I spent a lot of time on roads this weekend.

I rode Archie on Friday night and he was the same old champ.  Less springy to throw himself immediately into the canter, but no worries.  He held the trot nicely and did all the little things I asked.

On Saturday, the hubs made us protein pancakes (he's the better pancake maker) and then we headed out to the gym to both get in a quick upper body workout.  I absolutely love our gym time together and am glad we snuck that one session in before...


We went downtown to do our first 5k together.  We've been running together at nights for the past few weeks and he's been running on his own at the gym.  So, pretty ready.  What we weren't ready for was running in the mid-day heat.  We derped that one pretty badly.  I encouraged him to go at his own pace and he darted off while I struggled through the three miles.  I've been pretty proud of myself for not breaking during competitions (except to get water), but this was the exception.  I was barf-hot.  At least it was a gorgeous run!

So handsome.  So hard not to push over the random chick staring at him.

After the run, we continued the festivities.  The primary reason that I was eager to involve D in this run was because it was the Craft Brew Run, so there was able sampling of amazing (and not-so-amazing) beers.  I found a few new favorites and we just had a great time.

Where have you been all my life?

After lunch and a nap, it was off to the barn to ride Archie and Big G.  Both boys were great.  I was super impressed with Archie because we came across a guy with his dog on the trail (his wife boards with us) and Archie just went into hyper-aware mode and not oh-shit mode.  Poor dog belly crawled by us.


Sunday, my sunburnt self drove up to Augusta.  My brother was on furlough from rehab (baby-steps for reintroduction to society?) and my mom asked me to drive him back, since it was kinda-sorta on the way.  Brother and I spent time with my mom and her husband, then had lunch with a few of his friends before swinging by to see my dad and heading back out of town.  We did stop to see my last project at the job I'd held in Augusta before moving to Savannah - the organization of the book store for our ginormous Goodwill campus.  Many books were bought.

Laughing because I asked him to lean forward so my head didn't look so big.

Loved this.

His girlfriend.

It was comforting to spend time with my brother, now, now that his brain is clearing.  I was lamenting the radio stations in Augusta and it went something like this:

Me:  There are like 47 Christian stations, 22 country stations..
Him:  You're exaggerating.
Me:  It's called hyperbole.
Him:  But your hyperbole makes Augusta sound like an actual city.

We could not have had that conversation a year ago.  It was also great to return him to his facility, to actually see it, because he took so much pride in it.  There was a group of young men sitting at a picnic table, smoking, and they all shouted his last name when he opened his car door and then embraced him.  Everyone was so happy to see him.  They helped him carry in his bags and asked about his weekend and then immediately went into rehab-mode, laying out the plan to check his bags and proctor his drug test, all while he was telling me good bye.

Part of the dirt road to his facility.

I spent the next two hours driving through the Georgia countryside, just happy.

This is going to be short and sweet, while I'm drafting a couple other posts.

A really long time ago, when I completed my half.

I had one of the best weekends I've had in a long, long while. So lemme run it down for you and share the exhausted bliss. This might take a while.

A video posted by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Mar 31, 2015 at 10:12am PDT

Given that I am sort of unsociable, I have surprised myself by making acquaintances in my new neighborhood.  There is one fellow who is often out in his wheelchair because he loves the outdoors and hates being confined to his home.  We talk a lot about his progress with physical therapy/rehabilitation.  I saw him the other day, as I was headed to the barn, and stopped to ask him about his Christmas.  I told him that, while I can't complain about 2013 (points to house), I feel that 2014 is going to be a good year.  He said that he felt the same, had the same optimism, and felt it would be the year that he would walk again.

Let's just put that in perspective.  We bitch and moan about various things, our jobs, our friends, our petty inconveniences, and this dude is just hoping to walk.  It's been seven years since he was paralyzed from a gun shot and he remains ever the optimist.  I told him that when he was up and going, we would do a 5k.  :)

In that token of being grateful for what I've got, Ponykins has been a freaking champ.  We had four days in a row off and then three on.  I gave him yesterday off in preparation for riding tonight and tomorrow.  He'll get Thursday off so I can go to the gym and photograph puppies and kittens.  Then a ride on Friday, a lesson(!) Saturday and hopefully something fun on Sunday.  Rinse and repeat.

Someone split a rail at the barn so I used the two almost-perfectly-equal rails to make a skinny.  We've jumped a skinny before at the barn in Augusta, but this skinny fried the Kid's brain.  I had it as a little 18" vertical, which he promptly knocked down.  When I put it back up, he refused.  Derp.  I made it a microscopic crossrail and he jumped it as though it were going to eat him.  I left it up in the ring and OR told me that her horse cantered it beautifully, without any sort of monster-induced hairy eyeballs.

Maybe it was the giant standards.

Wet pony.

You can see our path on the right.

And, finally, I got this picture from the BM:

And this is what I did:

Laundromat.

My adorbs sewing machine.

I was sorta surprised that the little beast sewed through two layers.

Some reinforcement.

And on the Archer.

Speaking of, check out dat ass.

Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

We woke up at about eight and went for a run.  The dreary rain had halted for a moment, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  I expressed to D that the one thing I really regretted from my last time in DC was not running.  I never had an opportunity then, so we made one now.

We started out at our hotel and headed up to Embassy Row, Dupont Circle, and back down part of the Row.  It was a brisk two miles, only halted by stop-lights and solid photo opportunities.   D set a blazing pace initially and I was mighty thankful for those red lights.

D:  Buddha! Me: ...... Or Mahatma Gandhi.

This guy made me sad until I saw his book and then I loved him.

Japanese.

After two miles, we decided to walk through the Farmer's Market (totally kicks Savannah's ass) and get breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien.  D ordered steel cut oatmeal with bananas and a coffee and I ordered some fancy chai tea and more French toast.  Le pain perdu, je pense?  Anyways, I asked the dude for some syrup for my French toast and he told me, with loads of condescension, that it had agave syrup already on it.  I only note this because it was the first time that anyone in DC was even the slightest bit rude to me.  And the dude was right - it was sweet enough.  I still wanted to go on a rant that we Southerners like to drench our food in whatever is available prior to chewing.  (Examples:  gravy, butter, syrup, ketchup, mayo, melted cheese, etc.)

Fancy.

As we walked back to the hotel, it started raining again.  Figures.  We cleaned up, packed up, left our stuff at the front desk and proceeded to walk some more.  I don't remember exactly how it came about, but I was telling him about an umbrella that the KGB used to shoot someone with a tiny bullet coated in poison.  Evidently, he had been sitting right next to me when I watched this special and we decided to go to the Spy Museum to see it.

D wanted to go inside.  I said we'd burn alive.

We signed up for "Operation Spy", where we had to figure stuff out.  I'll be honest.  I didn't love it.  Would it be fun with kids?  Totally.  But it was a random assortment of families and we were all out to make sure that we each had the most fun.  The end didn't make sense and I really wish that it was something D and I could have done together, alone, rather than in a group setting.  Old introvert rears her head.

After the game, we walked the Museum and just absorbed stuff.  I think everyone else had the same idea, though, because the place was packed.  Damn you, shut down.

No idea.  Why not?

We stopped for a late lunch in a little fast food Indian place, Merzi.  It was amazing.

D walked right by this saying, "There's supposed to be an arch somewhere!"

Another walk, another shuttle, another walk, and we were finally ready for our first flight home.  We get in the air, a noxious odor hits the cabin and the flight attendants start scrambling.  D and I had a brief moment of looking at each other.  Later the attendants apologized for having alarmed us, but had checked everything they could check (worded just like that), and felt we were still safe to continue our flight.

The scary flights continued with our second flight, from Atlanta to Savannah.  There was a delay and as we boarded, the mechanic exited while holding a huge manual.  Nothing instills confidence in machinery like a mechanic with a manual.  A few rattles and a jarring landing, and we were finally home.