More Honest Scrap

It’s that time again. Arlene at Grey Horse Matters and Karen at Karen's Musings & Endurance Ride Stuff have honored me with the Honest Scrap Award. A while back, I was given this award and revealed 10 little known facets of my life. Now, I’m going to try to come up with 10 more. Let’s see…

1. I don’t like thunderstorms. When we first moved here, our fence in the pasture was struck by lightening and it blew out many electronic treasures in the house like my computer, the coffee pot, the microwave and the ceiling fan. The fence caught on fire. When the volunteer firemen came, they informed me that we live on a street prone to lightening strikes. Luckily, I had just put the horses in the barn, but they were afraid to go near that part of the pasture for months after it happened. Summer is the season for big boomers, and even as I write, we’re having a severe thunderstorm warning.

2. I’m addicted to the radar page at weather.com. I check it first thing every morning and often throughout the day. I don’t know how I lived without it. We’re extremely weather-conscious around here.

3. I am religious about picking out my horses’ hooves twice a day. We will see if it really helps keep the abscesses away this year. Silk doesn’t even notice when I do it. Siete used to resist, but now she seems to enjoy the attention. It’s become a bit of a bonding ritual between us.

4. Arlene revealed in her Honest Scrap confessions that she can swear like a trooper. Okay, I can swear like a Teamster, which is the same thing, but I learned how to do it on movie sets not highway patrol. My daughter always reminds me that I’m not setting a good example when I let loose.

5. Every morning, after I feed the horses, I say. “ Hello Mr. Goldberg! Hello Aunt Park.” These are two spirits that I feel who live in our backyard. Mr. Goldberg built our house and lovingly grew and cared for the trees and vegetation on our land even when he no longer owned it. He has been long dead and gone but my 95 year old mother says she sees “the old man” by the barn all the time these days. I believe it must be him. Aunt Park was a free black woman who lived here in the 1700’s and was the midwife, healer and medicine woman in our town. She’s still wandering around in the cedar trees on the hill. Most people who come here can sense her presence.

6. I’m turning off the computer because the thunderstorm is upon us. I’ll be back in a few minutes.

7. I don’t have a good voice, but I sing to Silk all the time. She’s the only one who enjoys it, and that’s why I know she really loves me. Sometimes, I make up the songs, but I’m partial to Van Morrison and Silk seems to be too.

8. I can’t wait for the tomatoes to ripen so I can eat them with mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar several times a day for the next month or so.

9. I can’t fall asleep at night unless I read in bed. Often, I don’t get through more than a couple of pages, but I love books and the day doesn’t end properly unless I fall asleep with my head buried in one.

10. Everyone in our house is addicted to a new TV show called “The Penguins of Madagascar”. It’s an animated show that takes place in the Central Park Zoo and although it’s supposed to be for kids, the writers are crazy, urbane lunatics. Here’s a sample of the dialogue:

Marlene the Otter: “Skipper, these aren’t the kind of creatures you can reason with!”
Skipper the Penguin: “Neither are we, Marlene, neither are we.”

Tonight, King Juilian, who is a lemur, was lounging on his “super comfy pamper-time floatie throne”. I want one of those, and I’ll bet you do too.

The Honest Scrap Award has been making the rounds, so I’m not going to official bestow it on anyone. You all deserve it, so please feel free to pick it up and tell us some secrets about yourself.