Blaugust

How now, August?

In journalism school, they teach you that August is a slow news month. Congress is in recess (usually). Everyone of importance is on vacation. The big summer blockbusters have mostly come and gone. Stories in your newspaper talk about how hot it is, how hot it was, how hot it might someday be. In short, we are just here to fill pages in August.

So how is it that August is so busy for me this year?

I really, REALLY wanted to go to the Bare Bones ride on the first weekend of August. It was perfectly spaced as a good prep for doing a 50 at OR 100 in September. But my husband had other plans for that weekend, and they included me.  The annual Pirate Party is always on the first Saturday in August, and for Brian, it is basically the social event of the season.

Don’t get me wrong. I like going to Walla Walla, visiting friends, dressing in my pillaging gear, drinking grog. These are good, piratey activities. Yarr.

The problem is that the second weekend is August is also home to a Walla Walla event: The Sweet Onion Classic model horse show. Because I’m absolutely going to attend the show, I will also miss the Santiam Cascade ride. This means there will be no LD for me before OR 100.

Anyone who knows me well will already guess that I was coming down to the wire trying to figure out how to do both. In theory, if someone else drove Blue to and from Santiam, I could just ride him in the LD on Saturday morning and then drive to Walla Walla in the afternoon. (Because there’s nothing like a six-hour drive after an LD for loosening up stiff muscles. Ha.)

So yeah, no Santiam for me either. But hopefully model Blue will win lots of ribbons and make it a happy horse weekend anyway!