If you want the rainbows, you have to put up with the rain.

(from GRS blog)

So today started out pretty badly. Miserable windy rainy blah weather. I get to the farm and there's garbage blowing around everywhere. *sigh* Put my garbage out and collect the rest that's flying around. N then mine, despite my clever weighing down, blows away too and I get to start all over. One of those things that you try to laugh at but honestly, I'm not a morning person, this kind of start to the day is not good for me. So finally get it all together and the girls from the other barn are dragging their stuff out and between us we got everything stacked in such a way it was likely to last till the garbage truck got there.

Since the other girls were having the same sort of morning I was we all deemed it break time and hid for the weather for a bit chatting about life, the universe and everything. But mostly just avoiding the weather. So while that was helpful as far as my mood went, it was less good for getting chores done. Esp as I had to be done by 10.

So eventually went back to work - by this point acknowledged that riding wasn't going to happen and got everything else done. And then Kerri and Laney came over. Woohoo!!! MUCH better day instantly! :) And we set off to the Greenhawk sale.

Now on the way to the sale, I intended to pick up some Tims for my very hardworking personal shopper who is a little excessively busy at this sale. Easy right? Ok so the first Tims I passed had an insanely long line - like unsafe, out on the road, long. Sok, there are lots more, we'll skip that one. No problem right? This is Canada - there's one on every corner. Ok except that 90% of the drive is on the highway. hmmmm slightly trickier. But there are still TWO between the highway and my destination. Sweet. Pull into the first one, drivethrough lineup again insane, but this one has parking so park and go in. All good. Except they're out of what I knew she wanted. Blah. Ok drive to the next one, pull into the parking lot and CHAOS. Like cops directing traffic in the parking lot chaos. Was absolutely insane. My brilliant powers of deduction given the mass numbers of people walking in one direction and the other people walking the opposite direction carrying bags led me to believe there was a sale going on in one of the buildings that shared the parking lot. A very big sale. I gave up and took the first route out of there. So yeah, my plan to be a good friend and deliver Tims was a horrible fail :( Booo.

So I get to GH and of course parking there is always an adventure. First parking lot guy tells me "there's a little-car spot down there." Sweet. Yeah, he lied. Cruel and unusual. So I drive around past the warehouse entrance heading for the other side figuring I'll be parking somewhere near the old location. Roll down window to be polite to other parking lot attendant. "Where should I go?" "Well.... There *might* be something that way..." he says, pointing vaguely to never-never-land. Great. "But if you want, you could just park here." Seriously? hahaha he points to a random curved curb 2' away. Totally and completely illegal on all counts -- but looking around, legal parking clearly wasn't a consideration today. And did I mention it was rainy and miserable? And this curb is about a 45second walk to the entrance? Done! Day is looking better already :)

Go in and meet back up with Ker and Laney and discover there are no carts to be had. Really? And the place is PACKED. Seriously packed. Within about 30 seconds we run into an old friend who we both knew from a stable we once worked at so we chatted with her for a while and somewhere in there I managed to snag us a cart :) While snagging said cart I ran into somebody else who was *way* more successful than I at delivering treats to our seriously-swamped friend :) So that made my failure slightly less tragic. hahaha and chatted with her for a bit.

Eventually K and I started out shopping but we quickly split up -- mostly cause her list was much shorter than mine and she knew she'd have to escape to feed L at some point... Fair enough :) I, otoh, had quite the list going. I have also come to the conclusion that for horse people the GH warehouse sale is sort of a social event. We all live in our own little planets so much of the time, this is where everybody converges. Which means almost every aisle I ran into somebody new to talk to :) Most of whom I haven't seen in entirely too long. And a whole variety: people I used to ride with, people I show with/against depending on the day *g*, people I clinic with, friends with their own farms, people I used to teach with, people I used to teach, people I currently teach, parents of people I used to or currently teach... AND every single person who spoke to me, I recognized. hahaha *that* is a serious improvement over previous shopping experiences *g* Although there were a few people I usually see who I didn't get to, and a couple who told me after that they were there that I would've liked to have seen. But such is life I guess. I still had fun.

And somewhere in all the gossiping, I managed to complete my shopping list. My rather long list. BUT - it all fit in one cart and it all fit in the trunk of the rabbit. So it wasn't *that* excessive! hahaha Only three things I missed. One apparently doesn't exist, so really not much I could do about that, one was already sold out, and the third I found and it was a good price but it was too awkward to carry so I decided we could live without it for a little while longer. My poor new visa is screaming. Ah well - had to be broken in some time!

So through the magic that is cell phones, Ker and I managed to reconnect an go for lunch. Fast food so L didn't get huffy but still super nice to sit and get caught up :) Which had me back at the barn just in time for afternoon chores. Alright so no riding for me but everything else was good.

Taught all the lessons and was done reasonably early. AND it was still reasonably light out (have I mentioned recently I LOVE summer?) And the flip side of not being a morning person is that I AM a night person. I was wide awake, high from teaching, and it was no longer windy or rainy. Sweet - clearly time to ride.

So I tacked up Dixie superfast. I started riding her two days ago, bringing her back from her mini-vaca. And she's been, ummmm, a little high. So instead of riding her inside, I of course choose to go outside, alone, at night. Sweet. hahaha but she was great. Had a few moments of silliness but even those were completely undramatic. She's feeling fit, sound and happy and would rather run around looking at things than work - who can blame her? I will admit we never actually got a walk, but by the end our trot work was pretty spectacular. That's got to count for something right?

Anyways - it meant my early night was no longer early and now I'm way too up to sleep (will make getting to the barn in time to feed and be on and warmed up for 8am tons of fun tomorrow!) but it occurred to me that any day that can start out that miserably and end up with me smiling has to be worth recording. So I did :) Night!