Whadya think?...

~ Jared woke up in the pitch darkness, shaking uncontrollably and miserably cold. He clutched the thin, ragged piece of cloth that his captors so ironically called a "blanket" closer to himself. His feverish mind went to his survival training, "...if you're cold the best thing for you is activity. Do something aerobic...". It was almost funny. Yeah, he'd do something aerobic, if only he could stand up on his own. Everytime he'd tried to so much as sit up he'd either fainted or gotten so dizzy and nauseous that he'd wished he'd fainted.
He was confused momentarily by a strange sensation on his face, but then roused enough to realize that it was only one of the many beetles that came swarming out of the drains every night.
This didn't bother Jared as much as perhaps it should have, but then he felt that they were at least an interesting diversion from the rats, and if worst came to worst he would rather eat the beetles then a raw rat.
So far that hadn't been necessary. He may have wished he were dead, but he wasn't starving. Several times over the past few days someone had come in and poured some thick, bitter, pungent smelling broth down his throat. Most often Jared had simply vomited it back up mere minutes later, but once in a while he kept it down. Apparently they wanted him kept alive for either more questioning or some kind of ransom.
Jared's last thought before slipping into unconsciousness was a hearty hope that he would be able to disappoint them by dying in his sleep. ~

A Plan is Born...

My sister tells me that it is high time for an update, and I must concur. I'm sure all ya'll out there are waiting with baited breath. Oh come on, you know you are!
On Thursday me and Christine went out to check on Tiger and found basically what my farrier had described. The wound was still yellow and weepy, not scabbed over, flies on it, and he's been standing in the mud, which couldn't help. Other then that he's doing good, his weight is about the same as when I left him and his coat looked good.
Upon leaving there we went by our mom's boyfriend's house to see if our mom and brother's were there. You know, just drop in for a quick visit while in the area. After describing the situation to my mom she told me that she and Gary had been talking and were going to ask me if I'd like to bring Tiger to live up there. Gary owns several acres, some of which are fenced in, and a big old barn.
So as it stands right now, that is the plan. I went yesterday and bought feed and supplies (salt blocks, fly spray, antibacterial goop, etc), brought what I had left at my house (feed bin, feed tub, scoop, lead rope, pitch fork, etc), cleaned out one of the stalls, laid down new shavings, put up the feed tup, and all that good stuff.
I talked to Scott (who owns a trailer) and hopefully sometime soon he'll be able to go down and pick up Tiger for me. Now that leaves me with paying for feed and vet bills again, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
This could end up working very well. My mom has volunteered to feed and doctor Tiger for me, and even though there aren't any other horses there, Tiger does pretty good by himself. My little brother's will no doubt go out and visit with him (Tiger loves kids) so that'll make him happy.
So there ya have it people. That's what's happening. I'll write again when I have any other news. Thanks for the kind thoughts and notes!

Concerned N' Anxious in Southern Indiana...

So yesterday my farrier (Scott) stopped by the house. That would normally be a joyous and celebrated occasion, but he brought a bit of...uncomfortable (bad is to strong a word) news. He saw Tiger (my horse as you regular readers know) a couple weeks ago and the cut that I was told wasn't real real bad was yet still gaping and weepy. He said that he thought it should have been being wrapped all this time. From the sounds of it the cut will probably never close completely just because of the build of his feet and the unfortunate placement of the cut (gash? slash? I'm not real sure.). Tiger is not lamed from it, and seems to be walking normally, but by now the cut should at least be scabbed over. This has me quite worried. I am definitely going up to take a look at it after work tomorrow. Scott didn't and couldn't say that this in particular was reason enough to move him, stuff just happens sometimes. But he said he did have a niggling feeling in the back of his mind about the intelligence of leaving him there. Oddly enough, I've been kind of having the same feelings. If Tiger was in any immediate danger Scott would have simply loaded him up and taken him off the farm right then and there, which obviously he didn't do, be he still wants me to go take a look at the situation for myself.
As of yet I don't have a firm game plan for the instance where I want to move him immediately. I have a couple vague possibilities rattling around in my mind, but nothing I can absolutely count on.
Also, if it is very bad then I'll probably get my vet out to take a look at it for me, and that costs money! They had a vet look at him, right after it happened, but it was a vet that doesn't exactly have a dazzling reputation.
In short: I don't know, I just don't know...I can hardly stand thinking about it, because thinking about it isn't doing any good, but I can't stop thinking about it either! I left the TV on last night until I was almost asleep because every time I turned it off, thinking about Tiger woke me up again. It bothers me....a lot.

Can't tell time...

...with my eyes open apparently. Last night I set my alarm clock like always, factoring in the amount of time needed to take a shower and all that good stuff. I left the house for school "a little" early, but didn't figure it would be a problem because I have a good book with me and my new little Mp3 player. There's a test today and a little light reading always calms me down. Weeeellllll, round about the time I figured other people should be showing up already, my sister (who's in another class) walks in. Did I mention that last night my watch stopped? Well it did. Don't do dishes in a non-water resistant watch. I greet her and ask if she knows what time it is by the by. She says "Yeah, a little after 8:00." Class starts at 9:00. Yup, somehow even with looking at my alarm clock and the microwave clock I totally missed that I was leaving an hour early. I have three excuses for this. My watch was stopped (it's started again now), and although it's a bit unnerving to think that I'm that dependent on it, I do fall back on the time I keep on it, because it matches the time kept in the classroom. Second excuse: I have to be at work at 8:00, so possibly in my sleep fogged mind I missed the fact that I was not in reality going to work today! Thirdly, sometimes I can be really stupid. Rather upsetting that this should be one of those days...seeing as in half an hour I'm going to be taking a mid-term, but such is life.
Suppose I should be grateful. I could have been an hour late!
The moral of the story children: Don't depend on me for your wake-up call.

Redemption....

...is ours!!! As some of you may know July the 8th was my grandmother's birthday. Yes indeedy. And some of you may also know that my sister and I performed an improv skit in honor of the occasion. Most of you no doubt know that the last skit we did was an abysmal failure. Not so this time around!
The skit was grounded on the idea that Nan (grandma) needed a screen name and/or email address, so we made up several humorous options based upon her certain interests and/or assets. That alone does not seem very funny. But they were. I assure you they were. At least coupled with the dialogue and explanation that went along with it, it was interesting.

My favorite lines:
"Like the year on a fine bottle of wine."
"Yeah, or cheese."
"Yes, like the year on a fine bottle of cheese!"

All this done in a thick Cockney accent. Yeah, there's background to that. But anyway, all in all it turned out rather good in my opinion. Nan promised that she really would choose one of the screen names that we made up for her.
We're going to hold you to that Nan.

Book review...

...time ladies and gents! At this time I am reading book no. 2 (entitled: The Stone of Tears) in the 8 book The Sword of Truth series. It's superb, very edge-of-your-seat kind of reading. It is fantasy (you know, magic, dragons, wizards, all that good stuff) but extremely well written. It really draws you in. You find yourself thinking about the characters at unusual, un-book-related times during the day, and wishing you could get back to reading the book instead of eating, sleeping, studying, working, or whatever else you do.
The author has a rather unique way of pulling the plot line off in different directions. He leaves one or two characters somewhere and does a chapter (or a few) on somebody else. That sounds confusing with the way I just put it, but it's really not.
Now I will say that I do not recommend these books for the extremely young, innocent or faint of heart. They are books about a war, and they are detailed.
There are a couple scenes that I've noticed seem to drag on a bit. You get the gist of it and are ready to move on, but the characters just keep talking and talking and talking. I've written a couple scenes like that myself, so I'm not about to call the kettle black. All I'm saying is you might find yourself skimming a bit during these parts, but the rest of the excellent writing more the makes up for it!
I'm not a big crier (at least not over books) but there have been a couple scenes in these books that had even me tearing up. That's good writing!
So children, the moral of the story is that you should go the your local library and check out the first book in the series. It's called Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

Back in the swing...

...of things here at home. As some of you may know, I am taking a six week chemistry course here at IUS because I failed it the first time around when I took it at Purdue. This is not something I plan to make a habit out of!!! But anyway, this time it is going exponentially better. Fantastically better! Round about the middle of last semester when they switched teachers on us right before the mid-term, I realized that it wasn't all me. I learned more in that first 50 minute class with the new teacher then I had all semester long with the old one. Granted, chemistry isn't exactly my niche in the academic world, but I generally don't fail things just for fun. So this time around, with Dr. Fleischer giving excellent instruction, I am actually understanding lectures and then I go home and can actually do the homework with minimal panic attacks, slavering, wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's swell.
It is kind of strange being back at IUS, especially with my favorite teacher gone on sabbatical (the Most Wise and Honorable Physics Professor, Dr. Forinash). I do miss Purdue, I am looking forward to coming back there, and I really really hope that the fall semester goes extraordinarily well, so I can get extraordinarily good grades.
That's about all I can think of to say right now so until next time, the moral children, of this little story is never never ever give up.