Mind-Rambling By Moonlight

This is supposed to be the biggest weekend of the year at this Indian Horse Camp. Every Memorial Day weekend they conduct calf-roping contests, but this year there are probably no more than 20 rigs, with double that number of people and horses. In years past I have seen this park fill up until there was almost not a level place to park a rig anywhere. That would probably be 100 to 200 people and horses.

I don't know if the poor turnout is because of the high cost of gas, or the unexpected bad weather. A week ago it was so hot, I had my air conditioner running night and day. But then, at the end of the workweek, the jet stream brought fog, dark clouds, and cold rain along with stiff winds that let up only at about noon today. It is still breezy and cold, but the moon is out and spooky looking clouds are drifting across the sky. No one at this end of the park has a campfire. After the rain that would be allowed because the fire hazard is down. The rain  was not the misty moisty kind that I would have expected at this time of year, but hard rain that pounded on my trailer roof. It didn't last long.

I'm just sitting here in my trailer with my cats and two dogs listening to the Gumbo channel on TV. I really like that Dixieland and Zydeco music. I get exercise without even trying because of all the foot tapping the music inspires. Those bands don't rely on just guitars, keyboards, and drums. They use a lot of very good brass and a variety of other instruments like accordions or concertinas. And there are lots of instrumentals without someone wailing unintelligible lyrics along with the band. They are playing something called 'No Shoes Zydeco" right now. I love those Cajuns!

Sherpa, the old female dog I inherited from some homeless people last Christmas, is curled up on her doggie bed close to the heater, and Tiger Tommy, the feral cat that lurked for months in my oak tree before deciding that I could be trusted, is curled right up against her. They are both sort of a generic color; Sherpa looks very much like a coyote, and Tommy is a muscle-bound gray tiger cat. They are so cute together.

My $600 didn't stretch to getting me a new prescription for glasses, but I think my health insurance covers enough of the expense that I can get them sometime this summer.  My pickup is fixed up with new tires and new battery, but gas is up to $4.18 here and the storeowner is going to raise the price again any day. He usually jumps about .20 cents at a time. My pickup is going to do a lot of resting in the shade of my oak tree. I'll go for the mail and visit the laundromat once a week - on Wednesday or Thursday from now on if I can, and make no more than one trip a month to town. Maybe I'll have to get a horse if the price goes to $10 a gallon. I wonder how much alfalfa will cost then. They grow it about 50 miles away down in the Imperial Valley, and there is a feed store here that will stay supplied.

The meds by mail failed me and I am without two of my seven medications for about five days. I've got enough coumadin of various strengths to fake it, but I am very displeased. Apparently the people at the clinic called in the order, but the transmission was cut off, and neither the clinic nor the pharmacy investigated or resent the order. I found out Friday too late to do anything about it until next Tuesday. Oh well, I've probably lived long enough anyhow.

Guess I will turn in so I will wake up in time to listen to all the Sunday political talk shows tomorrow.

Good night.