When I was in the fifth grade, I had to learn a poem (there were a choice of two), and along with every other student, had to recite it. I never forgot it. It went: Don’t shirk your work for the sake of a dream/a fish in the dish is worth two in the stream.

I didn’t give the matter any thought back then. I was just pleased that it was easy to memorize. And even more pleased that after reciting it, that the pressure to perform was off.

But many years later, it occurred to me that this is a terrible poem, one steeped in pragmatism. Don’t dream, just do your work. As in, a penny saved is a penny earned.

Tyra contemplates jumping over Jim's cable

I don’t remember what book this was in, but I suspect it was a book that had Catholic leanings. Me, I dream, and I dream big. And I have always gone for the fish in the stream. And yet, I’ve never gone hungry. Imagine that.

And, being a dreamer, I have always had idea days. It does not matter whether or not I act upon all the innumerable ideas that come to mind -- acting on one or two every so often is most realistic.

Today – slept in. Got the horses out after breakfast. Tyra so badly wants to go on an adventure. She was the first at the gate – she wanted out so bad. So I got her out. I let her off lead up near Jim’s place (it is always going to be Jim’s place) and she immediately went to the base of the driveway, and hopped over the cable, front feet first and rear feet following. I followed her as she then trotted up the driveway and moseyed around.

I had the cellphone with me. I took a photo of her checking out the crane. Then I put her back on lead. We got to the cable, and I knew that she was not going to hop back over it. Sometimes horses are like this – they’ll do something once but not a second time. Smart animals.

So I reasoned that there was just one way to get back to the road, and that way was to wade through the very deep snow and climb over a berm. I was concerned, of course, because I feared that we might end up neck deep in snow. However, I didn’t see an alternative.

So I waded through the waist-deep snow and Tyra plunged through it. In two minutes time we were back on the road. She shook herself off and snorted. I could tell that she was disappointed because the adventure ended so soon.

So I must find some other adventure-type thing to do with her. Hmmmm. I might take her out on the packed down trails and see how it goes.

I also took Raudi and Hrimmi on an outing. They were not as up for an adventure as Tyra, but they would have gladly participated in one had I figured this out.

It was an ideas day, but quite obviously I did not get to the ideas part of this dispatch. I am sorry dear readers, that I lead you astray.

23. 1/23/23: Snow, again