Plus, we had not seen one another in years.

I treated her to breakfast and we talked horses and trailers for well over an hour. Small, with a round face, short black hair, articulate, she is easy to listen to. And I did listen to her talk at length about her trail-based exploits. She’s a far braver and resourceful person than I’ll ever be.

I did not at all allude to the fact that I had a great deal to do here. Rather, I kept asking her questions and interjecting comments. Finally, Amy said that she needed to be on her way.

I returned home and resumed being back in busy mode. I will have to cut corners. But I’ll be none the worst for it. It was so worth it, to be able to spend time with a friend.

Next: 151: 5/31/13: In Route to Fairbanks