Is it time to tell my stroke story? We were out to dinner. Suddenly I felt odd, like one side of my body was lopsided. I also had an intense pain in the ribs and got short of breath. I am not kidding you that I thought I might be having a stroke, it was that crazy. I quickly excused myself to go to the ladies room. The underwire on ONE side of my bra had SNAPPED! Just like that! I have NEVER had that happen before. Escape in the wash, maybe. But never just snap, while I was wearing it especially. With no way to fix it, and not being in the right company to just go back out that way, I took the bra off and tossed it in the garbage can. That same dinner my pantyhose decided to call a mutiny on me and those got tossed too. Imagine being the person to clean THAT garbage can! I wonder if my dinner company ever noticed.

fallingwaters, my spouse and I have talked about finding a community like the type your looking for. We like horses, gardening and growing organic food, but don't want to live in a commune either. I found this on the internet. "With nearly 2 million horse owners in the United States, branded equestrian developments are popping up across the country, including in Colorado, which ranks 10th nationally in number of horses. There are about 250 equestrian communities nationwide." I think its good that developers are addressing the needs of horse owners in retirement, but would like to see them build houses on 3-5 acre lots with a small corral/stall in the back yard for those who want to keep two or more horses on their own property. Not much for polo (especially as we get older), but it would be nice to live with other like minded individuals and be able to ride on designated bridle trails that are off limits to hunters. Too bad you couldn't start something like this in Vermont! A link that might be useful: Developers build equestrian communities www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7971835

Lars, how generous of you! We live in south OC, and although we rarely head toward LA, it isn't that far. However, the money that will finance the possible art purchases is expected, but haven't arrived yet. (No, not waiting for someone to die or anything like that.) So I'm still possibly a year or two out. Some necessary home remodeling and repairs need to be at the front of the line. I'm early scouting art in the interim to get a handle on possibilities and preferences because I cannot seem to get a handle on them. But when we are at the time, I might contact you to see if the your offer is still available. PS: Sorry about not responding yesterday--we were off tree huntin'.

Riding horses in Costa Rica with my brother and two guys from Italy. As you can see, they rode ahead of me and eventually, a vulture swooped down towards my horse, and he reared up and threw me off. Fortunately I landed in soft mud, but I did get bruised and I did not get compensated for my injury. My horse ran off to join the other horses and left me lying in the mud. When my horse reached the other guys, they were already over the other side of the hill and were quite shocked to see my horse without me on it. They did come back to get me, however.