Grounded

Ah, the best laid plans . . .

I was grounded this weekend.

C3PO did not get released from the body shop on Friday as planned. The guy said he found "more extensive damage" once he started working on her and this entailed ordering extra parts which did not come in on time. (Do auto parts EVER come in on time? Seriously? Never in my automobile-owning life have parts ever come in on time.) Since the Farmer needed the Truck for doing farmer things, I STAYED HOME ALL WEEKEND.

Yep. Home. All weekend. Two days in a row. It nearly killed me. Not the staying home part, the working my butt off because I was trying to do everything I'd been letting slide all fall.

Honestly, I didn't have anywhere to go so it wasn't that big of a deal. Although I missed going to the DMOTC match on Saturday. Bummer. Oh well. It's not like I didn't have plenty to keep me busy. Apparently my house elf has migrated south for the winter.

Saturday, I dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed the bathroom, washed windows, potted some coleus and wandering jew clippings, did a ton of laundry and a bunch of end-of-the-year farm bookkeeping stuff for the Farmer. And that was all before dinner. 

In the afternoon, Phoenix and I trained for a little bit and I cleaned out the Truck, since it looks like I'll be driving it for a while longer. The Truck was very dirty. I may have mentioned that before. I'm not sure it's exactly clean now. It's just a lot less dirty.

Then I spent about 4 hours cleaning off perennial beds for the winter and planting bulbs. At the time, it seemed like a really good idea to do it all at once. I was on a roll! Look at all this work I'm getting done! About two hours after I quit, my back and other previously un-known muscle groups had second thoughts about the wisdom of my gardening marathon. I took a hot shower and a lot of ibuprofen, set the clocks back one hour and went to bed.

Apparently, I forgot to set the Belgians back one hour. I usually get up at 5:30 a.m. At 4:30 a.m. this morning, there was a lot of nose poking and pawing and generally being a pain in the arse until I convinced them it was NOT 5:30 and I was NOT getting up. Go. Back. To. Sleep. Before I beat you.

Today I did more bookkeep-y stuff, finished planting bulbs (after a healthy dose of ibuprofen) and worked Phoenix. It was a beautiful day, very sunny and warm, by November standards. Heck, it would have been a beautiful day by May standards. I hauled in all my jumps, ring gates and weave poles and stored them in the garage. Left my contact trainer and one jump out in the yard. I figure there's a balance between tempting Mother Nature by leaving everything out or being a wimp and bring it all inside too soon. It is the second week in November, after all, and never mind the fact it was about 25 degrees above normal today - the other shoe will drop eventually.

This afternoon was spa day for the dogs: nail clipping, paw and ear trimming, bathing, blowing dry and lots and lots and lots of brushing. My boys do not seem to appreciate spa day. I wonder if I had a girl dog if she would feel any different. I would love to have someone fuss over my nails and hair. Phoenix and Jamie do not share that sentiment. They think it is a serious waste of time and effort.

But now they are stunningly clean, whether they like it or not. I should have taken their picture. But it's too late now because it's almost 5 p.m. and the sun is going down.

I need more ibuprofen. I need to go back to work, where I can sit in my chair and only move my fingers on my keyboard. Which is good, because by tomorrow morning, I'm not sure I'll be able to move anything else.