It has been exactly a year since my grandfather's memorial service/viewing ... exactly a year since Melissa called my cell to tell me Image had to be put down.

Man, that was a sucky day.

Today was not sucky. Parts of it were, I mean; no day is perfect after all. But it wound up with me learning how to properly trot, to set a horse's head in Western, to maintain the trot while changing direction. Thank goodness I don't ride English ... I'd have to learn how to POST. Getting the correct lead when I start to canter is going to be hard enough!

I LOVE RIDING. I hope I can make enough money to continue to take lessons. Barring that, I hope I can take lessons long enough to get good enough to ride on my own! I want to get the Munchkin a horse ... I want a job ... a house of my own ... a dog. A horse trailer. A double one. And a big truck. A 2500. And while I'm at it, I want a horse like Image ... a big easy keeper, plays like a three-year-old, falls asleep when he's bored, plays with buckets and does goofy stuff to make me laugh, whickers and talks to me if he knows I've got treats in my pocket.

RIP, Grampa and Image. I wish you two had met. You would've liked each other.

Copper Top's down for an early nap, and Nesterino is up. He surprised me with his first auto-pants-removing-incident, awakening in nothing but a diaper and shirt. Now it's lunchtime - Soylent Green mixed with oatmeal cereal, rice rusk, rejected carrot, enthusiastically accepted canteloupe, and organic Greek yogurt.

Oh, my life is such a grand and exciting adventure. On to wipe his face.