My world has been turned inside out, just like that stuffed teddy bear I had as a child. The dog that we had at the time chewed off the face, pulled out the insides, and then somehow turned the inside outside. A wanton, destructive act, for sure.

It used to be that it was routine to stay home. I wrote in the mornings, worked with the horses at midday, then read in the evenings. I remember writing about my brief commute. I then estimated that this took 30 seconds. I who was downstairs,

Hrimmi does TTouch Agility

went upstairs. After working for a few hours, I went back downstairs. I heaped lots of praise upon myself because I didn’t waste time going from one place to another.

Now I, who am, ahem, the Executive Director of the Bright Lights Book Project, have what I consider to be a lengthy commute. Add to this side trips. Last week I went to Anchorage three times. I am holding my ground in saying commuting is a waste of time.

My routine while at work includes sorting, categorizing, cleaning, shlepping, and distributing books. I do this six days a week. I also take care of administrativa, in part working with volunteers and potential book donors.

This one day a week that I now have free. It’s one of seven. It is reflective of my old routine. Today was a good example. I reversed the order of the way I used to do things, but it was pretty much the same old same old. The sun was shining brightly. I rode two horses, Pete rode one, down road. I also worked with all three on suppling exercises. After, I cleaned the goat and chicken pens, which is something that I now do on alternate Sundays. Then I came inside and sort of cleaned the house. I decided that it is going to remain a mess because it is now, dirt and clutter wise, far beyond what can be taken care of in an afternoon. I think Pete accepted this as fact some time ago – not me, that is until today.

I got to writing late in the afternoon. I should have kept on with the housecleaning but lost interest. I instead worked on the videographer’s grant applications.

The quarterly deadline for community grants is at the end of April, so Pete and I are putting quite a bit of time into this now.

This evening I will read – I am now going to focus my reading efforts on animal training, reviewing what I know and learning new things so I can put theory to practice with my three mares. For instance, today I picked up and opened an animal training book and recalled that I used to use a target stick. How’d I forget this?

And so, it will be a summer of home-based training since it’s not looking like we’ll be doing a long trip this summer. I fear that we’ll be missing a window of opportunity – Ryder will be too old to do this next year.

Oh well. Hoping to strike a balance between my past and present work lives.

Next: 85. 3/27/23: What We Talk About When We Talk About Horses