SLow Blogging

The New York Times had an item a few months ago about slow blogging. The premise was that to blog, you need not blog every day, just when you felt you had something to say. I would like to use that as an excuse for not blogging lately but I simply have been swamped at home and at work. Blogging, for me, can be anything from a good story to verbal ramble about nothing, like a Seinfeld episode. Thus the variety here. I will try to improve the frequency.

So what has been going on since the New Year arrived.....

My horse are all home but I have spent very little time riding them. This causes immense guilt because I have wonderful horses that need to be ridden so they can improve. One weekend it is the weather, one weekend no baby sitter, the next weekend I am sick. This weekend I AM riding MY horse in the neighborhood. I need to get over the issues lingering from the big FALL last summer. My back is still a bit sore but with stretching and working out is slowly improving. The guilt needs to go away too. I just wonder why I am spending all this money on the horses when I am not riding them. I love them. I love having them at home but they need to be more than yard art.

Kiddo and I got sick last week and were out from day care/work just about a week. I should have stayed home on inauguration day but really, how could I? It was an important day and I wanted to spend it at the paper, where I would be allowed to watch it on TV.
This turned out to be a wise move because the next three days I was held hostage to the pre-school cable channel Noggin. I love it, but not solidly for 3 days. It was the only was to get kiddo to be still. When medicated, he felt great and tried to bounce all over the place. As soon as it wore off, he crashed and it was obvious how sick he was. It took us five days to return to normal, although he is still coughing. Now the rest of my department at work has it. We had three out sick the other day. Basically, 1/3 of the staff.

Speaking of work, we are apparently the last of the papers our size to offer early retirement packages. We have staved off layoffs and such but the request for early retirements has finally come. We will see who might take it. We are not sold yet but there have been interested parties touring. There is an uneasy mood around the newsroom but I am trying to remain optimistic that we will have a future. I cannot imagine a world without a local news source. I really do not consider TV news journalism. Who will be the watch dogs? Why doesn't the public care about this? If they read news online, don't they realize where that information comes from? Without journalist we will become a nation of gossips and rumor mongers.

New Year's Eve at Gruene Hall

I was freaked out because husband heard from Robert Earl Keen's road manager that the Hall had sold 800 tickets to the Toni Price/REK show. There is no way they could fit all those folks in there and I certainly did not want to be smushed in with them as well.

Scooted out of work at 5pm and hauled butt home. Did some quick wardrobe modification and fed the horses. I turned the water on to fill the trough. Husband and kiddo got home and we got things together for kiddo's sleepover at his buddy's house. Husband changed. I turned off the water and discovered a dead squirrel. I fished him out with the rake and filled up buckets with alternative water, trying to decide if the horses would drink water that had a dead squirrel in it for less than 12 hours.

Got kiddo to friend's house, he did not even show any signs of missing us. We went across the street to meet the cool, fun neighbors (here after referred to as CFN's).
They drove and decided we girls would be the non drunks in the group tonight. We fretted about how crowded it was going to be, fretted about parking and getting into the restaurant.

When we got to Gruene, we got a great parking spot, waited just 10 minutes to eat and made it in to the show before Toni Price stopped playing. We milled around the Hall enjoying her set. She is a big voice for such a little person. Soulful. After her set, some folks vacated the benches that run along the side of the hall. These are great for standing on because it puts you up so you can see the act and no one bumps you. The husbands stood in front of us. There was a hole that opened up a bit in the front and Husband stepped in and beckoned for us to join him. Nope. I was not giving up my "no push" spot on the bench.

The long and short of it was Robert Earl Keen had a great show. played some old favorites and some surprises including the Dylan classic "All Along the Watchtower". Husband scored some back stage passes and got one for me. As the band began "Road Goes on Forever" I scooted back to hang out. They came off, then went back for the encore. I stood there watching Tom the drummer play and Toni Price wandered over trying to see Rich Brotherton. I told her to scoot in front of me since I was watching Tom and she is MUCH shorter than me! After the show Husband introduced me to Tom and he was very nice.

We had a great time. Went back out to connect with the RCN's. It was not yet midnight. We celebrated New Year's eve at 11pm (east coast New Year's) because the Hall had to be emptied at midnight because it was a week night town ordinance. To our surprise and delight, the roads were empty on the ride home because everyone was still out partying. It was a good night.