You may have been so busy you haven’t noticed, but my blog has been pretty quiet for a while now. That isn’t because I’ve fallen out of love with blogging (I definitely haven’t), but a variety of things have kept me from having time to do more than keep up my customary Monday post.
As I’ve said before, this is high season for me, work-wise. Last year by the time the show season was over, I was exhausted, and declared that I would take on less the following year.
Have I done that? Like hell, have I. This year I’ve taken on even more!
I have a real problem with saying “No”. And somehow I juggle my diary until I can fit in what appears at first to be an impossible schedule. While this does not illustrate the many jobs I take on for other people, let me give you an example:
I’ve been hit really hard by the loss of my beloved Frodo
My house mates from Scotland suggested I try bringing one of our rescue dogs down south to see if he would settle in a one-to-one situation. So instead of flying up earlier this month, I drove. 650 miles, 12 hours solid driving. I then drove 400 hundred miles around the area, teaching, followed by the 650 mile drive home, with Ben.
I was home for a week, and it was all going well. Until I flew to Glasgow for 2 days work. I was only away for one night, and Ben coped with my absence just fine (he kept my mother company), but clearly decided the house needed protecting while I was not there. Both my mother and father are extremely elderly, and have carers dropping in several times a day. The ladies were fine, but Ben refused to let any men in the house.
As doctors/paramedics etc. are just as likely to be male, and are frequent necessities in our house these days, this situation was sadly not going to work, so I needed to take Ben back to Scotland.
And here is the best example of my crazy ability to fit things together:
My old horse, Merlin, is enjoying a (slightly) easier life at the grand age of 23, taking a step down from Grand Prix with me, to compete at the level below, teaching a young rider (he knows it all, believe me, he does!). She was due to compete that weekend at a big show in Cheshire (250 miles). So… deep breath…
Saturday, we drove to Cheshire. I dropped Merlin and Cheryl at the show, then drove on in the horsebox, (400 miles) taking Ben back to Scotland. Arrived 1am.
Sunday I drove back from Inverness to Cheshire. Arrive 7.30pm.
Monday, Cheryl competed in the afternoon, we drove home returning to the yard at 9pm. Home by 10.30 to unpack one set of gear, pack the next, be in bed for midnight, then up again 5.45am to drive to the airport to catch an 8.15am flight to Perth (which I drove past on Sunday!), to teach 2 days, then back home at half past midnight.
Thursday, back into regular work. Phew!
Oh, and I haven’t mentioned that in the middle of all this, my laptop crashed irreparably 2 days before I was due to give an all day seminar to 50 dressage judges, requiring a PowerPoint presentation and DVD examples. This entailed a late night visit to Currys to buy a new laptop, and 2 days learning how to use the damned thing! My old laptop worked on Windows 7, the new one is Windows 10, so a whole new operating system!
Somehow I managed to pull off the seminar with only a few minor technical hitches, but now I am faced with bringing the new machine up to speed with everything I need, and in fact, remembering everything I had on the old one! My files are all backed up (thank God!), but I have lost ALL my stored emails and ALL my contacts.
It might be possible to recover them yet, but I’m waiting on a tech lady to help me.
Perhaps you can see why blogging has been a little low on my priority list recently? I have managed to do some plotting during the hours and hours of driving, and I’m itching to get back to writing, I just need to get my life a bit more back under control…
deborahjay 
This all sounds rather tiring.
Dr. Icky recommends a cup of tea and a short break all to yourself.
🙂
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Lol, that sounds perfect. Unfortunately I’ve never been good at taking doctor’s advice…
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bless your u deb. keep going. xxxxxxx
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Thanks Annie 😉
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My goodness, I would say slow down but if you’re someone who can’t say no, like me, I fully sympathise. Take care of yourself.
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Thanks Judith, you too. I do slow down come winter, but this time of year? Not a chance!
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Holy crap Deb!!!!!!!!!! That was an earful! I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Ben, understandably if he couldn’t be favourable around both of the human species, just not meant to be and I know you’ll find the right friend eventually. And bugger! Oucho the old laptop crash. I’ve lived it. You have my sympathies. But wow, Windows 7, you missed a step along the way lol. I used to love Windows 7, protested when I got my windows 8 and moved it to 8.1 then got my new laptop 2 years ago and was forced into Windows 10 which I detested but as all computers I’ve gotten used to as I hope you will too. Now take a rest! Lol 🙂 xx
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I deliberately stuck with Windows 7 as long as I could, after hearing how crap Windows 8 was, and then the debacle of Windows 10. Sadly no option now, and I’m getting used to it quite fast thankfully. I DO still have another machine on Windows 7, that I inherited from my mum when she stopped being able to use it (short term memory failure), so I can do the odd thing on there, though the laptop is even older than my old one, just low usage. I wish they wouldn’t keep ‘improving’ things!
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I hear you, if it aint broken don’t fix! I too still have a fully functioning Windows 7 laptop. When I went to use it a year ago, I was frustrated there was no touch screen though, lol so we do get used to the technology it seems. Although, I will tell you (as I wrote a few articles on Windows 10) Microsoft stuffs Windows 10 updates on older versions screwing up the system and eventually won’t download security updates. Easier to just go with the new as they’ve pushed us to do. 🙂
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I can believe that.
I did choose a laptop without touch screen, as I needed a CD reader and the don’t seem to exist both at the same time on one machine.
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You are so right! I miss having that CD/DVD drive desperately.
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I still use it quite often, not least when giving presentations. It takes me a while to catch up to the latest technology when the old stuff still works fine!
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I miss having it for popping in an exercise DVD and moving my laptop wherever I want with it. 🙂
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I’ve never done that (don’t think I need to do any more exercise than I do already!), but I like to put in my old CDs and transfer them, and sometimes to take a DVD away with me to watch. Don’t see why I should have to buy digital versions when I already own the damned things.
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Don’t get me started. I use Word 2007 I have on a disk. I’ve downloaded to every computer I’ve had for years. When I got this laptop with no drive I had to purchase the digital version. That was a total burn. 🙂
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😦
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Well, now don’t I feel like a slacker for complaining about my workload and dealing with a 4-week bout of pneumonia!!! Geeeeesh, Debby! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Okay, a bit of both. I’m sorry for poor Ben not working well, but horrified at the driving involved. I’ve reached the stage in life where I purely HATE to drive, and getting on the Interstate is a nightmare for me. My 7-hour drive to visit my daughter in South Carolina just about kills me. So the thought of all that car travel made me shiver, for sure. And computer trouble sends me right over the edge!
Blogging is great and fun and very rewarding, and a good way to introduce readers to your work. But sometimes, Real Life just doesn’t cooperate, and you have to let it go until the dust settles. Just please remember to take care of yourself throughout all of this!
Sending you love and prayers and wishes for smoother sailing (riding?) ahead! ❤ ❤ ❤
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Thanks Marcia, its amazing how being able t share with people even when it isn’t in person, can be helpful.
Darn it, but I can’t wait until I get used to this new keyboard – the slightly different spacing is throwing my touch typing into chaos! Some very bizarre spellings keep appearing…
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PS . . . good luck with your computer recovery. Very little other than files on my last one was recoverable, though it could be SEEN. I had to manually copy all the important emails, and start from scratch on many, many things. I sincerely hope you have better luck, and this particular issue will be cleared up for you SOON. Good luck!
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Cheers. Such a pain.
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