Bits and Pieces

So much weirdness in the world....  My heart goes out to all those people who lost loved ones in Norway over the weekend.  I had gotten myself pretty calm about accepting the tragic loss of life when I happened to see that Glenn Beck was comparing the Norwegian youth camp to the Nazi Youth groups.  That sent my blood pressure sky-rocketing again. Is he a member of one of the other "cells" the killer claims to have on the loose?  ....  The kids being attacked by a mother grizzly bear in Alaska in Alaska was another odd story.  The teenagers were very lucky.  ....  Lightning struck a broodmare barn at Three Chimneys Farm on Sunday night.  The night watchman and a female groom were able to set the two stabled mares free, and help move other horses in the field next to the barn away from the conflagration.  ....  First Dude, one of four horses to run in all three Triple Crown races this year, finally won a Grade I stakes race a couple of weeks ago.  But in doing so, he ripped a tendon in one of his legs and has now been retired to stud.  ....  And, early this morning, the CSU Equine Reproduction Laboratory in Fort Collins burnt to the ground.  Fire officials were called at 1 a.m., to find flames shooting 20 feet above the top of the roof.  The roof collapsed, and the building is assumed to be a total loss. ....  The heat across our nation has been awe-inspiring this month.  I finally had to break down and purchase another fan for my studio apartment.  The new one now sits on the room divider and blows cooler air onto the desk and living room area.  I was so hot that I couldn't get to sleep until after 4 this morning (and the humidity has been higher than normal for Colorado).  I hope I can survive my trip to Florida in October!

The kits are all fine, and so are all my adopted pets that I care for.  Boo is actually staying with Jim's sister in Fort Collins (she works at CSU) and seems to be doing well, so far, in her radiation therapy.  She is still her bouncy, pulling self.  Jim will bring her home Thursday night and the take her back for another treatment on Friday.  I'll see her over the weekend and give her some loving.  And, if you are a sky watcher, this Friday night, when the moon is almost new, there will be a double meteor shower show (for those of you who live away from city lights).  The annual Perseid meteor shower will start tomorrow night, and the Aquarid meteor shower will join in the display on Friday night.  August 12 is the usual "best date" to see high numbers of meteors in the Perseid group, but this year, there will be a full moon competing with the shooting stars. -  And tomorrow is the 86th Annual Chincoteague Pony Penning Swim.  The mares, stallions and foals will swim the one-eighth mile distance of the Assateague Channel during slack tide.  The latest announcement states that slack tide should occur between 12:15 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.  If you go to the swim area early, please take plenty of liquids, bug spray, sunscreen, and wear old shoes (there will be lots of wonderful, stinky, smelly marsh mud exposed during low tide) and a hat.  Most of the EMT calls on Wednesdays of Pony Penning are for heat stroke and heat exhaustion in the crowd waiting for the ponies to swim - please don't be a statistic!