Feather with her mane braided ready for the show.

I leave for work in the dark-like before 5:00 am.  I drive over ten miles before I hit the freeway and part of it is very rural (think Deliverance).  This morning, I am up getting into the new routine of feeding a new pony along with the others, get dressed, get in my little VW and head to work.  I am maybe four or five miles from the house when I feel a thunk.  I had not seen anything in the road, but figured I had run over something.  Immediately my icon lights up on my dash for the battery.  I am immediately panicked!  I have recently replaced the battery but who knows.  I pull over on the dark road.  Turn off the car and think, well I might as well try to start it again.  It starts right up.  Then I realize I have NO power steering.  Oh, don’t forget I just had shoulder surgery and am in a giant sling.  I try to turn the car around to head back home.  Worst thing I have done since my surgery. It hurt so bad.  I cannot make the little car turn.  I am pretty much in the middle of the rural highway and can see cars (or trucks) coming the opposite direction.  It added an extra slice of terror to being stuck in the middle of deliveranceville on the dark road and having no turning ability.

WORST TIME EVER (well, maybe not-but it was bad!).  I finally get the car turned around and head home.  By this point I am thinking maybe I just am out of power steering fluid.  It should have been checked but anything could happen.  I wake Lauren up who is due to leave for Feather’s first rated horse show at 7:00.  I tell her I am going to Wal-Mart to get power steering fluid and a giant screw driver to open the stupid VW power steering fluid reservoir.  I get back just in time for Lauren to leave, and finally open the power steering holder thing.  It is full of fluid.  I pour some in for good measure.  I get Lauren to test drive the car because my arm is killing me.  She doesn’t even get to the end of the driveway and it is obvious the car is not steering.  GEEZ!

So, in spite of her needing desperately to leave, I have her drive the car to only mechanic in town.  I follow her in the Jeep which is barely an on-road vehicle but it has power steering.  We leave the car.

Back at the house, Lauren hasn’t even gotten out of the drive to leave for the horse show when I see a missed call on my phone.  The mechanic leaves a message that says, “I have real bad news, but some good news too”.  Okay, we had this talk about the vet that does not leave specific messages. I was freaking out that I had blown my engine or something (although was a little unclear what the good news was going to be).

I get the mechanic on the phone.  This is the stranger than truth part.  I know some of you men reading along are guessing what is wrong with my car-I guarantee this is NOT what you are thinking-I lost the engine belt when a cat had gotten up in the engine.  That ‘thunk’ I heard was part of the cat falling out of the engine.  The rest of cat managed to pull the belt off the engine (thus triggering the battery light because it was not charging the alternator).  I really don’t know how that effected the power steering but it did.  So the bad news was my cat was dead-not to be flippant-but what is a week at my place without a dead cat.  Pretty much all the ones I have neutered are dead as well.  I think this was one of the wild kittens.  The good news was they only had to order a replacement belt (which would take half the day) but it was not a major deal.  Wow-so who guessed there was a cat in my engine taking off my belts? Yeah!

I finally got the car back (had to take a vacation day from work) around 1 pm and headed up to try to catch Lauren and Feather make their rated show debut.  I get there with my poodle, Kona, to learn Lauren has lost her phone.  She heads to the show ring and I go searching for her phone.  I am walking with Kona toward the show office when some random man stops me.  Excitedly he tells me, “I found your dog’s phone!!”.  A cell phone with Kona’s picture on it is in the office.  At least four more people stop me with Kona to tell me “his” phone is in the office.  Really people?  But I guess it did pay off to have such an easily identifiable picture on your cell phone background.  So, remember that-for safety sake- take a picture of something that is uniquely you and yet you are willing to parade this object around in public and put it on your phone.  That way if you lose your phone people know it is yours.  Perhaps another idea is to take a photo of your business card-less embarrassing than people thinking the poodle had a phone.

Lauren and Feather had good rounds.  Feather looked beautiful and Lauren rode well.  They earned two third places today.  But keeping with my kooky day, on the way home, we were watching the road for where we thought the kitten had fallen out when we were stopped by chickens in the road.

Why did the chicken cross the road-to get in front of my car!

Jordyn got sent home from school with diarrhea and a sore bottom Tuesday and I flashed back to her Monday night playing with Codi, her Florida friend.  They were busily chipping off pieces of my giant horse salt block and eating it.  Codi’s mom warned not to let Jordyn have milk for three hours because the salt coupled with milk caused Codi to projectile vomit.  And it burned when it came back up.  Explains Jordyn’s sore bottom.  Trying telling the school that story.  Wow.

I have had it with living in rural crazyville!  Dev says we should just get our reality show.  Then Kona could get his own cell phone!

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My momma has been under the weather.  She will be okay but sure could use any prayers you could send her way.

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