What I might do when I can't compete anymore (a lifetime from now!)

Alright so I have to admit to being unhappy that the days are noticeably shorter already. I'm getting up in the dark, and my last lesson of the night each night is running out of light. BIG boooo. But on the flip side -- did anybody see the extreme sunrise this am? Wish I'd had a camera -- was very impressive. A floating line of clouds coloured vibrant shades of red and purple with the blindingly bright orange glow of the sun below and the pale blue of the "not-yet-morning" sky above. So had a lot of fun judging at the Myrddin Short Course yesterday. As always, it was a great show -- newly painted reasonably challenging courses with new fences on XC; including an optional baby bank on PE! hahaha cutest thing ever. I was judging stadium and the first field of XC and so got to see everybody who chose to jump :) Not a bad place to be! Armed with a clipboard, whistle and radio I headed out to the booth early in the am. And then hung out for a while while everybody else got sorted *g* Have to admit I was not the least bit disappointed when the radio died after the first 1/2h. hahaha I like being able to listen to what's going on, but really I don't get along well with them. The one time I tried to use it it just beeped at me (I was told later that's what it does when the battery's dying *sigh*). But then, the only person who really needed to reach me from dressage world on the other side of the property just before we started didn't have a radio. But she did have a cell phone. Problem solved. hahaha yeah for logical lateral thinking *g* Once things got under way the day flowed pretty quickly. As with most well designed stadium courses there was once fence that came down more often than any of the others -- in this case, that'd be fence four. Came down for two reasons -- first, it *looked* like the easiest fence on course (hello people, can we say a warning sign?!?!?) so it wasn't necessarily as respected as much as perhaps it should've been, and two, if the rider cut the corner, they'd get there on a half stride. Every time. Those who rode their corners, no problem, but those who didn't, kept the ring crew busy *g* Took a walk out around the XC course afterwards -- mostly to see Barb's much talked about PE jump. Coolest baby XC jump ever! It's very hard to make low-level xc interesting (jump the log, then the next log, then the log over there, etc) but she pulled it off :) Was a normal panel, but painted with grass and bunnies and butterflies. So it blends well with the grass and keeps completely with the xc idea, but has a slight surreal feel to it. Very kewl. Should've taken a pic. hahaha After the show was over was social hour :) Always fun. Of course having taught there for years, I still know most of the people involved and it was really great to see everybody again -- esp those who don't compete so I never see on the circuit. Also visited for a while with some of the competitors whom I know from other places. One of my favourite coaches was there w/ a super-nice greenbean doing the YEH course so was fun to catch up with him and his crew. There were a couple I was expecting to see who unfortunately couldn't make it. So sad :( Did get to meet some new entertaining people though, so that's always good :) The threatened thunderstorms mostly held off -- other than a 10 min delay at the end of the E division, we were good to go. While still not nearly as much fun as competing or coaching, was still not a bad way to spend the day :)