Line in the sand

-

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

- Marcus Aurelius






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chasing Fumes

-
Image
Annual Trail Rides: 118/200 One week left before vacation so it’s been a pretty busy time workwise. I had my first in-person event with my favorite client and while I was a little anxious at first, I was also so happy to see them. It went great, but the next day I was a zombie. Oops, I forgot about that feeling. So after a few days off from horse stuff, I schlepped to the barn planning for a nice quiet ride. With the cooler weather in the teens, I arrived to find Q lit like a fire breathing dragon. Uhoh. I thought I should let him have a good run in the arena but it was occupied. Oh well, Ill just tack up and go. I joined the BO and fellow boarder for a ride, and as we got to the sandy trails of sector 1 the BO asks me if Im still chasing a picture of the club kubota for the bingo game. Yes! She said she just saw one passing behind us, going left on another trail. My eyes grew wide, I told them I would catch hem later, I spun Q 180 degrees and peeled off at a trot. We turned left at th...
Read more

The Complexity of Trail Access

-
Image
Annual Trail Rides: 34/200 A century ago, local farmers in our town west of Montreal were tired of the sand left in the spring thaw that clogged the streets and ditches and created floods and ice dams to prevent passing. So the farmers got together with the town and the province to fund a reforestation project which we would later call the "Nursery". The reforestation would cover most of the old sand dunes that had been left behind many millennia ago by a retreating glacier. The old sand dunes were a popular place for local families to go for a picnic, or some fishing in some of the creeks and lakes that popped up from underground springs. Our history books show groups of families with their farmhorses pulling big sleighs or wagons filled with children. But it was time to stop the constant erosion the sand dunes were having on the local farms. So in the 1930s began the massive reforestation project. At the time, the population of this town was under a thousand, as there was o...
Read more

Preparing Patagonia

-
Image
I may come to regret this, but Im not as prepared for this trip as I was for Alberta’s epic trek last spring. In part because I havent ridden in 3 weeks. 😃 The days will probably be shorter (4-6 hours of riding) and its pretty slow riding because its over glacier rocks …. so maybe Ill be fine? Also looks like its just gonna be me and the gauchos as the other riders had flights cancelled last minute. So this trip will be Spanish (actually Castellano) immersion too. The last few weeks in BA has been momentous, from the run to the final of the World Cup, to the dozens of people who ran in the streets in defense of a small dog in a hit and run, to the amazing fresh fruit and vegetables, to the delicious food and mountains of gelato. BA is big, at times wild, messy and very passionate. I havent found much indifference here. But now, I have to figure out how to get my backpack to weigh less than 8 kg to fit all the clothes I need for weather ranging from polar sun to blizzard. Yes, I have l...
Read more

Soul soothing after a rough week

-
Image
I have been knee deep in a heavy workload this last week as we finished up the last Masters presentations, coordinated grading and enabled these bright young professionals to graduate. And in five weeks we start allover again with a new cohort. Much planning and organizing is going on, zoom-style. So its been a rather sparse week for riding. But after a couple of days busy at work I finally had a sliver of time to head to the barn. I tacked up, mounted up, and headed for the trailhead some 100 feet from the mounting block. I can’t express how much joy I took in knowing I had a reliable horse to saunter down the trails without much care in the world (despite the trail accident of 2 days ago). It was so enjoyable that for the first few minutes as I thought through my trail plan, I considered just doing a short quiet walk on the buckle and just chill. Ha ha ha. Five minutes later I was jogging down the trail with some really exceptional lopes where Q is learning to stay in rhythm ...
Read more

Anomalies of Argentina, Part 1

-
Image
  With 15M inhabitants, Buenos Aires is a major metropolitan city of a similar size but broader sprawl than NYC. Subways, museums, restaurants ad infinitum, and honking taxis define the city. And yet … in many ways its still a jungle out here. I wont bore you with affairs of state, but the currency situation is absolutely bonkers. The highest denomination is a 1000 pesos bill. Its now worth $3 on the blue rate (street) market, which means when I went to buy our ferry tickets to Uruguay yesterday I had to pack a wad of cash so big it barely fit into my money belt. When we went to Western Union (the unofficial ATM/exchange office) to withdraw funds, the stack was so big we could not fold it to put in my husband’s  pocket. Good thing he had big cargo pants. He hugged his pocket the whole way home. 😂 The government seems to have zero interest in addressing the situation (see article:  https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/tourists-pay-with-wads-of-cash-as-argentina-inflati...
Read more