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Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

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In a post on my website called A Sentimental Racetrack Journey on May 1, 2019, I retold the story of a racehorse named Sir Sidney who I had originally written about in 2014, and how this horse kept popping up in my life’s journey.

In Sir Sidney, My 2020 Horse of the Year, written last August I told the story of how a nice lady named Tiffany found my sentimental racetrack journey story which helped her decide to buy Sid and give him a good home in retirement.

For reasons unknown to me but I am sure understandable, Tiffany had to give Sidney up so I lost track of him once again.

On Monday morning, I got an email. The message line said “Update on Sir Sidney.”

Sid? I thought.

I quickly opened the email and began to read:

Good morning! I recently purchased a lovely OTTB by the name of Sir Sidney. He is absolutely the love of my life and I was doing some research on him hoping to find pics of him in different homes etc. I came across your blog. I have no idea who that Tiffany M lady was, but that’s not who I bought him from so he must have bounced around to a couple more homes before he came to me. I’m emailing you to let you know he will NEVER go anywhere after me. He is the most gentle soul, just looking for someone to love him unconditionally. I’ve started eventing on him and have competed in a couple of small shows already. I’ve hauled him off property to go on trail rides and lessons etc. I dote over that horse,.he now prances around a 10 acre pasture sporting hot pink fly boots, accompanied by an obese Shetland pony (smiley face). I’ll include a few pics of the sweet guy. I hate that he has had such a long journey, but so thankful it led me to him. It feels like he was made for me. This horse is one in a million.

Marilyne

 

Just like last August with Tiffany, I didn’t know Marilyne.

But I sure knew Sid!

 

It was a Déjà vu experience.

It was my Groundhog Day!

 

I had to go back and read Sir Sidney, My 2020 Horse of the Year again!

Then I went back and I read A Sentimental Racetrack Journey again.

 

Then I emailed Marilyne back.

I thanked her for sending me the email and told her that yesterday was my birthday and hearing about Sid was a great birthday present.

 

She emailed me back and said she was glad and that Sid brings joy everywhere he goes. She told me how she renamed him Jonas because of her love of the Jonas Brothers and to just know he is super loved and finally has been given a chance to live out his life because he sure had earned it.

Yes, he has.

He’s worked hard all his life and touched many people.

And as Marilyne so nicely put it he brings joy everywhere he goes.

 

It’s been a nice week, filled with family and memories.

And Sid’s kind of like family now.

 

So now I have another memory.

And like me, he is semi-retired and doing something fun in his old age with lessons and trail rides.

He can prance around his pasture, and I can prance around my backyard!

(But I’m sorry Sid I am not sporting any hot pink fly boots even if it is only in my yard.  No sir!)

And though Marilyne can call him whatever she wants, even Jonas, he will always be Sir Sidney to me.

 

It was a nice birthday present.

It brought me some joy.

My sentimental racetrack journey continues.

Sid is truly is one in a million.

In fact, he is one of millions.

Yet he keeps coming back into my life.

 

And so once again…

I found my Sir Sidney.

 

Sid and Marilyne. Thank you!

 

Nope, I ain’t doing it
Sheltering in Place Prodigiously

Sheltering in Place Prodigiously

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FotorCreated
Cameron’s First Prodigious Snowstorm

I am currently sheltering in place.

I have never done that before. Or at least if I have, I have never called it that before. Sheltering in place is a frequently used term now but it is usually associated with something sinister. Thankfully I have never had to experience that and certainly feel for those who have.

But the radio stations are calling what I am doing this weekend sheltering in place. It makes it sound kind of scary and I feel like maybe I should be concerned.

Unlike the last time it snowed really bad in the DC area and I had to spend days in the house with my wife and kids without work to worry about….it was just called chillin’ then, having fun, relaxing in my place.

But now I am sheltering in place and now I look around the room and see my wife, my daughter, my grandson, and my cat….and I wonder what sinister deed should I be worried about?

Is Savannah going to make her hamburger and codfish casserole again for dinner tonight? That could certainly be scary…

And will the power go out causing us to lose the cable TV and the internet? That would be dastardly too!

And what is the cause of all this commotion?

This Prodigious snow storm they are calling Jonas!

pro·di·gious

1. remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree.
Synonyms: enormous, huge, colossal, immense, vast, great, massive, gigantic, mammoth, tremendous, inordinate, monumental

Okay I am not ashamed to admit that I had to look that word up after the news guy on the radio used it to describe this storm. I have always been mindful of the fact that my vocabulary was not prodigious. And though I have tried to work on that, I have always been a little self-conscious about it; especially since I enjoy writing.

The radio announcements kept encouraging everyone to stock up on nonperishables in case the power went out; to get gas for our cars and generators; to get batteries for our flashlights; and to get cash in case the power goes out and the ATM’s don’t work.

And the people listened because the truth is there has been a prodigious reaction by everyone who lives around here to this prodigious storm and there is probably not a gallon of milk between here and Pittsburgh.

Well, at least most listened.

You see, all that was kind of a problem for me. A week from payday and my bank account was anything but prodigious. I had a prodigious amount of batteries but they were the little ones since my wife and I didn’t communicate well at Christmas and we both bought prodigious amounts of AA and AAA batteries. So I scoured the house for little flashlights… you know the kind they hand out at trade shows or make key chains out of.

And I didn’t have any nonperishables. I had plenty of food in the freezers….but those are perishable. I suppose I could barbeque as the thaw occurred but did I have enough propane? And I suppose if things got really bad around here we could eat the cat…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

food, yeah we could eat the cat food since that’s a nonperishable… but no I think I would be digging my way to a MacDonald’s in a warm State by that point…….

But then it occurred to me that maybe what’s really sinister about all this is this word prodigious……..maybe that’s what is really bothering me.

Maybe it isn’t just my vocabulary that is not prodigious, maybe that is not the only thing I have to be self-conscious about. Maybe there are other aspects of me that are not prodigious…my 401K…my master bathroom…my intelligence…my chest hair…

..so just leave me alone while I shelter in place.

Oh well, I guess we all can’t be prodigious in every way.  At least I have lots of batteries for the remote control.

You know I always thought it was really annoying when you could tell that someone just learned a new word because they insisted on using that new word prodigiously.

Man I hate that.