White Knuckles

As I was scrolling through my blog reader this morning, I noticed a very common theme. Snow!

I live in south -middish - westernish Michigan (Lansing area) and the snow hit us at about midnight on Saturday. Prior to the snow, though, we had rain. Lots of rain. Once the snow hit, it didn't stop until about 3:00 on Sunday afternoon. The resulting effect was snow and ICE on the roads.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I ended up having to pick Brian up from Detroit Metro airport at midnight last night. What would normally be an hour and a half drive one way from my home in the Lansing area, took 2 and a half hours one way. The roads were unbearably icy and snowy and a severe wind made matters worst by gusting into my car and pushing me ever closely to a slide out or worse, collision. To say I white knuckled it, would be an understatement. I left my house at about 11:45 p.m. and crawled into my bed at 5:00 a.m.  this morning I felt like I should have been half way to Florida after that hideous car trip. During the little road trip, we counted 10 car accidents and 3 jack knifed semi trucks ~ crazy! We didn't see a single salt truck until our return trip home...it was about 4:15 at that point. What's up with that? Maybe it has to be warm enough for the salt to take effect...hmmm.

In retrospect, I am so glad that I had the foresight to contact my boss and let her know that I was coming in late to work on Monday. Unexpectedly, she responded by telling me to just take the day off. "No big deal," she said. AWESOME BOSS ALERT, AWESOME BOSS ALERT! That small blessing was my saving grace this morning; I woke up just before noon - ahhhhhhh!

On another note, I did ride this weekend. Saturday morning, I saddled up poor bewildered Gypsy and took her for a frigid spin. I've been trying to work on neck reining with her, but I always second guess myself with that particular bit of training. I do a lot of circling, keeping my hands close together and while pulling her around, I push the outside rein onto her neck so that she associates that pressure with turning...of course I use a lot of leg aid too. Still, it just seems like a slow process and she doesn't really seem to be getting it...I guess time will tell. My goal with her is to get her trained enough for J to give lessons on her...it would be nice to show her, but ultimately, I just want her marketable and use able for J or anyone else who would potentially get her. She's coming up on 17 years old, and that just scares me...my sweet old girl.