Normally I wouldn’t be posting on this weekend; I should be at Cowboy’s, enjoying myself out in the sun.

But yesterday, while enjoying myself out in the sun, I got hit with the ear infection/head cold double whammy. I was fine in the morning. We went to the roping, just us and JR, since the kids are off roping elsewhere. I loped the Big Lip mare around until she stopped being a bitch (a lengthy process with her.) I watched the first two rounds, no problem.

But it started to get hot, even though it never did top 100˚, and I started to feel a little loopy and queasy.

“Could I be getting seasick, standing still on a horse?” I wondered for a while.

And then my ears started ringing, and the light bulb went off. OK, that explains the headaches and the noise sensitivity all week, and also why painkillers didn’t make a dent in it. I have my summer cold. I thought ear infections were pretty much restricted to the under-five set once upon a time, but I’ve traditionally had one twice a year for the last five years. I fooled the ear infection gods this winter, but they laughed in the face of my allergy medicine this time. Yes, I’ll go to the Doc tomorrow.

But I didn’t go with them this morning. On one hand, it was delicious to sleep in, but I’m feeling a little guilty for not going. Not because he needs me there, because he doesn’t, but guilty to myself for not doing something that I like to do. And it’s even on the other side of the Westside hills, and bound to be a little cooler. But the thought of standing around in the heat and the dust all day with a clogged up head just didn’t seem right.

So I came home to mope around at my own house, where there is no air conditioning, but the internet connection works. I let Angus in the backyard, and was very surprised to not see any little faces greeting me at the gate. Horrible thoughts of escaped dogs and pilfered goats flashed through my (addled) mind in the four seconds that it took for me to walk around to the back yard.

And there, looking at me with a “What??” expression on his face, was Elvis the goat. Looking from inside the house. I called him out, and out popped Jessie as well. Seems that my landlord has decided to fix my non-rolling sliding glass door (which will be very nice), and had to run off for some parts. And I haven’t yet fixed the Elvis-eaten screen door, which provided him with a convenient goat flap. Not every house has one of those, you know.

So I shooed the livestock out of the house. They must not have been in too long, since there weren’t any little raisin trails and nothing was chewed up. Elvis is now wearing his long distance stick, and when he sneaked back in while I was cleaning some things, he got chased back out with some remote-controlled encouragement. He’s smarter than Jessie, and won’t be back in.

(Hah! Just checked after typing the above, and he is indeed being a good goat, minding his own business.)

The kids dragged back in late last night. They had a very busy week. They started on Tuesday, dragging the trailer up to a rodeo in Woodland. On the way, they blew out two tires on the same side, and had to wait to get that fixed. After that rodeo, they hauled over the Winnemucca, Nevada, for a roping. Then the next day, on to Susanville—I don’t know if that was a roping or a rodeo, but I do know Chris calf roped at least twice this weekend, so that might have been there.

Coming home from Susanville, they hit up another little rodeo in Gridley. After that one, they blew out a tire on the other side of the trailer. Cowboy’s going to have a word with that salesman on Monday, since they weren’t exceeding the rated weight of the trailer or the tires.

While they were getting that fixed, we were roping in Turlock. We elected to skip the Patterson roping that evening, even though it’s in the same county. That one would have got over late, and we were planning to leave early for today’s roping. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t remember the name of that place.

The kids drug in around one o’clock. I overheard Chris’ girlfriend telling Cowboy this morning that she’d won the high money saddle at Patterson. I was talking to that arena operator yesterday, and I know she had a High Money overall and a High Money Women’s saddle, and I think the girl won the overall saddle. She’s really a very good roper, and traveling with her has gone a long way towards reenergizing Chris in the sport at the end of a long, drug out season.

And now I shall sign off, go watch some Olympics, and generally feel sorry for myself. Fun, no?