This is my story

I dreamt about Rose again this morning. Very simple dream. I went outside to feed the horses (in the dream, The Black was still here), and I found Rose in one of the stalls, placidly munching hay. She looked over her shoulder at me, casual, and went back to eating.

Randi says she's trying to comfort me. If so, it's working.

I went out to feed the horses tonight, and something happened that I've been dreading for a long time - Rose didn't come up to the barn. After I put Magic in her stall, I went to look for her, and I quickly found her, lying on her side, even more beautiful in death than she was in life.

There's no clue as to what killed her. It's like she just lay down, stretched out, and passed away. She was old and her health was failing fast, so this was no surprise, only an enormous heartbreak for us. She's been with us since she was three years old, more than 20 years.

Magic is alone now, which isn't good for a horse. But we can't get another one. I'm at the age where, for one, it's getting hard for me to care for the horses, and two, the new horse would probably outlive me. I'll just have to give her extra love.

RIP, my beautiful, sweet, serene Rose. Feast on the green grass you loved so much, and run again as you did when you were young, with your head high and your tail flying.

For a generally sedentary person, I had a busy day yesterday.

First, I had to help my roomie with some heavy lifting, mostly plastic bins full of craft stuff. Except for the strain on my bad back, that wasn't a big deal, but it was an hour or so of heavy labor.

Then the dogs got out of the yard. My neighbor's son, Jamie, honked for us and let me know, and I got them back in. He thought they'd gone over the fence in the southeast corner, where they'd pulled down the PVC pipe that tops the chain link. I wasn't sure about that, but I gratefully accepted his help to secure that pipe, as I get tired of putting it back up.

Turned out I was right. They got out again, and this time they went across the street to play with the dogs that my neighbor (another one) keeps chained up under the trees there. (This is the same guy who owns the Bad Dog I mentioned in the last post.) The way he was carrying on, I thought Nikki and Taffy were killing them, but no, they were just playing. As I led my two away, two of his followed us, romping. I had a hard time getting Nikki and Taffy to come home with me. I'm stronger than I look, but in my nightgown still, and with only their collars to hold onto, it was a risky wrestling match between me and two excited dogs, one of 80 lbs and the other 100 lbs. Especially since they slipped their collars, one after the other. I did finally get them back to the house, but I didn't leave them in the yard. I locked them in the kitchen.

I was pretty sure they'd gone out by breaking my jury-rigged gate. Again. But I couldn't be positive, as Jamie said he'd seen them go over the fence. I might have heard him wrong, but we live a block from a well traveled, if minor, highway, so I didn't want to take a chance. The area of the gate that they keep pushing through can be cut off by another gate. I set it up that way so that I can let people into the house. (For some reason, people are afraid of my babies.) Unfortunately, this also cuts them off from the porch, which they use for shelter from the rain. Too bad. I have no sympathy. It's raining today - which is a good thing after all the days of terrible dry heat! - and they'll have to get wet and lay in the mud. Don't call me cruel, because they do have a dog house, they just don't like it.

After that, while eating lunch, I decided to finish the extension to the hot wiring in the yard, and keep them off the fence entirely. I was already tired and sore, and didn't want to do it, but with the rain, the ground was soft, softer than concrete, anyway. And I wanted to be sure, or I'd just have to keep the dogs in the kitchen all day, every day. So I went out with scissors and shears, and I cleared the existing wire - my lawnmowing guy was supposed to do that, but while the bottom string was clear, there were branches laying on the upper string. Then I strung wire. I thought it would kill my back, and yeah, it hurt like hell, but while my back is sore today, it's not painful. Small comfort. Darn it, I couldn't find my tester, so I don't know for sure that the wire is hot. I guess I have to wait until the dogs hit it. The shriek will make me smile. Yeah, I'm pissed.

While I was out there, I had an interesting conversation. A man named Mark, who tells me that he comes to town occasionally, especially in the summer, to visit his son, asked me about the neighbor with the dogs. His ex-girlfriend and son live in a trailer on the other side of the property the dog man is on. I won't recount the entire conversation, but the black dog that threatened me also chased his son more than once, and it recently bit him (the father, not the son) on the stomach. He showed me the marks. He believes the dog man is a squatter, living in a large work shed on the property, without running water. He says that, so far, the police have ignored him, but he intends to contact them again and see if he can get the man evicted.

So, with the wire strung and the tools put away, sweating and tired, I stagger back into the house. There I got a half hour break before I had to feed the horses.

This is more activity than I've had in all of the last month. I'm still tired, even after a good night's sleep!

We got another hit to the finances today. Our water heater had to be replaced. It's about 20 years old, so no surprise, but man, I do wish this streak of the universe sucking my savings dry would just end. $1,024 later, we have a new water heater. On the plus side, our water pressure is better, it no longer takes several minutes for hot water to reach my bathroom, and the two gentlemen who installed it also took the aerator off the kitchen faucet (something I couldn't do), strengthened our laundry room shelf so it stopped wobbling and leaning, and showed me that I was right about how to shut off the water to the house.

Even better, one of the guys has an uncle in the area who does carpentry work. We've been trying to find someone to fix our deck, our back porch steps, our horses' shed, and our porch, so that we can get the roof re-done. (Something to do with the insurance. I don't know. Randi handles this stuff.) We've spent months asking around, checking the internet, and generally trying whatever we could think of to find a person who could do the job and be trusted, but without luck. Now this guy, Dean, who is a really good guy, says his uncle can probably do it all. The uncle, Darryl, is coming by on Sunday to give us a bid. So there's my silver lining.

My publisher has had "Path of the Dragonfly" for 18 months now, and I'm tired of waiting. I want to see that book on the market. Since my publisher no longer does broad distribution, I can get the same distribution by publishing through CreateSpace. I hope I don't offend her (one of the company's strengths is that communication is through the actual owner), but I've missed a lot of marketing opportunities on Facebook, and I have three more Vale novels finished.

So I emailed her and asked about it, politely threatened to pull it, and pointed out that, at age 65, I won't be alive long enough to publish every two years. Now I'm queasy. I don't want to offend her or make her hostile - not that I'd blame her - so I'm nervous.

*sigh*  This was a big step for me. But Randi pushed it. She says "Path" is the best book I've written, and that I've waited long enough. She's usually right. So I did it. eep.