HORSES, HEAT AND HEWLETT-PACKARD

Several rather obvious points which have popped up in the last few days:

-- My horse, Najale, will do almost ANYthing for either food or to get his stomach scratched. He will submit to flapping plastic bags, ropes whistling around his eyes, and/or food being dangled in front of his nose as long as he is CERTAIN that he WILL be rewarded. And trust me, when you weigh 1,200 lbs. or so, you generally DO get your reward.

-- Temperature is always relative. Today I was wearing a sweatshirt because it was ONLY in the low 90's. And my daughter posted photos of my two grandchildren wearing long-sleeves in San Diego in June - after Hawaii, any place on the mainland is cold.

-- There is a verifiable section on the Y chromosome which specifically blocks any male human from understanding the word "clean." A Facebook friend was posting today about her two sons never comprehending what mom could possibly mean by saying 'clean up!', and although my husband and son did their very best in 'cleaning' the house for my return, I am still, one week later, trying to undo the damage that they inflicted in that process.

-- The Internet is addictive, dangerous, and evil. I spent most of my time at my daughter's OFF the computer (when you are wrestling with someone who 1) owns the computer, 2) runs her profession from the computer, and 3) is a whole more stubborn that you are, you end up doing what THEY want), so I am jumping in with a bit of reckless abandon. So I am forcing myself to keep the computer OFF for at least 5-6 hours each day...

Man, is it tough.

BUDDY, YOU GOT AN EXTRA HOUR?

Today I have two and a half hours to kill in town between doctor's appointments and getting my hair done.

And all my normal resources for this free time somehow aren't appropriate, for reasons as follows:

- Going to the gym -- don't have a towel, and the gym does not provide them

- Getting a extra large double-chocolate frappucinoe (I am guessing at the spelling here) at Starbucks -- don't have a good book with me to read

- Taking a nap at my daughter's apartment in town --her cleaning standards, low enough to begin with, have crashed and I just KNOW I would end up cleaning, bitching about it, and not getting a nap.

- Taken possession of the local Cold Stone Creamery and holding hostages -- two days ago we had a SWAT team show up in Sierra Vista to kick out a disgruntled motel guest who wouldn't take eviction nicely (he racked up a shotgun when the constable showed him the legal papers for him to leave), and they are probably rested enough now (the SWAT team, not the motel guy) to show up if I try to take over an ice cream store.

So I had to take the road to the warm, quiet public library and talk the sweet little old lady librarian into letting us the Internet computers for an hour.

And once again, am going to be totally frustrated whenever I finally get home and have to deal with my normal slow dial-up modem -- this baby is FAST.