Today's Adventure!

Today was, for the most part, a typical horse show day - at the barn by 6:15am and home by about 8pm. Jessie and Dixie (pictured right) had an outstanding day (she got a reserve champion in one division and champion in another).

The adventure part really began as we were going around a roundabout (if you really want to know about a roundabout check out the entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout [it's still a rotary or traffic circle to me]). Let me just say one trailer tyre (oops, I mean "tire." The talk about a roundabout got me feeling veddy British for a moment) came into contact with a kerb (you know what I mean) and in the same way the Titanic touched the iceberg, the tyre did the tyre equivalent of the ship and sank!

Long story short, we pulled into McDonald's for a bite (no, not fish and chips) to garner enough strength to change the unfortunate trailer tyre. First, we removed the horse (see picture) and hand grazed her on the delicious greenery decorating the establishment. Then I, using a Chinese-made lug wrench, impressively managed to loosen five of the seven lug nuts (they hadn't been touched for 5 years and were somewhat rusted in position). Sarah, the truck's driver and friend extraordinaire, realized I might be about to die from the exertion of trying to loosen the last two lug nuts (my face's shade of red and my panting might have been a clew), so she went into the store and found a buff, young man unfortunate enough to be the first person she saw. He came out, and standing on one arm of the lug wrench and yanking on the other managed to free the last two (I must have loosened them for him). When they were all loose, and to our profuse thanks, he retreated back inside conceivably safe once again behind the counter. Sarah, meanwhile, backed the trailer onto a small platform which raised the trailer enough to pull the tyre off and replace it with the spare.

Seeing a horse grazing at McDonald's must have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for patrons we were grateful to provide. Adding urgency to the situation was the fact that the dog waiting at home (no doubt crossing his legs as we were approaching the 13-hour mark, perhaps a new record for him) needed to be let out. Of course, there was no cell phone signal (that happens a lot [way too much, if you ask me, which you didn't]), so even more time elapsed until a call to Ginny, our wonderful neighbor, got through, and she let the poor dog out (he didn't stop long enough to thank her as he raced outside).

Anyhow, I am tired, so that's it for now. What a great, interesting day!

Later.