A great day to be alive

 

It's all in our attitude. An attitude of gratitude is the best way to get through the day, every day. It's a great day to be alive!

Even better is a beautiful, perfect Saturday for doing anything, like visiting with my mom and riding my horse. And it was a wonderful ride out in the fields around the farm. Buddy was much better than I expected and actually almost trail horse calm. Jewel was her usual dumb ass self. (She is a mini donkey, so an actual ass.) She'd graze then come running up on us. Buddy got so used to it that, by the end, he didn't bat an eye or an ear at her antics.

At one point, I thought Buddy wanted to itch his head as he was doing throughout our ride, but then he started to put his head down in that way that horses do when intending to roll, and I yanked it up fast and started him moving again. He hasn't done that in a few years.

Jewel being her usual self

Over a thousand miles away in flyover country,
the haze from west coast fires can be seen
along the horizon.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt,
Jewel is an ass.

I doubt I'll get any more days this perfect. I'm glad we had one more great riding day. I'm dreading a long, cold winter from the La Nina effect. I haven't ridden much this summer, but it was too hot for a while or I was too busy or not feeling good from my autoimmune issues. Oh, well. Buddy is doing well all the same, fat boy that he is right now. Nature is preparing him for what's to come.

And on the long drive there and back, I had a lot of time to think about Forgotten Worlds book 9. I know exactly how it will fit the title I had planned. Since it is coming together so well, I can announce that the title is FERIOUS. If you know the characters, you'll recognize that it is not a misspelling but a play on the name of an important species in the series.