My third place pick came in first in a stretch run that was a thing of beauty. Seeing Big Brown power away from the rest of the field brought tears to my eyes. The power, grace, and loveliness of a great horse will do that to me. No sooner had I dried those tears than I was weeping again. This time in sorrow. The filly, Eight Belles , who had run so gamely and nearly done it—the filly who almost became only the fourth filly in history to win a Derby—the filly was down on the track. After crossing the finish line, after galloping on soundly into the backstretch, as her rider started to pull her up, she went down, both front ankles shattered. She was euthanized on the track. Horse racing is a sport that I absolutely love. And absolutely hate. Yesterday just put it all into one race. Packaged all the emotions, both good and horrible, into the space of just a few minutes. Highs crashed into lows. On TV, shots of stunned fans were cut with scenes of Big Brown’s family laughing and crying an...

My darling husband doesn’t much like it when I blog about him, so let me just say, click here . You will need to scroll down to about five paragraphs from the end. Yes, we’re now both sick of winter. Of course, my favorite part of the article is the “escaped injury” part. It could have been so much worse. There is a strong belief in my family that ANYTHING can be repaired with either baling twine or duct tape. I remember decades ago when I was in 4H , cruising around Harrisburg during the state horse show in my 4H leader’s car. The muffler was being held on with baling twine. The problem is, baling twine burns and mufflers get hot. So everywhere we went, we smelled smoke. Now our old Saturn has been repaired (TEMPORARILY) with duct tape. It seems the front fender had an unfortunate encounter with a rotted fence post during the above-mentioned incident. The driver’s side mirror also fared non-too-well. But since the car is otherwise drivable, dear hubby patched the holes with the intrep...

Yesterday was one of those days fraught with material for a future work of fiction. It was also one of those days which are perfect for staying home, snuggled under an afghan with a good book and Skye kitty on my lap. Blustery and wickedly cold. Instead of hibernating, though, I had to drive into the city to visit Mom. When I left the house, the wind was brutal, but otherwise, the weather seemed tolerable for driving. However, a few miles down the road, snow began to fall. Soon, the road was coated with ice and blowing snow. Driving in snow doesn’t usually bother me. Ice is a different matter. But my trusty Saturn plugged along without missing a step. Of course, I slowed down and kept plenty of distance between me and car in front. Others had less patience and cruised past in the passing lane. Or attempted to. Near the Imperial exit, the remains of two separate crashes sat along the road. The first one in the opposite lanes involved several cars. Everyone seemed fined. They stood in th...

As previously mentioned, the weather last week was crappy. At least it was crappy every other day. That means Friday fell on one such crappy day. But it wasn’t bad enough to keep me home. Or any other Christmas shopper either, for that matter. I wasn’t really Christmas shopping. I was just doing my regular weekly shopping. By the time I headed home from town with my trunk loaded with both my groceries and my mom’s grocery order, it was dusk. The morning’s snow had mingled with the road crew’s salt to create a mush that hazed over the windshield requiring frequent applications of washer fluid. I was in the midst of pondering how much of that stuff I had left in the reservoir and making mental notes to check it before venturing out again, when a huge buck, complete with an exceptionally nice rack, appeared in my peripheral vision. He was running straight at me. My brain kicked into high gear, but things still happened so fast that I don’t know if I’d have had time to react, should my bra...