April Accelerates

April is so hectic, and proceeding so quickly, that I am going to break the blog in half, as I catch up again. This picture of turkeys in the pasture looks like April days running past…

I left off blogging just before Harry went into the hospital for a final (we hope) heart procedure. His pacemaker being well settled in, on April 4th he had an AV node ablation, making him “pacemaker dependent”. We were told he would be sent home after the procedure, which was scheduled for 2:30 in the afternoon. Well, as often happens with afternoon appointments, there were delays, so he was about an hour late being taken to the operation. After receiving a call from Dr. Cooper that all had gone well, I was looking forward to taking the patient home. Not so fast! The recovery room staff had left, so Harry was sent up to a hospital room to be kept overnight. We were both very unhappy with this turn of events. I complained a bit, and planned to spend the night, with Jane rising to the occasion as she always does, to look after the animals. Eddy was thrilled – he adores Jane.

Dr. Cooper stopped by the hospital room for a visit, and was surprised to find two rather cranky people wishing they could go home to sleep in their own bed. He relented, and Harry was discharged at 9:30 PM, as soon as he met the parameters for release. The technician who brought him out to the car said she had never seen a patient discharged at night before! We felt very lucky indeed, and we did sleep well in our own bed at home, with Weedy on nurse duty.

With Harry immediately improved, life careened on. CeCe went to Ohio to horse show, and Crumlin came to Ali’s to take the empty stall and to get some exceptional rides by Ali. It was fun to watch, since Crumlin is one of my favorite horses. Betsy came from a visit on Saturday. She has been following Crumlin for a while, and she also loves him. It was a beautiful but chilly, windy day.

On Sunday, I watched Jane and Susan have a lesson, which was inspirational. They were both stars, ready for the upcoming horse show at Happenstance.

Sadly, the Happenstance Horse Show will be Susan’s last for a while. She will be getting a hip replacement later in April. Her hip is so bad that she is at the top of the list for surgery. Initially, she was going to try to keep riding until November, but she decided it was better to proceed with the operation now (the surgeon had a cancellation, making her eligible). She will be 5 months recovering, which sounds like a long time, but better to get fixed and pain free. The only thing NOT painful for Susan is riding, but walking is a fairly important part of the horse experience, too.

At Ali’s we met a new pair, Callie (who looks a lot like Stone) and Justine, who is a mature rider, almost an “old lady” rider like the rest of us. Justine is a lot of fun and Callie is delightful.

This takes us to the eclipse of 2024, a much hyped event. At our location, we got 97% totality and clear skies. Nephew (and godson) Luke, the brother of Rachael, who has appeared in several blog posts, came from Kansas City with his dog Arlo. I did my annual cooking of a meal! Luke arrived Sunday afternoon and departed on Monday morning to search for 100% totality, south of here in the Ozarks. He and Arlo hiked the Ozark Trail and saw the total eclipse of the sun. Luke said it was worth the effort. He sent a picture.

Here, Jane and Harry and I thought it was a bit less exciting than the eclipse of 2017. I was sidelined with painkillers and a back problem during that one, so I don’t really remember it all that well, but it got darker than this year. Even 3% of the sun throws light. Still, this is likely our last eclipse, with the next one due in twenty years.

Meanwhile, Spring is quite glorious here, galloping along whether we pay attention or not.

Be content, be well, be kind and curious. Slava Ukraini! Peace.