Saturday in Fort Collins

We're enjoying our first full day with our son, Wade Daniel, daughter-in-law, Marie, and granddaughter, Juliet, in Fort Collins, Colorado.

We spent a quiet morning watching Juliet play and watch "Veggie Tales." Then we went out to lunch in old town Fort Collins to a Mongolian barbecue restaurant which is one of our favorite places.

Here are some pictures of our first day, all of Juliet of course. Being a granddad is great!

Juliet with her favorite Mother, Marie...


Playing with her "cotton candy bear..."


Catching up on her reading...

Playing with crayons at the Hu Hot Mogolian Barbecue restaurant...

Asking her Dad if he wants to sample a tasty crayon...

Wade Daniel with his food and me with Juliet and we're both happy...


A good start to our time here.

Today is March 7 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Ivan Lendl (Czech tennis player), Tammy Faye Baker (noted user of make up), Daniel J. Travanti (actor, Capt. Furillo on "Hill Street Blues"), Willard Scott (NBC weatherman), Lord Snowdon (husband of Princess Margaret), Maurice Ravel (composer, "Bolero"), and Luther Burbank (plant geneticist).

On this day in 1530 the Pope refuses the request for a divorce by Henry VIII of England (which led to the split from the Catholic Church). In 1908 Mark Breith, the mayor of Cincinnati, stood before the city council and announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles." In 1911 Willis Farnworth of Petaluma, California, patented the coin-operated locker. In 1912 Ronald Amundsen annouces the discovery of the South Pole. In 1926 the first transatlantic telephone call was made from London to New York. In 1933 The game "Monopoly" is invented. And in 1955 "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin and Cyril Richard was presented as a television special for the first time.

On Our Way to Fort Collins, Colorado

Betty and I are in our Toyota Tundra and we're trucking our way to Fort Collins, Colorado to see our son, daughter-in-law and GRANDDAUGHTER!

We haven't seen them since Christmas so we need a Juliet fix. What will be fun is she has just recently started walking so that will be a new experience for us.

I'll have my laptop with me so I'll try to post some pictures from our trip over the weekend.

We come home on Tuesday so I'll resume my regular posts next Wednesday.

Everybody be good and keep out of the Girl Scout cookies while we're gone.


Today is March 6 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Shaquille O'Neal (basketball player and BIG man), Tom Arnold (comedian and ex-husband of Rosanne Barr), David Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd), Rob Reiner (comedian/director), Kiri Te Kenawa (New Zealand singer), Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirate player), Marion Barry (DC Mayor and drug user), Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the US Federal Reserve), Ed McMahon (sidekick to Johnny Carson), Lou Costello (comedian, Abbott and Costello), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poet).

Best Laid Plans

As I write this we're having a windy New Mexico afternoon - and yes, Michelle, I don't mind this wind - it's warm. It's cold wind that I don't like.

We had planned to trailer the horses down to one of the ditches where we could park the trailer. Then we would ride down to the Bosque - the woods along the river.

Both horses got into the trailer just fine which was great as Sugar is still learning how to get in on her own without being led into the trailer. Morgunn is the old pro on trailering.

When we got to the ditch the wind had really picked up and Sugar was a little antsy. It was a new place and we've found that she's sensitive to new places. Once she's seen them a couple of times she's fine. Add the wind on top of the new place and she was, "Why did you bring me here?" So, we decided to take advantage of the wind.

Rather than ride, we walked them up and down the ditch with their saddles and bridles on. Morgunn was fine, but Sugar kept being distracted. Betty continued to work with her and she eventually settled down where she was paying good attention to Betty and walking nicely along side of her. Sugar is still on the young side. She'll be 8 on March 19 whereas Morgunn is almost 10. Morgunn was a lot like Sugar two years ago and it's amazing how much difference those two years have made in his maturity.

Sugar's a smart horse and learns quickly. They both got back into the trailer with no problems and we brought them home.

It wasn't what we planned, but it turned out to be a good day of work and training with both horses - especially Sugar.

Today is March 5 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Jodi Wade (our good friend and wife of our Pastor), Niki Taylor (model), Kevin Connolly (songwriter), Eva Mendez (Cuban actress, "Hitch"), Andy Gibb (singer, the BeeGees), Michael Warren (actor, "Hill Street Blues"), Samantha Eggar (actress, "The Collector"), James Nobel (actor, the Governor on "Benson"), and Rex Harrison (actor, "My Fair Lady").

On this day in 1623 the first American temperance law enacted in Virginia. In 1750 The first Shakespearean play in America was presented at the Nassau Street Theatre in New York City. The play enjoyed by the audience was the famous "King Richard III." In 1770 British troops killed five colonials in the so-called "Boston Massacre," one of the events that led to the American Revolution. In 1836 Samuel Colt manufactured the first pistol a .34-caliber "Texas" model. In 1960 Elvis Presley returned to civilian life after a two-year hitch in the U.S. Army. And in 1982 comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33 (and that began the end of the original, and best, Saturday Night Live).

Lava Flow in the Morning

We decided not to ride this morning. We both were tired and Betty has a full day so we're going to try again tomorrow morning.

So, here are a couple of pictures from this morning when I went out to feed the horses and get the paper.

First, Sugar having her breakfast on the tack room porch. Gletta and Morgunn are in the stalls eating their hay.

However, I didn't appreciate the full effect of the morning sky until I walked out to the street to get our paper. Then I could see a broader expanse of the sky.

My first thought was it looked like a flow of lava coming across the sky. God does a pretty good job of creating art in the morning.


Today is March 4 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Chastity Bono (daughter of Sonny & Cher), Patsy Kensit (actress, "Lethal Weapon 2"), Patricia Heaton (actress, wife on "Everyone Loves Rayond"), Paula Prentiss (actress, "He & She"), Knute Rockne (Notre Dame football coach), and Antonio Vivaldi (composer).

On this day in 1519 Cortez lands in Mexico. In 1634 John Cole opens the first tavern in Boston (I think it was called "Cheers"). In 1681 England's King Charles the Second granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania. In 1789 the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for the lack of a quorum.) In 1797 John Adams was inaugurated the second president of the United States. In 1801 Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. In 1902 the American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago. In 1925 Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office this day in Washington. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the very first time. And in 1950 Walt Disney's "Cinderella" was released.

Tuesday Ride

This morning Betty and I trailered Sugar and Morgunn down to the local arena in Corrales. Our goal was to begin riding both horses at a faster gait in a safe environment. Both horses are out of shape from the winter slow down. At best we were able to ride them once a week, but sometimes not even that often because of the wind and weather. So, we're trying to get them back into shape little by little. The Corrales arena is nice and large so there is ample room to ask our horses to move up to a good gait.

This was Betty's first time to ride Sugar in her natural gait - called a Saddle Rack. You could tell that Sugar needed some conditioning, but by the end of our time there her gait was looking pretty good - nice and smooth.

If you've never seen a Rocky Mountain Horse gaiting, here's a short video.




Tomorrow morning we hope to take both horses down to the Bosque and ride through the woods along the river.

Today is March 3 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Jessica Biel (actress, "Seventh Heaven"), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olympic gold medalist track star), Herschel Walker (NFL running back), James Doohan (actor, Scotty on "Star Trek"), Jean Harlow (actress), and Alexander Graham Bell (telephone inventor).

On this day in 1513 Ponce de Leon sails from Puerto Rico to find the Fountain Of Youth. In 1639 Harvard College was named. In 1791 Congress passed a resolution ordering U.S. Mint be established. In 1845 Florida became the 27th state (and half of the population of New York immediately moved there). In 1931 an act of Congress designated "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States. And in 1939 a new craze - swallowing goldfish - began to sweep college campuses, getting a start at the Ivy League's Harvard University.

Monday Video - You're Getting Very, Very Sleepy

Have you ever been in a class, or in a meeting, or even in church -- and suddenly you realized you just couldn't keep your eyes open? You try your best, but the eyelids get heavy and your head sinks to your chest -- and all of a sudden you have no idea how long you've been asleep and you jerk your head back up -- and pretend you've been listening to every word.

Never happens to you? Right.

Even in the horse world -- you have to wonder what this poor horse was having to listen to.




Today is March 2 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Daniel Craig (actor, the new James Bond), Jon Bon Jovi (singer), Laraine Newman (comedian, original on "Saturday Night Live"), Karen Carpenter (singer, "We've Only Just Begun"), Lou Reed (singer), Mikhail Gorbachev (Russian leader), Jennifer Jones (actress, "Song of Bernadette"), Desi Arnaz (Cuban bandleader and husband of Lucille Ball), and Dr. Seuss (children's author).

On this day in 1629 the Speaker of the House of Commons is forcibly kept in his chair (could we do this with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?) In 1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico. In 1899 Congress established Mount Ranier National Park. In 1903 the Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel featured 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women. In 1923 Time magazine made its debut. In 1949 an American B-50 Superfortress, the "Lucky Lady II," landed at Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first nonstop round-the-world flight. Capt. James Gallagher completed the 23,452 mile flight in 94 hours 1 minute. In 1962 Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain scored 100 points and broke an NBA record as the Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147. And in 1974 the price of a first-class postage stamp was raised from 8-to-10 cents (ah, the good old days).

Sunday Reflections - Freedom

Freedom.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners..." (Luke 4:18)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

It appears to me that the Bible makes it pretty clear that Christ's followers are to live in freedom. In fact, freedom is one of the principal reasons that Jesus came.

I chose the picture above of Morgunn and Sugar playing together. One of the blessings we have is the ability to keep our horses in a paddock that's about 2/3 of an acre. They have plenty of room to move and run about - and even to play when their spirits move them.

When we first started to think about getting horses the other alternative was to board them at a boarding stable. We know that for some people that's their only alternative, but it's sad when we drive by the stable in Corrales. The horses are turned out for a few hours each day, but the rest of the time they spend their day in a small, box stall. They have little freedom in their lives.

Even though Morgunn and Sugar have much more freedom to run and play, notice the fence in the background. Their freedom has boundaries - but those boundaries are meant to protect them. If there were no fence they would be tempted to run loose and be at the mercy of dogs, coyotes, cars, and other dangers that could cause them harm.

Within the fence they are safe and have all the freedom they can want.

I believe God's freedom is like that.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13-14)

We are called to be free, but free within "God's fence."

If you have a children, you know as a parent that you want your children to have freedom, but within boundaries. You know there are things they can do that will get them into trouble. "But, I thought you want me to be free. All the other kids get to do that." Yeah, right.

Sometimes I think God says to me, "Yeah, right" when I want to do something stupid. "But, I thought you want me to be free."

And, God's answer is, "Yes, I want you to know true freedom - the freedom that lives within my grace, within my mercy, within my commands, within my love, within my will for you. Life outside of my grace, mercy, commands, love, and will is not freedom but slavery - the slavery of sin. It's your choice."

There are people in our world who would choose to take some of our freedoms from us. They may be successful in the world's view. But, as long as we live within God's grace, mercy, love, commands, and will we will always be free.

And no one in this world can take that freedom from us.


Today is March 1 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Ron Howard (actor, Opie in "The Andy Griffith Show" and director, "Apollo 13"). Alan Thicke (actor, "Growing Pains"), Robert Daltrey (singer The Who), Robert Conrad (actor, "Wild, Wild West"), Harry Belafonte (actor/singer), Pete Rozelle (former NFL commissioner), Harry Caray (sportscaster for the Chicago Cubs), David Niven (actor, "The Pink Panther"), and Glenn Miller (bandleader).

On this day in 1565 Rio de Janiero was established in Brazil. In 1638 the first Swedish settlers arrive in North America. In 1780 Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery. In 1790 Congress authorized the first U.S. Census. In 1864 Rebecca Lee became the first black woman to receive a medical degree, from the New England Female Medical College Boston. In 1872 Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park. In 1912 Captain Albert Berry of the Jefferson Barracks St. Louis, Missouri, made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane. In 1932 the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family's home near Hopewell, New Jersey. (Remains identified as those of the baby were found the following May.) In 1941 FM Radio began when station W47NV Nashville, Tennessee, started operations. W47NV was the first commercial FM radio station to receive a license, some 20 years after its AM radio counterpart, KDKA Pittsburgh. And in 1968 Country music stars, Johnny Cash and June Carter, got married.