What's Up Wednesday

Isn't it the best thing when Wednesday is also Fake Friday?! Yes, yes it is. I can't wait to get out of work today with 4 glorious days off ahead! (Sorry to any of you have to work this weekend.) But enough looking forward, let's chat about the past week. It was one of those weeks with nothing major happening, but lots of little odds and ends.
I got to ride almost every day after work last week. I think I only skipped Monday. The horses have been fine, though poor, poor Jampy has been feeling tortured by the temporary lighting situation. The shadows are just a bit too much for him to handle.
I was hoping to get some jumping done over the weekend, but unfortunately, the weather didn't really cooperate. I rode Saturday, but it was on the later side and was getting pretty windy. Sunday was ridiculous with 40-50 mph winds. I opted out of riding that day. Thus, sadly, I have no fun horse videos or even much for photos this week. #badblogger

I had signed up to run a 5K Saturday morning in my home town (which is only 15 minutes from my current town). It seemed like a great idea at the time. It supports the elementary school and takes you down by the beach. Plus it's mostly flat! (Until the end, that was a sad moment.)

This tee shirt is adorable

 However, when I woke up Saturday morning and it was 28 degrees, I definitely had regrets. Fortunately, the race didn't start until 10:00 am. It had warmed way up by then to about 35. Brr.

I actually had a pretty great feeling race. It was mostly down hill or flat the whole way out and I was able to plod along steadily for the first two miles. The return trip was slightly uphill with a great big hill at the end. Well, not that big compared to some, but a big hill compared to the rest of the course. I did some run walking for the last mile, since as we all well know, I am not fit anymore. I finished in 34:45 which is a little slower than an 11 minute mile. Certainly not the 9:30 I used to run regularly, but it is an improvement over my last couple of races.
There was a very nice gentleman cheering people up the hill after he had finished and I joked with him on my way up. He approached me after to commiserate about that end of race torture. Turns out he's cheered me on a few times recently as he remembered my crazy outfits from the Halloween and Steam Train races. Runners are really so friendly. They're not as grumpy and nervous as horse show people.

My new friends

I took a detour to the post office on my way home from the race to drop off two big bags for Used Horse Stuff. If you wear a size 5.5 or 6 pop over there in a week or two because my too small La Mundial boots are en route! The green and gold extra pair as well as the navy blue pair I never ended up wearing. As soon as those get sold, I already know what I'm replacing them with!
Anyway, it took me awhile to warm up after the race. I figured the best way was with a grilled cheese sandwich and several beverage options.

The horses were pretty good afterwards for which I was grateful. I had lost all motivation to do anything after that race! I stayed in that night and worked on getting the house organized (this is a forever ongoing project tbh).
Sunday, as I mentioned, was not a good horsing day. It was crazy windy. I might have considered swinging a leg over had it been July, but on a cold November day? No thanks. Instead, I spent a lot of time trying to clean up Rio's tail. He takes a fair amount of medication to keep him healthy and comfortable in his old age, and that can be tough on his tummy. He frequently has loose poo and with it not being bath weather, the tail was a mess. I'm talking big old poop dreadlocks. Disgusting. Especially when it's fresh. Blech! My solution was to shampoo it, oh I dunno, about 4 times. Then show sheen it into oblivion. And finally I braided part of it to keep it from hanging down when he lifts his tail. So far, that's working really well. I think as long as I'm consistent about re-braiding it and keeping it show sheened it shouldn't cause any damage.

It actually warmed up here after all the wind, so it's been rather pleasant riding after work so far this week. The best part?

My lights are back! Jampy is feeling much better about evening riding. He still hates the dark, but he thinks it's slightly less abusive than the temporary lights.
In other big news, my contractor has gotten to work repairing that hole in the barn. It was a big mess actually, must more of a project than we initially realized. (Why wouldn't it be?) The one wall of the wash stall is shared with the laundry/bathroom so it is insulated. That's all well and good except that because we use the wash stall every day to wash buckets and what not, that wall is always wet. Thus eventually the insulation was wet. And I imagine you can see where that's going. MOLD! Ugh. No wonder I can't stop sneezing when I'm out there. No good for the horses either. Long story short, it will look like this through the weekend while it dries out:

The solution is going to be to put new insulation in, rebuild that section of the wall, and probably put some plexi glass around the wash stall at that height to help with the moisture. I dunno about you, but that I think that looks expensive. Ugh. Glad we caught it though.
That's about it from here. Please enjoy these photos of the pugs and I being silly and a nice photo shot of last night's sunset:

How was your week? Any fun events? Big plans for Turkey Day?