Best moment 170901

Today is my father's birthday. If he were still with us, he would have 93 years today. I hope it's a wonderful happy day for him, wherever his spirit is. 

He always said his birthday was easy to remember: it's the day World War II started. Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, my dad's 15th birthday.

My best moment in the present was this morning with our horses. Elaine and I got to ride a little bit. Now off to Ola Lola's. Maybe something this evening will top that and be a new "best moment" for today.

170830

It has been a wildcrazybusy couple of weeks. Lightning, thunder, rain, wind (although nothing like Houston, thank the goddess!), power outages, Internet outages, new possibilities in the location of the therapeutic riding center, a new agreement on joining forces with another center, paperwork finished and filed for non-profit status both here in PR and the U.S., two new pasture areas fenced for the horses, a new growing friendship with the woman who owns the property where the horses are now...Whew!

I wrote before about how fortunate and how grateful we are that we've been to have the horses so close for so long. It is hard not to see them when we look out across the the road but I don't miss seeing them standing in this every time it rains. They are truly in a much better location even if it is farther away. They are on high ground with lots of green to eat. It's all good.

I did manage to get in a dive last week, right out here at Shacks. Not a great dive but it sure felt good to blow some bubbles. This is my dive-buddy-for-this-dive, Daniel. I've been trying to get out to do a couple of personal training dives to work on my own skills but that hasn't happened yet. Between weather and other responsibilities, I haven't made it out yet. Maybe tomorrow morning.

170818 Some thoughts

In the wake of the horrors of the past week, from Charlottesville to Barcelona to Sweden and Finland I want to stop to remember and to remind that there is good in this world.

For the past several months, since we found out we needed to move the horses from the property across the street, we have pretty diligently looked for a new home. We've asked people we know, friends, other horse owners, stable owners, hay field managers, pretty much anyone we could think of. Funds are obviously limited but we were willing to pay something if need be. We did find a few less-than-ideal places, all of which wanted to charge $100 or more per horse, sometimes for no more that a stall with no turnout space. Others, including friends, simply said no.

One morning, after repeated unsuccessful attempts to reach her, Elaine finally was able to contact Rachel (not her real name). Rachel, to her amazing credit, was willing to open her door this stranger, a Gringa, and listen to her explain in sometimes halting Spanish that we needed a place--immediately--to keep three horses for at least three months. Would she be willing to let us use her land?

At first skeptical--understandably so--she eventually agreed that, yes, we could put our horses on her land. This woman, who had never met us, knew nothing about us, didn't know what our "real" agenda might be, didn't know about horses, said, "yes."

Now our horse have a marvelous home, at least for now. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to Rachel. She seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the horses there.

And our gratitude goes deeper and wider. Despite the uncomfortable end of the relationship with the family across the street, we can only be grateful to them, especially Kiko and his daughter Sandra. For nearly six years, they have allowed us--with minimal intrusion--to keep our horses right across the street at very little cost.

Before that, for five years Dr. Lamela allowed us to keep the horses on his property right behind us.

There are many many horses owners with lots more money than we have who cannot get up in the morning, open the window and see their horses. These have been amazing wonderful gifts.

And one more: last week Elaine lost her purse with the usual collection of driver's license, credit cards, etc. She was pretty sure it hadn't been stolen, just misplaced. Friends as far away as Chicago searched their houses looking for it (we have such awesome friends!) as did friends closer to home where it was more likely she'd left it. It didn't turn up and didn't turn up but there was no suspicious activity on any of the credit cards either. She had finally pretty much given up when a policeman stopped at the house.

He told her the purse was at the panaderia (bakery) near the horses' new home. She went there to get a sandwich and left her purse. It was the only time she'd ever been there and she didn't even think of it.

When she went to the panaderia to retrieve the purse, Elaine talked with the woman. She told Elaine this is her mother's panaderia. Her mother found the purse and expected the owner to come back for it. When no one came to claim it, they set it aside. It was someone else's purse, someone else's business, and they had no business going through it. When the policeman came into the panaderia, the woman told him someone left this purse. Would he mind looking through it and see if he could find the owner? The officer found her driver's license and said, "I think I know this woman." He drove down to tell Elaine and thus, the purse was found and returned intact. What phenomenal integrity! And honesty! If only there were more in the world.

But we are humbled and immensely grateful for what there is.

Best moment 170814 Romping in the pasture

So the horses seem to be enjoying their new home. What an incredible joy to watch!

170814 Gone but back again

Sit back and settle in for a saga. It's been a lo-o-o-ong but very productive two weeks.

It's not that there haven't been best moments in the past couple of weeks - there have been lots of them. The problem has been getting time to write about them. (Who doesn't have 10 minutes a day to write 50-100 words about their best moments? C'mon! Really?) It's only sort of an excuse. The past two weeks have pretty much been all about the horses and being away from the house and the computer.

Monday, 7/30 - We had a great ride on the beach and the trails. Little did we know then how close we were to our last (for a while) ride on the beach.

 

Tuesday, 8/1 -  Elaine and I took KTJ and Chocolate for a swim in the ocean. If you've been reading this for a while, you know how much we all love that. It was spur of the moment so no photos.

Thursday, 8/3 - A break from horses. Elaine had a party for the volunteers Calorcito p'al Corazon, the group that takes blankets to hospital emergency rooms. One of the best, most active volunteers is our good friend Carole. Her husband Rolf has dementia and needs constant supervision. So Carole could go to the party I was given the honor and privilege of staying with Rolf.

Friday, 8/4 - We were supposed to meet with the mayor of Isabela about land for the therapeutic riding center but the meeting was canceled. Apparently there was some sort of emergency financial meeting in San Juan.

Saturday, 8/5 - We've known for a while that we needed to move our horses off the property across the street. We've been looking for a suitable safe, secure location for months but haven't found one. We had several sites that looked promising but for one reason or another they all fell through. We hoped the meeting with the mayor - the one that didn't happen - would provide some options. On this particular Saturday morning the sometimes eccentric head of the family that owns the property started stringing barbed wire right next to the road in front of the corral and our access gate to the horses. Not too subtle and it kind of freaked me out. He has been known to do unexpected, sometimes dangerous (to others) things without warning. All this led to...

Sunday, 8/6 - An early Sunday morning ride to move the horses to our extreme-last-resort-they-can-only-be-here-a-few-days backup site: Marie's back yard. We figured it would be our last beach ride for a while so we all determined to enjoy it.

At first they were happy in Marie's yard - lots of green grass, for one thing. But they quickly realized how small the area is.

Even though we took them out to exercise as often as we could, they still got bored.

Monday, 8/7 - Marie and I started dismantling the corral and fence across the street, rolling up the electric fence wire, taking down rails, etc. (With everything else that's been going on, that job is only partially complete. I still have to take down the posts. I'm hoping that will happen this week.) While I was working, Fred, the construction manager for a project down the road. drove by. I stopped him to ask about dirt that was dumped on the back of the property across the street. Fred and Elaine got to talking about our project and told him about our meeting with the mayor, now rescheduled for Tuesday, August 8. Turns out, Fred and Charlie (the mayor) have been friends for years. Fred offered to go with us to see the mayor and to help any way he could. Talk about serendipitous best moments!

Tuesday, 8/8 - We - including our new best friend Fred - finally got to meet with Charlie, el Alcalde (mayor) of Isabela. With a little help from Fred, Elaine started her presentation. About half way through, Charlie said, "I'm convinced. What do you need?"

After more conversation, Charlie said the municipio has a five-acre parcel that is not being used and has no current plans for. We have to officially apply to the municipal legislature the first week of September. Charlie is 100% behind our project and sees no problems. The only hick-up is the process will take about three months, putting us into November. That still leaves us with no immediate place to move the horses. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on their stay at Marie's.

Through a long convoluted chain, there have been conversations using the picadero, an arena and facility for holding horse shows that the municipio owns, as a place for therapeutic riding (TR). We are very interested because it would be a way to start the program fairly quickly. The mayor is interested because it gets his facility used in a very positive way. We can also work cooperatively with our other TR friends to do this. The big problem is everyone would have to trailer horses, either from Rincon, Truillo Alto way on the other side of the island, or from wherever our horses end up. Trailering horses is never as easy as people seem to think. So we were looking for land close to the picadero.

All in all, the meeting with the mayor could not have gone better. It was the most positive thing that happened all week. So far. 

Wednesday, 8/9 - There is a large piece of land within walking distance of the picadero that we've looked at before. Here is one of those times when Elaine's persistence really paid off.

After at least six attempts to reach the property owner, Elaine finally was able to talk with her. Once she understood what we wanted and why, she agreed to let us use the property for three months. We hope to convince her and the neighbors we're great tenants and stewards of the land so we can stay there permanently. That doesn't rule out the land the mayor is talking about either.

Once we got permission to use the land, we walked off the part we wanted to fence first and I was off to HomeDepot to get fence posts.

Thursday, 8/10 - Armed with 50 new T-posts and a brand new T-post driver, I was out bright and early pounding posts. By 2:00 pm, tired and sunburned and proud, I had fenced in an acre-and-a-half.

Friday, 8/11 - While all of this was going on, Elaine was juggling arrangements to get someone who could trailer the horses, who at this point are destroying Marie's yard, to their new home. First it was Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday, then Saturday again.

We went up to Marie's, got the horses out and worked them for a while, just let them get their ya-yas (pent-up energy) out. That's when the idea of riding the horses to the new home first surfaced. We considered riding them Friday afternoon but we figured it to be a 14- mile ride. In the heat of the day. At least part of it at "rush hour." We decided early Saturday morning was a better idea.

Saturday, 8/11 - Up early. We planned to be in the saddle by 7:00. Didn't quite make it but we were on our way before 7:30.

We started riding a somewhat familiar route, down to familiar trails and beach, then past Shacks toward Jobos. Our route was planned to minimize riding on busy roads.

From there we went up Jobos hill which I cannot even describe. From then on we were on roads that pretty much required our full attention so there are no photos until we reached the new home. Tired, hot, and a little confused at first, the critters did not take long to adjust to their new digs.

They've now been there for two days and seem to be settling in nicely.

Next steps: Finish the paperwork for our non-profit corporation. Make formal application to the municipio for use of the land. Check out the picadero to start therapeutic riding. I finally feel like the dominoes are starting to fall into place.

Best moment 170729 Shacks again

Snorkeling at Shacks again. This day wasn't nearly as good as yesterday. the sea was rougher and visibility wasn't very good.

Still, getting in the water is better that not getting in.

Best moment 170728 snorkeling Shacks

More vitamin sea, this time snorkeling at Shacks. It was a good day, calm, flat and good visibility, especially for this time of year.

I got to hang out with this guy. Octopus are so cool to watch and so intelligent. They are usually pretty shy and run to hide but this guy stayed out from under the ledges for quite a while.

In addition to the octopus, I swam with a big French angelfish and one of the bigger schools of blue tang that I've seen in a while. It was good to see them back on "our" reef.

Best moment 100727

Another four-legger went swimming!

Amber has always loved the water and loved to swim, ever since he was a pup. When he was small, we'd take him to the lake. If we picked him up, so his feet were out of the water, he would lie quietly. If we lowered him, as soon as his feet touched the water, he would start swimming. Pick him up, the swimming switch turned off. Lower him, the swimming switch turned back on.

Vizslas are bred pointer-retrievers. Swimming is in their being. They even have webbed paws to make swimming easier.

For years, Amber swam in the ocean a lot. He learned to body-surf: he would paddle out then turn and watch for a wave and ride it back to the beach then swim out to do it again. He would play "fetch the stick" in the water until his legs were too tired to move. And then go one more time, (For the record we never let him go that long.)

In the past couple of years, as the issues with his back end and back legs have progressed, we don't take him swimming much. It's pretty hard on him. He's not as stable when the waves hit him. He still runs on the beach everyday and some times plays in the shallows, but he doesn't swim much any more.

We were going for bit of "vitamin sea" therapy and decided to take Amber with us. We were just lounging in the shallow water so it was a perfect time. He walked out - a little unsteadily - and started float. And then to swim. I think he really enjoyed the swimming and it was a joy for us to watch. He didn't swim long or far (we used to remind him that Desecheo Island is only 17 miles away but he would still have to swim back) but he got to swim again.

As long as the ocean is calm and flat, we'll do that again.

Best moment 170726

It's been a pretty low-key week with not a lot going on good or bad.

Wednesday seems to be a catch-up day. Our morning yoga session with Rosie was wonderful - as always. Sometimes yoga is more work than other times and Rosie always encourages us to go a little farther, a little deeper. I always feel so much better afterwards. There is so much that I am carrying over into everyday life. I stand and sit straighter, not slumped over; my shoulders are more relaxed and not hunched around my ears. My breathing is better, more purposeful beyond just necessary.

Elaine taught at the stable in Rincon yesterday so she missed yoga. When she came home, we went out to work with the horses. Our friend Lisa stopped and told us it was a beautiful evening to take horses to the beach. So we did! A short bareback ride and into the water we went. The beach was more crowded than we expected but everybody was fine. The people on the beach seem to mostly enjoy the "show" of the horses in the water.

Chocolate went swimming again with me on him. Riding a swimming horse is such an amazing, different experience.

Wednesday night we had an incredible lightning and thunder show. I was outside watching when I notice an odd thing in the sky. The edge of he system, whatever it was, was right over our side yard. To the east the sky was clouded over and crashing huge lightning bolts and thunder. To the west of that line - and it was a hard edge - the sky was clear and full of stars. Really quite amazing, almost like something from a sci-fi movie.

So, Wednesday - a day with two best moments and another moment of wonder! A pretty good day all in all.

Best moment 170724

We had a great, fun night at Ola Lola's. Friends we haven't seen in a long time stopped by and spent most of the evening. And it was a good night for business overall. That's a good ti\hing after some of the slow nights we've had.

170721 A digression

You would think those whose life and livelihood depends on the ocean would be the most conscious and respectful of it. Not so. I found this just lying on the beach yesterday. I thought it was just a bit trash dropped or washed up. When I picked it up, I discovered the aspirin bottle trash had a wire leader and a fish hook attached. On the one hand I applaud the fisherman for the creative reuse of the plastic container. On the other hand the jerky fisherman left the trash AND the hook lying on the beach. Fortunately I picked it up and it didn't wind up in a dog's paw or child's foot.

 I so want to respect the fishermen but they make it impossible.

Definitely not a best moment, but I needed to rant. 

Best moment 170720 Steps Beach, Rincon

Have you seen the documentary Chasing Coral? It's streaming on Netflix right now. (At the risk of sounding like a Netflix commercial, even if you don't have Netflix, you can get a one-month free trial. If you have any love for the ocean, it's worth it just to watch this video.)

The video follows a mixed group of folks who set out document the coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.  It is a beautiful, amazing, enlightening, heartbreaking film.  I won't say any more about the film, other than to say - watch it!

We've watched it three times since it was released on July 14. It made me curious and concerned about some of the coral stands near us.

I've written before about the elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata). Once ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean, since 1980 90% to 95% of the elkhorn is dead. The causes are all the usual suspects: rising sea temperatures, human activity (over-fishing, farm runoff, wreckless divers and snorkelers), disease. 

For some reason there is a huge healthy stand of elkhorn in the Marine Reserve along the coast of Rincon. Granted, the protected status of the Marine Reserve has a lot to do with it. But that doesn't completely explain it. The Marine Reserve can't protect against higher ocean temperatures for example. 

I haven't snorkeled at Steps Beach in Rincon since 2015. After watching Chasing Coral, I wanted to see how it looked. On Thursday I had the privilege of snorkeling there with three amazing ladies. For two of them this was their first time at Steps. 

We were very pleased and a little surprised to find the elkhorn healthy and thriving and beautiful.

So there were two best moments in that trip to Rincon: finding the coral healthy and sharing it with good friends.

You can see more photos of the elkhorn in a new Flickr album.

Best moment 170716 On the beach - with horses

Again with the horses on the beach!

This was a Sunday ride on the beach with all of us. And it turned into a bit of an adventure.

Elaine was cantering KTJ down the beach when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She slowed to a trot. Then she realized what she was looking at was the girth to her saddle hanging loose. The straps that hold the girth to the saddle (called billets) broke on one side. There was nothing holding her saddle on.

It is a tribute to her seat on her horse and the fit of that saddle to both horse and rider that she didn't come off. (Unlike me. When my girth broke, Chocolate and I were standing still. I slid off sideways, saddle and all. I was lying on the ground looking up at Choco looking down at me as if to say, "Whatter ya doin' down there?")

Elaine did a little "MacGyver" repair and we rode home, slowly but safely.

Riding is frequently an adventure and a "best moment."

Best moment 170715 On the beach

Elaine taught at the stable in Rincon on Saturday so Zip and Chocolate took Marie and I for a ride on the beach. It was a good ride! Choco and I even cantered! Three different times!

Best moment 170713 Crashboat Beach

Pretty much everyone who has been to Crashboat Beach has an iconic photo. Some are like the one above, taken from the overlook on the drive in.

Many are of the bright, colorful fishermen's boats, called yolas, like this:

Or this:

And of course there are at least a thousand drone videos of Crashboat.

My personal favorites are ones that I've take underwater. Under the piers it is like being in a cathedral:

From some vantage points, the piers look like ancient temples of Atlantis, rising back from the sea:

Or maybe the home of a mermaid sea goddess:

We dive at Crashboat fairly often; that's where almost all the beginner Discover Scuba classes are. But I haven't snorkeled there in way too many years.

Until Thursday. Our friend Carole invited us to go along snorkeling. 

Swimming around the piers on the surface gave me a whole completely different viewpoint, a new perspective. This was a view I don't remember ever seeing before. I know I've never photographed it quite this way.

So the best moment for Thursday was seeing an old friend in a new way.

 

 

Best moment 170712

Does finally mowing the yard count as a best moment? How about fixing the corral gate? That's pretty much what I did.

Except yoga. Elaine was teaching riding at the stable in Rincon so I was going to blow off yoga to get some of those other things done. Then Jen and Suzanne showed up and we had a great yoga class with Rosie.

It would have been such a mistake to miss yoga. It was the best moment of the day.

Best moment 170711

Vitamin Sea therapy.

I'm hoping this will become a habit. I've been in the ocean two days in a row, this time snorkeling at Wishing Well. Wishing Well has always been one of our favorite snorkel sites. We could go there pretty much anytime and mostly have the place to ourselves. Somehow that has changed in the last year or so. Wishing Well - or Peña Blanca as it is also known - has become a very popular beach! With tents and umbrellas and boom boxes it is becoming a mini-Crashboat.

In spite of the crowds the water is still amazingly beautiful. It is still one of the best places to find a turtle to swim with while snorkeling. We swam with this guy for several minutes before we tuned back to shore.

You can see a quick video of this little guy here.

Best moment 170710

Something must have been a best moment on the 9th but I can't remember what it was. To make up for that, I had two best moments on the 10th.

First, we went diving "out front" on "our" reef at Shacks. It was our friend Mac's birthday dive. The way diving has been this year, any dive almost automatically qualifies as a best moment.

One of the best moments in the best moment dive came right at the end. So near the end in fact, Mac and Darryl were already out of the water when I saw this very cool moon jelly fish (Aurelia aurita ).

Not only are they beautiful to watch in the wat er, they are also fascinating creatures. They pulse not so mush to move through the water as to stay near the surface where they feed. Otherwise they drift on currents. They are more active in the summer because they thrive in lower dissolved oxygen levels in the ocean typical of summer whereas other creatures are driven away to search for higher oxygen levels. Cool cool critters.

The second "best moment" of the day came in the afternoon. A friend of ours is now teaching Spanish classes on the deck at Ola Lola's. First yoga, now Spanish. Great stuff!

Best moment 170708

Happy birthday to my "baby" sister! We love you, Cath. Hope all is well.

Best moment 170707

I rode a seahorse!

Or at least, I rode a horse swimming in the sea.

As you know by now, we take our horses to the ocean fairly regularly. They love it! Sometimes we ride them down the beach, sometimes we walk them. Usually we dismount and lead them into the water.

KTJ likes to swim. She likes the feeling of floating free. She moans and groans and does all manner of relaxing releases.

Chocolate on the other hand (hoof?) likes to keep at least his front feet grounded. He has learned to turn around and back in until his back end floats but his front hooves are still on something solid. So it was a surprise when he walked right into the ocean with me on him. Even more surprising he kept going, right off the solid bottom until he was swimming. 

Horses are actually pretty good swimmers. Well, more floaters. Because of the small surface of their hooves, they are not very efficient moving through the water. But that huge barrel cheat cavity is one big floatation device. Plus, they have a big air pocket under their back legs that keeps their hindquarters afloat.

It is a totally different feeling riding a swimming horse. Their motion in the water is very different than the motion on land. In the water it's kind of an up-and-down bobbing action. Very different, very fun!

That was definitely a best moment!

Best moment 170706

 We finally got to meet with representatives from the Isabela mayor's office about land for the therapeutic riding center.

The people we met with are excited and very supportive of the idea of having a therapeutic riding center in Isabela. Unfortunately the mayor himself couldn't be with us, but the staff promised to take the proposal to him. They seemed sure he will also be interested and we should expect follow up questions and another meeting with him.They also assured us that if the municipio doesn't have land available for us, they will do what they can to find land.

This is a step, in fact a huge step, forward. Now we'll see where it leads. Somewhere. Forward. Out there.

Best moment 170705

Yoga! Again! But this time with a twist.

Part of our yoga session Wednesday was laughter yoga.

Last week in our regular session something happened that got us all laughing. Laughter is good anyway but within the context of yoga, it felt really good. We - half-jokingly we thought - said we should do laughter yoga sometime.

Our teacher Rosie did some research and found that far from being a joke, laughter yoga is a serious thing. It has a real yoga name - hasyayoga. There is an onlline Laughter Yoga University at laughteryoga.org (somebody will figure out a way to monetize anything!). Wikihow has a page devoted to laughter yoga. There are more than 100 laughter yoga videos on Youtube. There are clubs around the world devoted to laughter yoga. Even AARP's website has a page for laughter yoga for seniors. (Someday when I'm older, I check that out.)
 
Laughter yoga is a great for deep breathing. It is a fabulous stress reliever, lowers blood pressure, prove your mood. And it's crazy fun! What's not to love?

If you do yoga, ask you instructor/teacher/leader to incorporate a bit of laughter yoga into a session. Try it - you'll like it!

Best moment 170704

The traditional 4th of July photo at Jobos.

If you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm into KAP - Kite Aerial Photography. Long - long! - before personal drones, photographers were lifting cameras with kites to get aerial photos. I've been taking photos over Jobos on the 4th of July for several years.

This year the beach isn't quite as packed as in previous years. You can actually see sand between the umbrellas; most years you can't. I'm guessing it's because the 4th was on a Tuesday. A lot of people had been partying since Friday. By Tuesday many were probably headed home.

Still, police closed the road through Jobos because of the number of cars/people.

This was the one good shot I got. Due to operator error, I missed more the half the shots I took. There is another big holiday coming on July 25 (Puerto Rico Constitution Day) so I'll have another "shot" at it. I'll do better next time.

Best moment 170703

Breaking news: giant seahorses spotted off Shacks Beach!

The beaches were way too crowded to try to ride so we walked Chocolate and KTJ down to the beach. They so love it! It is such a release and relaxation for them. KTJ likes to swim, to get all four hooves up off the bottom. She starts to moan, a low deep sound that you can actually feel in the water.

Chocolate usually likes to keep is front feet on something solid and back out until his back end floats. On this day, he wanted to swim. He didn't care about solid ground, at least for a few minutes.

Both horses were doing deep jaw-stretching yawns. For them that kind of yawn is major tension reliever.

Ya just can't beat swimming with horses!

Best moment 170702

The beaches were already crowded on Saturday. We managed to get in a short somewhat compacted beach ride before we opened Ola Lola's for the evening.

There has to be something really special in a day to be a better moment than riding on our beautiful beach.

Best moments over the weekend

 

First, the Peanut Butter Burger is back and that is making a lot of people happy!

We picked a great weekend to restart the burgers. I think we were busier than we thought we would be for the holiday weekend. The responses made all the crazy preparation worth it.

Best moments? One of our local long-time friends took his first bite of the Gringo Burger. He sat back in his chair, closed his eyes, and said, "It's even better than I remember!"

This comment is doubly sweet: living up to a guest's "memory" is one of the scariest things about this business. When a guest says, "I had the Peanut Butter Burger three years ago and it was so good! I've waited three years for this," I cringe just a little inside. We know the burgers are good - they are the best! But will they live up to the memory? So to hear the comment, "Even better than I remember" is an incredible compliment.

Several guests commented, "it's good to see you busy and full again."

Hopefully, we can build on this momentum.

Best moments 170628

In the midst of all the crazy around the restaurant restart there were other best moments.

On Wednesday Elaine did a presentation and demonstration for a group of psychology students at the facility where she teaches in Rincon on animal - and specifically equine - assisted therapy. The presentation was in the late afternoon. Since we were in Rincon, we planned to go out for my belated birthday dinner.

There is a relatively new Italian restaurant in Rincon called Mangia Mi. Normally I don't get too excited about Italian restaurants unless they are really special. Elaine and our friend Marie ate at Mangia Mi a few weeks ago and raved about it. The tiny bit of leftovers they brought me definitely made me want more. So that that's where we went for my birthday dinner.

Sorry there are no photos - it is an interesting place, both visually and gastronomically. On this particular night, I went with my date, not as a photographer. Be assured we will go back. And I will get photos!