It's time

Time is of the essence.

Well, it's time for the paper to have been here and for me to be sitting here with my second cup of coffee, checking out how high Boise State ranks in this week's BCS series. I do know actually, but I like to see in print that they're in the top ten after their weekend victory and a couple of losses for higher-ranked Texas and Georgia.

The paper is not here, and it's even past time.

I'm typing this post early this morning, just like I've done everything so far today. Yesterday's return to Pacific Standard Time has got me completely out of my routine. In fact, I'm not really sure what time it is because I can't remember half the time if I changed the time on both of my computers, the clocks with correct time and the living room clock that always runs 45 minutes fast. I'm sure that mystery will work itself out over the next few days.

Normally, I sip on coffee until after 6 a.m., waiting for the daylight before taking the horses to pasture. Well, daylight was coming on strong by 5:36 this morning, so I headed outside.

Normally, I would be leading three horses to pasture. Well, the three normal horses aren't there, and Miss Heather is not exactly ready for boot camp from Miss Lily. Miss Lily would like to exert her superiority among the herd, give Miss Heather the boot and get her own routine back to normal.

But that's not going to happen. We break in our new horses gradually. So, Lily went to pasture while Lefty and Heather ate grain. Then, I turned them out to the barnyard to eat a couple of flakes of hay.

It's time now for stalls to be cleaned, so I'm getting back into that routine, noting this morning that Miss Heather is a very tidy girl when it comes to dumping her apples. They're all in one pile while the rest of her stall is dry and clean. Good horse.

Of course, after cleaning one stall, the paper should be here. It's not.

So, I guess it's time to rake some leaves and take up some time while the paper person gets to our box and delivers the Monday Spokesman.

I rake leaves and then decide it's time to go inside, especially cuz I'm betting the folks driving by are thinking that lady's pretty crazy out there raking her leaves at this time of the morning when she should be in her house drinking coffee and learning what's happened in the world overnight, including the BCS rankings.

I go inside with an eye to all the windows in hopes that paper will arrive. Still stalling, I call my daughter-in-law Debbie. It's time for her to turn 31. I don't know what time she actually does that, but it's supposed to be sometime today.

Debbie doesn't answer her phone, so I talk to her voicemail, wish her a happy birthday and report on Miss Heather. Debbie and Willie's names will appear on Heather's registration papers, along with mine, when I send them off for the official ownership transfer. After all, Annie's and Laurie are part owners of Lefty, and Bill co-owns Lily with me.

Debbie is thrilled to own a horse, even if she won't see Heather very often.

Finally, I decide it's time to sit down and write my blog posting, all the time swiveling my neck to see if that paper arrives. On one neck swivel, I hit the wrong key, and the clipboard where my blog post disappears as the Yahoo news shows the headlines and the latest poll count, and I am happy.

Thank God for blogger "SAVE." My whole posting is still there.

I can't believe what happens when time changes. It takes us a while to adjust. That going to bed at 8:30 because it's really 9:30 and 15 minutes past normal bedtime seems ridiculous but necessary. That waking up at 3:45 a.m. when it's really 4:45 a.m. seems just as ridiculous, especially when it's not time to get up.

We humans have a heckuva time with time changes, but I can imagine how difficult it is for our dogs who have been taught not to relieve themselves while in the house. Nobody tells them to hold it cuz the humans won't be showing up until an hour later than usual. Lots of bladders working overtime, I'm sure. The dogs do adjust.

The horses, who've been put in the barn at 4:30 p.m. cuz it's now gonna be dark by 5 probably don't like that extra hour of hunger pangs either. Unlike the dogs, however, they don't care how many times they dump their apples during the night.

But . . . that's the one thing that's gonna save them. When that human inside the house groaning cuz it's too damn early to get up---the same human who's gonna have to come out there and shovel three stalls----suddenly realizes it may be earlier than usual but it's time to get out there and save some work shoveling those extra apple dumps (not to be confused with dumplings), the horses come out okay.

And, that's precisely what happened this morning, and that's precisely what got me all off schedule.

Oh, well, I did get a good start on raking the latest batch of leaves. Time heals all wounds. This too shall pass as do the horse apples.

And, we'll all eventually get back on schedule, and I'll get to read the paper before doing stupid blog postings like this one.

Happy Monday. Hope you're having a good TIME wherever you are.