It's Friday! Time to get Random!

Linking in to A Rural Journal For the Random Five Friday.


1. I am related to the founder of Dallas Texas.  His name was John Neely Bryant.  He is my great, great, great, great, great uncle on my fathers side.  I have heard this story  since I was young but recently wanted to verify that it was true so I start researching. Oddly enough I was able to google my grandmothers name, and came up with a genealogy that showed me it was true.  Through this little endeavor I started an account at Ancestory.com and have found a ton of pictures of my ancestors that even my own father had never seen. I have traced back some family lines to England.  I also found out that some of  my mothers ancestors and fathers ancestors lived 2 doors down from each other in a small town in Louisiana.  There is so much more information I have learned- sometimes I think I should start a blog just on my family history, and probably will.

This is part of my fathers family.  The oldest man in the chair is John Pryor Durham Sr.
He is my fathers great grandfather. 

This is Sarah and Edward Ware, they are my mothers maternal grandparents.
 I am always struck by how pretty Sarah is at a time when many women looked
hard and tired.  Also I am amazed at how much my mom looks like her grandmother. 

2. In case you have not noticed, I am a huge history buff. Whether it be family history or just history I think it is the single most important thing we can preserve.  I know that in the Mormon religion it is common for each person to write the memoirs in order to preserve the family history. I think this is a brilliant idea, and think that everyone should do so.  On the other hand, so much of my own personal history was so dark, I can't imagine leaving that legacy behind.


3.I am going to have flowers at my new house in AZ. There are rose bushes and a lot of natural blooming desert plants in the front yard.  I am excited, because even though I am not a big gardener, I have always wanted to have something pretty growing in my yard.  Of course I can't even keep my front yard green here in WY, so hopefully I don't kill all the flowers.


4.  I try to be a spiritual person.  I am not a religious person, as in I do not go to church, but I do have a conscious contact with God and I do pray on a daily basis.  I do not pray for "things", but I do pray for guidance and understanding of my fellow man,  I do like to give thanks for every little thing I have, I do pray for others as well. My grandmother was the most spiritual person I have ever known.  She radiated peace and serenity. I never once heard her say a cross word about anyone, even if she did not care for them, she always found something nice to say.  I have always wanted to be more like her.


5.  I am in love with Vintage British Motorcycles.   If I could own any bike in the world it would be a 1938 T500 Speed Twin Triumph.   My second choice would be a Vincent Black Shadow or an AJS Matchless.  My favorite Harley is a 1948 Panhead. First year of that engine model.   I also always thought it would be cool to own and old Servi-car.  Yes I do love me some vintage bikes.  I should probably stop there, because I could go on for days!

1938 T500 Speed Twin Triumph. Steve Mcqueen used to own one.
I believe his sold at auction for 45,000.  That is just a tad
out of my price range.

Vincent Black Shadow- one of the fastest motorcylces ever made. 

AJS Matchless. The name speaks for itself

Harley Pan head.  Now that is just cool!

I can totally see me putting around town on this bad boy! 

Playing Favorites

I try not to have a 'favorite" horse, but the truth is, I do.  Trax, is my favorite. Danny is my second favorite. Those red horses...well some days I threaten to send them to the glue factory, but really I love them too. They just get on my nerves.

They are constantly pinning ears and making ugly faces at each other, at Trax, at the neighbor horses and at Danny.  They are constantly kicking at each other through the fence.  Sassy paws at the fence, and likes to be an all around destructo-bot.   She has broken more fencing, and done more damage than all three of my other horses combined.  She's a monster!  Killian knocks down stuff, and leans over the barbless wire (my whole outer fence line leans at a 30 degree angle now), starts fights, charges the gates. And they both are terrible about trying to get into the barn to get into the food.

On Sunday, when we got home from the shows, I let Trax out into the pasture.  Killian and Sassy were out. The first thing those two red heads did was run after him. He wasn't even close to them. All he wanted to do was graze!  Killian went after him like a stud horse ear pinned and teeth bared. Trax took off running, of course Sassy joined in the chase.   I was thrilled when I saw Trax give one of his mile high bucks right in Killians face. He almost connected too!  Finally I took Danny and Trax and put them in the dog yard together so Trax could graze in peace.

Obviously Killian needs a job. He needs a job that does not involve herding that mare around.  In fact, once we get moved, I am going to separate those two and Big K is going to get some serious work outs. Sassy is also going to start getting some work too. It might not be physically hard, but it will be mentally challenging. A little something to get her mind right.  Those two are out of control and I know it is my fault.

The other day Sassy went to the fence to talk to "Da Brudders" next door.  Killian raced over and got between them. He pinned his ears at her and pushed her away and then he stood there and pawed the ground and challenged poor Attan to make a move. Attan just looked at him like, "Dude, you can have her." Its just stupid.

If Danny even walks past Killian's pen , K charges the panel and scares the crap out of Danny. All Danny is trying to do is get to his own pen.  Like I said it is stupid.

The new place has enough different stalls in different locations that I could take those red horses and put them far away from each other.  Then for Grazing I can start putting Danny and Sassy together some, and Trax with Killian. Trax can hold his own with the bully. He is much faster, and has no qualms kicking old green teeth right in the face if needed. (Did you catch the "Uneasy Rider" reference there?)

Trax is the Golden Child. He doesn't try to get into the food. He doesn't start fights, he doesn't tear stuff up. He just wants to be left alone to graze and roll at will. He thinks red horses are stupid too. Especially the ones he lives with.  Trax can do no wrong!

Danny is pretty good except at dinner time then he paws at the ground and the gate, and he will go in and steal food too if he can.  But for some reason it is cute when he does it.

Ok I guess I do have favorites.

DIVSTER????

These are 11 random questions from Funder, over at It seemed like a good idea at the time.


1.  Where are you from? 
2.  Where have you been?
3.  What scares you the most (and I don't mean "spiders")?
4.  What's your favorite food?
5.  What's your biggest regret, or do you not believe in regrets?
6.  Favorite band (with links!)
7.  What's the first name you ever gave?  (I named my first cat Butterfly.  I was three.  I have no explanation.) 
8.  Is there a name you're saving?  For a girl child, or a homebred horse, or a funny cat name?
9.  Biggest personal accomplishment, present or future?
10.  What's your favorite book?  (reusing this, but I always love to hear the answers.)
11.  What do you want for your epitaph?



My answers:

1.  Born in Shreveport, grew up in Arizona, currently in Wyoming, moving back to AZ.

2. To the darkest depths of my mind and back to the light again.

3. Being homeless.

4. That is tough, probably my own home made waffles. Or Gravy....gosh I love gravy!

5. That I didn't fight hard enough to get custody of my 2 older sons, and then used that as an excuse for a lifetime of self medicating.

6. This one is a no brainer...number one fav of all time is Jalan Crossland  or http://www.jalancrossland.com/
 I also love The Allman Brothers and Dicky Betts  This particular video is one of my favorites they ever did.  There is something about a simple Jam session that does it for me.   There is another guy named Diamond Lou, down in Texas that I really like, but can't find the link to his video right now. (He is my brother)

7. I think that would be my Golden Retriever, Charm.  She had a registered name that I can't remember now. But she was a show dog that was sold to me by a friend of my mom's. Her sire was the top winning Golden in the country at the time, and she was equally as gorgeous. We won every time we went into the show ring, but then she got bone cancer and had to be put down.

8.  I always thought Treasure would be a pretty name for a girl, but alas I had all boys. I also love the name Lillian.   I have a name I want to name a horse some day....Wheels.

9. Just celebrated 10 years free from active addiction. That is a biggie for me.

10.  Tam the Untamed and the rest of the Ajax series and the Brumby series by Mary Elwyn Patchett. I love her books with a passion. They are geared for young folks, but I still love to read them even now.   The Symphony of Ages series (specifically Rhapsody) by Elizabeth Haydon.  I wish that some brilliant movie producer would pick this up and recognize what a great movie it would make.
 Of course all the Harry Potter books, and also the Lord of the Rings. I am a sucker for a good fantasy and these were so well written, I could not put them down.  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, where we learn a lot about being a human from the perspective of a dog.  Horse Power- A Memoir by Annette Israel, which is a great horse story.    Deep summer by Gwen Bristow. (I read this a million times as a young girl, and just found out today that it was part of a trilogy so now I need to get the set!)

11. She came to believed that all things were possible, and so they were.


I would love to see other peoples answers to the questions.  Feel free to answer them here or send me a link to your own blog with the answer.

Day 2, Ranch Horse show

As I type this I am as sore and tired as I have been in a long time. But I am loving it!  My doctor had told me recently that horse back riding doesn't count as exercise because it is not sustained.  Clearly she has never been to a show.  LOL

So if you missed my previous post, where in we actually placed in 2 classes on our first day, you can click Here to read about that.

Picking up where I left off....
It was such an awesome day and I was almost in tears I was so happy with my boy.  Once I had him put away, I went to the motor home and took off my jeans because my legs had been itching and sore most of the day. What I found was that I had hives from my ankles to my thighs and some of it was dark dark red and burning.  I tried putting some lotion on but that was the wrong thing to do. Burn burn burn!!!   (I have a picture but it is pretty gross so I won't post it.)

When the last class was done, I went to help RC and Sky load up the jumps. They had to drive those back to Casper and then get the trailer load of cows for the next day.  To be honest, I was sore and tired, and volunteered to stay at the motor home with Sky's Golden Retriever, Dozer.  That way they could just get their cows without having to worry about the dog. Not that he isn't a good dog, but he is young and does require some supervision.  So off they went to town and Dozer and I grilled a burger and shared it. I took a nice shower, checked on my horse and went to bed.  They finally made it back about midnight.  I swear those gals really put in some long hours to make this show happen, and don't get near enough credit.

The next morning Dozer wanted out about 5 am, so I got up with him and let the other two sleep.  I grabbed a cup of coffee, and went and got Trax and let him do some grazing.  It was beautiful out, a little chilly but not bad, but quiet and serene.  Trax was more than happy to just hang out with me and graze. Dozer, thought grazing looked  like fun so he joined in.  Once my coffee was gone I tied Trax to a pole surrounded by grass and cleaned his stall and put down fresh bedding, fresh water, and his breakfast.

The day before I had two buckets of water for Trax, a black rubber one with Douglas water, and a galvanized one with water from home. At first it seemed that he only wanted the water from home. But through the course of the weekend I realized that it wasn't the water, but the bucket. He did not care for the rubber bucket.  It was not a new bucket, and he has eaten grain out of it a gazillion times. But he prefer's galvanized.  He sucked those buckets down like crazy.  One thing I love about him. He travels well.

By time I got back the motor home, the other two were up and showered and it was time to get to work.  The nice thing about Ranch Horse Shows is that there is a lot less going on at one time, so I was able to really focus on my horse this day. I lunged him, he seemed pretty calm for the most part, I saddled him up and rode him some and noticed the judge (Same from the day before) watching me.  As I rode past he said, "He looks a lot better today."  I thought, "You have no idea." but said, "Thanks"  That was also right when I found out that we had to have a cowboy hat, or be DQ'd.  I had managed to forget mine at home and ended up having to borrow one, which was way too big, but at least had a strap to hold it on.

Then I realized that the halter class was first and here was my horse all sweaty and still kind of dirty from rolling in the dirt the day before.  I ran him back to the trailer and got him cleaned up as best I could. I did not even have time to brush his main and tail!

The show was divided into 3 divisions. Jr. Horse, Non- pro, and Open.  We were in the Non Pro and there were a total of 6 horses in that division.   Each division has to do Halter, Trail, Ranch Riding (like western pleasure) Reining and then the cow work.  The open class  gets to do extra cow work by circling and roping the cow.

So we head into to the halter class, my horse looking like the poor relation from the south while everyone else was shiny and clean.  The judge looked everyone over, I tried my best to get him to stand square, but it wasn't happening and asking him to only made him fidget more.  So I gave up and just stood there.  He made his choices, they announced 6th place, it wasn't me.

Really?

They announced 5th, still in the ring. 4th place, still there. 3rd place still there (are you kidding me?) 2nd place, they called our names! I couldn't believe it! The horse that got first was built like a brick...well you know, so I did not mind losing to him at all. I was truly blown away.

Then it was back to the trailer to saddle back up and get back to warming up.  Poor Trax, couldn't tell if we were coming or going, but he kept his cool during it all.

The trail pattern was relatively easy and I was confident that we would do well. What I didn't count on was my inability to pick up the rope for the log pull with the correct hand (I'm so bad with left and right) which meant in order for me to dally on the proper side I had to pass the rope under his neck. Then (the judge told me later) I did not dally correctly, so that hurt us too. (I also learned that almost no one dallied right) Trax did great though.  The only place he failed me was when I needed to ground tie him.  He wouldn't stay still. I ended up having to throw in my  little trick of picking up each foot to get him to stand still. We were allowed to do extra stuff to show off our horse so I did what I could to make him look better.  The judge said we could have done better on our rope gate, because when we are backing into place to close it, Trax tends to swing wide and I always have to push his hip back in. No biggie though, I can work on that.  He did commend me on our trailer loading. The task was to load your horse in the stock trailer, shut the gate then go back in and get back him out.  Trax was the only horse who did not have to be led into the trailer. I opened the gate, told him to load up and he went in and to the front of the trailer.  Then he backed out like a dream. Every other horse struggled with backing out.  Still it was a scoring run and I think we ended up in 5th place. The log pull killed us.

Next was Ranch Riding which is a rail class. When ever we were asked to lope, Trax thought we were in a race. There was one time when we were told to trot and he took off at a lope  extended lope   dead run.  I turned him in a circle to slow him down.  At the end of the class the judge told each one of us how we did. He told me that if I had just checked him down instead of circling him, we would have been 3rd, instead we were 5th.  I'll take it.

Then came the reining.  The pattern was a working cow horse pattern. 3 circles to the right, each one slightly smaller and slower, lead change, 3 circles to the left, go down around the end of the arena, come up the middle and do a sliding stop at the opposite end, 2.5 spins to the right, run to opposite end another sliding stop, 2.5 spins to the left, run to the center of the arena, another sliding stop and then back up.  Then you ask for your cow. For the cow work, you pen your cow at the end of the arena pushing to both ends, then pen him down one side of the arena staying within the markers, and push him back. You are timed, and only have 4 minutes.

Trax struggles with patterns like this, too much running sends him to a different place, you know...the marathon runner place, so I was really a little concerned about how well he would handle it.  But we practiced and did lots of downward transitions, and re directions to get him in the right frame of mind.

We were the first horse in our class to go. I wanted to get it over with. I had been practicing the pattern for an hour so I knew it was as good as it was going to get for us, the longer we stood around the worse it would be.  I rode out and the Judge waved to me. I thought that meant go, but really it meant wait.  So they called me back. I went back to the starting point and waited, at which time Trax decided he needed a pee break anyway.  He always knows when to give some comedic relief!

We were signaled to start and off we went.  He was good, not too chargy, struggled a little with the lead change (again) but got it done and circling to the left really rated me well when it was time too. I had to reach down with both hands and adjust my reins a couple of times, and used 2 hands on the stops, and I figured that doing so had DQ' us.   His stops were not sliding, of course, and as always it takes him a few steps, but he did stop and I did not have to one rein him or really get after him. I gave him his cue and he gave me the best stop he could give me, at this time.  His spins were a little coke bottle-ish but I'm going to take the blame for that. I could have gone a little slower and done better on those.  His back up was a little crooked but relatively smooth and with his head down most of the time.

We asked for our cow, and he locked on to it immediately.  We penned it at the end, we ran it down the side, and turned it around just in time. Then we ran it back up and penned it again. We attempted one more go at it, but didn't quite get what I was hoping for, but we did keep control of our cow the whole time. They called the 1 minute warning and we pushed him down to the gate and called it done.

As soon as we were out the gate I jumped off, loosened the cinch and told him he was done.  He got a hose down, a roll in some dirt and a nice long drink once he had quit breathing so hard.  I was happy with the cow work, not unhappy about the reining work, even though we had dq'd.

Tired and dirty after a long hard weekend. 

Once TC had left with the motor home and I was pretty much ready to roll, I went back to the announcers booth and got to see my scores for the day. As it turns out we did not DQ the reining, we just had the lowest score. I spoke with the Judge about our cow work, and he said that although it was nothing fancy it was perfectly acceptable, and we did a great job of reading the cow, backing off when we needed and get around him to turn him around when we needed. He said that all in all we did a decent job considering the skill level of both me and my horse.  He said that although there is lots of room for improvement, especially in the reining, he thinks that given Trax's drive and energy, he (we) will eventually do very well, if we keep at it.

I thanked him so much, and loaded my horse to head home before I started bawling like a baby.  It was my last WY show, and I was sad to see it end. (I did cry for a while when I was driving) I felt bad later though, because I should have stayed and helped RC and Sky load up the last of the stuff. I don't think anyone stayed to help, and that sucks.  I did send her a text and apologized but the words really seemed empty to me. Too little, too late.

So when I totaled it up, we were in a total of 8 classes and only disqualified in 1. For day 2 our total score put us in last place, but we still scored.  As far as I am concerned, that is flipping amazing!  I am really going to miss this little club and the friends I made here, but I know there is a lot of horsey stuff going on in AZ, and so at the same time I am looking forward to that as well.  

One more thing I want to say on this already too long post, is that when we were warming up on day 2, I noticed that if I rode with 2 hands I was able to get him to really drop his head at all 3 gaits. I mean nice and soft and really pretty.  This is a new thing for him, to be that soft so I can see where the work I did with Mark has really paid off. He is still not one of those horses that drops his head the second you pick up on the reins, but it seems as though he is headed in that direction.

So for now we are done until we get moved, then I am looking forward to being able to ride early mornings in our new arena in San Tan.  I am considering the idea of sending Trax to Mark for a bit before we move to see if he can work on his stopping for  me...depending on how much it would cost and if he would have time to put more than 1 or 2 rides on him.  For now I will just be happy with how far we have come, and look forward to where we are going in the future.

I will post my video's once I have them uploaded to you tube, first I have to find my camera cord!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'm finally home from the 2 day show and boy what an event it turned out to be.  I was going to let Trax tell the story, but he opted for grazing instead,  It's ok though, he earned.

Friday I got home from work, got him washed, and dried off and the last of my stuff in the motor home.  I was supposed to be meeting RC there, with another gal and we would all stay in the motor home the whole weekend.  RC is the driving force behind the Central Wyoming Performance Horse club. She busts her butt to put these events on, and for the most part doesn't even get to ride in them much.  So I want to say thank you to her for all her hard work. She has a helper named Sky who also works very very hard, and she deserves many kudos as well.

The first night we had motor home issues before we even got on the road, weather issues in the form of hail, tornado's and torrential rain.  The next morning was flooded arenas and a late start due to not being able to set up jumps right away.  However, we all pitched in and got the jumps up, and got things moving in the warm up arena, so it was ok.   I helped out where I could, but felt pretty useless most of the time. 

Finally, it was time for me to start warming up my horse.  He looked great, was nice and clean (for the most part) and seemed pretty calm and relaxed.  So I saddled him and took him to the arena that was still wet, and started lunging him.  He was smooth and easy at the walk and the trot, then I asked him to lope and he literally blew up!  He bucked and ran and jumped, and pulled the rope out of my hands and bucked from one end of the arena to the other.  Everyone ran over to make sure I was ok, and then  a few people helped me get him caught. But not before he led us on a pretty good chase.  He was literally having the time of his life!!  Once he was done with his shenanigans we went back to work.

I want to insert a very important point here.  Trax had either been in a trailer or in a small stall since 6pm the night before, and it was after 10 am already.   He obviously needed to let off some steam and as far as I am concerned he absolutely chose the appropriate time to do so.  I had several suggestions to work him till he was lathered, but I truly was not upset with him at all, and didn't really want to punish him.  I mean, it took a few of us to catch him, but only because he wasn't "done" yet.  The minute he was done, he stood quietly and waited for someone to walk to him.  He told me exactly how he was feeling and what he needed, and I was okay with him having that. 

From then on, he was pretty much a dream.  I did lunge him longer than usual, but not to the point of being lathered, just until he was soft.  That is when I knew it was okay to get on him.  We warmed up just like any other day, and it did not take long till he was feeling pretty darn good, to me. 

About that time RC asked me to help set up the trail class, and then go get some lunch for the judges.  I was kind of bummed because I felt like we had some good momentum going, but I also knew that she really needed help so I set aside what I thought I needed to give her a hand. As it turned out it was all good.   By time I got back with the food another storm was on the horizon.  I went ahead and grabbed my horse, feeling a little bit rushed, but pushed it aside.   Helping set up the trail course gave me a real good understanding of how it went, so practicing wasn't a big issue.

There had been a barrel racing event going on in the biggest arena, but they all left when the storm was coming, so from then on I was able to go over there to warm up.  That right there made all the difference in the world for us.   I could focus on just him and I, no one else was going over there, and it was perfect. 

First we did the Adult Trail, and DQ'd but I honestly can't recall what we did wrong. I just know that we did.   Then I waited just a little for some others to go and went back and did the Open. Trail was an "at will" class so we got to chose when we did it.  He did the rope gate perfect, he did the back through an L perfect.  He struggled with the sidepass over the L, but got it done, the bridge was a walk in the park, turn in the box was good, trot over poles was fair.  I was very very happy with our run, but was pretty sure the side pass over the L blew it for us.  Most of all he didn't run off, he didn't break course, and he did a correct lead departure.  Good Boy!

Then I grabbed my pattern for Ranch pleasure. I was very happy to see that it was one of the ones we had done several time, and it was a relatively easy one.  The main thing I like about already knowing the pattern is that if I can remember it, and run him through it a few times, He knows what is coming and tries hard to do it right.  So we practiced back over in the main arena again. We worked and worked and worked. Sometimes on the pattern, sometimes just on downward transitions or serpentine's.  It rained on us, and we stopped for a minute, but as soon as it blew past we were back out there again. I did the pattern from each different corner of the arena so he would focus on the pattern and not so much the land marks (if that makes sense). The main thing was staying calm, lots of big exhales when I needed him to rate, and a lot of repetition.  At first I thought we were going to have to go ahead and DQ and do it 2 handed, but by time the class was ready to start, I knew that we could do the whole thing with one had.

When it was my turn we rode quietly into the arena. There was no pulling at the reins, or charging through the gate.

The Judge said to me, "Wow, you are really going to ride that horse?" (referring to the bucking incident)

I laughed and said, "Of course"

 I set us up in the starting place and took a deep breath and a big exhale. I felt him do the same, and started him forward. Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it was perfect, because it wasn't, we struggled a little with the lead change, which we always do, and of course his stops weren't perfect...BUT he stopped. He stopped on his own without a fight. There was one time when I had to check him with my other hand because he dove into a turn, but we did not break the pattern.   We had a clean run.  We rode out, I jumped off and loosened the cinch right then and there. I gave him a big hug, took him for a drink, and then a nice roll in and empty cow pen that wasn't too nasty.

About 30 minutes later they started announcing the winners of my classes.  We got 2nd out of 13 in the Open Trail, and 3rd out of 6 in the Ranch Pleasure!  Unfortunately I don't have ribbons to show for it. I guess they ran out before the end of the day. But it is ok, because I know that we did good. I was/am so happy with my boy right now. He could not have impressed me any more if he had one the Triple Crown.  He worked hard, and tried so hard to do good.  I don't have any video or pictures of the first day either, but I do have some of day 2.

Day 2 was the Ranch Horse Show.  TC came down and sort of worked my camera. His skills are actually even worse than Simon's!  But, for now I am beat and so day 2 will have to wait till tomorrow.

Random 5 Friday

Following with A Rural Journal  Here are my 5 random facts for Friday.


1.  I have decided that I need a wife. One that cooks, cleans, sews, irons, and does all kinds of nice domestic stuff.  Its not that I cannot do these things, they are just so low on my priority list, they rarely seem to get done. Especially now, with everything we have going on with the move. My house is starting to look like an episode of hoarders!  I am however, quite good at making sure the stalls stay clean, the barn is clean, dog yard poop free, horse trailer is organized, animals are all cared for, yard gets mowed...you know, all the important things!  

2. I'm pretty sure I am not only a terrible house keeper, but I am also a terrible mother.

3. I used to sell truck parts for a living.  I am quite good at it, but I hate it.  Now I am an office manager for a truck parts company, but everyone knows I know how to sell parts so they still try to get me to do it. I fight it kicking and screaming every step of the way.

4. My co-workers take paid smoke breaks, I take paid blog breaks. In fact I'm getting paid to write this post right now.   But I have timed it. I spend less time blogging than they do smoking!

5.  When I was a kid I had a dream where my dad and I were fishing on a boat and a huge shark jumped up on the boat and was trying to chomp us into bite sized pieces as we slid down the deck into its mouth.  I told my brother about the dream and he told me I was a whack job.  2 years later they came out with the movie Jaws.  I saw the movie, and wondered how to collect royalties for them stealing my dream. Also for years I could not swim anywhere I could not see below me.

A Short Story

So there we were after a long day of travel, sitting in our hotel room in Albuquerque, NM.  My ankle was swollen and throbbing, so I asked Simon to run to the ice machine and bring me some ice to put on it.  
He gets a big smile and says, "Oh I have something even better than that!" and ran out the door.

TC and I looked at each other a little perplexed but went back to resting our eyes.  Simon was gone for what seemed like a really long time.

Finally he returned.

He comes to the side of the bed and has me close my eyes and put my hand out.  

I felt him dump something into my hand.

I opened my eyes, he had given me a handful of dirt.

"Rub some dirt on it Mom!"

The boy watches way too much football.