High Voltage!

My friend Mick and I went to a nearby gravel pit to catch the setting sun one beautiful (and chilly!) day last week. We took turns shooting pics of each other hamming it up - and both particularly enjoyed this sign (Danger...) Don't I look shocked?!

If you would like to check out more great photos from Mick, here's a link to his Flickr gallery: flickr photos

Pony Tracks

So there I was this morning, about 7 am, getting some coffee going, and I looks outside and I sees what I think is one of my horses, Spice, staring at me through the kitchen window. I sez, "Spicey, what are you doing out there?" and the horse takes a few steps closer. Then I think, (it's still early remember, and I haven't actually drank my coffee yet) wait a minute, you're supposed to be in the barn still! Then I realize, it isn't Spice at all, (you gotta understand, I'm really slow before my morning coffee!) but some strange little pony that wondered into the yard! (Believe it or not, even owning horses and having them lodged at your own place doesn't take all the surprise out of seeing one of them staring at you through your window when you aren't expecting it!)

So I go trotting off into the bedroom and yelling to Rick, wake up, wake up, there's a pony in the yard (can we keep it, huh, huh, can we keep it?!) OK, I didn't really say that last part - even I don't think we need something else that eats and poops right now - unless it's another llama, of course! But after I said the first part, he gets up, goes to the window - and it's gone. Vanished. He says, yeah, right, there's a pony there, sure... I said, yes there is, or was, look for the pony tracks... So it did resurface soon after - Dahllai (my llama) had his eyes peeled on him, staring at him over the fence; he wasn't too hard to find. But before I could get my boots on and grab a halter and rope, I saw one of our neighbors, hot on it's heels. A short while later, as he walked past the window with his catch of the day, I asked him if that was the pony that had been reported missing a few days ago in the local paper. He said he didn't know for sure whose pony it was either - but no doubt he was thinking reward! Anyhow, so that was our little sorta almost an adventure this morning! I just love living in the country!

They ALL get the Gold...

So the weather turned out to be great, and the Special Olympics were held as scheduled. If it were up to me, I'd have given gold medals to everyone involved! They were definitely all winners; participants, supporters, spectators. (Ok, maybe there was one participant's mom I could have awarded a black eye to for sheer idiocy, but thats a bl ITCH I'll maybe bl OG about later!) Other than that, what a great event!

OK, that one little incident bothers me so much, maybe I'll pitch my bl ITCH sooner than later... one participant, who also happens to be a teen client where I work, happens to have some sort of learning disability. Nothing severe, I believe, and you wouldn't know it unless you knew her fairly well. I believe she is in a learning support class. But, for some odd reason unknown to me, her mother MADE her not just attend the special olympics (which actually wouldn't be a bad thing in itself) - she made her participate, special olympics t-shirt and all! Now, I know the schools are trying to get students to be more tolerant of diversity in all its' aspects, which is all fine and dandy, but the reality is kids will still be cruel to each other - and there were plenty of her peers there volunteering for this event. And while I didn't see anyone being inappropriate (teasing anyone or whatnot) - what a great opportunity was created for that at some later date. What a dingleberry that mom was! Honey, can you spell "humiliation?"

OK, I'm off my soapbox. Like I said, overall, what a fantastic event. If you've never been, you should consider going. If nothing else, it will likely give you a renewed appreciation for your own blessings - something I know I benefit from now and then!

Special Olympics

Tomorrow is our local school's Special Olympics Day, and the pregnant and parenting teens program (Thurston House) I work for is participating in this wonderful event once again. This is my second time to be lucky enough to be involved with this and I am definitely looking forward to running my booth there. Such fun, and such a good cause!

Here's hoping for good weather as the rain date is Thursday, and I'll be teaching a seminar then and won't be able to attend - please do a little "no rain dance" for me! (Hey, tomorrow evening it can rain though - we actually do need it here in NW PA!)

I'll let you know how our event went soon. Meanwhile, if there's a Special Olympics near you, I hope you'll show your support and attend! Definitely a feel-good kind of thing to do!