Gray Day

It's a dark, gray, cold, rainy day here today. It was hard to think of something to take a picture of, too dark inside for much of anything without a flash, too yucky outside to venture out in it for a silly picture....so as I was looking outside trying to think of something....I thought of something. :-) A picture of the rain on my window. Rainy days and Mondays...what more can I say?

Even though it is a rainy Monday, I'm not feeling down. You see, I thought that I had lost something that I really, really like last weekend....and I was sort of bummed about it....but now they're found! What would that be you ask? You didn't ask? It's ok....it was nothing too important to any one except me, but I thought I lost my favorite riding boots. :-( I've had them for a long time. They survived two cattle drives with me. They survived when I crashed head first into a tree a few years ago. They survived many, many wonderful rides at the farm. They were even the subject of a drawing I did when I was taking graphic design classes. And I couldn't find them anywhere.

When I was in school I had to take a basic drawing class. The very first assignment was to go home and draw any one thing that said something about you. It was so the instructor could get to know more about us, as well as to evaluate our drawing skills. I'll admit, I was pretty intimidated by the assignment. But then I started thinking about what I wanted to say about myself. Not shiny, new or fresh out of the box, but comfortable, practical and reliable. Rough around the edges. Could use some polish. Not ordinary. And my old boots seemed to say all that. So I went with it. This is how it turned out. I call it..."Boots". :-)

But this weekend I didn't have my comfortable, reliable boots. I had looked and looked, but couldn't find them. I guess that it had been a while since I had ridden. We were running late, we had to go, so I grabbed the new boots that I had gotten. I've been planning to replace my old ones when they finally wore out, so I did buy new ones last year, but I haven't switched yet.... because they are new, and shiny, and heavy, and not very comfortable....and just don't feel right. They were OK for riding, but just OK. But it was so good to get back in the saddle and ride again that the boots didn't really matter. The first day that we rode was sunny and warm, the second day was pretty windy...so windy that I think it blew all the common sense out through this guys ears...goofy horse....but it sure was good to ride...

....even though it would have been better if I had my favorite boots. And those darned new boots gave me a giant blister on my heel when I was walking around the sugar bush. Ouch. But today, I took some time and I dug a little further to the back of my closet....and look what I found.

My favorite boots! It feels like a long lost friend has returned. And I'm going to put them on and never, ever take them off....just as soon as this darned big blister heals....