Notes from Maine - 2023/06/04

Yesterday was exciting! I was back in the mud room, putting things away, when I saw Earl majestically gallop at full speed across the rain-soaked pasture. Eyes wide, I watched. He appeared spooked. A moment later, Maybelle sprinted after him. 

This was surprising for a couple of reasons.

First, Maybelle almost never brings up the rear. The first summer she was here, she disliked Earl quite a bit. When Earl ran, she stayed far away. When Maybelle ran, it was always away from Earl. Then, there was the incident of the horrific, wind-blown trash bag. Earl defeated the terrifying trash bag when it invaded the pasture. He stomped on the trash bag, bit it, and then raised his head to the sky to sprint around the pasture with his vanquished foe in his teeth. That was the only time I saw Maybelle bringing up the rear. She ran with Earl that day, overjoyed that he had put an end to the tyranny of the trash bag. 

After that, she softened towards Earl. Still, Maybelle was a leader, not a follower. If they ran around the pasture together, Maybelle was always in front and Earl would be right behind.

But not yesterday. 

Yesterday, Earl ran through the rain followed by Maybelle and I was surprised.

The second cause of my surprise was because I had intentionally separated them. In order to run together, a jailbreak had taken place. Someone had opened Maybelle’s door from the outside and let her out. Naturally, one might assume Earl was the culprit, since he was the only one with access to the outside of the door. That assumption would have to be set in a reality where Earl was smart enough to figure out how to open Maybelle’s door, and that’s not the reality that we live in.

So, I ran out into the rain after retrieving a lunge whip. They’re respectful of the whip, but it’s just a noise-maker. It’s not something you would try to strike a horse with unless you wanted that horse to figure out that it doesn’t actually inflict pain—just noise. I chased them back to the barn and separated them. Today, while I was adding another latch to the door, Maybelle bump-bump-bumped the door from the inside as I worked. Maybe she jostled it open? 

It’s nice to have the rain. It rained most of yesterday, and we have a bunch more in the forecast. Things were starting to get a bit dry. Mom put in a ton of plants and I was out there every day with a watering can trying to keep them alive. Maybe the rain will do a better job than I was doing.

This year has been funny so far—we’re either inundated or dry. A month ago, we had flooding everywhere. Roads were closed and up at the camp I had to lash the dock to some trees so it wouldn’t float away. I had a little road leading to the back part of this property and it washed away. That culvert has been in trouble for years though. The washout was no real surprise. This is the year that I’ll get it fixed, I swear. I need more pasture for these crazy, uncontainable horses. 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about a vacation. 

“From what?”

Fair question. I guess the most obvious answer is that I would be taking a vacation just to have a change. When I come back, I’ll appreciate regular life that much more. Having Mom here was almost like a vacation. Her projects pulled me out of my routine. We had fun. In the nineties, I used to ride my bike in the Trek Across Maine. Back then it was a 180-ish mile (300k) ride spread over three days where you pedaled from a ski resort down to an oceanside resort. It was fun because you had zero responsibility for those three days. Having already collected sponsorship pledges for the American Lung Association, your job was only to wake up, eat, and ride. We slept in college dorm rooms and volunteers handed out snacks at rest stops. Fun.

If I could design a perfect vacation, I suppose it would be something like that. I don’t need to see exotic locations or experience delicious cuisine. I would just like to maybe spend a weekend where I was disconnected from responsibility. But I guess there’s a huge chance that I would hate that.